With gas from Texas, Pennsylvania or Louisiana, the United States not only has a powerful money-making machine: it also has a very powerful persuasion tool to convince industries in the growth phase of the benefits of settling there.
Its vast underground reserves and the powerful
fracking
revolution have turned the North American giant into the world's largest producer and exporter of this fuel, essential in heat-intensive manufacturing processes.
And they are leading dozens of big names in the secondary sector – especially in high-skilled and technology-intensive sectors – to knock on their door when looking for new locations.
The best industrial policy is, these days, cheap energy.
Disconnected by force majeure from Russian gas – which arrived by tube and at a demolition price – Germany has been left without one of the greatest competitive advantages of its industry.
Without a cheap molecule, its secondary sector has been left exposed.
With new cards on the table, American gas brings out its best attributes: it is sheltered from the vagaries of geopolitics, with its own abundant and, above all, very competitive resource.
After falling by half in the last month, American gas is currently flirting with its historical lows and is—attention—four times cheaper than in Europe.
The best possible asset to fuel the interest of the big industrial names to settle in their territory.
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Spain, France and Belgium account for 80% of European imports of Russian liquefied gas
After the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the European Union—a partner in defense and security but a natural competitor of the United States in the race to attract cutting-edge industries—has been forced to replace all the gas that came to it by tube from its neighbor on the this by liquefied natural gas (LNG, which travels by ship).
A replacement that is anything but simple, which has forced us to build new regasification terminals—eight in less than two years—and pay a premium at source: LNG—which arrives, paradoxically, in droves from the United States—is by definition much more expensive. than the one Gazprom served by pipeline.
A blow to the waterline of the most manufacturing countries of the Twenty-seven, with Germany, Italy and the countries of Eastern Europe at the head.
Projects underway
Investment by the US industrial sector in new production plants – or in renovating existing ones – doubled between mid-2022 and mid-2023 to reach a new all-time high, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
A very substantial part of this effort responds to the push of a single sector, that of semiconductors, to the tune of artificial intelligence.
But it's not all about chips: despite the higher labor costs in the United States, there are legions of companies—especially in high-value-added sectors—that have gotten involved in the North American giant.
Own and cheap gas marks the present.
But, aware that the industrial future depends on renewables, the US Administration has the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) in place, a regulation that goes far beyond what its name indicates and that provides incentives to invest in wind, solar and storage.
Faced with the rhetoric of the Trump era, based on tariffs and threats to those who had dared to take their plants to third countries, Biden has seen these technologies, by far the cheapest to generate electricity, the best vein to ensure that this industrial boom – although of energy origin – is not a flash in the pan.
Mexico, also benefited
The shock wave of cheap fossil energy goes beyond the United States. Its southern neighbor, Mexico, has become a priority destination for manufacturing investment with lower added value for decades and where in recent times two key terms have taken root in The new global industrial dynamics—reshoring (companies that return to producing in their country of origin) and friendshoring (companies that look for a territory that has good relations with their place of origin)—are also benefiting from this powerful manna.
In the midst of a global wave of industrial relocations to friendlier nations closer to the world's main consumers, the Latin American country has the best possible credentials: thousands of kilometers of border and excellent communications with the largest market on the planet, qualified personnel, a chain of perfectly oiled supply since the early years of the North American Free Trade Agreement (known as NAFTA, today T-MEC)... and gas at a low price.
It is the fortune of having a direct connection, through half a dozen gas pipelines, with the new world energy king.
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