U.S. Industrials 

Absolute manufacturing production is at roughly the same level now as it was nearly a quarter-century ago. Recently, however, investing in U.S. manufacturing infrastructure has found broad, bipartisan support. Legislation and trade agreements such as The Agreement between the United States of America, the United Mexican States, and Canada (USMCA), the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the CHIPS and Science Act, and the Inflation Reduction Act are designed to inject roughly $2 trillion in government-sponsored capex into re-shoring and building factories in the United States. How these funds will be allocated will be a subject of debates over the coming years. We will be monitoring carefully to determine who stands to gain from windfall funding. 

What we’re watching 

• Semiconductor fabrication capacity 
• Impact on the North American railroad network 
• Automation, robotics, and the labor force 
• IRA’s effect on battery plants 
• Distribution center automation