Process Control Instrument Manufacturers NAICS 334513

Sep 2, 2025 - Federal Appeals Court Rules Against Trump Administration Tariffs

• The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has ruled that President Trump overstepped his authority when he declared national emergencies to justify tariffs on many countries. The impact on process control instrument manufactures may be mixed, as operating production facilities in several countries is complex. US law “bestows significant authority on the president to undertake a number of actions in response to a declared national emergency, but none of these actions explicitly include the power to impose tariffs, duties, or the like, or the power to tax”, the court said in the 7-4 ruling. Many of President Trump’s steep tariffs are “unbounded in scope, amount and duration”, the ruling added, and “assert an expansive authority that is beyond the express limitations” of the law his administration has cited. The court said that the ruling would not take effect until October 14. The Trump administration is expected to appeal the ruling to the US Supreme Court.
• Critical infrastructure systems are vulnerable to a new kind of cyberattack that targets browser-based control systems in industrial facilities with easy-to-deploy, difficult-to-detect malware, according to researchers at Georgia Tech university. The malware targets programmable logic controllers (PLCs), which are increasingly made with embedded webservers and are accessed on site via web browsers. Attackers can exploit this approach and gain full access to infrastructure systems. "We're calling it web-based PLC malware. It gives you full device and physical process control,” said Ryan Pickren, a Ph.D. student in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the lead author of a new study describing the malware and its implications. This new cyberattack strategy is the result of a shift in recent years in software and devices used to control and monitor various industrial systems. Manufacturers have turned to web-based management instead of a dedicated terminal or control pad running custom software specific to the device.

• Process control instrument manufacturers benefiting from reshoring may also benefit from nearshoring, according to the Reshoring Initiative (RI). Harry Moser, founder of RI, says that if a product is so labor intensive that you can’t bring it to the US, then companies are sometimes surprised to find that wages in Mexico are far lower than in China. The average Mexican manufacturing worker earns $4 an hour, while the rate in China — where wages have been gaining 10% to 15% a year — is currently around $7, and in the US, it’s roughly $23. Products coming from Mexico end up with an average 40% US content, while in China they have 5% US content.
• Process control instrument manufactures increased prices slightly during the first half of 2025, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Process control instrument manufacturing industry employment and average wages for nonsupervisory employees increased slightly during the first five months of 2025, according to the BLS. Process control instrument industry sales are forecast to grow at a 4.87% compounded annual rate from 2025 to 2029, faster than the growth of the overall economy.