The Monday briefing
Executive update
Once a week we compress the industrial week into eight minutes: what moved, why it matters, what to watch. Written to be read before the first meeting.
Latest · No. 43 · 19 October 2026
Leapmotor starts building cars in Spain
New car programmes in Zaragoza and South Carolina are pulling suppliers into new lines, while US vehicle output fell in September. An Essex maker of low-volume car parts broke ground on a new factory, Plasser & Theurer made the largest investment in its history, in Linz, and Babcock and BAE set up a route for apprentices they can't take on.
7 min · 5 items
- 1Supply chainLeapmotor's B10 is in production at Stellantis Zaragoza
- 2Supply chainSeven South Carolina suppliers will spend $82m to supply Scout
- 3Supply chainTECNIQ breaks ground on a new factory in Maldon
- 4ProductionPlasser & Theurer opened a €60m track machine factory in Linz
- 5TalentBabcock and BAE will pass apprentice applicants they can't take to defence SMEs
Archive
- No. 42GSK and UCB back new US biologics sites as Britain opens its factory electricity relief windowGSK and UCB marked big American manufacturing bets on Friday. Renishaw finished Hall 3 in Wales. In Paris, Stellantis showed low-cost EV concepts and Volkswagen pressed policymakers on European rules.12 Oct 2026
- No. 41Europe's factories had their best month since 2022, on orders for machines and defence kitThe euro-area PMI reached 52.9 in September. The cuts this week came in cars and engine parts, and the costs that moved were energy, steel paperwork and a grid date at Port Talbot.5 Oct 2026
- No. 40Most of this week's plant news still cannot be orderedMercedes named no site. Honda has not confirmed Ohio. The medicines notice awards no factory. The dates that are real are 19 October at Mirafiori and 30 November for the British electricity filing.28 Sept 2026
- No. 39The consumable has caught the machineA 12-inch mask, a Somerset dry room, a floor under electrical steel — and a packaging queue that still runs the AI year.21 Sept 2026
- No. 38The week the talent gap became a production constraintFabs without technicians, a PMI that finally expands, and why a tariff cannot summon a qualified plant.15 Sept 2026
- No. 37Power, powder, and the analog plants of the energy transitionMegawatts as a production constraint, additive on the MRP, and the factories that make decarbonisation by hand.8 Sept 2026
- No. 36Design for the plant you actually haveThe digital thread as a management system, dual-region bills of materials, and first article as strategy.1 Sept 2026
- No. 35A quiet month on the line, a loud one in capexWhat to make of a summer of plant announcements, and the three questions every operator should take into autumn.25 Aug 2026