Medical supply sourcing slowdown gives impetus to reshoring strategy
U.S. imports of medical supplies needed to tackle COVID-19 may be slowing. Shipments of PPE, ventilators and pharmaceuticals all fell in the first half of July versus June on a daily average basis. Shipments of ventilators dropped by 26.6% sequentially while PPE and pharmaceuticals fell by 21.6% and 1.8% respectively.

Within PPE, masks dropped by 24.0% after improving in prior months due to increased shipments by Walgreens among others. While shipments of gloves improved by 9.6% sequentially in July, the latter may be complicated by the detention of imports linked to Top Glove due to forced labor accusations.

The newly launched U.S. MADE Act, as well as proposals from the Trump administration and the Biden campaign, look to cut America’s reliance on China, which represented 90.0% of U.S. seaborne imports of masks in 2020 so far.