|
Trade Wars
Automaker Stellantis Planning $10 Billion In U.S. Investments, Bloomberg News Reports
French-Italian-American automaker Stellantis is planning to invest about $10 billion in the United States, Bloomberg News reported on Saturday, citing people familiar with the situation. Stellantis may announce in the coming weeks about $5 billion in fresh investment on top of a similar amount earmarked earlier in the year, the report said. The report added that the investments over several years could be funneled into plants — including reopenings, hiring, and new vehicle models — in states such as Illinois and Michigan.
Stellantis is reintroducing models, including the Jeep Cherokee and 8-cylinder RAM trucks, after dropping them proved to be one of the causes of the group’s declining sales since 2024, Filosa said in September. The carmaker is focused on reclaiming the past success of the Jeep brand and is considering fresh investments in Dodge, which could result in a new Dodge V8 muscle car, and possibly even the Chrysler brand in the long term, the Bloomberg report added.
Read more at CNBC
Boeing Chief Counsel and NLRB Nominee On Hot Seat At Senate Hearing Over Machinists Strike
U.S. senators grilled Boeing’s in-house labor attorney about the company’s ongoing workers’ strike at its St. Louis area facilities at a confirmation hearing last week. President Donald Trump nominated Boeing Chief Labor Counsel Scott Mayer to be a member of the National Labor Relations Board in July. Mayer has served as Boeing’s chief labor counsel since June 2022, according to his LinkedIn profile. Before joining Boeing, Mayer served in several labor attorney roles for other prominent companies, including InterContinental Hotels Group, MGM Resorts International and Aramark.
Lawmakers repeatedly asked Mayer if it was fair that Boeing’s CEOs, current and former, are compensated millions of dollars while the St. Louis factory workers are paid low wages and lack health benefits. Sanders met with the striking workers on a Zoom call on Tuesday and stated at the hearing that he was shocked by what he heard, such as employees earning $18 an hour. Mayer told the Senate committee that he was not involved in the negotiations between the company and defense Machinists and declined to comment on the ongoing strike discussions and executive compensation. Though he added that “the concept of fairness is an elusive one.”
Read more at Manufacturing Dive
Tesla Reports 497,000 Vehicle Deliveries For Q3, Up 7%
Tesla reported quarterly vehicle deliveries of 497,099 for the period ended Sept. 30, which coincided with the expiration of a key tax credit for buyers of electric vehicles in the U.S. Total deliveries Q3 2025 were 497,099 and Total production in Q3 2025 was 447,450. Deliveries were up 7% over the year prior, when the company reported 462,890 total deliveries. Tesla saw a decline in production this quarter compared to the 469,796 vehicles produced in the third quarter of 2024. The Elon Musk-led company was expected to report around 447,600 deliveries, according to estimates compiled by FactSet. In the same period a year ago, Tesla reported 462,890 deliveries and production of 469,796 vehicles.
Tesla’s third quarter was hampered by a continuing sales slump in Europe driven partly by consumer backlash against Musk and his incendiary political rhetoric and activism, as well by competition from EV makers like Volkswagen and BYD, which are picking up market share. The slowdown in Europe was partially offset in the U.S., where buyers rushed to purchase EVs ahead of the expiration of a federal tax credit, which ended as part of President Donald Trump’s spending bill passed in July.
Read more at CNBC
General Mills Closing Three Plants in Supply-Chain Restructuring
General Mills is closing three manufacturing plants in Missouri as part of a multi-year initiative to boost the competitiveness of the packaged-food giant’s supply chain. The company on Wednesday said it will shutter a pizza-crust plant in St. Charles, along with a pair of facilities in Joplin that were part of the Minneapolis company’s $1.45 billion acquisition of Whitebridge Pet Brands businesses last year. The company said it will also consolidate assets at some of its other facilities.
General Mills previously said it was planning new cost-control initiatives that aim for an extra $100 million in savings in fiscal 2026. The maker of Lucky Charms and Cheerios cereals earlier this year announced it would close its in-house innovation unit and pause additional outside investments by its venture capital arm.
Read more at the WSJ
First Batch Of f-35 Joint Strike Fighter Jets To Incorporate Advanced Data-Processing Tech Is In Progress
Lockheed Martin Aeronautics is receiving nearly $238.4 million more in U.S. Dept. of Defense funding for Lot 17 production of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program. Lot 17 will be comprised of 126 aircraft, and the first in the production program to incorporate the Technical Refresh-3 effort to update the jets’ analytics and data-processing systems, in advance of the forthcoming Block 4 upgrade of the F-35 weapons and sensor technologies. Lockheed is the prime contractor for the F-35, a single-engine fighter jet with stealth technology and capabilities for air-to-air, air-to-ground, electronic warfare, and reconnaissance missions. Its three aircraft variants are in service for the U.S. Air Force, U.S. Marine Corps, and U.S. Navy, and for the defense forces of 11 other nations. About 1,230 of the aircraft are in service now, and eight more countries are awaiting deliveries of their contracted F-35 jets.
Separately, Lockheed Martin was awarded a new, $101,125,979 contract for the advanced procurement of parts liable to be scarce due to “anticipated diminishing manufacturing sources and material shortages.” The Pentagon did not offer examples of scarce parts or materials, but this contract will be centered at Lockheed’s primary assembly location for the F-35, in Forth Worth, Tex., and completed in September 2027.
Read more at American Machinist
DoD Awards $10B Helicopter Contract to Sikorsky
The U.S. Navy issued a $10.85-billion contract to Sikorsky Aircraft Corp. for as many as 99 heavy-lift helicopters for the U.S. Marine Corps, along with relevant aircraft and program support. The 10-year deal will cover five productions series (Lot 9 through 13) of the CH-53K “King Stallion”, the current model of Sikorsky’s long-running helicopter series. It is the largest and heaviest helicopter in use by the U.S. military.
The USMC initially planned to acquire a total of 200 of the CH-53K helicopters when it authorized full-rate production in 2022 – with 20 aircraft delivered (Lots 1-3) and 63 more in production and assembly (Lots 4-8) by Sikorsky in Stratford, Conn. Sikorsky, a Lockheed Martin subsidiary, will manufacture the helicopters primarily at Stratford, and Wichita, Kan., with other activity at various other locations in the U.S., Canada, and U.K. Each helicopter incorporates three GE Aerospace T408 turboshaft engines.
Read more at American Machinist
91% of Critical Infrastructure Hit by Cyberattacks
A Forrester study commissioned by Schneider Electric surveyed 250 global operational technology (OT) security decision-makers and found vulnerabilities in critical infrastructure cybersecurity. Despite existing security measures, 91% of organizations experienced OT breaches or failures in the past 18 months, resulting in service interruptions (51%), revenue loss (49%) and reputational damage (53%).
The research reveals security gaps: 70% of decision-makers doubt their protective capabilities, 60% question their attack detection abilities and 51% still rely on inadequate traditional IT security practices for OT environments. Only 40% maintain 24/7 OT threat monitoring. Organizations adopting secure by operations principles (embedding cybersecurity into operational environments with continuous post-deployment monitoring ) report 75% agreement on their effectiveness against future attacks, 53% faster recovery times and 51% reduced capital expenditure.
Read more at Chemical Processing
Nuclear In My Backyard? More Of America, And The Market, Seems OK With It
Amazon, Google, and others big tech companies are helping to fuel a nuclear power comeback to feed their data centers. The first small modular reactions (SMRs) in the United States could be operable by the end of the decade, but opinions vary on whether it is realistic to expect widespread deployment over the next decade. Experts say the nuclear technology has advanced to where risks of failure are low, and Pew polling shows increasing support for nuclear over the last decade, especially among Republicans. The future of energy is subatomic,” Bill Gates wrote in “Power Magazine” this week.
Small modular reactors are factory-built nuclear power plants that are much smaller than traditional reactors (typically 300 megawatts or less). The SMRs are usually designed to be mass-produced and shipped to sites for faster, less costly installation. The future of energy in the U.S. may be unfolding in this unassuming corner of Michigan where the Holtec Corporation is constructing two SMR-300 units which will be co-located with the existing 800-megawatt Palisades plant. The SMRs are planned to be operational by the early 2030s.
Read more at CNBC
|
