Investment into U.S. manufacturing facilities hit a whopping $19.7 billion in June, up 18.6% from the June 2023 level, nearly 100% from the June 2022 level, and more than 200% from (pre-Covid) June 2019, according to Census Bureau data.
These figures include the construction of the buildings and other such facilities, not the cost of the manufacturing equipment and its installation. For high-tech production facilities, the cost of equipping the factory can far exceed the facility construction costs.
The trade war with China, soaring energy prices in Europe, government efforts to promote semiconductor manufacturing, and robots replacing human labor (and labor costs) are some of the factors at play, as is inflation in construction costs.
Construction spending on manufacturing facilities now accounts for over 10% of total construction spending in the U.S., residential and non-residential, from single-family houses to roads and power plants, reports Wolf Richter.
How much of this expansion is related to military production?
