I have been presenting and attending a number of oil and gas industry expos, conferences and seminar for the last seven years and have often heard that “onshoring will be coming.”  Today, I heard my first example of onshoring.  The Armstrong Flooring company located in the city Lancaster in Lancaster county PA had relocated plants to China.  Well, those plants are coming back.

Armstrong Flooring recently announced that its production facilities in China are returning to the city of Lancaster in Lancaster County PA.  Armstrong is actually moving into its old manufacturing facility.

The sole reason for Armstrong’s return is the cheap cost of energy.  Armstrong will be able to take advantage of the cheap natural gas it will get from Williams’ Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline.

I expected onshoring to occur.  I thought it would come sooner, but at least it’s starting to happen.  Armstrong’s return will prompt other companies to give serious consideration to onshoring.

At the Marcellus-Utica Midstream Conference last January, I’ll never forget a representative from Hong Kong venture fund who stopped by our booth.  The gentleman was from West Virginia, but had been living in Hong Kong for 15 years working for this venture capital fund. His fund was looking to invest in companies the U.S. that make products that run on LNG or CNG.  He told me, “It was too bad that China did not have this cheap energy.  China cannot compete against cheap energy in the U.S.”

As I hear of other onshoring situations, I’ll keep you informed.

Joseph Barone
www.ShaleDirectories.com