From the FT:
China will gradually take over the role of the US as the world’s largest manufacturer but will do this only by 2020, with the US’s position in the global league table of manufacturers remaining surprisingly strong, according to an authoritative economic study.
Global Insight, a Washington-based economics consultancy, forecasts that the US will keep its share of global manufacturing output above 20 per cent at least until 2024 goes against the widespread feeling, at least in the US, that the country is losing ground rapidly.
I actually came across the factoid that the U.S. is still, by far, the world’s biggest manufacturer in a report published a little while back by the Council on Competitiveness, and had been meaning to share it one of these days. Amazing, no?