Kickstart: Reshoring, federal spending and jobs

Federal spending is helping to fuel growth in manufacturing jobs, according to the Reshoring Initiative, which says 2023 marked the second-biggest increase in demand for workers due to reshoring and foreign direct investments.

Companies announced 278,000 jobs linked to reshoring or FDI for the U.S. in 2023, the group said in its annual report.

"Significant growth has been noted in 'essential' industries supported by the Inflation Reduction Act or other government subsidies, particularly in EV batteries, semiconductor chips and solar energy," the Reshoring Initiative said in a news release. "These products drove about 39 percent of the announced jobs in 2023."

You can include Entek's $1.5 billion lithium-ion battery separator film plant in that list. The Oregon-based company recently received a $1.2 billion loan from the U.S. Department of Energy to finance its facility now under construction in Terre Haute, Ind., to make parts for a growing U.S.-based battery supply chain. Entek expects to employ 635 at the site by the end of 2027, Plastics News' Catherine Kavanaugh writes.

Reshoring jobs had been on a slow, upward growth pattern since 2010, Reshoring Initiative says, but really took off in 2020 when COVID-19 interrupted the supply chain, prompting companies to rely on production closer to home.

Mattress sales have been snoozing lately in the U.S., with the wholesale dollar value of sales down 6.8 percent to $9.8 billion in 2023 vs. 2022; the number of units shipped down by 8 percent; and the dollar value of U.S.-made mattresses and foundations down 7.1 percent to $8.5 billion, according to the International Sleep Products Association's industry trends report, released in June.

Those numbers follow a rough 2022 when sales fell 12 percent and unit sales were down nearly 18 percent vs. 2021.

The bedding market has been bouncing up and down since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, when consumers embraced staycation spending, including mattresses. In 2021, sales were up 17.4 percent. 2020 and 2021 saw massive investments in new factories, including production with in-house pouring for urethane components, by companies such as Brooklyn Bedding in Arizona, Purple Innovation Inc. in Atlanta and Mlily in Phoenix.

And despite disappointing sales the past few years — along with an expected drop in sales in 2024 — the industry trade group forecasts a sales recovery of 4.5 percent in 2025.

Hungarian chemical company Mol Group, which also has chemical recycling operations in Europe, is taking the opportunity to make sure European Union officials are aware of the material industry's need to balance sustainability and the financial bottom line.

Hungary recently took over the presidency of the EU — a position that rotates between its members — and as part of that hosted the first informal meeting of the EU's competitiveness council. Mol Group headquarters in Budapest served as a location for those talks, giving the company a chance to show its work in a "green energy transition … requiring collaboration and a conducive environment for industrial development," the company said in a July 9 news release.