Today's Manufacturing Pulse
Stellantis to pour $1.08B into next‑gen EV line at Mulhouse plant
President Emmanuel Macron announced Stellantis will invest more than €1 billion (about $1.08 billion) in a next‑generation electric‑vehicle production line at its Mulhouse facility, slated to start in 2029 as part of France’s push to electrify two‑thirds of new cars by 2030.
Also developing:
By the numbers: TIEA Connectors raises $8M Series A
Russian Plan to Ban Foreign Carriers May Be ‘Symbolic’ Gesture
The Kremlin is drafting a decree that would bar major foreign container carriers—CMA CGM, Maersk, OOCL and X‑Press Feeders—from calling at Russian ports. The move comes after years of sanctions‑driven pull‑outs, leaving MSC as the sole major liner with two services to Russia. Capacity on Russia‑Far East routes has already slipped 19% year‑on‑year to just over 80,000 TEU, reflecting a broader decline in container volumes. Analysts say the ban is largely symbolic, given the already shrinking market and the rise of domestic and Chinese operators filling the gap.
Defense Capital Goods Shipments Jump 26% YoY, Fastest Since 2010
"Shipments of defense-related capital goods surged 26.1% YoY in February—the fastest pace since 2010" -Larry Adam, Raymond James
Weekly Reverse News Highlights Sustainable Logistics Trends
The weekly Reverse News is out with news about John Deere, Shein, recycled resins, a new reverse logistics association and more. https://t.co/SVQwKB0SJu
Mitsubishi Targets Hybrid Vehicle Production in the Philippines by 2028
Mitsubishi Motors announced it will begin assembling a new hybrid electric vehicle at its Santa Rosa, Laguna plant in the Philippines around mid‑2028, subject to approval under the country's Electric Vehicle Incentive Strategy (EVIS). The existing facility can produce up...
Box Volumes Surge, but Instability Casts a Shadow
Global container volumes jumped to 15.04 m TEU in February, a 12‑13% year‑on‑year increase that outpaced the five‑year average despite the Chinese New Year lull. The surge coincided with a four‑point drop in the CTS Global Price Index to 74, suggesting...
Red Cat Wants 3D Printed Drone Boats for On-Demand Delivery
Red Cat, a U.S. startup, plans to mass‑produce autonomous drone boats using large‑format 3D‑printed hulls. The company will adapt Ukraine’s naval drone technology for on‑demand logistics, partnering with 3D‑print service Haddy to fabricate near‑net‑shape hulls. While 3D‑printed boats have existed...
SpaceX Bastrop Manufacturing Facility Begins Installing Equipment, to Start Production by End 2026
SpaceX has begun installing equipment at its new Bastrop, Texas manufacturing facility, targeting production start by the end of 2026. The plant will focus on advanced semiconductor packaging and AI‑enabled hardware for Starlink satellites, marking a shift toward a vertically...
DSV Cuts in Texas as Talk Mounts of Further Restructuring Ahead
DSV Contract Logistics filed a WARN Act notice indicating it will lay off 391 employees at its Wilmer, Texas distribution center. The cuts follow the loss of a major customer contract, prompting a complete cessation of operations at the site....
Ukraine’s Answer to the Patriot Problem: Build Something Cheaper, and Build It Fast
Ukraine is pursuing a home‑grown air‑defence system to offset dwindling Patriot deliveries as the United States reallocates batteries to the Middle East. Fire Point, a Ukrainian drone and missile maker, says its new interceptor could cost under $1 million per shot—roughly...
FrieslandCampina Expands Dutch Facility to Meet Whey Protein Demand
FrieslandCampina is expanding its Dutch production facility to increase capacity for whey protein isolate (WPI) and milk‑fat globule membrane (MFGM). The upgrade adds advanced filtration technology, targeting a 30% output boost to meet a projected 7.5% CAGR in the global...
Radify’s Plasma Reactors Target China’s Rare‑Earth Stronghold with $3M Funding
Radify Metals has closed a funding round of just under $3 million to scale its plasma‑reactor technology that can turn metal oxides into pure rare‑earth metals. The startup says its compact reactors could produce several kilograms of dysprosium and neodymium per...
Brazil Textile Production Surges, Green Credentials Grow
Brazil’s textile sector posted a 6.8% year‑over‑year increase in output from January to November 2025, while apparel manufacturing edged up 0.7% in the same period. The surge reflects stronger domestic consumption, renewed export contracts, and government incentives aimed at modernising factories....
UAE's MoIAT Launches Industrial Resilience Forum Ahead of 'Make It in the Emirates' Expo
The Ministry of Industry and Advanced Technology (MoIAT) gathered ministers, CEOs and experts in Abu Dhabi for an "Industrial Resilience and Supply Chain Continuity Forum" ahead of the May Make it in the Emirates exhibition. Chair Dr. Sultan bin Ahmed...
Ascend Elements Files for Chapter 11 After Raising $1.1 Billion
Battery recycling startup Ascend Elements announced a voluntary Chapter 11 filing Thursday, ending a decade‑long effort that attracted more than $1.1 bn in equity and government grants. The move highlights the capital intensity of circular‑economy ventures and raises questions about the...
Crack Detection in Stainless Steel Tanks Using Robotic Technology
Ensuring the structural integrity of stainless‑steel tanks is vital for chemicals, pharma and food processors, yet traditional visual and NDT inspections are time‑consuming and often require vessel shutdowns. Recent advances in robotic inspection allow remote‑controlled units equipped with ultrasonic, laser...
Chinese Module Trading Slows After Export Tax Rebate Cancellation
OP IS reported a modest dip in the FOB China TOPCon spot price to $0.119/W, down 0.83% amid post‑Lunar New Year slowdown. The decline follows China’s removal of export tax rebates on PV products effective April 1, prompting manufacturers to absorb higher...
China Accelerates Humanoid Rollout with UniX AI's Panther and New 10,000‑Unit Factory
Chinese robotics firms are moving from prototypes to commercial scale. UniX AI introduced Panther, a dual‑arm service robot for homes, while Leju Robotics and Dongfang Precision opened a factory capable of producing a humanoid every 30 minutes, targeting 10,000 units...
Hyundai to Exhibit at ReMA2026
Hyundai North America will exhibit three scrap‑focused machines at ReMA2026 in Las Vegas, April 13‑16. The lineup includes the HW250A MH material handler with a 9.5‑ft elevating cab, the HL955A HDXT wheel loader featuring full guarding, and the HX235A LCR excavator paired with a SAS...
Lyreco Automates French Logistics Hub with Exotec Skypod Robots in €25 Million Upgrade
Lyreco has completed a €25 million (≈$27 million) upgrade of its Villaines‑la‑Juhel logistics hub, adding a new 3,000 m² facility and more than 100 Exotec Skypod robots. The French site handles 60% of Lyreco’s 50,000 daily parcels, and the automation streamlines outbound sequencing,...
Silex, Edge Impulse Team on Edge AI Development
Silex Technology and Edge Impulse have teamed up to integrate Edge Impulse’s end‑to‑end AI development platform with Silex’s EP‑200Q system‑on‑module, which runs on Qualcomm’s Dragonwing QCS6490 processor. The joint solution bundles a Wi‑Fi 7 driver and AI acceleration to simplify the...
Tesla Reportedly Adds Sunwoda as Additional Battery Cell Supplier
Tesla has added Chinese battery maker Sunwoda as its fifth supplier of traction‑battery cells, joining CATL, Panasonic, LG Energy Solution and BYD. Sunwoda’s third‑generation LFP cells, capable of 3C charging, are already being used in vehicles built at Tesla’s Shanghai...
Same Old Story for Shippers, Asked to Recover From Steep Fuel Surcharges Again
U.S. diesel prices surged to an average $5.64 per gallon in April, up from $3.76 before the U.S.-Israel conflict, pushing fuel costs for truckers and freight carriers higher. The spike inflates per‑mile operating expenses, squeezes carrier margins and fuels broader...
€8m Upgrade Doubles Cygnum’s Irish Timber Frame Output to 2,500 Homes
Cygnum, an Irish timber‑frame specialist, unveiled an €8 million ($8.7 million) factory extension in Macroom, County Cork, creating 150 jobs and raising annual output from 1,400 to 2,500 homes. The company reported 2024 turnover of €34.6 million ($37.7 million) and operating profit of €5.46 million...
RWE Installs CO2-Reduced Steel Tower and Recyclable Blades at Thor
RWE has installed an offshore wind turbine at Denmark’s Thor wind farm using a reduced‑CO₂ steel tower and recyclable rotor blades. The turbine is part of the 1.1 GW project, which began delivering power to the Danish grid and will host...
DTU 3D Prints Ceramic Gyroid Fuel Cells For Lightweight Power
Researchers at the Technical University of Denmark have 3D‑printed a monolithic solid‑oxide fuel cell using a gyroid lattice, achieving roughly 1 W per gram—about five times the power‑to‑weight of conventional planar SOFCs. The device is built from yttria‑stabilized zirconia (8YSZ) on...
Container-Sized AI 'Pods' Could Be the Answer to Dragging Data Centre Plans, HPE Says
Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) is mass‑producing container‑sized AI “pods” that function as miniature data centres, with a factory capable of delivering a unit in a matter of months. The modular pods bundle compute, storage, networking and cooling into a single...
Attabotics Returns with a Clearer Path Forward
The episode explores the resurgence of Attabotics, a high‑density robotic fulfillment system, after its bankruptcy and its new partnership with Lafayette, a long‑standing automation integrator. Guests Bruce Robbins (founder of Lafayette), Art Eldridge (SVP of Sales & Software at Attabotics),...
Nio Supplier Seyond Reaches 1 Million LiDAR Delivery Milestone
Seyond, the LiDAR supplier for Nio, announced it has shipped over one million units, with 750,000 Falcon and 250,000 Robin models delivered. First‑quarter shipments jumped 340% year‑on‑year to about 181,400 units, and the company expects full‑year 2026 deliveries to rise...
PPC Boosts Sustainable Cement Production with 20MW Solar Launch
PPC Ltd has commissioned two 10 MW solar farms at its Slurry and Dwaalboom cement plants in South Africa, delivering renewable power directly to the production lines. The behind‑the‑meter installations, built with Sturdee Energy, use bifacial panels and single‑axis trackers to...
Chip Industry Week In Review
Intel announced three major moves: joining Elon Musk’s Terafab AI‑robotics fab targeting 1 TW of compute, expanding its multi‑year AI and cloud partnership with Google to include custom IPUs, and showcasing the world’s thinnest GaN chiplet from its foundry. Broadcom will...
Unacem Chile Signs Cement Production Agreement with Transex
Unacem Chile has signed an agreement with Cementos Transex to manufacture cement at the Puente Alto plant in the Santiago metropolitan area. The deal lets Unacem use existing capacity, enhancing logistics and avoiding fresh capital investment. In the fourth quarter...
Double-Double Structures Offer Simplified Design, Testing and Manufacturing
The Double-Double laminate replaces the traditional Quad ply schedule with a 0°/‑60°/60°/0° sequence, creating a homogeneous composite that behaves like steel. Its repeatable building block eliminates the need for cross‑plies and allows ply drops without altering mechanical performance, making tapered...
Globant and CMPC Launched an AI-Based Supply Chain Traceability Solution Compliant with EU Deforestation Regulation
Globant has deployed an AI‑driven supply‑chain traceability platform for CMPC, a global pulp, paper and packaging leader. Built on SAP Business Technology Platform and SAP Clean Core, the solution automates document extraction and compliance workflows, shrinking manual traceability from up...
Design and Application of a Photo‐Thermal Dual‐Curable Resin for Architected Microwave Absorbers in the X‐Band via DLP Printing
Researchers have engineered a photo‑thermal dual‑curable resin that can be shaped by DLP 3D printing and then thermally post‑cured, delivering a low dielectric constant (ε′<3.0), ultra‑low loss (tan δ<0.01), glass transition above 200 °C and tensile strength over 80 MPa. The resin was...
TCL Unveils AI-Powered Manufacturing Facility in China
TCL has launched a $280 million AI‑powered air‑conditioner smart factory in Guangzhou, marking its 100 million‑unit milestone. The 303‑acre complex can produce 8 million units a year, roughly one unit every seven seconds, through three fully automated lights‑out lines. An on‑site AI supercomputing...
Geocycle to Invest US$125m in Latin America Co-Processing Capacity
Geocycle, Holcim's waste‑management unit, announced a $125 million investment to boost co‑processing capacity across Latin America by 2030. The funding builds on a $55 million spend that created 14 waste‑to‑fuel facilities, now delivering roughly 30% of the region’s thermal energy needs. In...
Government Gives £380m Grant to Agratas Gigafactory
The UK government has pledged a £380 million grant (about $483 million) to Agratas for a new battery gigafactory in Somerset. The plant will produce lithium‑ion cells for Jaguar Land Rover, Agratas’s anchor customer, and is slated to employ over 2,200 workers...
Shipbuilding and Merchant Marine Funding Drained Away
Now please look at all the money that got sucked out of shipbuilding and the US Merchant Marine.
Meet the Swiss Founder Building Robots that Make Crêpes
Swiss startup Maus Robotics, founded by 28‑year‑old Robert Hennig, has built an automated crêpe‑making robot that can serve a fresh crepe every 90 seconds. The prototype, developed during Hennig’s EPFL PhD, costs roughly $5,400–$6,500 in hardware and uses a patented...
Valeo Inaugurates ADAS Camera Production at Sanand
Valeo has inaugurated a high‑definition surround‑view camera production line at its Sanand plant in Gujarat, India. The line will supply advanced driver‑assistance (ADAS) and advanced rider‑assistance (ARAS) vision systems to domestic OEMs. It forms part of a broader Sanand expansion...
China Reminds Battery Makers to Avoid Excess Capacity Growth
China has summoned its leading electric‑vehicle and stationary battery manufacturers for a second time in just over three months, urging them to curb capacity expansion. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and other agencies addressed 16 firms, calling for...
Stellantis Circular Unit Targets Third Dismantling Centre
Stellantis’ circular‑economy arm SUSTAINera reported a 51% jump in its reuse business for 2025 and is set to launch a third vehicle‑dismantling centre in a new region, adding to sites in Turin and São Paulo. The subsidiary’s B‑Parts e‑commerce platform now...
India Inc Ramps up Exports as Iran Ceasefire Reopens Middle East Trade
India Inc is rapidly reactivating exports to the Middle East following a two‑week Iran ceasefire that reopened the Strait of Hormuz. Pharma, packaged‑food and electrical‑goods manufacturers report rising demand as regional inventories are restocked and reconstruction projects loom. Companies such...
TSMC Is Upgrading Japan’s Second Plant to the 3-Nanometer Process. Kumamoto Is Transitioning From a Backup Site to a True...
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) has received approval to launch 3‑nanometer production at its second Japanese fab in Kumamoto, with equipment installation slated for 2026 and volume output expected in 2028. The plant will initially run at a capacity of...
10 Minutes to Influence U.S. Manufacturing Policy
The Reshoring Initiative and Regions Recruiting have launched a 10‑minute survey aimed at original equipment manufacturers and contract manufacturers to capture current reshoring and foreign direct investment trends. The questionnaire also probes how upcoming 2025 federal manufacturing policies could influence...
Fabs & Labs: Filtronic
Filtronic has inaugurated a new state‑of‑the‑art headquarters, design centre and manufacturing facility at NetPark in Sedgefield, County Durham. The complex includes advanced cleanroom environments tailored for high‑frequency components used in space, defence and communications applications. By consolidating R&D and production...
How to Scale Production With the Right Adjustments at the Right Times
Scaling volume machining requires timing adjustments to the data the machine provides. The first part should be used only to validate the setup, correcting gross errors and chatter while ignoring subtle deviations. Between parts two and ten, a small population...
Robot Masters Mobility, Balance, and Self‑recovery
Multi-Modal #Robot Shows Off Incredible Mobility, Balance and Fall Recovery by @IntEngineering #Robotics #AI #EmergingTech #Innovation #Technology https://t.co/4VjYvCcDvN
Riber Delivers Strong Earnings Growth in 2025
Riber posted 2025 full‑year results showing a modest 2% dip in revenue to €40.3 million (about $44 million) but a 27% jump in net income to €5.2 million ($5.7 million). The company’s operating margin improved to 13% of sales, aided by a favorable product...
AI Compute Boom Propels Foundry 2.0 Market to $360 Billion
The AI‑driven compute boom is pushing the Foundry 2.0 market toward a $360 billion valuation in 2026, with advanced nodes and CoWoS packaging remaining scarce. TSMC raised its 3 nm capacity target to 165,000 wafers per month and aims for a 44% market...