To the list of those bullish on the prospects for US manufacturing, add the Boston Consulting Group.

The consultancy group has issued a report that, in essence, gives China about five years before the gap between the two nations is closed.

The report contains few surprises. BCG points to steady increases in China’s wage rates and logistical costs, coupled with higher productivity in the US, as reasons for its optimism. Automation in China will have a deleterious affect on manufacturing there, as it will further reduce any labor rate advantage.

Moreover, any shift to other lower-cost nations such as Vietnam or Brmitl will be mitigated in part by those nations’ weaker infrastructures.

Pointing to past successes in fending off Taiwan and Japan, BCG says that US manufacturing sector in well into a period of adjustment and retrenchment, and “conditions are coalescing” for another American factory resurgence.

Worth a read.