rights violations, and on and on and on. I felt like I couldn’t really say what I did for a living,” says Coates. The COVID-19 pandemic was a turning point, she says. ”There was so much recognition about these long global supply chains, particularly those that went through China. Prior to that, it was all about the economics—all about the dollars and cents and profitability,” Coates says. Now, she says, the conversation is, “How quickly can we get out of China?” According to Coates, most estimates say the U.S. is regaining about 200,000 to 300,000 jobs per year in the manufacturing sector — some related to reshoring. The U.S. is also seeing rapid growth in industrial investment, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. In April of 2023, spending on manufacturing construction reached $189 billion annually, triple the average rate of the 2010s. And Oregon is well poised to benefit from the trend. The state’s manufacturing sector grew 5.75% between January 2021 and May 2023, adding 10,600 jobs according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Oregon’s manufacturing growth was nearly triple the national average, led predominantly by jobs in tech and electronics manufacturing. “Oregon is sort of a hidden jewel. It’s a good place for green manufacturing in particular, because there’s a lot of environmental focus,” Coates says. “It’s the Silicon Forest, so there’s already a lot of high tech. It’s an opportunity waiting to happen, so with some further exposure for Oregon, it wouldn’t surprise me to see growth in Oregon as well. But we’re seeing the super cycle is about to happen. It’s happening across the board.” A story by freight logistics website FreightCaviar found recent manufacturing growth was heavily driven by battery solar cells and semiconductors manufacturing, buoyed by the Inflation Reduction Act, the CHIPS and Science Act, and pent-up demand created by “decades of underinvestment” in U.S. manufacturing. While China is the world’s largest producer of lithium-ion batteries — in part because renewable energy is one of seven categories of business that receive special government attention in the form of generous business loans, tax incentives and cheap, skilled labor to companies looking to manufacture solar panels, batteries, and wind and wave-harnessing technology — the U.S. has the potential to grow the clean-energy storage market internally. Transitioning to renewable energy — particularly in the form of lithium-ion batteries — isn’t without its pitfalls, in part because there is little domestic supply of the mineral, partly due to concerns about the environmental effects of lithium mining. The Biden administration has made domestic lithium mining a priority: It loaned Ioneer— a company planning to open a large mining operation in Nevada — $700 million earlier this year. And the Ninth Circuit Court has ruled that a separate planned mining operation on the Nevada-Oregon border can move forward, though tribes and environmental groups have fought the latter. Lu says QPO will be sourcing lithium from China. Lu expects the demand created by the federal investment in manufacturing will be enough to carry his business forward. Clean-tech companies in Oregon can also apply for grants via the Governor’s Strategic Reserve Fund, which funds programs and businesses that plan to apply for Inflation Reduction Act funding. Colin Sears, global trade and business manager at Business Oregon, says there has been a renewed interest in onshoring from companies both domestic and international looking to create supply chains in the U.S. “From an inquiry standpoint, we’re seeing more of what I would consider reshoring leads from domestic companies trying to bring back pieces of their manufacturing or supply chain to the U.S., or international companies that want to be here. The clean- tech and semiconductor industries are the two areas where we’re seeing that interest,” Sears says. “Companies are basically building resiliency in their supply chain, so if one foreign country’s border shuts down for a while, your million-dollar machine can’t be finished and shipped to the customer because two $50 parts aren’t there.” Lu says the biggest challenge he and many other employers face is the ability to find the right workers. Like the rest of the country, Oregon is experiencing historically low unemployment. A 2023 review by the Washington, D.C.-based Manufacturing Institute found the technical expertise involved in modern manufacturing jobs means the labor shortage is hitting the growing sector particularly hard. The study estimated there would be a projected 2.1 million unfulfilled manufacturing jobs in the U.S. by 2030. Lu plans to use his connections in Taiwan and China to bring students to Oregon who have studied manufacturing, creating a different kind of chain across the Pacific. While Lu says he intends to hire locally whenever he can, he says he is more likely to find strong technical expertise by recruiting overseas. “We can hire young people from college, and we can train them to be a very good engineer here, so, I can be a bridge for manufacturing between Taiwan, China and the U.S.,” Lu says. “But I really think making the products in the U.S., that’s the future.” “We can hire young people from college, and we can train them to be a very good engineer here, so I can be a bridge for manufacturing between Taiwan, China and the U.S. But I really think making the products in the U.S., that’s the future.” JOSEPH LU, QPO FOUNDER Lu estimates that QPO will begin production in 2024 at this 100,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Tualatin. PHOTOS BY JASON E. KAPLAN 39
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