Process Control Instrument Manufacturers NAICS 334513

Jan 6, 2026 - Trump Administration Considers Tariff Options

• The US Supreme Court is hearing arguments on whether tariffs imposed by the Trump administration are legal. Process control instrument manufactures are likely to benefit if the cost of goods imported from countries that were hit with tariffs decreases. The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled earlier that President Trump overstepped his authority when he declared national emergencies to justify tariffs on many countries. The Trump administration can use other laws to impose duties on goods from other countries if the tariffs are ruled illegal. The administration will most likely rely on Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 and Section 232 of the 1962 Trade Expansion Act to recreate Trump's tariffs, experts told Business Insider. Section 301 allows the US to place tariffs on goods from countries if they "either violated international trade law or otherwise acted unfairly," according to Rachel Brewster, a professor of international trade at Duke Law School. The law includes provisions that allow the president to form trade deals with other countries to resolve the unfair trade practices, so the deals Trump already struck could likely be "folded into" Section 301, Brewster said. Section 232 allows the president to impose tariffs on goods determined to be a national security threat. Trump has already applied it to goods ranging from aluminum to bathroom vanities, according to Business Insider.
• 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 eight months of 2025, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Process control instrument manufacturing industry employment increased slightly and average wages for nonsupervisory employees decreased slightly during the first seven 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.