短语讲解：

1. He said that, after the conference, he was going to search for places to establish a factory in the U.S.

search for 搜索，搜寻; 访求
例句：The search for peace also means the search for justice.
寻求和平也意味着寻求正义。

2. "All of the critical components of doing business: transportation costs, energy, labor, all of those, as a rule, are less in our region than in other parts of the U.S."

as a rule 照例; 通常，一般说来
例句：Do you have as a rule much time for reading?
你平常有许多时间读书吗?