GSK and UCB back new US biologics sites as Britain opens its factory electricity relief window

Editor's note

The week split three ways. In the United States, GSK and UCB put close to $3 billion behind biologics sites between them, one with construction due in 2027 and the other with its site formally dedicated. In Britain, the Industrial Strategy’s quarterly update put a number on investment commitments and, more usefully for anyone who pays a factory bill, reminded manufacturers that the British Industrial Competitiveness Scheme is open until 30 November. In Paris, Stellantis bet on cheap European-made EVs to win back buyers, while Volkswagen told policymakers that competitiveness is a shared job between business and government. The orders and the buildings are real. So is the deadline on cheaper power for factories in Great Britain.

1. Energy — BICS applications are open, and the Industrial Strategy put a figure on Q3

On Friday the government published its Industrial Strategy quarterly update for July to September. It said investment commitments into the eight growth sectors had passed £6.5 billion, with more than 27,000 jobs from those commitments and from exports, and more than £2.4 billion of public finance support for firms to scale and export. The delivery line that matters on a plant this month is shorter. Applications for the British Industrial Competitiveness Scheme opened on 1 October. Eligible manufacturers can cut electricity costs by up to 25% from April 2027, the update said, with an extra first-year payment for those confirmed eligible. The window closes at 23:59 on 30 November.

Relief is an exemption from the indirect costs of the Renewables Obligation, Feed-in Tariffs and the Capacity Market, put at up to £40 per megawatt-hour on the scheme page. Four gates apply: Companies House registration, an eligible SIC sector, an eligible HS product, and at least 33 MWh of grid electricity a year at the site. Today’s daily sets out the evidence list and the pro-rating rules for mixed sites.

A GB energy or finance lead who has not yet checked the SIC and HS lists against their site has seven weeks, not a quarter, left.

2. Production — Renishaw finished Hall 3 at Miskin and is bringing part of Hall 4 into use for encoders

Renishaw completed the first phase of its £70 million expansion at Miskin, west of Cardiff, with Hall 3 now in use. Usable space on the site is now 617,000 sq ft. Hall 4, built as a shell, will take some of the load over coming months because demand for its position encoders, which Renishaw links to the spread of AI, has been exceptional. Once Hall 4 is fully in service the site is planned at 880,000 sq ft. Renishaw says it has invested about £150 million at Miskin since buying the former Bosch site in 2011. Employment is about 950, against about 25 when the plant opened in 2012. Hall 3 holds metal additive-manufacturing systems, AGILITY coordinate measuring machines and automated warehousing. The site runs 134 CNC machines and about a million parts a month.

Metrology and encoder buyers who have been waiting on capacity now have a named hall online, and part of a second hall coming into use for encoder demand.

3. Production — GSK will put more than $800m into a biologics hub at Upper Merion

Pennsylvania said on Friday that GSK will invest more than $800 million at Upper Merion Township in Montgomery County. Construction is planned to start in 2027. The project demolishes existing buildings and replaces them with a commercial-scale biologics plant for clinical and commercial supply, a co-located R&D pilot plant for tech transfer and process development, plus a central quality-control lab and manufacturing science and technology hub. The state put new jobs at more than 300 over five years and said about 4,500 existing GSK jobs in Pennsylvania would be retained. Regis Simard, president of GSK Global Supply Chain, said the Upper Merion work would accelerate development and supply of future medicines. Site director John Jewett, in an emailed statement reported by Fierce Pharma, called it a Next Generation Flex Factory aimed at respiratory and cancer medicines for US and global patients. GSK’s earlier Marietta, Lancaster County expansion was also about $800 million; together the state puts the Pennsylvania total near $1.7 billion. GSK had already flagged a biologics “flex” factory in Upper Merion inside a wider $30 billion US R&D and manufacturing pledge.

A buyer of biologics capacity or tech-transfer slots is looking at a 2027 build that deliberately puts commercial-scale biologics production and pilot R&D on one site.

4. Production — UCB dedicated its $2bn Georgia biologics campus site

UCB marked the dedication of its planned US biologics manufacturing campus at Rowen in Gwinnett County, Georgia, on Friday. The Belgian company puts the investment at about $2 billion, the building at about 460,000 sq ft on 79 acres, permanent jobs at about 330 and construction jobs above 1,000. It says the campus will use AI, automation and advanced manufacturing for complex biologics and will support commercial production of recently approved and future medicines. UCB already has its US headquarters in metro Atlanta and more than 400 people in Georgia. The ceremony marks a project already announced, and it locks the site into the Rowen innovation district with state and federal officials present.

US biologics capacity planners now have two Friday biologics markers on the board: GSK’s rebuild in Pennsylvania and UCB’s Georgia campus moving from plan to dedicated ground.

5. Policy — Stellantis previewed a 2028 low-cost EV; Volkswagen pressed Brussels on the rules

At a gala on Sunday, the eve of the Paris Motor Show, Stellantis chief executive Antonio Filosa put affordable electric cars at the centre of the group’s European fightback. The headline concept was Citroën’s revived 2CV, previewing a European-made low-cost EV expected in 2028 in the new “e-car” category, a class of low-cost EVs priced at around €15,000, Reuters reported. Stellantis is also showing production models and models from Chinese partner Leapmotor (B03 and D19). Investors still want proof that the 2030 plan is turning into retail demand after two weak years in Europe and North America; Bernstein cut the stock to underperform in August, and the shares touched €3.81 this month, their lowest since the 2021 merger, Reuters reported.

On Sunday Volkswagen chief executive Oliver Blume used a “For Europe” event in Paris to argue that competitiveness is a “shared responsibility”: companies must do their part, and policymakers must set the framework, starting with ‘Made in Europe’ rules, CO₂ regulation and trade with China, according to the group. On Friday, trade commissioner Maroš Šefčovič said a new EU–China understanding could cut projected Chinese hybrid and plug-in hybrid exports to the bloc by more than half. Porsche, covered in Thursday’s daily, had already set a 20% variant cut and a 10% material-cost target on new projects.

A European tier-one quoting Stellantis for a 2028 e-car platform and Volkswagen for group platforms is pricing into policy as much as into bill of materials.

The judgement: capacity is being committed where the product is clear; cost relief has a date

Friday’s US biologics announcements and Renishaw’s finished Welsh hall are the same kind of decision: put floors under demand that purchasing departments can already name — respiratory and cancer biologics, metal AM systems, CMMs, position encoders. Paris was different. Stellantis and Volkswagen are still selling a turnaround: Stellantis with a 2028 low-cost EV and Chinese partner Leapmotor, Volkswagen with a call for Brussels to set the rules on local content, CO₂ and China trade.

Britain’s quarterly Industrial Strategy paper mixed both modes. It listed billions of commitments and, for anyone who runs a meter, a scheme that takes levy cost out of the bill from April 2027 if the application lands by 30 November. The plants that needed a new hall got one. The plants that needed a cheaper megawatt-hour now have a form and a clock.

The numbers

• 30 November 2026, 23:59 — BICS application deadline (GOV.UK)
• Up to 25% / up to £40/MWh — electricity cost relief for eligible sites from April 2027 (BIST quarterly update and scheme page, 9 Oct / 1 Oct)
• £6.5bn+ — investment commitments into IS-8 sectors cited in the Q3 update (9 Oct)
• 617,000 sq ft — Renishaw Miskin usable space after Hall 3; about 950 staff (Renishaw via The Manufacturer, 12 Oct)
• More than $800m — GSK Upper Merion biologics hub; 300+ jobs (Pennsylvania / Fierce Pharma, 9 Oct)
• About $2bn — UCB Georgia biologics campus investment (UCB, 9 Oct)
• About €15,000 — price of the new European “e-car” category; Stellantis previewed a 2028 low-cost EV (Reuters, 11 Oct)

Dates

• 30 November 2026 — BICS applications close
• Early 2027 — BICS eligibility decisions
• 2027 — GSK Upper Merion construction planned to start; BICS RO/FiT relief from April
• October 2027 — BICS Capacity Market relief starts
• 2028 — Stellantis European low-cost e-car expected

Sources: Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, Industrial Strategy quarterly update July–September 2026, 9 October 2026; GOV.UK, British Industrial Competitiveness Scheme collection and applicant guidance, updated 1–2 October 2026; The Manufacturer, Renishaw Miskin expansion, 12 October 2026; Renishaw group manufacturing comments via The Manufacturer; Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, GSK Upper Merion announcement, 9 October 2026; Fierce Pharma, 9 October 2026; UCB, Georgia campus dedication, 9 October 2026; Reuters via U.S. News, Stellantis Paris preview, 11 October 2026; Volkswagen Group, “For Europe” release, 1 October 2026, and event on 11 October 2026; POLITICO, EU–China hybrid understanding, 9 October 2026; The Industrial Brief, Porsche daily 8 October and EU–China hybrids Now 10 October 2026.