Sakamoto Manufacturing Malaysia, a joint venture between Sakamoto Research and Development and Azman Hamzah Plastik, officially launched a RM90 million plant in Banting, Malaysia, to manufacture plastic fuel tanks. Production began in October 2017, with first units supplied to Perodua.

Firth Concrete, a subsidiary of Fletcher Building, opened a new masonry block plant in Hunua, South Auckland. The $30 million plant can produce 50,000 blocks per day and created 24 new jobs.

Sergey Kolesnikov, co-owner of Technonicol, announced a new polyurethane foam plant to be built in the Alabuga special economic zone in Tatarstan. Investment is about 600 million rubles.

Blechwarenfabrik Limburg has built a new 63,000 m² plant in Limburg, Germany, with two automated warehouses from Mecalux totaling 20,000 pallet capacity, to increase efficiency and relocate its headquarters.

Dongxu Optoelectronic Technology Co. will invest USD 454 million to construct a new-energy vehicle production base in Mianyang, Sichuan, China. The first phase will last 18 months and produce 10,000 passenger NEVs and 30,000 logistics NEVs per year.

Schaeffler held a ground-breaking ceremony for its first 'Factory for tomorrow' in Xiangtan, Hunan, China, a new production plant expected to start operating in 2019 on a 315,000 m² site.

German manufacturer Kaltra has opened a new 4,000m² factory in Slovenia to produce condensers, dry coolers, air coolers, chillers and precision air conditioning units, initially employing 30 workers.

Chromalloy Gas Turbine Corp. and Siemens Power and Gas division will locate their new joint-venture casting operation, Advanced Airfoil Components, in the Tampa, Florida area. The $139 million plant will produce turbine blades and vanes for power generation, creating 350 jobs.

JR Group UK is moving its nonwovens business Texfelt to a new £9 million facility in Bradford, Yorkshire, with a focus on expanding recycled products.

Tsinghua Unigroup signed a strategic cooperation agreement with the Bank of Nanjing to build a $30 billion factory producing DRAM and 3D NAND memory chips. Phase 1 capacity is 100,000 wafers per month, with Phase 2 doubling that.

ROCKWOOL Group announced a new stone wool manufacturing facility in Aricestii-Rahtivani, Prahova County, Romania. The initial investment is around €50 million, creating about 150 direct jobs, with production expected to begin in 2019.

PJSC SIBUR Holding is constructing a new polymer plant at the Tobolsk Industrial Site in Russia, with a production capacity of up to 2 million tons per year. Factory acceptance tests for a substation have been completed.

Combilift, an Irish manufacturer of multidirectional forklifts, will open a new €46 million, 46,500 sq m factory on 2 May 2018, coinciding with its 20th anniversary and a new product launch.

Amcor Rigid Plastics opened an on-site bottle manufacturing operation at Campbell Soup's Paris, Texas plant, investing $7 million to repurpose 6000 sq ft. The line is expected to produce about 50 million hot-fill PET bottles per year.

Dangote Cement Plc commissioned a 1.5 million metric tonnes per annum cement plant in Mfila, Republic of Congo, estimated at $300 million, creating about 1,000 direct jobs.

Lanxess will invest about €20 million to build a compounding plant for high-performance plastics in Changzhou, China. The plant will produce Durethan and Pocan brands for automotive, electrical and electronics industries, with capacity up to 25,000 tons, and is scheduled to start in Q2 2019.

Ural Boeing Manufacturing, a joint venture between VSMPO-Avisma and Boeing, will launch a production facility in the Titanium Valley SEZ in Sverdlovsk Oblast, Russia, by the end of 2018. The project involves investment of 5.5 billion rubles and will create 230 jobs, producing machined titanium components for Boeing aircraft.

The FAB main plant of the Jinhua memory integrated circuit production line project in Jinjiang, China, has topped out after 420 days of construction. The first phase, with total investment of $5.3 billion, is expected to start production in Q3 2018 with 32nm 12-inch wafer capacity of 60,000 per month.

HMA Medical Limited commissioned a $15 million syringe and needle production plant in Ilorin, Nigeria, with an installed capacity of 200 million syringes and 350 million needles annually. The plant employs 120 people.

Saint-Gobain announced it will break ground on December 4, 2017, to build its second glass manufacturing facility in Saltillo, Coahuila, with a $100 million investment. The plant will produce architectural glass and is expected to start operations by end of 2018.

LyondellBasell announced the arrival of the multi-zone circulating reactor for its Hyperzone polyethylene plant at the La Porte Complex in Texas. The $700 million plant will produce 1.1 billion pounds per year of HDPE and is planned to start up in 2019.

Brembo started operations at its new cast iron foundry in Escobedo, Mexico. The foundry has an annual melting capacity of 70,000 tonnes.

Nucor announced a new steel mill in Sedalia, Missouri. The announcement was made in mid-November 2017.

Mahindra Automotive North America opened a new North American headquarters and manufacturing facility in Auburn Hills, Michigan, as part of a $230 million investment. The company plans 400 more jobs and an additional $600 million investment by 2020.

Kenyan steel tycoon Narendra Raval plans to invest over $200 million to build a 750-million tonne cement plant on a 20-hectare site in Mariakani, Kilifi County, Kenya. The project is expected to create 900 new direct jobs.

Rio Tinto's Amrun bauxite project in North Queensland, Australia, is scheduled for completion in 2019. The project was announced in November 2015 and is expected to help meet growing bauxite demand from China.

Bombardier Business Aircraft inaugurated a $65 million Centre of Excellence in Montreal, Canada, for high-precision completion of its Global 7000 business jet. The company is recruiting about 1,000 new positions over the next 18 months.

Fort Smith's board unanimously approved tax incentive resolutions to help attract Silgan Plastic Food Containers to a planned 100,000 square foot manufacturing facility, which could create 150 jobs by its third year. The chamber said the project was not yet a done deal.

Synlait opened its blending and consumer packaging facility in Mangere, Auckland, with annual packaging capacity of 32,000 MT, doubling its canning capacity to 64,000 MT, after investing NZ$55 million in the acquired partially-completed site.

Indian Oil Corporation, in collaboration with cab aggregator Ola, launched India's first electric charging station at a fuel station in Nagpur on November 19, 2017.

Dragon Poland, a manufacturer of construction, automotive and household chemicals, opened a new production complex in the Skawina Economic Area near Krakow, Poland on November 18, 2017. The facility has a total volume of 120,000 m³ and usable area of over 13,500 m², with capacity to load about 480,000 pallets annually.

Chiron Group has started construction of a new factory in Taicang, China, with an investment of over EUR 10 million. The first phase includes a 14,000 sqm building and 190 employees, targeting automotive, medical technology, and aerospace sectors.

Metzer, an Israeli drip irrigation systems manufacturer, inaugurated a new manufacturing plant in León, Guanajuato, Mexico, with an investment of $5 million, creating 30 direct jobs.

Taeyang Metal Industrial Co. Ltd., a South Korean automotive fastener producer, will invest nearly $15.6 million and create 76 jobs to establish its first U.S. manufacturing plant in Franklin, Kentucky.

WestRock confirmed an investment of more than US$125 million to build a large corrugated cardboard plant in Porto Feliz, São Paulo state, with works starting in 2017 and completion expected in Q2 2019.

Huhtamaki North America selected Miller Valentine Construction to renovate about 942,000 SF of the old Ford Motor Company transmission plant in Batavia, Ohio, adding 44 dock doors, two parking lots and a 25,000 SF office area.

Aleris announced the opening of its new aluminum automotive body sheet production facility in Lewisport, Kentucky, representing a $400 million investment. The company began shipping automotive products from the plant in November 2017.

Samvardhana Motherson Peguform (SMP) completed a €100 million greenfield bumper manufacturing plant in Kecskemét, Hungary, covering 96,000 square meters and creating about 500 jobs.

Samvardhana Motherson Group (SMP) will build a 100,000 sqm plant in Kecskemét, Hungary to manufacture bumper and dashboard components. Serial production is expected to start in 2018, creating 500 jobs.

Maverick Boat Group will build a new boat manufacturing facility in Fort Pierce, Florida, creating 100 new jobs and investing $7 million. The facility will add 277,000 square feet of production space and is expected to be fully operational by summer 2018.

German Tier 1 automotive supplier BOCAR Group broke ground on a $115 million, 350,000 square foot plant in Huntsville, Alabama, creating more than 300 jobs. The plant will make high-pressure aluminum die castings and plastic parts.

Grupo Saargummi announced a new plant in Querétaro, Mexico, with an investment reported at 682.5 million pesos and about 1,100 jobs to be created in the short and medium term. The plant will make rubber profiles for doors, trunks and windows, including for Volkswagen vehicles.

Poland's CAN-PACK Group opened a beverage can plant in Helmond, Netherlands, with a total investment of over EUR 100 million, co-financed by BGK. The plant has two lines producing up to 2 billion cans per year.

Invertek Drives is constructing a 5,500 square metre production facility at Welshpool, Powys, Wales, to raise drive output to more than 400,000 units per year, with completion due next year.

Magellan Aerospace broke ground for a new 140,000 sq ft manufacturing and assembly facility in Devanahalli, Bengaluru, India. The company will invest over CDN $28 million, with the first phase expected operational near the end of 2018, creating about 120 jobs.

Billionaire Narendra Raval plans to build a 750m tonne cement plant on 20 hectares in Mariakani, Kilifi County, Kenya, costing US$290 million.

A joint venture between Iran and Ghana has started construction of a 0.6Mta cement factory at Dawa Industrial Enclave, Ghana. The $30m Ilam Cement factory is expected to be completed in two years.

Awox, a brand of Can Holding, opened a new factory in Lüleburgaz for heating and cooling technologies. The facility covers 20,000 square meters on a 40,000 square meter site, with an investment of 70 million TL, planned to reach 150 million TL. It currently employs 100 people, with plans to increase to 300.

PPG plans to build a new high-performance coatings project with an annual capacity of 68,000 tons at its existing site in Zhangjiagang, China. The total investment is $33 million.

Malterie Soufflet Bulgaria will build a new plant in Pleven, Bulgaria, with an investment of €30 million.