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Trade Wars
The Auto Industry Is Panicking About Another Potential Chip Shortage
The auto sector is digesting a new and potentially damaging supply-chain disruption from an unlikely source: a small Dutch semiconductor manufacturer with an outsized influence on how cars and trucks are made. Nexperia notified customers last week that it was stopping shipments of parts, people familiar with the matter say. The move came after the Dutch government wrested control of the company from its Chinese owner, Wingtech Technology.
Nexperia, whose parts end up in cars from BMW, Toyota and Mercedes-Benz, produces high volumes of semiconductors and basic transistors that are used in vehicle systems, including electronic control units. Car companies and parts makers are now racing to find alternative sources of chips, saying that if Nexperia’s chips aren’t shipped, vehicle production could be affected in the next few weeks.
Read more at WSJ
TSMC Profit Surges Amid 'Strong' AI Demand
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. on Thursday reported a 39.1% increase in third-quarter profit from last year, beating estimates and hitting a fresh record as demand for artificial intelligence chips stayed strong. TSMC’s revenue in the September quarter rose 30.3% from a year ago to NT$989.92 billion, also beating estimates. Net income increased 13.7% from last quarter, which had marked a record high at the time.
TSMC’s high-performance computing division, which encompasses artificial intelligence and 5G applications, made up the majority of sales in the July-September quarter, accounting for 57% of revenue. TSMC said advanced chips, with sizes 7-nanometer or smaller, accounted for 74% of TSMC’s total wafer revenue in the quarter. TSMC executives also said Thursday that they were monitoring U.S. tariff developments as Taiwan negotiates for a lower “reciprocal” rate and Washington weighs industry-specific duties on semiconductors. However, TSMC is likely to receive some exemptions.
Read more at CNBC
Union Files Labor Complaint on Boeing Defense
The union representing more than 3,000 striking workers at three Boeing Defense plants has filed an unfair labor practices complaint with the National Labor Relations Board, contending that the manufacturer will not negotiate in good faith to settle the 11-week-long dispute. An “unfair labor practice” complaint is a charge that the employer has violated federal or state labor laws by interfering with employees' rights to organize, bargain collectively, or engage in other protected activities. It should result in an NLRB investigation, and possibly a hearing to substantiate the charge and determine what action may be required.
According to the union, Boeing’s offers do not compare in terms of the signing bonus provided to other Boeing workers, and do not improve the workers’ 401(k) benefits. The union is referring to the agreement it reached with Boeing Commercial Airplanes in October 2024, following a seven-week strike by more than 30,000 workers. The strike affects plants where Boeing Defense assembles fighter aircraft including the F-15 and F/A-18, and other missile and defense systems. Non-union workers have been operating the plants, but Boeing began training replacement workers in early October.
Read more at American Machinist
Boeing Commercial Aircraft Deliveries Grow In Q3, But Still Trail Airbus
Boeing delivered 55 aircraft to customers last month, putting it on track for its best year since 2018 as its production stabilizes and its executives eye increased output rates of its 737 Max cash cow airplanes. Forty of the deliveries were 737 Maxes, Boeing said Tuesday, with customers including European budget carrier Ryanair, which took 10, as well as Southwest Airlines, United Airlines, China Southern and leasing firm AerCap. In the first nine months of 2025, Boeing has delivered 440 airplanes. Rival Airbus has reported 507 deliveries to customers so far this year.
Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg last month said the manufacturer expects the 737 Max production rate to reach 42 a month by the end of the year, a step-up from the 38 a month cap set by the Federal Aviation Administration after a near-catastrophic blowout of a door plug on a flight in January 2024. Boeing on Tuesday also reported net orders of 48 aircraft in September, or 96 gross sales before accounting for adjustments, including 64 787 Dreamliners, with 50 for Turkish Airlines, and 30 737s for Norwegian Airlines.
Read more at CNBC
Prologis Raises Outlook as Industrial Leasing Picks Up
The world’s largest owner of industrial real estate says companies are ramping up their warehouse-leasing decisions after three years of slow demand. San Francisco-based Prologis on Wednesday said its revenue in the third quarter grew to $2.21 billion, up about 9% from $2.04 billion in the same quarter last year. Analysts polled by FactSet had expected $2.27 billion. The company raised its full-year earnings guidance to a range of $3.40 to $3.50 a share, up from its previous forecast of $3 to $3.15 a share.
“Demand has clearly turned a corner,” said Chris Caton, managing director of global strategy and analytics at Prologis, on a call with investors Wednesday. The industrial real-estate market is at an inflection point, Caton said. “This comes from greater breadth and depth of our customer discussions and their willingness to make decisions.” Prologis has a portfolio of 1.3 billion square feet of industrial real estate in 20 countries with tenants such as Amazon.com, FedEx and Home Depot. The company has been building more data centers as demand grows for infrastructure to power the artificial-intelligence boom.
Read more at The WSJ
Pentagon Solicits Bids For $151 Billion SHIELD Missile Defense
An updated solicitation for the Scalable Homeland Innovative Enterprise Layered Defense, or SHIELD, program gives interested companies until 6 p.m. Eastern Standard Time on Thursday to submit proposals. The initial Defense Department contract announcement in September drew more than 1,500 inquiries during a five-day question period, according to official documents attached to the updated announcement. SHIELD would include ground- and space-based systems, satellites and weapons capable of detecting and destroying missiles fired at the U.S. homeland.
SHIELD would include ground- and space-based systems, satellites and weapons capable of detecting and destroying missiles fired at the U.S. homeland. A constellation of space-based interceptors designed to defeat intercontinental ballistic missiles could cost as low as $161 billion, according to a Congressional Budget Office memo in May. But an advanced system capable of defending an attack by peer or near-peer adversaries, such as Russia or China, could cost upward of $542 billion over 20 years, the CBO said.
Read more at Stars and Stripes
Copper Demand To Rise 24% By 2035, Says Wood Mackenzie
Global copper demand is set to increase 24% by 2035, according to analysis by Wood Mackenzie. The consultancy’s latest report says global copper demand will rise by 8.2 million tonnes per annum (Mtpa) by the middle of next decade, reaching 42.7 Mtpa, with growth driven by traditional economic development and new structural demand from electrification and digitalization.
While Wood Mackenzie says this growth trajectory seems “certain”, it adds there are four “powerful disruptors” that could amplify demand further, adding an extra three Mtpa, or 40% of total copper demand growth, by 2035. These disruptors are listed as a global increase in data centres, industrialization in India and Southeast Asia, defence spending and the energy transition. Wood Mackenzie says the broader energy transition is “fundamentally reshaping copper consumption patterns”, with the shift to renewables expected to require an additional 2 Mtpa of copper supply over the next decade.
Read more at PV Magazine
Used Vehicle Prices Rose Slightly in September: Cox Automotive
Used-vehicle prices remained higher than a year ago, even though some of the steam has come out of a recent streak of price increases at dealer-only, wholesale auto auctions, according to the latest Manheim Used Vehicle Value Index. The Manheim Index is a single measure designed to track used-vehicle wholesale price changes, weighted for a changing mix of product segments and mileage. The index is seasonally adjusted and is calculated relative to a starting point, where January 1997 equals 100. The rise this year in the Manheim index followed 26 consecutive months of declines, from a peak of 257.7 in January 2022, which was driven by short supply and high-demand.
For 2026, Cox Automotive is forecasting “more tailwinds than headwinds,” said Smoke. Favorable tailwinds include lower taxes, lower interest rates, and – from the point of view of automakers, dealers, and auto lenders – less regulation. Unfavorable headwinds include affordability, general economic worries and tariffs. According to Cox Automotive, tariffs could be responsible for new-vehicle price increases of 4% to 6% next year, and as much as 8%, depending on how much of the tariff costs are passed along to consumers.
Read more at Ward’s Automotive
AI Data Centers, Desperate for Electricity, Are Building Their Own Power Plants
Tech companies in the AI race need power, and lots of it. They aren’t waiting around for the archaic U.S. power grid to catch up. Most tech titans would be happy to trade their DIY sourcing for the ability to plug into the electric grid. But supply-chain snarls and permitting challenges are complicating everything, and the U.S. isn’t building transmission infrastructure or power plants fast enough to meet the sudden surge in demand for electricity. America should be adding about 80 gigawatts of new power generation capacity a year to keep pace with AI as well as cloud computing, crypto, industrial demand and electrification trends, according to consulting and technology firm ICF. It’s currently building less than 65 gigawatts. That gap alone is enough electricity to power two Manhattans during the hottest parts of summer.
With the push for AI dominance at warp speed, the “Bring Your Own Power” boom is a quick fix for the gridlock of trying to get on the grid. It’s driving an energy Wild West that is reshaping American power. In West Texas, natural-gas-fired power generation is under construction as part of the $500 billion Stargate project from OpenAI and Oracle. Gas turbines are in use at Colossus 1 and 2, the massive data centers Elon Musk’s xAI is building in Memphis, Tenn. More than a dozen Equinix data centers across the country are using fuel cells for power.
Read more at the WSJ
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