Supply Chain Research

The U.S. government has launched an investigation into imports of mobile cranes using the section 232 “national security” mechanism at the behest of Manitowoc. That’s the second new national security trade review in a few days, indicating a more robust approach towards capital goods supply chains. The investigation targets shipments from Germany, Japan and Austria. Germany represented 92.6% of U.S. imports of mobile cranes in 2019. While imports surged in 2018 they have tapered off more recently with shipments from Germany and Japan having fallen by 2.9% and 55.8% year over year respecti...