Near-reshoring your supplies from China: a good deal for financial motives too

Reshoring, whether concerning back-reshoring or near-reshoring, is a quite recent phenomenon. Despite the economic and political interest of this topic, research questioning determinants and results of reshoring remain rare. The purpose of this paper is to help people to better understand reasons for reshoring.

To better understand reasons for near-reshoring, the authors conducted a study among 215 French firms in spring 2016, including 197 of them sourcing manufactured goods from China.

Near-reshoring is a recent but growing phenomenon: almost half of the companies sourcing in China chose over the past few years to near-reshore the supply of certain products initially purchased in China, and 10 per cent plan to do so soon. The authors determine main motives for near-reshoring and show that companies having reshored are very satisfied in terms of product quality, responsiveness between order and delivery, responsiveness between design and production, and in terms of total cost of ownership too.

Despite the economic and political interest of the topic of reshoring, research questioning determinants and results of reshoring remains rare.