Measuring reshoring trends in the EU and the US

The paper focuses on reshoring operations performed by firms in EU and US. At first, it analyzes different reshoring surveys carried out in the EU and in single EU countries (Austria, Belgium, France, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Slovakia, Switzerland, Sweden and UK). In this respect, the reshoring rate seems to be highest in Sweden and Ireland followed by Belgium, Slovakia and France. At the same time, most relevant reshoring drivers for EU companies are: quality issues, loss of flexibility and delivery time, logistics costs, “made in” effect, reduction of labor cost gaps, and total costs of sourcing. As far as host countries concern, reshoring decisions are generally originated from China and (Western and Eastern) European countries. The second aim is to investigate the impact of Industry 4.0 on industrial companies and on manufacturing reshoring. Such a research has been conducted only with respect to Germany, showing that the digitalization is able to increase automation and productivity, and can be also useful to increase flexibility and ability for customized production. In short, Industry 4.0 can significantly contribute to create more attractive production conditions. Finally, the paper compares reshoring strategies implemented in EU and US, showing that reshoring is more common in US than in EU even if the phenomenon is more recent. Host countries for reshoring of US firms are China and other Asian countries. Focusing on drivers, narrowing cost levels between emerging and developed countries seems to be more important for US companies than for European ones. Authors conclude that the internationalization of production activities is still continuing, but in the same time companies are increasing their attention on potentialities of their home countries.