BANNOCKBURN, IL – Nearly one in three respondents to a recent IPC survey said they either have or plan to relocate manufacturing operations to North America, citing logistics costs and quality control as major reasons.

Results of the survey indicate 16% of responding companies moved operations to North America from overseas since the beginning of 2012. Another 14% indicated plans to bring existing operations back or build new operations in North America from mid-2013 through the end of 2014. The majority of these companies are OEMs, and most of the planned operations are manufacturing facilities, says IPC.

A representative sample of 92 companies, with combined annual sales of $50 billion, completed the survey, IPC said. Respondents included OEMs, EMS companies, PCB fabricators, and suppliers of materials and equipment.

Based on the value of the operations and number of jobs created, EMS companies were responsible for the bulk of the operations returned to North America. Most of these operations were moved from China to the US, and a few moved to Mexico.

More than three-quarters of those companies that reported returning operations to North America since 2012 cited cost of transportation as a major driver. Sixty percent of these respondents also cited quality control concerns, the need to be close to customers, and management costs as drivers. Other factors included quality of available labor, protection of intellectual property, cost of manufacturing, and ITAR requirements.

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