|
Trade Wars
Semiconductor Industry Calls For More Robust, Strategic Industrial Policy
China is outspending the United States in the race to develop cutting-edge chips needed for artificial intelligence and other key technologies, industry representatives said at a hearing of the House Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade. To compete, the U.S. must build more domestic capacity in all phases of the semiconductor supply chain, they said. In particular, the representatives called for more “proactive investments” in semiconductor plants and supporting infrastructure, such as reliable sources of electricity. They also said the U.S. should streamline the permitting process for building fabrication plants and otherwise scale back regulations that hamper industry efforts to keep up with China.
The semiconductor industry is unlike most others because it underpins much of the modern world, said Jason Oxman, president and CEO of the Information Technology Industry Council, which represents information and communications technology companies. He added that the U.S. semiconductor industry “commands over 50% of the global market and generated $318 billion of revenue in 2025, making semiconductors critical to the U.S. economy.” According to Oxman, semiconductor companies are planning to invest about $1 trillion globally through 2030 in new fabrication plants. Much of that investment will come from China.
Read more at The AP
Cleveland-Cliffs CEO Says ‘Order Book Is Full’ As Steel Prices Rise
Cleveland-Cliffs reported first quarter revenue of $4.9 billion, up $600 million from the previous quarter, driven by renewed demand for domestic, flat-rolled steel as prices increased from tariffs and geopolitical disruptions. President and CEO Lourenco Goncalves said on a conference call Monday that “our order book is full” and more automotive and appliance customers are switching away from aluminum to steel products.
The Ohio-based company posted a net loss of $229 million during the quarter, an improvement from a year ago and the previous quarter, as headwinds from a one-time spike in energy costs and winter-related disruptions weighed on results. The first quarter of 2026 marked the start of a turnaround for Cleveland-Cliffs, as U.S. steel prices strengthened amid the Trump administration’s tariffs, and disruptions in the Middle East constrained the flow of international metals. War activity in Iran is also driving up energy and transportation costs, Goncalves said, “exposing weaknesses elsewhere” while “strengthening the position of domestic steel producers.”
Read more at Manufacturing Dive
Apple Incoming CEO John Ternus Faces A Defining Challenge: Fixing The Company’s AI Strategy
Apple has maintained its dominance in consumer devices and built up a $4 trillion market cap despite largely sitting on the sidelines of the artificial intelligence boom. But investors won’t remain patient forever, and they’ll be looking to new CEO John Ternus for a clearer strategy when it comes to playing in the hottest market on the planet. Tim Cook’s 15-year tenure as Apple CEO comes to an end on Sept. 1, the company announced on Monday.
As Cook exits, Apple faces numerous challenges, including an intricate supply chain that’s complicated by geopolitical tensions and soaring prices for memory due to unprecedented demand from the AI buildout. But for Ternus, perhaps the most critical aspect of his new job will be pushing the company deeper into AI, where it’s lagged many of its megacap peers. AI-enabled hardware appears to be where the market is going through some combination of wearables, robotics, spatial computing or possibly something Apple hasn’t shown yet. In January, Bloomberg reported that Apple will be accelerating the development of three upcoming AI wearables all built around Siri: smart glasses, a pendant and AirPods with cameras.
Read more at CNBC
Welcome To The Region And The Council Of Industry! Poly Craft Industries Completes State-Of-The-Art Middletown Facility
Poly Craft Industries, a manufacturer and printer of flexible packaging materials, has completed its new facilities in the City of Middletown and joined the Council of Industry late last year. They will serve as a central hub for the company’s manufacturing and distribution operations. The project, on a 6.4-acre site, included construction of a 72,000-square-foot facility in addition to the existing 30,000-square-foot office building. The company has added 54 local workers in addition to the more than 50 employees who relocated with the business from Long Island.
- Orange County Partnership President Conor Eckert said the business is a major shot in the arm to the area economy. “It’s a testament to Orange County being able to compete for advanced manufacturing investment that scale and also a testament to our partnerships at the local, county and state levels of government.” he said.
- Mayor Joseph DeStefano said Poly Craft reflects “the kind of strategic investment that strengthens our local economy.”
- Council of Industry CEO Johnnieanne Hansen said “The Council of Industry welcomes Poly Craft to the region and to our association. We look forward to helping them establish roots and grow their operation.”
Read more at Mid-Hudson News
Resilience is Top Priority for Food Supply Chain
Food and beverage companies facing geopolitical disruption and shifting market dynamics are prioritizing resilience, according to a recent survey, Cold Chain Insights Survey, from Lineage, a cold storage logistics company. Companies are also making greater investments in data and automation and seeking deeper collaboration with logistics partners to enable more agile execution. The Insights Survey points out several major forces influencing supply chain priorities this year.
Tariffs, regulations, and political shifts rank as the top influences shaping supply chain decisions today, with 73% expecting tariffs to continue negatively affecting finances in 2026. . Meanwhile, demand remains strong, with 72% reporting rising demand for refrigerated and frozen foods, underscoring the cold chain’s growing strategic importance. The Insights Survey shows technology adoption is closely tied to resilience efforts, with 60% of respondents ranking data and AI among the top forces transforming operations in 2026. Companies are prioritizing transportation optimization, real-time visibility, AI-informed decision-making, and warehouse automation.
Read more at Material Handling & Logistics
Stellantis Teams With Microsoft To Strengthen Digital Capabilities
Stellantis announced a new five-year, strategic partnership with Microsoft as part of an initiative to accelerate the automaker’s digital transformation, according to a press release. The two companies will co-develop an AI-powered ecosystem, aiming to strengthen Stellantis’ cybersecurity and engineering capabilities, and help protect its vehicles, customers and enterprise operations worldwide.
Working with Microsoft, Stellantis will collect data and AI-driven insights from its connected vehicles to deliver new experiences and services to customers. In order to protect customer data, cybersecurity will be added to Stellantis vehicles and all data transferred across mobile apps and in‑vehicle services and to the cloud will be encrypted. Examples of connected vehicle data may include drivers receiving intelligent recommendations for more energy‑efficient driving in urban environments, as well as vehicle-health insights and over-the-air updates designed to improve usability of its vehicles, per the release.
Read more at Ward’s Auto
A Criminal Sentence For Oxycontin Maker Purdue Pharma Clears The Way For Completing Its Settlement
A judge is expected to sentence OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma to forfeit $225 million to the Justice Department on Tuesday, clearing the way for the company to finalize a settlement of thousands of lawsuits it faces over its role in the opioid crisis. The penalty was agreed to in a 2020 pact to resolve federal civil and criminal probes it was facing. If the judge signs off, other penalties will not be collected in return for Purdue settling the other lawsuits. The government agreed in the plea deal not to collect $5.3 billion in criminal forfeitures and fines and $2.8 billion in civil liabilities. Instead, portions of that money are considered part of the broader settlement — and the federal government will receive a small slice of that.
The Stamford, Connecticut-based company admitted that it did not have an effective program to keep its powerful prescription painkillers from being diverted to the black market, even though it told the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration that it did. It also admitted that it paid doctors through a speakers program to prescribe the drugs and paid an electronic medical records company to send doctors information on patients that encouraged more opioid prescriptions. While Purdue produced only a fraction of the opioid pills that flooded the market in the 2000s, advocates have long seen aggressive sales of OxyContin as one of the touchstones of the crisis. At a 1996 event to rally Purdue’s sales force, Richard Sackler, then a top Purdue executive and later president of the company, called for a “blizzard of prescriptions.”
Read more at Stat News
ExOne Global Scaling Up U.S. Presence
The recently consolidated ExOne and voxeljet organization is producing high-speed printheads for binder-jet printers in Michigan, where it’s also expanding services for domestic manufacturers. The ExOne Co. and voxeljet AG, ExOne Global Holdings has started manufacturing its Spectra Mono-Z printhead at their now combined location in Canton Township, MI. The group also has established local parts inventory in the Detroit area, and other maintenance and support services for operators of ExOne and voxeljet additive manufacturing systems.
The Spectra Mono-Z is a high-precision, industrial inkjet component designed by ExOne for use in is S-Max series of binder jetting 3D printers. It is primarily used for selective deposition of liquid binder onto powder metal, ceramic, or sand to form 3D-printed components. ExOne’s S-Max industrial 3D printer is a large-format additive manufacturing system for high-speed binder jetting, for metal and ceramic parts, as well as sand cores and molds for metalcasting.
Read More at Foundry Magazine
Alcoa Adding Aluminum Capacity to Offset War Outages
Alcoa Corp. have been increasing smelting capacity at several of the company’s plants around the world to meet demand from customers who have been left hanging by war-related curtailments in the Middle East. President and CEO Bill Oplinger said disruptions in the Middle East, the world’s largest primary aluminum-exporting region, have given prices a big boost and pushed higher regional premiums in North America, Europe and Asia. Those price increases will more than offset a slightly slower pace of 2026 growth than previously expected, he added, as well as rising production costs.
To capitalize, Alcoa teams have been adding smelting production capacity at facilities in Portland, Australia, as well as São Luís, Brazil, and in Norway and northwestern Spain—the last of those at the San Ciprián plant that has been resuming operations since being curtailed five years during an energy-price crisis. In the first three months of this year, Alcoa produced a net profit of $417 million on sales of nearly $3.2 billion. The company shipped about 580,000 tons during the quarter versus 567,000 in Q1 of last year and 625,000 in the fourth quarter and its aluminum segment adjusted EBITDA jumped to $694 million from $134 million a year earlier.
Read more at IndustryWeek
|
