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Trade Wars
Volkswagen Unveils Its First Electric GTI
Volkswagen gave the GTI badge its biggest reinvention in half a century, with a reveal of an all-electric ID. Polo GTI at the Nürburgring 24 Hour race in Germany.It’s the first battery-powered model to wear the celebrated three-letter emblem and arrives about 50 years after the arrival of the original Golf GTI in its home German market. North American sales are not planned, according to officials at VW’s headquarters in Wolfsburg. The new front-wheel-drive hot hatch is positioned as the performance flagship of VW’s forthcoming ID. Polo EV lineup and forms part of the company’s broader push to carry its long-established performance sub-brand into the electric era.
Power comes from the company’s APP290 electric motor delivering 223 hp and 214 lb-ft of torque, Volkswagen says. The automaker claims a 0-62 mph time of 6.8 seconds and a top speed of 109 mph. The ID. Polo GTI also receives a series of chassis upgrades aimed at replicating the sharp front-end response traditionally associated with Volkswagen’s GTI models. Standard equipment includes an electronically controlled front differential lock, an adaptive Dynamic Chassis Control (DCC) sport suspension and a variable-ratio steering system.
Read more at Ward’s Auto
Intel Foundry Breaks Ground On Santa Clara Facility
Intel Corp. has broken ground on an expansion of its Santa Clara, California, facility that will include semiconductor manufacturing capabilities for its foundry division. The move, as reported by Wccftech, comes as Intel Foundry has garnered reportedly numerous design wins like Google, Amazon, Nvidia, Apple and maybe even rival AMD. The expansion is part of Intel’s larger investment in the semiconductor ecosystem in the U.S. This includes its two fabs it is building in Ohio and two other fabs under construction in Chandler, Arizona. Intel Foundry has been looking to attract major customers for its semiconductor manufacturing business with its 14A technology and advanced packaging investments are starting to gain traction.
Part of the reason for Intel’s traction is due to its advanced packaging technologies that have become equally as important in semiconductor manufacturing as process technology. Intel has been developing its proprietary advanced packaging since 2017 with the introduction of Embedded Multi-Die Interconnect Bridge (EMIB) and later with Foveros in 2019. At Intel Direct Connect 2025, the company said it was working on packaging offerings for its 18 A and lower process nodes with its EMIB-T iteration. EMIB-T provides denser connections, better power efficiency and lower costs, Intel said.
Read more at Electronics 360
Kimberly-Clark, Suzano Launch $3.4B Tissue Joint Venture
Kimberly-Clark and pulp producer Suzano’s $3.4 billion tissue and hygiene joint venture has begun operations, the companies said in a joint press release. The new entity, dubbed Arbex, is based in the Netherlands and has an operational office in London, along with 22 manufacturing sites in 14 countries. Arbex has taken ownership of some Kimberly-Clark assets and holds a long-term license to produce tissue and paper towel brands such as Kleenex, Scott and Viva, according to the press release. Arbex’s portfolio also includes over 40 regional brands, such as Andrex, Hakle and Scottex.
Additionally, the new entity announced its executive team, most of whom will be based in London. Ehab Abou-Oaf, previously president of Kimberly-Clark’s international family care and professional business, is now CEO at Arbex. The joint venture is part of Kimberly-Clark’s long-term growth strategy introduced last year. The plan aims to save the company more than $3 billion through improved productivity and accelerate the growth of its brands and businesses, particularly its North America and international personal care segments.
Read more at Manufacturing Dive
Defense Startups Raid Auto And Fracking Sectors For Parts To Speed Weapons Output
Defense tech startups are repurposing automotive chips and pipes used in fracking -- while copying production methods from drugmakers -- in an effort to deliver weapons to the Pentagon faster and at lower cost. Soaring demand for rocket motors used to power missiles and other weapons has spurred new thinking about supply chains. Seeking big returns, Silicon Valley-style startups are now taking on defense companies that have long dominated the industry, pulled into the competition by a need for production speed, high volume and lower costs, according to ten industry executives, experts and U.S officials interviewed by Reuters.
Defense entrepreneurs must prove they can deliver. Pleasing the Pentagon brings huge benefits, including contracts with a government agency that has an annual budget of more than a trillion dollars and a seal of approval other governments want to see before buying from new contractors. Challenges are ahead. All the new entrants will need to produce enough of the new weapons to meet growing demand. Many new entrants are making rocket motors for existing missiles, some are making the entire missile, but none of the companies have scaled up production to replace legacy contractors. Legacy solid rocket motor makers Northrop Grumman and L3Harris said they have been pushing their own research and development to pull these new technologies like 3D printing and new mixing technologies.
Read more at Reuters
CMA CGM to Buy FedEx Supply Chain for $1.4 Billion
France’s CMA CGM, the world’s third-largest container line by capacity, is acquiring FedEx Supply Chain for $1.4 billion in a deal that extends its reach into the growing market for third-party logistics services. The deal announced Wednesday will add about 34 million square feet of warehouse space and 10,000 employees to CMA CGM subsidiary CEVA Logistics, expanding its footprint to more than 240 locations with 20,000 workers across North America.
After the deal closes, CMA and FedEx plan to enter into multiyear ocean and airfreight agreements worth an estimated $3.5 billion in business volume, according to a person familiar with the matter. Evan Armstrong, CEO of market research and consulting group Armstrong & Associates, said the acquisition of FedEx Supply Chain will bulk up CEVA’s operations in North America. It also will add to its capabilities handling e-commerce, business-to-business contract warehousing and returns services. The carrier has also bought terminals at the Port of Los Angeles and the Port of New York and New Jersey, two of the busiest ports on the U.S. West Coast and East Coast, respectively.
Read more at the WSJ
In Mojave Desert, startup JetZero builds novel plane to take on Airbus and Boeing
nside a cavernous aircraft hangar in the Mojave Desert, JetZero is building a full-size demonstrator of what could be a 200-plus-seat jet, a lucrative market segment expected to be at the center of future plane strategies for Airbus and Boeing. The test plane, due to fly by the end of next year, marks a key milestone in the California startup's long-shot bid to build the first blended-wing commercial jet, in which the fuselage and wings merge into a single lifting surface. The startup's design replaces the conventional tube fuselage with a wide, flat cabin, opening the door to new seating layouts, larger windows and more flexible interiors, with space for reconfigured galleys and lavatories. Engines mounted above the rear are intended to reduce noise on the ground and improve efficiency. The manta ray-shaped design could cut fuel use by as much as half, the company says, and has already drawn early interest and investment from United Airlines and Alaska Airlines.
The demonstrator, partly funded by the U.S. Air Force, is being built for JetZero by Scaled Composites, a Northrop Grumman-owned (NOC.N), opens new tab aircraft developer, and uses the same Pratt & Whitney engines that power the Boeing 757. A successful first flight could unlock further investment, enabling JetZero to develop commercial jets for first production from 2030 at its newly launched manufacturing campus in Greensboro, North Carolina, though that is dependent on the certification timeline for the novel design.
Read more at Reuters
The Quest to Make Humanoid Robots Safe Enough for Humans
Humanoid robots marched through Chicago’s convention center last week, delivering snacks, shaking hands and busting out dance moves. But recent viral mishaps elsewhere—a humanoid dancing uncontrollably at a restaurant, another kicking a small child during a performance in China—underscore a big challenge for robot makers aiming to put them to work in factories and warehouses: How can they ensure a humanoid doesn’t hurt a human? De-risking humanoid workers may be key to the sector’s aggressive growth goals.
Traditional industrial robots such as welders, palletizers or loaders are “deterministic,” meaning they adhere to a fixed set of rules and produce a constant result. Humanoids tasked with performing multiple jobs use artificial intelligence and are “probabilistic,” meaning they operate on statistical likelihoods, not certainty. That will require the robots to have layers of safeguards before they can work shoulder to shoulder with human beings. Companies that gathered at the Automate conference in Chicago said many of those are already taking shape, beginning with emergency stop buttons and going all the way down to the microchip level.
Read more at The WSJ
The ‘Five Alarm’ Risks Facing the Power Grid This Summer
An influx of 58.5 gigawatts of new resources, dominated by solar and battery storage, has reduced the widespread blackout risks the country faced in recent years. That is according to the North American Electric Reliability Corporation, a nonprofit tasked with monitoring the reliability of the U.S. power system. The estimate suggests the U.S. should have plenty of power supplies under normal summer conditions. Forecasts, though, call for a hotter-than-usual season, and a heat dome has much of the country in its grip. Hot weather sends air-conditioning demand skyrocketing, pressuring both power supplies and electricity bills. Peak summer demand has grown by about 11 gigawatts since last year, according to NERC, thanks to data centers and other big customers.
Other summer hazards include drought, fires and hurricanes, all of which can lead to extended power outages and expensive repairs. Record-low snowpack across the West is lowering reservoir levels and could curb production of low-cost hydropower. Utilities would have to cover any power shortages with wholesale purchases, passing on those higher costs to customers. Wildfires pose the greatest reliability risk in the Rocky Mountains, where they can disproportionately affect rural cooperatives, according to NERC. The grid is also more susceptible to “wind droughts.” That is a risk in West Texas, where the Permian Basin oil field has electrified operations and crypto miners and AI data centers have expanded operations. High customer demand combined with low wind and solar output could create a potential power shortage, NERC said.
Read more at The WSJ
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