Manufacturers Shift Site Selection From Cost to Resilience as Tariffs Reshape Supply Chains

Companies are deferring major capacity commitments and prioritizing flexible, mid-market projects over cost-optimized locations as tariffs and geopolitical risk upend decades of supply chain assumptions, Global Location Strategies CEO Didi Caldwell said on September 21, 2026. "We've gone from modeling cost to modeling resilience," Caldwell said, noting companies now stress-test sites across multiple scenarios rather than optimizing for a single set of conditions. Energy availability, logistics infrastructure and workforce readiness now carry equal or greater weight than cost. Caldwell said 40% of heavy industry costs are energy-related, and that the U.S. transition to the world's largest net energy exporter gives North America a reshoring edge. She flagged the Canadian border as an emerging risk point, NIMBY opposition as a concrete obstacle — citing a multibillion-dollar Oklahoma aluminum smelter under a community moratorium extended to April 2027 — and named Colombia and Argentina as emerging alternatives to Mexico.