The South is fast becoming America’s industrial heartland
industrial heartland (see map). The shifting of American factories has been years in the making. When Japanese and German carmakers started production in America in the 1980s and 1990s, most chose the South.
They were attracted by a dearth of unions and generous subsidies. Nissan went to Tennessee, Toyota to Kentucky, Mercedes-Benz to Alabama and BMW to South Carolina. In 1985 the Midwest had 1.25 workers making durable goods such as cars and electronics for each one in the South, according to the Department of Labour.
By 2021 the South had just about drawn even (see chart). What stands out now is the pace of change. The industrial policies crafted by Mr Biden’s administration—notably, incentives and rules to boost the production of semiconductors, renewable energy and electric-vehicles (EVs)—have catalysed a surge in investment, much of it in the South.
S&P Global Market Intelligence, an analytics company, calculates that about two-thirds of planned EV jobs will be there. The White House keeps a tally of investments in “21st-century industries" since Mr Biden took office: the South has received more than twice as many as the Midwest. The Midwest is getting plenty of new factories, too.
It is just that the balance has tilted southward. For a glimpse, visit the once-sleepy fields of south Hardin County in Kentucky. New high-voltage lines run to a giant lot where thousands of construction workers have already completed the grey carapace of one warehouse-like building and are busily putting up a second.
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