Building New Facilities to Avoid Tariffs Won’t Be Easy
Date Posted: June 19, 2025
Posted In: Discussion, Ideas,
From Industry Week: President Donald Trump wants high tariffs on imports to encourage companies to make products in the United States. However, doing so will be a challenge, engineering and building experts say. There aren’t a lot of buildings available nationwide to serve as factories, the costs to build new facilities are climbing and the prices of production equipment are on the rise as well.
On June 4, Endeavor Business Media’s Manufacturing Group held its second roundtable discussion on how tariffs are impacting manufacturers. A big message from the experts: If you haven’t priced a new facility or a plant upgrade recently, expect some sticker shock. Inflation isn’t just for eggs.
“When you look at the cost of a machine tool versus five years ago, you might have paid $1 million in 2018, 2019, 2020. That’s going to cost $1.3 million, $1.4 million in today’s market,” said Jim Mayer, founder of the MFG Connector, a manufacturing communications consultant with a long history in the machine tools space.
Panelists for the live event were:
- Mayer
- Joseph Windover, construction solutions executive at coatings giant Sherwin-Williams
- Michelle Comerford, project director and supply chain practice leader at site selection firm Biggins Lacy Shapiro & Co.
- Matt Stagemeyer, national director of operations for consumer products at construction engineering company Burns & McDonnell
- Tom Wilk, editor-in-chief of Plant Services