Although exports and backlog orders continued to weaken in December, manufacturers reported increasing shipments and U.S. investment heading into the new year, according to a quarterly survey by the Manufacturers Alliance for Productivity and Innovation, a trade group.

The group's latest survey is broadly in line with other industry measures. The government's jobs report for December showed manufacturing payrolls bounced higher at the end of the year, and the Institute for Supply Management manufacturing index also rose last month above the threshold 50-point mark.

The Manufacturers Alliance report found that 17 percent of companies with manufacturing operations abroad had brought some of that work back to the U.S. in the last two years.

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