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Trade Wars
Century Aluminum To Build First US Smelter Since 1980s
The US is set to build its first aluminum smelter since the 1980s, with a potential production capacity of 500,000 tons a year, marking a major shift in its aluminum production policy and reducing reliance on imports. The project is set to be built by Century Aluminum, a US-based aluminum producer, in Inola, Oklahoma, according to a press release. is known for its lightweight and corrosion-resistant properties, alongside its strength, thermal conductivity, and malleability. Its versatile properties have found applications across a range of industries, from aerospace and consumer goods to power distribution and packaging.
In the past, the US was the leading producer of aluminum. At its peak, the 33 smelters in the US produced over 5 million tons of aluminum annually. But the number has since reduced to just four sites with an output of 683,500 metric tons. This has increased the US’s reliance on aluminum imports, which reached 5.46 million metric tons in 2024. The US government’s policy is to reshore manufacturing and safeguard its supply of critical minerals. The upcoming smelter in Oklahoma is the result of this policy.
Read more at Interesting Engineering
Toyota Is Expanding Its EV Lineup With New Highlander
Toyota officially revealed the 2027 Highlander EV on Wednesday, its first 100% electric three-row SUV. The electric Highlander is also Toyota’s first EV assembled in the US. It will be available with two battery pack options: 77 kWh or 95.8 kWh. While EPA figures have yet to be finalized, Toyota expects the former to deliver up to 287 miles of range, and the latter to provide up to 320 miles.
The new Highlander AWD packs up to 338 horsepower and 323 lb-ft of torque from a dual-motor, all-electric powertrain. FWD models have 221 horsepower and 198 lb-ft of torque. Toyota equipped AWD variants with off-road features, including Multi-Terrain Select and Crawl Control, to optimize traction and control on various terrains. According to Toyota, the electric Highlander can recharge from 10% to 80% in about 30 minutes “under ideal conditions.” It’s also equipped with a battery preconditioning feature and Plug & Charge capabilities to enable faster, seamless charging, even in cold weather.
Read more at Yahoo Finance
Ryanair, CFM Ink Long-Term MRO Agreement
Low-cost carrier Ryanair and CFM International announced a new memorandum of understanding to establish a long-term maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) service for more than 2,000 CFM56 and LEAP-1B turbofan engines powering Ryanair’s entire fleet of Boeing 737 jets. CFM also will provide spare material services for Ryanair’s two planned, in-house maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) operations.
Dublin-based Ryanair Group is the largest airline serving Europe, and reported carrying 197.2 million passengers in 2024. When the airline acquired 30 new LEAP-1B spare engines last June at a list price of $500 million, it indicated it plans to increase its fleet to 800 737s to achieve its goal of 300 million passengers by 2034. The airline’s fleet include more than 600 Boeing 737-700, -800, and 737 MAX 8-200 aircraft, and it has orders and options in place for 300 Boeing 737 MAX 10 jets. It reportedly operates the most CFM-powered Boeing aircraft of any airline in the world.
Read more at American Machinst
Cleveland-Cliffs Looks To Recover After Challenging 2025
Global tariffs and continuing weak production levels in the automotive sector impacted Cleveland-Cliffs’ revenue in 2025, which dropped about 3% year over year to $18.6 billion, according to an earnings report on Monday. The steel maker posted a net loss of $1.4 billion last year, a 100% decline from 2024. Meanwhile, steel shipment volumes increased 4.1% compared to last year to 16.2 million tons, according to the earnings release.
Looking ahead, the company expects to recover in 2026 as the issues have been “resolved or clearly improving,” President and CEO Lourenco Goncalves said during an earnings call on Monday. “We have already secured more business from our automotive clients, and that will show throughout 2026 as the OEMs reassure production back to the United States,” he said.
Read more at Manufacturing Dive
Kraft Heinz Pauses Work To Split The Company As New CEO Says ‘Challenges Are Fixable’
Kraft Heinz on Wednesday said it is pausing work on its previously announced plans to split the company. CEO Steve Cahillane, who joined Kraft Heinz in January, said in a statement that many of the company’s issues are “fixable and within our control.” In September, the company announced plans to break up, reversing much of the blockbuster $46 billion merger from a decade ago that created one of the biggest food companies in the world.
Kraft Heinz also plans to invest $600 million to fuel a turnaround of its U.S. business. The company plans to spend the money on its marketing, sales, and research and development. The investment will also go toward “product superiority and select pricing,” according to Cahillane. The announcement Wednesday came alongside Kraft Heinz’s quarterly earnings release. The company’s earnings topped Wall Street’s estimates, but its revenue fell short of analysts’ projections.
Read more at CNBC
Robots Sales On the Rise Again
Robot orders in Q4 2025 totaled over 10,000 robots worth $579 million. For 2025 as a whole, almost 37,000 robots worth $2.25 billion were sold, a 6.6% increase in units and 10.1% increase in revenue from 2024. Demand from non-automotive industries drove this growth, though more automotive OEMs continued robot investments than the previous year. General industries like food and consumer goods, semiconductors and electronics, and life sciences also contributed to last year’s growth.
Cobots represented 28.6% of all robots ordered in Q4 2025, according to A3’s data, a 14.7% share of quarterly revenue at $85 million. For 2025 as a whole, cobots represented 19.6% of total robots ordered and 10.7% of total revenue at $241 million. “We’re seeing increasing adoption across sectors, especially in general industry applications and at automotive OEMs, as manufacturers look to automation to address workforce shortages, manage reshoring initiatives, and boost productivity,” says Alex Shikany, Executive Vice President at A3.
Read more at The Association for Advance Automation
M&A is Back. What to Know About Joining the Hunt
Researchers at EY Parthenon said recently that U.S. deal value is on track to top $2 trillion in 2025, an increase of 9% from last year. And they see another 3% increase coming in 2026, albeit with questions about inflation, geopolitics and labor supply tilting risks to the downside. Still, some market players think there’s more good news to come because buyers, including private-equity firms, are hungry. In a recent update to clients, the investment bankers at Harbor View Advisors said there aren’t enough sellers in the market.
EY Parthenon team said buyers are “largely looking through looming growth headwinds” and willing to commit to deals but they are using more risk-management tools to keep deals flowing. That means more contingencies such as earnout structures to keep sellers engaged for a while or clauses to give them an out should new tariff shocks emerge. Sellers looking to strike a deal should be prepared for more “creative” deal structures than during a more traditional, less volatile period. Experts said that includes being open to keeping a non-controlling interest.
Read more at Executive Edge
Musk, Spielberg and Altman Among Forbes’ 250 Greatest Innovators
Innovation is the grease in the economic engine, the sparkle that keeps culture fresh and the key ingredient in nearly every billion-dollar fortune. To kick off our yearlong series of special reports celebrating America’s 250th birthday, Forbes presents the men and women who best embody that creative spirit. All of them are in the mold of the quintessential American innovator, Thomas Edison. That means they aren’t just inventors; they’re business leaders who bring their breakthroughs to market, transforming entire industries and creating new ones.
To identify the top 250 living innovators (a list of the 250 greatest historic ones will be published later), we first tapped the expertise of Forbes’ beat reporters, who nominated nearly a thousand candidates. We ran those names by a panel of world-class judges who ranked them based on creativity, breadth, engagement, disruption and commercial impact. Then we fed the results into the most revolutionary innovation of our time—artificial intelligence—asking both ChatGPT and Gemini to rank them according to the same criteria. Taking all this into account, Forbes editors then determined the final ranking.
Read more at Forbes
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