According to a recent Reuters report a number of factors are driving more companies away from Asia,  including rising wages, surging fuel prices, and the complexity of transporting goods across the Pacific.

According to Daniel Meckstroth, chief economist at the Manufacturers Alliance/MAPI- “What you’re starting to see is the economics shifting more into the United States’ favor regarding sourcing from the United States versus sourcing from a low-cost country.”

One of the biggest reasons why is the subpar economic growth in the United States versus in Asia is helping its manufacturers to close the cost gap on their foreign rivals. China’s inflation rate hit 5.5 percent in May, well ahead of the United States’ 3.6 percent headline rate. With Chinese wages rising at 15 to 20 percent per year, the labor costs of manufacturing in the two countries could pull even by 2015, as we reported a few months ago. Rising oil prices, which drive up the cost of shipping goods by boat or plane, are also eating in to China’s edge.

Automation also helps tilt the balance toward the United States. For example, at Master Lock in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, they can produce 24,000 locks a day with about one-sixth the number of workers needed by the company’s Chinese suppliers and rivals because of better machines and efficiency.