Interesting article in the McKinsey Quarterly about the impact of higher energy and labour prices on offshoring economics - conclusion is that, for those who have used offshoring:
.......changing economic conditions may have undermined your supply chain advantage. This may be an appropriate moment to reevaluate the location of your manufacturing facilities. Take the total landed-cost analysis to the next level of detail and determine if bringing some production back home or to near-shore locations will help counterbalance the higher costs of shipping and freight.
Above is a chart that shows how shifting costs start to move some products into the "bring back home" category - as they note:
....we studied the total landed cost for a midrange server, comparing scenarios in Asia and the United States. Five years ago, in 2003, manufacturing this product in Asia rather than the United States provided a 60 percent savings in labor costs. We have indexed that labor savings to $100. When we calculated total landed costs, however, we found that 36 percent of those labor savings were offset by freight, shipping-related charges, inventory, product returns, and other hidden costs. That gave Asian production a $64 landed-cost advantage. Today, economic conditions have reversed it. After factoring in the higher labor and freight costs, we find that the former offshore savings have turned negative—a burden of an extra $16.
Mainly physical product at the moment to be sure, but digital products are not immune. Will we see the rise of the Re-shoring industry now?