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
Triumph Foods Readies for $30 Million Expansion in Missouri
Triumph Foods announced a $30 million expansion of its St. Joseph pork processing plant, boosting cold‑storage and shipping capacity. The project will install new equipment and machinery, reinforcing the company’s 20‑year presence in Missouri. Triumph, the city’s second‑largest employer with over 2,900 staff, highlighted the investment as a commitment to its workforce and community. The expansion involves partners such as the Missouri Department of Economic Development, Evergy, Buchanan County and the City of St. Joseph.
China's Homegrown Silicon Suppliers Gain Traction as Nvidia Struggles to Get Its Chips Into the Market — Huawei, Cambricon and...
Chinese AI and graphics chip makers have surged in 2025, capturing 41% of the domestic AI server market and cutting Nvidia's share to 55% from a claimed 95% peak. Huawei alone shipped over 812,000 AI chips, accounting for roughly half...
How AI Is Changing Food Supply Chains
Food manufacturers are turning to AI to overcome pandemic‑induced supply chain volatility, especially for perishable goods. CookUnity, a chef‑to‑consumer meal subscription service, now uses AI to lift its sales‑forecast accuracy from roughly 55% to 80‑90%, enabling precise, temperature‑controlled deliveries. The...
At Cosmopack 2026, Marchesini Group Beauty Presents a New Innovation on Its Turbo- Mek 150
At Cosmopack 2026, Marchesini Group Beauty unveiled the Turbo‑Mek 150, a Turbo‑emulsifier equipped with its in‑house Turbo 3D technology. The system features a patent‑pending adjustable rotor‑stator gap that can be tuned in real time to match different formula phases, cutting cycle times...
Bourns Adds AEC-Q Option to SSA-2 Current Sensors
Bourns announced an AEC‑Q‑compliant assembly option for its SSA‑2 analog current sensors, giving automotive, industrial and energy designers a qualified part without restarting the qualification process. The SSA‑2 series delivers precise current measurement, ultra‑low insertion loss and electrically isolated outputs...
China to Curb Gas Power, Replace LNG with Coal, Renewables
China’s exposure to the loss of Middle East LNG China will likely reduce its liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports in response to the loss of supplies from the Middle East and higher spot prices mostly by curbing gas-fired power generation and...
Fincantieri, Fraser, Donjon Form Great Lakes Shipbuilding Alliance
Fincantieri Marine Group, Fraser Shipyards and Donjon Marine have formed a Great Lakes shipbuilding alliance to pursue a U.S. Coast Guard contract for seven new light icebreakers. The partnership leverages Fincantieri’s three regional shipyards and invites additional Great Lakes firms...
Mercedes-Benz Sets $4B Investment in Plant Served by Norfolk Southern
Mercedes-Benz announced a $4 billion investment to expand its Vance, Alabama plant by 2030, marking the site’s 5 million‑vehicle production milestone since 1997. The facility assembles a mix of GLE, GLS, AMG, Maybach, and all‑electric EQ models, with 60% of output destined...
RS and HMS Networks Enable Smart Oil and Gas Operations
RS has partnered with HMS Networks to offer Red Lion industrial networking solutions tailored for oil and gas operations across the value chain. The portfolio includes FlexEdge IIoT gateways, N‑Tron Ethernet switches, and Graphite HMIs, all engineered for extreme temperatures,...
PERC Module Prices up 20% in the US, as Overall Module Prices Remain Constant
PERC (mono) solar modules jumped 20% in the United States, reaching $0.33 per watt between November 2025 and February 2026, while the overall average module price barely moved to $0.285/W. In contrast, TOPCon modules slipped to $0.28/W, making them cheaper than PERC...
Kardex Provides WEG with Improved Warehouse Performance and Small-Parts Inventory via AutoStore System
Kardex installed a high‑density AutoStore automated storage and retrieval system at WEG Electric Corp’s Duluth, Georgia headquarters to address growing small‑parts inventory without expanding the building footprint. The solution includes 14,000 bins, seven R5 robots and three picking ports, all...
ICF Sets New Production Record, Rolls Out 3,405 Coaches in FY26
Integral Coach Factory (ICF) announced a new production record for FY 2025‑26, rolling out 3,405 passenger coaches – a 13% increase over the previous year. The milestone includes the 80,000th coach ever built at ICF, setting a global benchmark for a...
Nexperia's China Unit Nears Fully Local Production of Chips: Company Sources
Nexperia’s China unit is on the cusp of achieving fully localized semiconductor manufacturing, according to internal sources. The move will enable the Dutch‑headquartered, Chinese‑owned chipmaker to produce a broader portfolio of chips within mainland China. Local production is expected to...
Master Boat Builders Delivers RApport 2800 Tug for Gulf LNG Partnership
Master Boat Builders has delivered the tugboat Jill, the sixth vessel in its RApport 2800 series and the second built for Gulf LNG Tugs of Port Arthur. The 92‑foot, 40‑foot beam tug boasts over 85 metric‑ton bollard pull and ABS FFV1 firefighting...
HIMA Expands Into Colombia and Peru
HIMA Group announced the opening of new facilities in Lima, Peru on March 3 and Bogotá, Colombia on March 5, expanding its Latin American footprint. The sites will deliver safety automation, engineering, commissioning and after‑sales services to oil, gas, chemical and petrochemical...
Wi-Fi That Can Withstand a Nuclear Reactor
Researchers at the Institute of Science Tokyo have demonstrated a 2.4 GHz Wi‑Fi receiver that survives up to 500 kilograys of gamma radiation, a level far beyond what space‑qualified electronics can tolerate. The hardened chip, presented at ISSCC, kept functional performance with...
FDH Electronics Launches New Mil-Aero Ecommerce Website
FDH Aero has launched FDHElectronics.com, a dedicated e‑commerce site for its FDH Electronics division serving the mil‑aero market. The platform aggregates the company’s interconnect, wire, cable and electromechanical product lines into a single, searchable catalog. Designed with direct customer input,...
OT vs IT Security: Why Industrial Environments Need Different Protection
The 2021 Oldsmar water‑treatment hack exposed how connected operational technology (OT) can be weaponised, highlighting the stark contrast between OT and traditional IT security. In OT, availability outweighs confidentiality, because a brief outage can trigger safety incidents or regional blackouts....
Morocco’s OCP to Cut Production in 2Q
Morocco’s OCP Group announced accelerated maintenance that will curtail up to 30% of its second‑quarter production capacity. The shutdown affects key fertilizer lines, including DAP, MAP and TSP, after the firm cited tightening supplies of sulphur and ammonia. Last year...
Creality’s Compact Filament Cutter Patent Targets Smaller Toolheads
Creality has filed a patent for a compact filament cutter integrated directly into a 3D printer's printhead, aiming to streamline material swaps. The blade pivots around a shaft parallel to the filament path and uses the printer's existing gantry motion...
Singapore Bunker Supply Continues to Run Down as Middle East War Drags On
Singapore, the world’s largest bunkering hub, sold 56.2 million metric tons of bunker fuel in 2025, a 3.2% increase year‑over‑year. Over half of its fuel imports travel through the Strait of Hormuz, which has been effectively closed since the Middle East...
MAN Launches Lion’s City E Production in Ankara
MAN Truck & Bus has begun series production of its fully electric Lion’s City E bus at the Ankara plant, adding a third global e‑bus manufacturing site after Poland and South Africa. The model, with about 3,300 units already delivered across...
CTG to Debut Project GLORIA at MODEX 2026, Bringing Proven AI-Powered Operational Intelligence to Supply Chains and Beyond
CTG, a Cegeka Group company, will unveil Project GLORIA at MODEX 2026 in Atlanta, an air‑gapped AI platform that delivers role‑specific operational insights without using public cloud services. The solution, proven in a large food‑and‑beverage warehouse, transforms fragmented data and...
EnerVenue Lands $300 Million Series B Extension to Commercialize Lithium‑free Batteries
EnerVenue announced a $300 million Series B extension and the appointment of veteran executive Henning Rath as CEO. The funding, led by Full Vision Capital and backed by Hong Kong’s Investment Corporation, will fuel large‑scale manufacturing and a new regional headquarters in...
YMTC Poised to Overtake SK Hynix in NAND Shipments
For you Sandisk'ers $SNDK China's YMTC, having caught up to Korea, secures yield for cutting-edge NAND flash and begins full-scale production expansion. With the launch of a new line equipped with state-of-the-art equipment imminent and mass production of 300-layer high-stacking NAND stabilizing, and rumors...
Detroit Fears Chinese Low‑cost High‑tech Cars Entering US
Detroit automakers fear an onslaught of low-cost, high-tech Chinese cars if Trump allows them to be built in the US. Not/not "cheap"....affordable... https://t.co/RL6s942EcW
SANY Robotics Debuts Electric Forklift Lineup at LogiMAT 2026, Secures Over 600 Orders in Europe
SANY Robotics unveiled its full electric forklift lineup at LogiMAT 2026 in Stuttgart, marking its first European market entry. The showcase featured a three‑wheel lithium‑ion counterbalance model for narrow aisles and cold storage, plus the Blue Electric Forklift Fleet with...
IAutomation Expands Automation Solutions with Festo Across the Mid-Atlantic and Southeast
iAutomation announced it has become an authorized reseller of Festo’s pneumatic and electric automation products throughout the Mid‑Atlantic and Southeast United States. The partnership adds Festo’s high‑performance components to iAutomation’s portfolio, enabling the distributor to offer expanded engineering, panel‑building, and...
6K Additive Awarded US$1.95M by Defense Logistics Agency
6K Additive, Inc. secured a Phase II contract worth US$1.95 million from the Defense Logistics Agency, launching an 18‑month program to upcycle domestic military scrap into high‑value metal powders. The initiative, “Recovering Strategic Value,” will convert nickel, titanium, tungsten and niobium from...
Tyson Foods to End Production at US “Prepared Foods” Plant
Tyson Foods announced the shutdown of its prepared‑foods plant in Rome, Georgia, citing the single‑customer model as no longer viable. The closure follows a broader restructuring that includes the recent Nebraska beef‑plant shutdown and a shift toward higher‑margin chicken operations....
The UK Is Falling Behind the G7, but Change Is Possible
The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) warns that the United Kingdom is falling behind its G7 peers in business investment and manufacturing intensity. Private sector investment totals just 11.1% of GDP, the second‑lowest among the group, while capital intensity...
Webinar – How to Reclaim Margin in Advanced Nodes
The ClockEdge webinar highlighted a hidden crisis in sub‑5 nm chip design: excessive guard‑banding caused by modeling uncertainty, which can strip 25‑35% of the clock period and cut performance‑per‑area (PPA) by up to 35%. Dave Johnson explained the “abstraction tax” and...
Australia’s Homegrown Boxer Combat Reconnaissance Vehicles Roll Off the Assembly Line
The first seven Australian‑built Boxer Combat Reconnaissance Vehicles (CRVs) have rolled off Rheinmetall Defence Australia’s Redbank plant. The programme calls for 211 Boxers, including 133 CRVs, to replace the aging ASLAV fleet under LAND 400 Phase 2. A parallel contract to produce...
PCA Closing Full-Line Plant in Richmond, Virginia
Packaging Corporation of America (PCA) will close its full‑line converting plant in Richmond, Virginia, affecting 110 employees in June 2026. The shutdown follows a similar capacity reduction in Wallula, Washington, where 200 jobs were eliminated earlier this year. PCA plans...
Volvo Trucks' $1.2B North American Investment: Navigating Tariffs, EPA 2027, and the Prebuy
Volvo Trucks North America announced a $1.2 billion investment, allocating $500 million to expand its New River Valley plant and $700 million for a new facility in Monterrey, Mexico. The spend aims to shield the company from cross‑border tariffs and prepare for the...
Apetito Secures Planning Approval for New UK Factory
Apetito, the German ready‑meals provider, secured planning approval for a new UK production site dubbed Kitchen West in Trowbridge. The factory will be built on the former Pie Site adjacent to the existing Mill Site, with construction slated to begin...
Inside Reju’s €400m Recycling Blueprint
Reju has secured a €135 million (≈ $147 million) Dutch state grant for its polyester regeneration hub, a project with a total capital outlay estimated between €350 million and €400 million (≈ $382‑$436 million). The hub, to be built at Chemelot Industrial Park, aims for a final...
World Fuel, West Coast Clean Fuels Launch US Methanol Bunkering Service
World Fuel Services and West Coast Clean Fuels have launched a U.S.‑wide methanol bunkering capability after a successful pilot in South Florida. The service uses Coast Guard‑approved procedures, trained crews and purpose‑built equipment to deliver methanol directly from trucks to...
John Deere Planter Updates Target Emergence and Input Efficiency
In this episode, John Deere’s Anthony Stosinski outlines the 2027 planter upgrades, highlighting Exact Depth control from the cab, FurrowVision imaging, and automated downforce adjustments to improve emergence and residue management. He also explains the new dual‑product fertilizer system that...
Rivian Shares Production and Delivery Numbers Ahead of Full Q1 2026 Financial Results
Rivian reported producing 10,236 electric vehicles and delivering 10,365 units in Q1 2026, slightly above its Q4 2025 output. The figures align with the company’s reaffirmed 2026 delivery guidance of 62,000‑67,000 vehicles. Rivian also highlighted a strategic partnership with Uber that could...
Improving Recycling Rates for Cell-to-Pack Battery Systems
The Fraunhofer IPA‑led ‘Difference’ project targets the low recyclability of Cell‑to‑Pack (CTP) battery designs, which replace traditional modules with directly integrated cells. By focusing on robot‑assisted, laser‑based disassembly, the consortium aims to separate adhesives, foams and metals efficiently. The initiative,...
Japan-N Europe Service Start Reinforces CMA CGM Standalone Aim
CMA CGM inaugurated its standalone weekly Japan‑North Europe Ocean Rise service on 2 April 2026, marked by the arrival of the 8,000‑teu CMA CGM Tosca in Kobe. The route, designed for Japan’s exporters, will eventually operate 14 vessels averaging 9,000 teu, offering transit times of 38 days...
How Trump’s War in Iran Is Scrambling Pharma’s Shipping Options
U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran have tightened the Strait of Hormuz blockade, cutting off a key east‑west artery that handles roughly 10% of global pharmaceutical shipments. Temperature‑controlled ingredients, which make up about 20% of those flows, are especially vulnerable,...
Green Steel Is the Way Forward for Indiana, Former Steelworkers Say
Former steelworkers in Northwest Indiana, now members of Gary Advocates for Responsible Development, are urging a shift from coal‑based integrated mills to cleaner direct‑reduced‑iron (DRI) and electric furnace technologies. A joint report by Indiana University and 5 Lakes Energy estimates...
Amazon to Apply 3.5% Fuel and Logistics Surcharge on Fulfillment
Amazon announced a 3.5% fuel and logistics surcharge on its Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) services, effective April 17 for U.S., Canada, Mexico, Brazil and expanding on May 2 to Buy with Prime and Multi‑Channel Fulfillment. The charge translates to roughly...
Cotton Yarn Prices Surge in Tirupur Amid Global Market Pressures
Cotton yarn prices in Tirupur jumped Rs 10‑12 per kilogram (US$0.11‑0.13) on the first day of the new fiscal year, extending a series of hikes of Rs 7 per kilogram in February and March. The price of a candy (356 kg) of cotton...
Japanese Glassmakers Pivot to AI Chip Substrates
Japan glassmakers Asahi Kasei, AGC retool to ride surging AI chip demand Glass cloth, high-end substrates replace conventional products https://t.co/zHaNaxaWTa via @NikkeiAsia
Promised Jobs Lag; Most Face Rising Prices
"Those jobs and factories haven’t materialized, at least on the grand scale the president and his top advisers have promised." "Even if... there are some sectors that have positive employment effects, the effect for most people is going to be higher...
Robert Allan Ltd. Develops RApide 1800 Design for Brazilian Bunkering Operations
Robert Allan Ltd., partnering with Brazil’s Indústria Naval Catarinense Ltda., unveiled the RApide 1800 pushboat design for Transpetro’s bunkering operations. The 18.7‑meter vessel, 9.2 meters wide, features twin 450 kW Z‑drive thrusters and is classed by Bureau Veritas to meet NORMAM‑202/DPC inland navigation...
Nexchip Seeks Hong Kong IPO to Boost Chip Output
China’s No 3 foundry Nexchip files for Hong Kong listing to scale output Wave of Chinese tech listings builds in Hong Kong as semiconductor groups plan expansion to meet domestic demand... https://t.co/rcA6r9CkE2 via @scmpnews