The Economist (April 16)
“Across the developing world, solar power is hitting its stride.” In 2015, “global solar-energy capacity rose by 26% last year,” with China and India accounting for much of the gain. China displaced Germany in 2015 “to become the biggest producer of solar energy, benefiting from its dominance of solar-panel manufacturing and policies to reduce dependence on dirtier fuels, such as coal.” Not content to be left behind, India is also racing ahead with plans to increase solar installations twentyfold. “KPMG, a consultancy, expects solar’s share of India’s energy mix to rise to 12.5% by 2025.”
Tags: Capacity, China, Coal, Developing world, Energy mix, Germany, India, Manufacturing, Solar power
Bloomberg (March 17)
“Even with the dollar’s rally since 2014, U.S. manufacturing is benefiting from the world’s strongest rate of productivity, a flexible labor market, cheap energy and from having a big domestic market.” The lingering belief that it’s radically cheaper to move production to China is a misconception. “Labor costs adjusted for productivity in China are only 4 percent cheaper than in the U.S.”
Tags: China, Dollar, Energy, Flexible, Labor market, Manufacturing, Productivity, Rally, U.S.
Bloomberg (December 10)
“Investors betting that China’s near-insatiable appetite for industrial raw materials will drive global economic growth may want to skip the shipping news. For the first time in at least a decade, combined seaborne imports of iron ore and coal — commodities that helped fuel a manufacturing boom in the world’s second-largest economy — are down from a year earlier.”
Tags: China, Coal, Commodities, Global economic growth, Imports, Investors, Iron, Manufacturing, Ore, Raw materials, Shipping
Financial Times (October 18)
“The scandal engulfing” Volkswagen “is by no means the biggest German economic challenge. Demand from China is slowing sharply, a blow to one of the biggest suppliers of machine tools to that country’s vast manufacturing sector.” The broader challenge, however, remains Germany’s overdependence on a “narrow export-oriented model,” which leaves the country “vulnerable to longer-term underperformance.”
Tags: Challenge, China, Demand, Exports, Germany, Machine tools, Manufacturing, Overdependence, Scandal, Volkswagen
Bloomberg (September 2)
“Japan’s lowest auto sales in three years are reviving concerns that manufacturing will hollow out in Asia’s second-largest economy.” This could deliver a blow to Prime Minister Abe’s “efforts to revive the economy, which last quarter contracted the most since the 2011 earthquake and tsunami.”
Tags: Abe, Asia, Auto sales, Contraction, Earthquake, Economy, Japan, Manufacturing, Tsunami
New York Times (August 12)
“For the last half-decade, three-dimensional printing has been billed as the next revolution in manufacturing. The Economist and Wired have declared it world-changing technology…. But for all the hype, it’s still unclear exactly how and when 3-D printing will have an impact on our daily lives.”
Tags: 3-D printing, Daily lives, Hype, Impact, Manufacturing, Revolution, Technology, The Economist, Wired, World changing
Financial Times (May 2)
“First money and low-cost production jumped across borders, now it is creativity and services.” Knowledge intensive flows “are now worth a heady $12.6tn; to set this in context, this is half of all cross-border flows, and almost four-fifths the size of the US economy.” This new “globalisation does not just threaten western manufacturing jobs, but many service jobs too.”
Tags: Borders, Creativity, Globalisation, Jobs, Knowledge, Low-cost, Manufacturing, Money, Production, Service, Services, U.S.
Euromoney (February Issue)
In Mexico, “cheaper electricity will lower manufacturing costs across the board, and the country could become a competitor in energy-intensive industries such as aluminum and steel production.” President Enrique Peña Nieto introduced sweeping reforms to liberalize the electricity and oil and gas sectors, prompting analysts to add “an extra 1.5% to future GDP growth rates as a direct consequence of the scope of these reforms and many say the risks are on the upside. Suppliers, contractors and a whole host of other industries will benefit.”
Tags: Aluminum, Analysts, Competitor, Contractors, Costs, Electricity, Enrique Peña Nieto, Gas, GDP, Manufacturing, Mexico, Oil, Reforms, Risks, Steel, Suppliers, Upside
Washington Post (December 12, 2013)
Manufacturing has bounced back in the U.S. since the Great Recession, rising each year since 2010. “Profits are soaring — in 2012, after-tax profits of manufacturing firms hit a record high of $290 billion. Share values have soared with them. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Industrials Index has risen 59 percent more than the overall 500-stock index since 2009.”
Tags: Great Recession, Industrials, Manufacturing, Profits, S&P 500, Share values, U.S.
The Economist (March 2)
Africa has achieved a dramatic transformation. “Never in the half-century since it won independence from the colonial powers has Africa been in such good shape.” The credit belongs to the Africans themselves. “The continent’s main saviours are its own people. They are embracing modern technology, voting in ever more elections and pressing their leaders to do better. A sense of hope abounds.” The transformation is laudable, but “still incomplete. The danger is that Africa settles for today’s pace of change. Only if Africans raise their ambitions still further will they reach their full potential. If aspiring Africa wants a new dream, it should be creating a common market from the Med to the Cape. That would be a boon to trade, enterprise and manufacturing: it would also get rid of much of the petty corruption and save lives.”
Tags: Africa, Common market, Corruption, Elections, Leaders, Manufacturing, Technology, Trade, Transformation
