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How’s this for an Onion-style headline: Tariff experts were exactly right about tariffs.
According to a survey of 500 manufacturing, construction, transportation, warehouse and other industrial professionals, less than 10% of US companies have brought any manufacturing or other production back to US soil because of the tariffs.
The survey was conducted by PlantTours, a communication headset company used for tours by Disney, Johnson & Johnson, Unilever, Amazon, P&G, and many others.
On top of the lack of reshoring, 64% of the professionals surveyed said their companies made no significant supply chain changes, and only 21% said they moved to domestic suppliers.
Instead, the tariffs have caused them to increase prices, cut profit margins, and reduce their workforces.
About 75% of respondents said that the increased costs from the tariffs were showing up as increased prices for consumers. Even the 41% who initially tried to absorb the costs had to ultimately pass them along to customers. The increase in prices led to a loss of customers for at least 14% of businesses.
More than half of the respondents (55%) said that tariffs reduced their profits by 10% to 15%, and one construction company exec told PlantTours they had to revise the terms of some contracts when the cost of materials started to balloon.
Another unintended consequence of the tariffs? A push toward automation and reduction in workforce. Nearly half (45%) said they had laid people off as a result of the tariffs. Around 40% said their companies had pivoted toward innovation and automation to cut costs.
But even with the chaos, the professionals interviewed didn’t cite the tariffs as their top challenge. Inflation was still sitting pretty at the top, at 38%, and tariffs came in a lowly second at 19%. While almost 60% of respondents did say the “tariffs brought no notable upsides,” around 30% said they came with silver linings, such as forcing them to make their supply chains more resilient.