This deduction was enacted to replace a manufacturing export tax incentive, but a business needn’t either manufacture or export. Simply put, one must “manufacture, produce, grow, or extract” (MPGE) “qualifying production property” (QPP) in whole or in significant part within the US.
MPGE is a broad category of qualifying activities, including: developing, improving, manufacturing (either from new material or from scrap, salvage, or junked material), processing, manipulating, refining, changing (from one form to another), combining, assembling, cultivating (as in earth/soil), raising livestock, mining minerals, fishing, growing crops, storage and handling of certain agricultural products, and certain installation services.