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Trade Wars
Oklahoma Attorney General Files To Halt First US Aluminum Smelter Project In 50 Years
Oklahoma’s Attorney General Gentner Drummond on Tuesday filed a petition to block an aluminum smelter from being built at the Port of Inola, citing environmental and public nuisance concerns. The complaint, filed in the Rogers County District Court, targets Emirates Global Aluminum and Century Aluminum, which seek to construct a primary aluminum production complex with a capacity of 750,000-plus metric tons per year — making it the largest smelter in the United States and the first one built since 1980.
The $4 billion project has received hundreds of millions of dollars in federal and state grants and incentives, and was first announced in May 2025. The smelter would occupy 350 acres along the Verdigris River and be within three miles of Inola’s schools, homes and farms, according to the 12-page petition. It is expected to draw more than 1,000 megawatts of continuous electricity and, citing a pending air-quality permit application, be authorized to emit more than a ton of hydrogen fluoride per day. The petition came months after the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality began its review of the smelter project. It also came days after President Donald Trump endorsed former state Sen. Mike Massei to be Oklahoma’s governor instead of Drummond.
Read more at Manufacturing Dive
IBM Commits $10 Billion To Fault-Tolerant Quantum Computers By 2029
IBM announced plans to invest more than $10 billion in quantum computing over the next five years, targeting the delivery of the first large-scale, fault-tolerant quantum computer by 2029. According to the company, the funds will be directed toward a range of priorities including R&D, capital expenditure, manufacturing, ecosystem partnerships, and mergers and acquisitions. IBM said the 2029 system, called Starling, will be capable of executing 20,000 times more operations than current systems. A subsequent system, IBM Quantum Blue Jay, is planned to run one billion quantum operations across 2,000 qubits.
Globally, IBM has deployed over 90 quantum systems — a figure the company says exceeds the combined total of every other player in the industry — with more than 340 organizations running real workloads on its machines. Since 2017, the company has signed more than $1.1 billion in contracts with clients, the company said. IBM is set to receive $1 billion from the Commerce Department for a new stand-alone quantum chip foundry called Anderon, to be based in Albany, New York. IBM said it will match that grant with $1 billion of its own cash, along with intellectual property, assets, and staff. The company is planning a roughly 511,000-square-foot facility in Poughkeepsie to assemble and manufacture its next-generation Starling quantum systems.
Read more at Yahoo Finance
Steel Imports Down 30% In 2026 As Tariffs Bolster US Production
The amount of foreign steel entering the United States inched nearly 6% higher in April from the previous month, but remains about 30% lower on a year-to-date basis as Section 232 tariffs continue to disrupt trade flows and support domestic steel production. Total imports for the month reached 1.87 million net tons, driven by increased imports of tin plate, metallic coatings, reinforcing bars and other goods, according to recent Census Bureau data compiled by the American Iron and Steel Institute. That included 1.38 million net tons of finished steel.
The largest supplier countries in April were South Korea, Canada, Brazil, Mexico and Vietnam, in that order, according to census data. From January to April, imports totaled 6.97 million net tons compared to 9.89 million net tons for the same period a year ago. In addition to tariffs, Morningstar analyst Seth Goldstein said disruptions from the Iran war are forcing companies to take on extra costs, such as fuel surcharges, and affecting their sourcing strategies. “We could see some importers of steel and other commodities looking to maybe wait for a resolution, wait ’til supply chains normalize, in order to not basically be buying inventory during what might be uptake pricing for the year,” Goldstein said.
Read more at Manufacturing Dive
GE Completes Ground Test for Hybrid Engine
GE Aerospace reported that it completed ground testing of a megawatt-class hybrid electric engine system it developed through NASA’s Electrified Powertrain Flight Demonstration (EPFD) project, paving the way for flight tests. After more than a decade of testing and refining individual system components and modules, it was the first test to validate the full integrated system, which includes GE Aerospace motor/generators, power converters and inverters, controllers, Dowty propellers, Avio Aero gearboxes, and a GE CT7 engine.
Hybrid electric engine systems combine an electric powertrain with a standard gas turbine to optimize power management during different flight phases. GE notes that hybrid electric systems are compatible with different fuel types and advanced engine architectures, like its Open Fan development. The test at GE’s Peebles (Ohio) Test Operations center involved simulations of various flight phases, including taxi, takeoff, climb, and cruise. The electric powertrain helped power the propeller and generated power to the battery.
Read more at American Machinist
Boeing Eyes Higher F-15EX Production
Boeing defence chief Steve Parker feels that US Air Force (USAF) demand for the F-15EX could go beyond current fleet plans. Demand for the updated version of the F-15 has proven sufficiently strong that Boeing’s F-15EX production line is “effectively sold out through 2034-2035,” says Parker, chief executive of Boeing Defense, Space & Security (BDS). Parker, speaking with FlightGlobal in Singapore recently, estimates that the USAF could end up operating “potentially over 300” examples. The USAF’s F-15EX acquisition plans have fluctuated over the years, falling from 144 aircraft to 80 and then rising up to 104.
Parker adds that that the cost per flight of the F-15EX is lower than for comparable stealth aircraft, with the Pentagon’s Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation office putting this figure at $29,000 per flight hour. Parker, however, stresses that while Boeing’s strategy to modernise the F-15 has borne fruit, programme execution will be key to grow the F-15EX fleet. This will involve changes to the workforce, supply chain, and bringing in a new generation of F-15 production workers. And beyond producing greater numbers of F-15EXs, sustainment will also be a major priority.
Read more at Flight Global
Honeywell Aerospace Rebrands Ahead Of Planned Spin Off
Honeywell Aerospace plans to generate at least $6.5 billion in earnings and $4 billion in cash flow by 2030, executives unveiled at the company’s investor day on Wednesday. To meet its goals, the Airbus and Boeing supplier will focus on scaling and strengthening its manufacturing operations and supply chain, as well as releasing at least 40 retrofit, modification and upgrade products, according to a presentation. Honeywell Aerospace is scheduled to finalize its spinoff from Honeywell on June 29 and will have a listing on the Nasdaq stock exchange under the ticker “HONA,” according to a June 3 press release.
Honeywell Aerospace is focusing on innovation, speed and scale, CEO Jim Currier said. “That means we’re looking at the entire way we manufacture our products going forward,” Currier said. “The focus is really around manufacturability and how do you do that at scale.” While Currier is “comfortable” with the company investing in technologies across the business, Honeywell Aerospace is “actually now doubling down and tripling down on the manufacturing scale.”
Read more at Manufacturing Dive
Americans Are Keeping Their Cars Longer Than Ever (13 Years) —and Remaking the Auto Industry
Some drivers are squeezing more miles out of their vehicles and eschewing new rides because of sticker shock, high interest rates and economic jitters. Others are hanging on to aging wheels simply because they can. Thanks to advancements in engineering, materials and safety technology, today’s cars last longer than vehicles of generations past. The average vehicle on U.S. roads is about 13 years old, a historic high and a 10% jump from a decade ago. The reality is fundamentally reshaping the economics of buying, selling and fixing vehicles in America.
Automakers, long laser-focused on the new-car market, are now pouring resources into propping up used-car sales, aftermarket parts and maintenance work. Dealers are investing in their repair shops, adding service bays and a phalanx of customer-friendly services once reserved for luxury patrons. All the while, competition for repair work is mounting among mom-and-pop mechanics, big oil-change shops and tire chains vying for a piece of the fix-it business. “If we’re not going to make money on the selling side, we have to make it on the service side,” said Ed Roberts, operating chief of Bozard Ford Lincoln in St. Augustine, Fla. “And everybody is fighting for a piece of that pie.”
Read More at The WSJ
NYPA Issues FAQ for Nuclear Power Plants
The New York Power Authority (NYPA) is pursuing advanced large-scale reactors at 1,000 MW and small modular reactors in the range of 300 MW based Generation III+ or Generation IV designs and technologies. It is expected that the locations of new reactors will be upstate, at shoreline sites on Lake Ontario. Proposals must must demonstrate a credible path to both produce 1.0 GW of energy and start construction before 2033 to ensure Inflation Reduction Act Investment Tax Credit eligibility.
First-of-a-kind (FOAK) and micro modular reactors (MMRs) are outside the scope of this effort. SMRs that are proposed must be already deployed or under construction prior to 2033. First concrete must be proposed to be poured by 2030. This is a two-step process and qualified firms will be invited to participate in a future Request for Proposal (RFP). RFQ closes June 26, 2026 at 4:00 PM EST. The text of the RFQ is here. According to World Nuclear News, the Request for Qualifications (RFQ) follows on from Requests for Information issued by the authority last year, to which more than 30 entities – including 23 potential developers or partners and eight Upstate New York communities – responded.
Read more at Neutron Bytes
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