FUJIFILM Cellular Dynamics, Inc. announced an investment of about $21 million to open a new cGMP-compliant production facility in Madison, Wisconsin, with the goal to begin operations by March 2020. The facility will support internal cell therapeutics and serve as a CDMO for iPS cell products.

Braidy Industries says its rolling aluminum mill in Greenup, Kentucky is on track to begin operations in 2021. The company has spent $15.7 million so far and plans to invest up to $500 million, with the mill producing nearly 300,000 tons of milled aluminum annually and employing about 700 people.

Calco Poly Technik is setting up a new high-performance plastics plant in Sonipat, Haryana, with an investment of Rs 50 crore. The facility will have a capacity of 30,000 tonnes and is expected to be operational by mid-2019, creating 100 jobs.

JCB announced a £65 million investment to build its sixth factory in Vadodara, Gujarat, India, to supply structural components for global product lines. Construction will start in February 2019, and production lines are expected to be operational by 2020.

Vedanta and Foxconn announced a joint venture to invest Rs1.54tn ($19.4bn) in Gujarat, India to construct an integrated semiconductor and display production complex, one of India's first semiconductor manufacturing facilities. The complex is expected to be operational by 2024.

MR Cartonnage Numerique opened a second production site of 2,800 square metres in Saint-Ouen-L'Aumone, north-west of Paris, on January 2, 2019. The EUR 2 million site is equipped with an HP Indigo 30000 digital printer and a UV varnishing line.

In 2019, Valeo built a second production plant in Rakovnik for control panels and sensors, investing 880 million CZK. The plant has 11,000 m² of production space and will produce over 15 million ultrasonic sensors annually.

GROB established a new branch in Vietnam, which commenced operations in January 2019, to support its turnkey project for VinFast.

Mitsubishi Electric has opened a new European manufacturing and testing facility in Belluno, Italy, following the acquisition of Climaventa. The facility focuses on chillers, air handling units, air conditioners and heat pumps.

Biomat srl inaugurated a new 1200 sqm facility in Ala, Trento, Italy, with advanced laboratories and increased production capacity to support international expansion.

Georgia-Pacific completed a $100 million, 300,000-square-foot lumber production facility in Talladega, Alabama. The plant employs over 130 people, produces 230 million board feet of lumber annually, and plans to expand to 300 million board feet per year.

Canpack, a Krakow-based metal packaging group, started operations at an aluminium beverage can factory in Colombia during 2019, according to its annual review.

MAPAL Frhenosa, a joint venture of the MAPAL Group, opened a second branch in Santiago de Querétaro, Mexico, with a ceremony held at the end of January 2019. The site adds production capacity for tool reconditioning and is expected to create 100 jobs.

Westrock inaugurated a mega plant producing corrugated cardboard packaging in Porto Feliz, São Paulo state, Brazil.

Norafin Industries completed construction of its production facility in Mills River, North Carolina, USA in 2018, with 36 employees on 7,000 m² floor area.

Malbaza Cement Company produced the first tonne of cement at its Malbaza plant in late December 2018. The plant has a production capacity of 0.65Mt/yr.

TNA, a manufacturer of food processing and packaging machinery, opened a new production facility in Boronia, a suburb of Melbourne, Australia. The facility triples the company's manufacturing capacity for high-performance machines, including the Robag vertical form-fill-seal system.

Crown Embalagens Metálicas da Amazônia announced a beverage can factory in Rio Verde, Goiás, with investment of R$350 million and more than 600 direct and indirect jobs.

Israel Aerospace Industries launched a new production line for F-35 wing skins, selected by Lockheed Martin as subcontractor. The 20-year program is expected to yield hundreds of millions of dollars, with first shipments in early 2019.

TOWA Industrial Vietnam Co., Ltd. began construction of a high-tech factory to produce precision machine parts at Hoa Phu Industrial Park in Vinh Long Province, Vietnam. The VND 342 billion ($14.7 million) TOWA SOUTHERN STAR FACTORY project will supply parts to brands like Juki, Brother, Komatsu, and Kubota.

Hon Hai Precision (Foxconn) plans to break ground in 2020 on a $9 billion 300mm chip fab in Zhuhai, China, to make chipsets for ultra high-definition TVs and CMOS image sensors. The majority of the cost will be subsidized by the city of Zhuhai.

Precision Pulley and Idler (PPI) will locate a $10.75 million manufacturing and distribution operation in Maysville, Kentucky, creating 134 full-time jobs over 10 years. The facility will be in an existing 105,000-square-foot building on Progress Drive.

Groupe Industriel des Ciments d’Algerie (GICA) is 87% complete with construction of its new Sigus integrated cement plant in Oum El Bouaghi province, Algeria. The plant has a production capacity of 2.2 million tonnes per year, will employ 150 direct jobs, and is scheduled to commence production in March 2019. Total investment is DZD 51 billion (USD 429 million).

Belgium's NV Bekaert SA received approval to build a steel fiber factory in Quang Ngai Province, Vietnam, with an investment of VND 2.9 trillion (US$125 million). Construction is expected to start in Q3 2019 and operations in 2021, with an annual capacity of 75,000 tonnes of braided steel fibers.

GAC Group completed the first phase of its new energy intelligent and ecological factory in Guangzhou, China, with an investment of RMB 4.7 billion (US$680 million). The factory will start production in May 2019, aiming for an annual capacity of 400,000 vehicles.

Fluid Control (Suzhou) Co. announced commissioning dates for a new valve accessory production project in Suzhou Industrial Park, with total investment of 103.3 million CNY and annual output of 76,400 sets of valve actuators.

The Shaoyang Sany engineering machinery and parts remanufacturing project, invested by Hunan Zhongwang Engineering Machinery Co., Ltd., broke ground in Xinshao County, Shaoyang, Hunan. The project has a total investment of CNY 120 million and will produce breaker hammers, remanufacture parts, and provide sales and service.

Peterman Heating, Cooling and Plumbing will build a $2 million, 20,000-square-foot headquarters facility in Greenwood, Indiana, creating 60 new jobs over five years. Construction is expected to begin in summer 2019 and finish by March 2020.

Towa Vietnam Co., Ltd. broke ground on the Towa Southern Star plant in Hoa Phu Industrial Park, Vinh Long, with a total investment of 342 billion VND (US$15 million). The plant will produce machine tools, sewing machine parts and precision machinery components, creating about 800 jobs.

Snabpolimermeditsina will build a plant in Bor, Nizhny Novgorod region, to produce safe disposable syringes and blood collection products. Investment is 3 billion rubles, capacity up to 700 million syringes per year, creating about 500 jobs.

DMC Power, a maker of connection systems for transmission, distribution and substation projects, will locate in the former Nissan North America facility in Olive Branch, Mississippi, with an $8 million investment creating 125 jobs over five years.

Ineos Styrolution announced a final investment decision to construct a 100,000 ton capacity ASA plant at its Bayport, Texas site. The plant is scheduled to start up in 2021. A contract for engineering, procurement, and construction was awarded to WorleyParsons.

Jushi India Pvt Ltd, part of China Jushi Group, is planning to set up a 0.1 million tonne fibre glass production facility in Talegaon, Maharashtra. The project cost is estimated at $250 million and is expected to go operational by 2020.

Novelis announced it will establish a customer solution center in Shanghai by the second half of 2019 to support Asian customers and promote aluminum use in automotive manufacturing.

VVDN Technologies opened a new 100,000-square-foot advanced manufacturing facility in Manesar, Gurugram, India, to double manufacturing capacity for IoT products.

Korean Apollo group opened a valve manufacturing plant in Tatarstan, Russia, with an investment of $50 million. The 2,200 square meter facility produces pneumatic actuators and control and shut-off valves, with capacity of up to 7,000 units per year rising to 15,000 by 2021.

Graymont Western Canada Inc. received final approval from the Fraser-Fort George Regional District for a lime plant and quarry in Giscome, British Columbia. The $80-90 million project will include one kiln with room for two more, a quarry, and a conveyor, with construction taking about 18 months and the plant expected to be operational in about two years.

Emerald Textiles commenced construction on a new 60 million-pound capacity linen processing facility in Livingston, California. The facility is scheduled to be complete by Q3 2019.

Alageum Electric opened a new factory in Aktau, Kazakhstan, to produce electrical switchgear and transformer substations. The plant has an annual capacity of 4,000 substations, cost 2 billion tenge, and will create 150 jobs, with 50% of output for export.

TSMC received environmental approval to build a 3-nanometer semiconductor fab at the Southern Taiwan Science Park in Tainan. The company plans to invest NTD 600 billion ($19.5 billion) in the project, with construction starting in 2020, trial production in 2021, and mass production as early as 2022.

Nordex Group has entered an agreement with FAdeA to establish a local assembly line for nacelles and hubs of AW3000 turbines in Córdoba, Argentina. The facility will have an annual capacity of up to 150 turbines and is expected to start operation in 2019.

Chi-Fu Technology Co., Ltd. held a completion ceremony for a new NT$400 million headquarters plant in Xinshi District, Tainan, Taiwan, to expand capacity and create about 60 jobs.

DENSO celebrated the completion of Plant 204 in Maryville, Tennessee, part of a $1 billion investment adding 360,000 square feet and 1,000 jobs. Production of advanced systems for electric and autonomous vehicles will begin in spring 2019.

SGT group announced an investment of EUR 21 million in its 6th production factory for PET preforms, to be built in Eastern France. The 10,000 m² factory will increase production capacity by one billion units per year and employ around 40 people when it starts production.

Euromeccanica srl will inaugurate a new plant in Rosà, Italy in early 2019, adding to its five existing facilities and bringing total covered area to 60,000 square meters.

Internacional de Tecnologías Médicas (ITM) broke ground on a new plant at Chihuahua Sur industrial park in Chihuahua, Mexico. The company plans to invest US$ 6 million and create 180 specialized jobs over 5 years.

Bechtel opened the Bechtel Mining & Metals Innovation Center in Santiago, Chile, to develop new technologies for the copper industry, focusing on productivity, environmental sustainability and worker safety.

Borouge has started building a new polypropylene plant in Ruwais, UAE, with a capacity of 480,000 tons/year, expected to start production in Q3 2021. The plant will increase total PP capacity to 2.24 million tons/year.

Ametek inaugurated a new 7,500 m² facility in Peschiera Borromeo, Italy, on December 19, 2018. The facility houses design, production, and distribution activities for advanced motion systems and precision electronic instruments.

Thöni is constructing a new 23,000 m² production hall in Pfaffenhofen, Austria. The outer shell was completed in December 2018, and interior work is expected to finish by end of March 2019.