China Flag Makers Blog

Future directions: outlook for offshore production of U.S. print consumption As demonstration above, the U.S. print market is primarily a domestic industry with relatively small components of imports and exports. What about the future? Will print remain primarily a domestic-based industry? Let’s look at some underlying factors that influence domestic versus offshore production. One factor is the weight-to-value ratio. Products with relatively high weight compared to the values are somewhat less conducive for shipping over long distances. Printing is typically a manufactured product with a relatively high weight to value ratio, so this factor supports domestic production. Another factor supporting domestic production is the production cycle and “time to customer.” The nature of most print (but not all) is such that it has a relatively short production and distribution cycle, so this factor again supports domestic production at least for much of print. Excluded i...