U.S. officials on Monday said they are working closely with foreign investors to identify gaps in the U.S. manufacturing supply chain and to help small- and medium-sized businesses scale up to meet rising demand as foreign investments surge.
Assistant Secretary of the Treasury Chris Pilkerton and Small Business Administrator Kelly Loeffler told Reuters that U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs on foreign imports and deregulation were fueling foreign investments in manufacturing, but it was critical to ensure components were also available.
The two officials spoke during a visit to a historic Philadelphia shipyard acquired by Hanwha Ocean (042660.KS) and Hanwha Group in December 2024 after a review by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. (CFIUS), which Pilkerton leads.
David Kim, CEO of Hanwha Philly Shipyard, told Reuters his company had pledged to invest $5 billion at the facility in the coming years, which could boost jobs at the site to 10,000 from around 2,000 now. It has already invested more than $200 million to upgrade the shipyard's workforce, capabilities and capacity.
The company relies on over 1,000 suppliers for each massive ship it builds, he told a separate news conference, about two-thirds of which were U.S.-based. That number could grow in coming years as the site works to accelerate production and adopt AI-based shipbuilding technologies already used in South Korea.
Pilkerton, who served as acting SBA administrator during the last year of Trump's first term, said he drew on that experience in launching a new "Strategic Vendor Program" that is aimed at strengthening domestic supply chains and supporting the long-term success of foreign-invested businesses in the U.S.
The program is still in a pilot phase, with no detailed guidance issued on how vendors will be identified.
He said he paid a similar visit to a quantum refrigeration company acquired by Bluefors, a Finnish company, in Syracuse, New York, where executives said they had been unable to find a domestic supplier for dry compressors.
"It's one thing to speak about supply chains at a high level. I think everybody wants it, but you know, you need to find the parts," he said.
The Trump administration was also trying to make reviews of foreign investments by the CFIUS more transparent and quicker, Pilkerton said. Treasury in July launched a new website to help companies, investors and their attorneys better understand how the panel evaluates potential foreign acquisitions and investments.
It has also created a "Known Investor Program" to identify and clear companies that invested frequently in order to speed up reviews after an initial deep dive, he said.
Loeffler said the SBA provided in 2025 some $3 billion in funding for manufacturers, including $32 million for shipbuilders, to help them rebuild their capacities, after the loss of some 90,000 factories and 5 million manufacturing jobs over the last four or five decades.
