Business Operations

Real GDP grew at an annual rate of 3.8% in the second quarter, according to the third and last estimate released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. This represents a 0.5 percentage point increase from the second estimate of 3.3% and 0.8 percentage point jump from the first estimate of 3.0%.

• Meanwhile, the revised estimate for the first quarter showed real GDP decreased 0.6%, down 0.1 percentage point from the previous estimate of -0.5%.

What’s behind it: The upward revision of GDP in Q2 primarily reflects higher consumer spending.

• “Real final sales to private domestic purchasers, the sum of consumer spending and gross private fixed investment, increased 2.9% in the second quarter, revised up 1.0 percentage point from the previous estimate,” the BEA reported.

What it means for manufacturers: “The upward revisions to consumer spending and business investment in the second quarter are positive signs, given that manufacturers’ optimism and every forecasted metric in the latest NAM Manufacturers’ Outlook Survey increased notably in the third quarter,” said NAM Chief Economist Victoria Bloom.

• “Although investment in equipment picked up, spending on structures, which represent factories and infrastructure, contracted 7.5% in the second quarter amid an environment of heightened uncertainty.”

Is your company involved in a groundbreaking project using digital tech to elevate operations, boost performance or generally change the face of modern manufacturing? What about an inspirational coworker passionate about the manufacturing industry? If so, you’re in luck: Nominations for the 2026 Manufacturing Leadership Awards are now open through Jan. 16.

What’s going on: The honors—given by the Manufacturing Leadership Council, the NAM’s digital transformation arm—recognize the very best in digital manufacturing innovation at both the individual and company levels.

• This year, awards are given out in 11 categories. Nine are for projects and two are for individuals.
• In June, the MLC honored the 2025 award winners with its annual Marco Island, Florida, gala and ceremony.

But don’t take it from us … What are the characteristics of an MLC award winner? Merck Senior Vice President of Digital Manufacturing and Chief Digital and Technology Officer Besu Alemayehu —this year’s winner of the organization’s top individual honor, the Manufacturing Leader of the Year—sets an excellent example.

• Called a “visionary influence,” “master of collaboration” and “prominent role model to young professionals” by his colleagues in nominations for the awards, Alemayehu, who was recognized for his leadership in digital projects that have boosted business value and for his partnership with Merck leaders nationwide, is truly passionate about his work in biopharmaceutical manufacturing.
• He saw firsthand during his upbringing in Ethiopia “the challenges of a society lacking basic health care,” according to NAM President and CEO Jay Timmons, who introduced Alemayehu at the June gala.
• “When I joined Merck back in 2021, I was tasked with building a leadership team that combined the highest excellence and level of expertise in digital and manufacturing,” Alemayehu told the crowd during his award acceptance speech. “Together, we’re driving a digital transformation that enhances not only our operations, but also how we think about the operations, how we think about our daily work.”

Who can nominate: Anyone can submit a name or project for consideration.
 
Who (and what) they’re looking for: If you know of an outstanding manufacturing team member or initiative that utilizes digital technology, it’s likely there’s a fitting award category for nomination. See here for more information on each one and here for a complete list of rules.

Have questions? Email the MLC awards team.

The consumer price index increased 0.4% last month following a 0.2% uptick in July. Over the past 12 months, the index rose 2.9% before seasonal adjustment (Bureau of Labor Statistics).

What’s behind it: A 0.4% rise in shelter prices was a significant cause of the overall increase in costs in August, despite the pace of growth in shelter prices slowing notably over the past two years. Meanwhile, the food index edged up 0.5%, while energy grew 0.7% due to a 1.9% jump in gasoline prices.

• Excluding the always-volatile food and energy prices, consumer prices advanced 0.3% in August.

Year in review: The 2.9% year-over-year increase in August follows a 2.7% yearly gain in July.

• Meanwhile, prices excluding food and energy grew 3.1% over the year ending in August.
• Over that time period, energy prices ticked up 0.2%, but food prices climbed 3.2%.

The NAM says: “Both the headline and core inflation rate have ticked up in recent months amid an increase in core goods prices, but likely not enough to deter Federal Reserve officials from cutting their interest rate target next week, particularly since weakness in the labor market has increased notably,” said NAM Chief Economist Victoria Bloom.

The U.S. economy added 911,000 fewer nonfarm jobs and 95,000 fewer manufacturing jobs than previously reported in the 12 months ending in March 2025, the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced today (BLS).

• This report is the preliminary benchmark revision of the BLS establishment survey, which the agency performs every year; the final revision will be issued in February.

What it means: The revision indicates that the BLS survey greatly overstated job gains last year. In the period between April 2024 and March 2025, 1.76 million new jobs were reported, but only 847,000 jobs were created, averaging 70,580 job gains per month.

• For context, last year’s preliminary benchmark report revised the jobs numbers down by 818,000 for all nonfarm employment and 115,000 for manufacturing.

The bigger picture: “Although a revision of this size is not unprecedented when measuring as a percent of the first estimate, it is incredibly large,” said NAM Chief Economist Victoria Bloom. Here are some important facts for more context:

• The BLS’s Birth-Death model “is due for improvements,” Bloom said.

• It has been misestimating business closures and openings since the pandemic, for example, and more recently has begun overestimating payroll growth. Meanwhile, the BLS has had an increasingly hard time with administering the surveys, grappling with such problems as a drop in response rates.

• Furthermore, misestimations tend to be more dramatic during shifts in the business cycle, since it is harder for the BLS to accurately estimate business growth during recessions and the subsequent recoveries. Nonetheless, revisions, on average, are smaller than they were decades ago.

• “We should anticipate recent employment estimates to also be revised down in the future,” Bloom predicted.

 The conclusion: “Although it was already apparent that there was weakness in the labor market in the third quarter of last year, leading the Federal Reserve to cut their interest rate target by 100 basis points in the second half of 2024, this revision shows that weakness was more significant,” Bloom said.

• “The [Federal Open Market Committee] was already expected to cut their interest rate target by 25 basis points next week, and I anticipate that will remain true.”

In case you missed it: GE Appliances, a Haier company, will invest more than $3 billion in the next five years to expand its U.S. operations, it announced last month (Fox Business).

What’s going on: “The investment is the second largest in the company’s history and will support the expansion of its air conditioning and water heating portfolio, increase production across all product lines and modernize 11 U.S. manufacturing plants. The first phase will roll out at facilities in Kentucky, Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee and South Carolina.”

• The investment will touch off a “virtuous cycle,” GE Appliances CEO Kevin Nolan told the news outlet, because when more businesses begin to manufacture locally, others generally follow suit.
• The move is in line with the administration’s push to “bring manufacturing back to American soil.”

The details: The Camden, South Carolina, facility will add electric and hybrid water heaters to its manufacturing lineup, “doubling output and employment by 2026.”

• The Tennessee plant will add new air conditioner models, and the Georgia site is putting in new capacity to make gas-induction ranges, cooktops and wall ovens.
• The Decatur, Alabama, plant “will insource top-freezer refrigerator models,” and GE Appliances is investing $490 million into the Kentucky facility to start producing combination washer/dryers and front-loading washing machines.

The benefit: In total, GE Appliances will have invested some $6.5 billion into its U.S. manufacturing and distribution line since 2016.

• It will have created more than 4,000 jobs (with another thousand expected to come from this most recent investment).
• The company contributes more than $30 billion to the U.S. gross domestic product each year, it says, and supports more than 113,000 jobs.

Talent pipeline: “Nolan said the U.S. has to start building up a robust pipeline of workers, which means investing in schools, trade programs and training. He said it’s particularly critical to increase the number of engineers in the country.”

• He added that GE Appliances has apprenticeship partnerships and programs, including involvement with two chapters of the Federation for Advanced Manufacturing Education. (FAME is the national workforce development initiative founded in 2010 by Toyota and now run by the MI, the NAM’s workforce development and education affiliate).
• Said Nolan: “If you look at other countries out there that are good at manufacturing, their graduation rate of engineers, and especially manufacturing engineers, is much, much higher than the U.S. So you’re not going to bring manufacturing back without engineers.”

To make electric vehicle manufacturing quicker and easier, Ford is getting back to basics (POLITICO’s CLIMATEWIRE, subscription).

What’s going on: “The Michigan automaker on Monday announced a $5 billion plan to simplify its production of electric vehicles … similar to how Ford revolutionized the car industry decades ago by creating a moving assembly line to build the company’s iconic Model T.”

• Henry Ford pioneered that technology in the early 20th century for the mass production of automobiles, and it helped make cars more affordable.
• Now the company is hoping it can do the same for EVs by streamlining manufacturing.

What they’re saying: Competitors, including lower-cost EVs from China, are “all coming for us,” Ford CEO Jim Farley said an event this week at an assembly plant in Louisville, Kentucky, where he laid out Ford’s plans for a new EV-making process.

• On stage next to Farley as he spoke was a vintage Model T pickup.

How they’ll do it: Ford’s new EV strategy will be built on “a new platform that will combine low-cost batteries and motors, which can be adapted for trucks, SUVs and other vehicles.”

• The manufacturers will put $2 billion into its Louisville facility to build the new vehicles and will put $3 billion into the expansion of its plant in Michigan to make lithium-ion batteries.

The first product: The first vehicle to be built on the new platform is a four-door pickup set for a 2027 release with a price tag of $30,000.

• The new truck will have 20% percent fewer parts than a conventional one and its assembly line will move 15% faster.
• In addition, “[t]he designers cut 4,000 feet of wire from the main wiring harness.”

Its impact: Ford and elected officials emphasized the positive effect they foresee the new strategy having on local economies.

• “Jobs will be here in this plant in Kentucky for generations to come,” Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear said. “Current Ford employees’ kids and grandkids will have an opportunity to work right here at the Louisville assembly plant one day.”
• The project is expected to create or secure 4,000 jobs, more than half of which will be in Kentucky.​​​​​​​

To bolster domestic aluminum supply chains, the U.S. may need to simply do more of something we already do: recycle (The Wall Street Journal, subscription).

What’s going on: “U.S. primary aluminum production has dwindled over the past 25 years. Yet facilities like Hydro’s two-year-old plant in southwest Michigan have made the country a leading producer of secondary aluminum from scrap, feeding metal to brewers, builders and automakers.”

• “Recycling is the answer,” said Duncan Pitchford, who heads Norsk Hydro’s upstream aluminum business in the U.S. and is an NAM board member. “The metal is already here.”

Why it’s important: While construction of a new aluminum smelter to make primary aluminum from refined bauxite would take years and require an investment of billions of dollars, aluminum recycling plants can be built relatively quickly and inexpensively.

• They also use less energy, according to Pitchford.

The impact of tariffs: Recycling makes economic sense for the U.S. given the new 50% tariff on aluminum imports.

• “The added cost is walloping beverage companies and manufacturers … [but] [a]utomakers and other big aluminum users have yet to raise prices much in response.” according to the Journal.
• “Analysts say it is a matter of time before the stockpiles of metal that arrived in the U.S. ahead of the June increase are depleted and companies start passing on higher aluminum costs.”

The challenge: Americans are catching on to the importance of aluminum recycling, with 14 “remelt” projects announced in the U.S. since 2022. Still, “[m]ore than $1 billion worth of beverage cans were dumped in U.S. landfills just last year … A lack of sorting operations means that a lot of the aluminum in junked cars, demolition debris and old electronics winds up in landfills.”

• The U.S. also exports much of its aluminum scrap, sending about 2.4 million metric tons overseas in 2024.

The way things were: “The U.S. once dominated the aluminum business. … [and] remained the world’s top producer through 2000,” when smelters began to shutter, “squeezed” by less expensive imports and increasing energy pieces.

The electricity factor: Electricity costs make up about 40% of the price tag for the creation of new aluminum.

• For many years domestic smelters received low-cost hydropower from federal utilities, but when those arrangements ended, smelters had to begin paying market rates for their electricity.

What Hydro’s doing: Approximately 15 million pounds of scrap — including “shredded cars, old window and door frames and overhead electrical wire”— arrives at Hydro’s Michigan plant each month for recycling. (The facility does not recycle cans.)

• Much of the metal the plant takes in comes from “a sorting hub near Grand Rapids, where Hydro uses laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy technology to mechanically separate scrap by alloy.”

Indium Corporation, founded in Upstate New York, has a long record of turning challenges into innovations.

Not long after its namesake element, indium, failed as an anti-tarnish silverware coating, the company discovered during World War II that it could be used instead in aircraft bearings. Then once jet engines made that application obsolete, the company began using indium to coat glass in everything from electronics to supermarket refrigeration units. Today, indium is used in all sorts of fields, from aerospace, to telecommunications, to tumor eradication.

• “We’re always exploring how we can add ingredients to a material, or find a new way of looking at something, or solve a problem in a different way,” said President and CEO Ross Berntson. “At Indium Corporation, we believe that materials science changes the world.”

Now, Indium Corporation is turning its attention to a new and pressing issue: creating a North American supply chain for a critical mineral.

Exploring challenges: Gallium is a byproduct of aluminum production that is essential for everything from semiconductors, to electric vehicles, to wearable electronics. But while demand for gallium is rising, 98% of gallium today comes from China—creating a single supply chain that is vulnerable to international challenges and disruptions.

• “That’s just simply not a robust supply chain, right?” said Berntson. “We need to make a stronger, more robust global supply chain. And the first step is to bring on a North American supply.”

Developing solutions: Indium Corporation is working with Rio Tinto, one of the world’s largest aluminum producers, to extract gallium from North American bauxite sources in Canada.

• With a strong stable of engineers, proximity to a tremendous amount of hydroelectric power and a commitment to sustainability, Indium Corporation sees Rio Tinto as the perfect partner for this effort.

Setting goals: Through the partnership, Indium Corporation and Rio Tinto aim to produce up to 40 tons of gallium per year in North America—a significant portion of the 600–700 tons of gallium that is used annually. And for Berntson, the innovation that will result is the most exciting part.

• “Not only does this work secure the supply chain for existing applications, but it also creates a robust source of gallium so people can get creative with it—for new alloys and new compounds that nobody ever thought of before,” said Berntson. “It’s exhilarating to think about having more gallium available, and what we can do with a bunch of creative minds working with that element.”

Calling for partnership: While Indium Corporation is investing heavily in gallium production, Berntson believes that public–private partnerships are key to mitigating risk and ensuring that gallium exists as a resource that can enable American competitiveness.

• “The availability of gallium is bigger than any one company,” said Berntson.

The key to success: Berntson credits his company’s talented engineers with Indium Corporation’s success—and emphasizes the need to let brilliant minds find unexpected solutions.

• “There’s a ton of talent in the world,” said Berntson. “Bringing them in, helping them to grow and giving them enough space to be innovative—time and time again, that’s how we’re able to be at the leading edge of our industry.”

Westinghouse will construct 10 large nuclear reactors in the U.S., the energy company told President Trump at a roundtable in Pennsylvania this week (CNBC).

What’s going on: “Westinghouse’s big AP1000 reactor generates enough electricity to power more than 750,000 homes, according to the company. Building 10 of these reactors would drive $75 billion of economic value across the U.S. and $6 billion in Pennsylvania,” Westinghouse interim CEO Dan Sumner said Tuesday during Sen. Dave McCormick[’s] (R-PA) inaugural Pennsylvania Energy and Innovation Summit at Carnegie Mellon University.

• The U.S. has built just two nuclear reactors in the past three decades, both Westinghouse AP1000s at Plant Vogtle in Georgia.

Presidential appearance: President Trump also announced at the summit that private companies will invest some $90 billion in Pennsylvania (CBS News).

• “We’re building a future where American workers will forge the steel, produce the energy, build the factories and really run a country like, I believe, this country has never been run before,” the president said, according to CBS. “I think we have a true golden age for America.”

Keeping energy promises: In May, President Trump issued four executive orders that seek “to quadruple nuclear power in the U.S. by 2050,” CNBC reports. “The president called for the U.S. to have 10 large nuclear reactors under construction by 2030.”

The event: The event at which the announcements were made featured panel discussions with energy and technology industry leaders, including Toby Rice, president and CEO of energy company EQT Corporation, and Amazon Web Services CEO Matt Garman.

• In June, Amazon announced a $20 billion investment in data centers in Pennsylvania, according to CBS.

Why it’s important: With the fast pace of data center construction and the rapid adoption across industries of energy-intensive generative artificial intelligence, the U.S. must expand baseload power generation capabilities, the NAM said.

• “Westinghouse’s announcement of 10 new nuclear reactors in the U.S. marks the start of a fulfillment of a promise made by President Trump,” said NAM Director of Energy and Resources Policy Michael Davin. “Nuclear energy is safe, carbon-free and available 24 hours a day, year-round. It’s a critical component of the energy future we need to keep manufacturing in the U.S. thriving.”

SkyWater Technology is leading the effort to rebuild domestic semiconductor manufacturing in the United States. As the only U.S. investor-owned and -operated pure-play semiconductor foundry in the U.S., SkyWater plays a critical role in reshoring key parts of the global supply chain and reducing America’s reliance on foreign-made chips.

The approach: SkyWater’s approach goes beyond traditional manufacturing. Its “Technology as a Service” model combines advanced R&D with wafer fabrication, allowing customers to co-develop new technologies using custom manufacturing processes.

• This collaborative model accelerates innovation and enables a flexible, secure production pipeline for customers, so they don’t have to build their own fabrication infrastructure.

The expansion: Today, SkyWater is expanding its U.S. footprint. The company recently finalized its acquisition of Infineon Technologies’ semiconductor fab in Austin, Texas—an investment that will allow SkyWater to scale its operations, support commercial and government partners and create a more complete domestic supply chain from chip design through packaging and testing.

• “The United States has operated in a global supply chain with regional centers of excellence—but now, those regional centers are getting reconfigured,” said SkyWater CEO Thomas Sonderman. “That comes with new opportunities.”

The challenge: Still, semiconductor manufacturing also comes with significant financial challenges. The industry is capital intensive, and investments in new infrastructure or equipment can require years of lead time and billions of dollars.

• That’s why federal support through stable and predictable tax policy is essential to SkyWater’s success—and to America’s semiconductor future, said Sonderman.

The policy: SkyWater welcomed Congress’s recent passage of the reconciliation package that made permanent vital pro-manufacturing tax provisions, including immediate R&D expensing and full capital equipment expensing. The law also increased the advanced manufacturing investment credit, an incentive for semiconductor manufacturing, from 25% to 35%.

• “In our industry, if you don’t stay at the leading edge, somebody will pass you by,” said Sonderman. “The United States is in a vulnerable state now, because we’re telling people we want to make stuff in the U.S., but we don’t have the capabilities to make stuff in the U.S. at scale today.”
• “Having the tax incentives is absolutely critical,” he emphasized. “If they go away, it’ll be much harder to establish manufacturing independence for the United States.”

The competition: The stakes are high. China leads the world in chipmaking investments, according to industry researchers, and the U.S. cannot afford to fall behind. And as Sonderman put it, tax incentives aren’t just about finance—they’re about building national capability and ensuring the next generation of technology is made in America.

• “The money is important,” said Sonderman. “But the money is not as important as the commitment.”