Photo: Jeff Kass of Kass Tailored, a furniture manufacturer that retooled its facility in 48 hours to produce protective gear for health care workers. (Photo Credit: KOMO ABC 4 News, Washington)
At IndustryNet, in addition to helping industrial suppliers connect with millions of qualified buyers, we also take a close look at the issues impacting industrial companies and the people who do business with them. 2020 was a remarkable year for the nation's manufacturing sector, one that exposed both vulnerabilities in the manufacturing supply chain and highlighted the strength and resilience of U.S. manufacturers in the face of a national crisis.
2020 started off with manufacturing activity hitting a 10-year low in January as industrial companies continued to struggle with the China/U.S. trade war. Then, coronavirus struck, upending global supply chains and sending manufacturers scrambling to source the parts and products essential to operations.
Once the virus hit the United States, all but the most critical manufacturers had to shut their doors, setting off the largest drop in industrial production ever recorded. Many companies retooled to produce PPE and other supplies critical to the coronavirus fight. Once industrial companies resumed production in the early summer, manufacturers made a major comeback, with industrial activity surging in the fastest expansion since the 1980s.
Our most popular stories are a direct reflection of U.S. manufacturing’s most remarkable year. Without further ado, here are IndustryNet’s ten most popular stories for 2020.
Top 10 Manufacturing Stories on IndustryNet for 2020
1. Tariffs, Technology & More: 7 Key Takeaways from MNI’s Survey of Manufacturers
At the tail end of 2019, MNI invited industrial companies across the U.S. to take part in an in-depth survey on business conditions and outlook, resulting in our post. The results of the survey suggested U.S manufacturers were generally optimistic about future business conditions and that many were divided about tariffs.
Interestingly, more companies reported they were actively looking for more domestic suppliers in 2020 (as we know, that trend went off the chart in the year of coronavirus).
Read the full post: Tariffs, Technology & More: 7 Key Takeaways from MNI’s Survey of Manufacturers
2. What a Biden Presidency Could Mean for U.S. Manufacturers
Our second most popular story of the year wasn’t about coronavirus. Instead, interest in the outcome of the 2020 presidential election and its impact on U.S. manufacturers trended significantly. Although the Biden team plans to retain some of the Trump-era policies when it comes to manufacturing, there are still several changes for manufacturers to expect in the years ahead. We explored the Biden manufacturing plan in detail in this post.
Read the full post: What a Biden Presidency Could Mean for U.S. Manufacturers
3. Coronavirus & Supply Chains: What Manufacturers Should Know
With so much at stake for manufacturers, we were reporting on the pandemic and its impact on global supply chains prior to the coronavirus spreading to the United States. This article, published February 6thoutlined the basics of the coronavirus and the ripple effect it was having on supply chains, including how major companies that do business in China like Bosch, Apple and Novartis were being impacted and how they were handing disruptions. At the time this post was published, worldwide coronavirus infections had just topped 12,000 -- imagine that!
Read the full post: Coronavirus & Supply Chains: What Manufacturers Should Know
4. U.S. Manufacturing Activity Hits 21-Month High
IndustryNet provides an in-depth look at the manufacturing activity reports released monthly by the Institute for Supply Management. This post, published at the start of September, charted U.S. manufacturing’s moment of victory, following the devastating losses of the spring. Manufacturing activity hit a high not seen since 2019, representing a third straight month of expansion for the sector.
Read the report: U.S. Manufacturing Activity Hits 21-Month High
5. The Big Picture Report on U.S. Manufacturing Business Conditions (July 2020)
We were closely following the recovery of the nation’s industrial sector as states reopened and production resumed. Our Big Picture report is released month, gathers insights into business conditions for manufacturers from an array of original sources, including the ISM, the Federal Reserve and the Department of Labor. Our July report was filled with good news for the sector, including the fastest expansion in the manufacturing sector since the 1980s, accompanied by a 365,000 gain in manufacturing jobs and a surge in manufacturing output.
Read the full report: The Big Picture Report on U.S. Manufacturing Business Conditions (July 2020)
6. U.S. Manufacturers Retool to Produce Lifesaving Supplies Amid Coronavirus
By far our most inspiring post about manufacturing in 2020, we took an in depth look at several manufacturers that were retooling their facilities in order to produce PPE and other supplies critical to the coronavirus fight, including distilleries that began making hand sanitizer, automotive companies making ventilators and furniture and apparel manufacturers making masks and gowns.
Read the full story: U.S. Manufacturer Retool to Produce Lifesaving Supplies Amid Coronavirus.
Part Two of this series can be found here: The Great Pivot: Full List of U.S. Manufacturers Retooling to Protect Frontline Workers
7. U.S. Manufacturers Seek to Source Local as Coronavirus Casts Shadow on Outlook
Throughout 2020, we saw increased industrial sourcing activity on IndustryNet, with more industrial buyers rethinking global supply chains and seeking to source local. We first reported on this trend in early March, when the pandemic had not yet hit the U.S., but was devastating global supply chains. In this coverage of March’s ISM report, manufacturing executives weighed in on the impact coronavirus was having on operations, with one respondent describing it as “a mad dash to dual-source stateside.” This post is a fascinating look back at how industrial companies were impacted in the very early days of the pandemic.
Read the full post: U.S. Manufacturers Seek to Source Local as Coronavirus Casts Shadow on Outlook
8. The 2020 Election & U.S. Manufacturing
Politics & manufacturing are inextricably linked, with the policy changes of a given administration having a direct impact on the nation’s manufacturers. Manufacturing policy loomed large in the 2020 election, and we covered some of the major items that were at stake during the election season, including tariffs, the growing skilled labor shortage, and the reshoring of critical manufacturing industries.
Read the full post: The 2020 Election & U.S. Manufacturing
9. Manufacturing Output Posts Largest Drop Since 1946; Here’s Where the Losses Were
We knew that coronavirus was having a devastating impact on manufacturing, but in mid-April we discovered just how bad the news was, with the Federal Reserve reporting that industrial production had hit its lowest level since the Second World War. Thankfully, output slowly recovered shortly thereafter, once manufacturers reopened their doors. This post went into the specifics of how each sub-sector fared based on the data collected by the Federal Reserve:
Read More: Manufacturing Output Posts Largest Drop Since 1946; Here’s Where the Losses Were
10. 10 Most Popular Industrial Search Categories on IndustryNet for May 2020
Searches for products, parts and supplies on IndustryNet spiked in April and May as manufacturers reacted to COVID-related supply chain disruptions and ongoing tariffs, with many seeking to source stateside. This trend continued for the rest of the year, with searches for U.S. suppliers of parts, products and services on IndustryNet up significantly over the same time in 2019.
This post took a look at what industrial buyers were specifically looking for in the month of May and provided some compelling insight into the manufacturing climate at the time.
Read more: 10 Most Popular Industrial Search Categories for May 2020
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