Industrial equipment manufacturers are beginning to restructure their supply chains in response to American duties on Chinese exports. Rather than shift to the U.S. however many are relocating to Japan as has been the case with Mitsubishi’s machine tool business. One challenge is that the tariffs come at the same time as declining demand – U.S. imports of industrial robots fell 19% in 2Q vs. a year earlier while seaborne shipments fell 25% in July. That’s been led by a slide in shipments from Japan (28% lower in 2Q) while Chinese supplies rose by 54% in June as manufacturers rac...