The trend that for decades seemed irresistible -- shipping goods around the world in search of cheap labor and high retail prices -- may be starting to slow, as high fuel prices make ocean crossings prohibitively expensive.

For example: Several years ago, shipping a 40-foot container from Shanghai to the United States cost $3,000. Now it cost $8,000 -- and since shipping lines have cut their speed by nearly 20 percent to save on fuel, everything arrives slower.

That added cost, combined with growing political resistance to globalization and concerns about global warming, is driving many companies to locate manufacturing facilities closer to markets and sources of raw materials, in what economists call a "neighborhood effect." The Swedish furniture company Ikea opened its first U.S. factory in Danville, Va., in May, and some electronics companies that left Mexico for lower wages in China are returning to Mexico, where they can truck goods to the United States rather than ship them.

That's good news for hard-hit U.S. industries like steel production, which has reversed its decades-long decline as imports from China plummet. Furniture production -- which before often involved shipping wood to be milled in China and then back across the ocean to be sold in the United States -- and other consumer goods could also be affected.

And soon, consumers may even start noticing it in restaurant menus.