The first CVT transmission manufacturing factory in Iran, named 'Qova Moharekeh Punch Powertrain Iran', will be inaugurated on February 7 in Zanjan. Punch Powertrain (80%) and IDRO (20%) invested in the plant, which will produce 160,000 CVT automatic gearboxes annually. Initial investment is 1.1 trillion rials ($27.5 million).

Viabuild, a Belgian construction company, plans to open a new facility in Puurs, Belgium, by August 2018, consolidating its current operations from three locations. The new site will house offices, garage, and dispatch, and all 170 employees will relocate.

LyondellBasell began site preparations for a new 1.1 billion pound polyethylene plant in La Porte, Texas.

thyssenkrupp announced a plant in Debrecen, Hungary, for coil springs and stabilizers, with construction starting in spring 2017 and production from 2018. The roughly EUR 35 million investment is expected to create around 250 jobs by 2020.

Sumol+Compal invested USD 51 million (EUR 47 million) in a new beverage plant in Bom Jesus, Luanda, Angola. The plant is completed and operating with three production lines, producing juices and soft drinks for the local market.

Chemours broke ground on a new HFO-1234yf production facility at its Corpus Christi plant in Ingleside, Texas, to triple capacity for low-GWP refrigerant products under the Opteon brand. The announcement was made on February 2, 2017.

Waterschapsbedrijf Limburg installed two wastewater treatment plants in Simpelveld and Roermond, Netherlands, at an investment of €10.7 million. The plants use modular, above-ground construction and include self-healing concrete tanks developed with TU Delft.

OsOO Tekstil Trans opened a new textile fabric production plant in Chuy region, Kyrgyzstan, with the aim of reducing dependence on imported fabric. The plant had been operating in pilot mode since November 2016.

ABB inaugurated a new highly automated factory for high-voltage circuit breakers in Guarulhos, Brazil, with an investment of approximately 10 million reais. The facility will serve the transmission and distribution substation market.

Toshiba Corporation started construction of a new semiconductor fabrication facility, Fab 6, and a Memory R&D Center at Yokkaichi Operations in Mie prefecture, Japan. Fab 6 will be dedicated to BiCS FLASH 3D Flash memory production, with Phase 1 completion scheduled for summer 2018.

NuVasive Inc. is setting up a $45 million, 180,000-square-foot bio-tech manufacturing facility in West Carrollton, Ohio, to produce spinal implants and other medical devices. The company plans to hire over 200 people in 2017.

Covestro will invest EUR 3 million in a new logistics center for hydrochloric acid in Tarragona, Spain, creating about 15 jobs. The hub is expected to be completed in the second half of 2017 and will import product from German plants for distribution.

Redlands Machinery opened a factory in Coimbatore in February 2017, as part of its 'Make in India' plans.

Yaskawa Electric Corporation will build a €25 million plant for industrial robots in Kočevje, Slovenia. Construction is expected to start in summer 2017, with regular production beginning in 2019. The plant will employ over 200 workers and have an initial capacity of 4,000 robots per year.

Fuyao Automotive North America, a subsidiary of China's Fuyao Group, will open a new automotive glass manufacturing facility in Plymouth, Michigan, investing $66.3 million and creating 533 jobs. The project received Michigan Strategic Fund support and a $1 million state grant.

Bill Forge Global, an Indian company, will establish a new facility in the Cuadritos Industrial Park in Celaya, Guanajuato, Mexico, with an initial investment of $12 million (projected to reach $30 million). The plant will produce hot-forged and machined components for automotive transmissions for export to the US, Asia, and Europe.

Agilyx is constructing a 10 tons-per-day production facility near Portland, Oregon that will convert scrap polystyrene into styrene monomer. The plant is expected to begin production in Q2 2017.

ZIEHL-ABEGG commissioned WOLFF & MÜLLER to build a new production building in Kupferzell for EUR 12.4 million. The facility will produce EC motor fans and is expected to be completed by end of 2017.

LG Chem began mass-production of carbon nanotubes from its new factory in Yeosu, South Jeolla Province. The facility has an annual capacity of 400 tons and is the world's fourth largest.

The J.M. Smucker Company announced plans to build a new Smucker's Uncrustables sandwiches manufacturing facility in Longmont, Colorado. Construction will start in spring 2017 with production expected in 2019, with a total potential investment of $340 million and up to 500 employees.

SPX FLOW opened a new 28,000-square-meter manufacturing campus in Bydgoszcz, Poland, producing hygienic valves, sanitary plate heat exchangers and homogenizers. The company described it as a multimillion-dollar investment, and the announcement was dated January 31, 2017.

Tecvalco Ltd. installed two MemFree wastewater treatment systems in Unity, Saskatchewan, which went online on January 11, 2017. The systems are a first-of-its-kind in Canada, manufactured by Tecvalco under license from Soneera Water.

Algerian Qatar Steel (AQS) is building a new steel complex in Bellara, Algeria, with a total investment of $2 billion. The first phase is expected to start production in 2017, producing 2 million tons of steel annually and creating 2,000 direct jobs. Spanish companies Lymsa, Elecnor, and Butec are involved in construction and fabrication.

MetalValue Powder is investing €50 million to build a gas-atomized steel powder manufacturing facility in Pîtres, France, with a capacity of 40,000 tonnes per year, expected to create 60 jobs and begin operations in Q4 2018.

Reliance Industries and Sibur have agreed to build a 60,000-metric-ton-per-year halogenated butyl rubber plant at the Reliance refinery and petrochemical complex in Jamnagar, India, adjacent to a 120,000-ton butyl rubber unit already under construction.

TERRATEC officially opened a new large-diameter TBM production facility in Guangzhou, China, with capacity to produce up to 20 large-diameter (>6m) tunnel boring machines per year. The plant replaces existing production in Wuhan.

Multivac, the German packaging machine manufacturer, began construction of a new plant in the state industrial zone in Bozhurishte, Bulgaria. The facility will include production, warehouse, logistics, training center, and offices, with an investment of 37 million BGN over three years.

Astor Transformatör has started construction of a new transformer factory in Ankara, Turkey, with an investment of 125 million Turkish lira. The plant will cover 100,000 square meters and aims to produce transformers up to 500 kV 500 MVA, creating 230 jobs.

German firm Hirschvogel Automotive Group started construction of its ninth plant in the world and its first in Mexico, with a US$30 million investment. The first stage, machining, will be ready in April 2017, and the second stage, forging, will start production in 2018.

Yazaki Bulgaria will invest 45.5 million BGN to build a plant for producing electrical installations for Mercedes A-Class and B-Class vehicles near the village of Krepost, Dimitrovgrad. Production is expected to start in April 2017, creating 3,150 jobs.

Builders FirstSource Inc. will locate a new facility in Bowling Green, Kentucky, with a nearly $6.4 million investment expected to create 79 full-time jobs.

Credit Bureau Systems Inc. will build a $1.67 million office in Paducah, Kentucky, creating 50 jobs (40 new hires and 10 relocations).

Datwyler Sealing Solutions broke ground on a new facility in Middletown, DE, to produce specialty coated rubber components for drug-delivery devices, including the Omniflex family of vial and syringe components. The plant will employ lean-manufacturing and zero-defect philosophies.

Sandvik Coromant inaugurated a new 2,100-square-meter facility in Querétaro, Mexico, investing $3.6 million and creating over 300 jobs.

Lokesh Machines will assemble EMCO machines at a new manufacturing facility at Kallakal near Hyderabad, India.

Hirschvogel Components began construction of a new automotive forging components plant in San Juan del Río, Querétaro, Mexico, with a $30 million investment. The plant is expected to create 240 jobs initially, with a target of 700, and reach a production capacity of 5 million parts by 2018.

Excelvision (groupe Fareva) inaugurated a new eye drop production unit in Annonay, France, after a €28 million investment. The facility has a capacity of one billion doses per year and will create about 100 jobs.

Oxco, Inc. will build a 150,000-square-foot facility in Fort Mill's Lakemont Business Park, investing $13 million and creating 130 new jobs by the second quarter of 2018.

Mitsubishi Caterpillar Forklift America Inc. and Jungheinrich Lift Truck Corp. formed a joint venture, Industrial Components of Texas, LLC (ICOTEX), to manufacture industrial components. A 71,000-square-foot facility broke ground in Conroe, Texas, and is scheduled to open in late summer 2017, creating about 80 jobs.

Teknor Apex Co. will build a 200,000-square-foot distribution facility in Brownsville-Haywood County Industrial Park, representing a $32.2 million investment and creating 50 jobs. The building should be operational by September 2017.

Zhuhai Xinhua Magnetic Materials signed a contract to build a magnetics materials industrial base in Fushan Industrial Park costing 200 million yuan ($29 million). The base will be completed in two years.

Zhuhai Comking Electric signed a contract to build a smart power grid equipment manufacturing plant in Fushan Industrial Park with a gross investment of 700 million yuan ($102 million). The two-phase construction is to be completed in two and a half years.

Rio Nuevo approved SmithGroupJJR+WSM as architects and Sundt Construction as general contractor for Caterpillar's new Surface Mining & Technology facility in Tucson, Arizona.

NewCold Advanced Cold Logistics and Fisher Construction Group have broken ground on a high-bay automated storage and retrieval system warehouse near the Port of Tacoma and Interstate Highway 5 in the United States.

NewCold Advanced Cold Logistics is building a fully automated cold storage warehouse in Truganina, Melbourne, with capacity for over 102,000 pallets. The facility will serve McCain Foods Australia under a 10-year contract and other clients, with operations expected to begin in summer 2017.

Momentive Performance Materials Inc. has commenced construction on a new NXT silane manufacturing facility in Leverkusen, Germany, with an investment of approximately $30 million. The facility will be the first in Europe to produce NXT silane locally for the automotive industry.

Bicycle Corporation of America opened a new factory in Manning, South Carolina, investing $6 million in robots and creating 140 jobs. The facility brings back 10% of manufacturing from China.

Sonoco Products will invest about $20 million in a new packaging center in Fairburn, Fulton County, Georgia, creating 130 full-time and 465 part-time jobs to support Duracell's North American battery packaging operation.

Grupo Millet will invest over 1,500 million pesos (approximately $75 million) to build a new glass manufacturing plant in Mérida, Yucatán, to expand export capacity. Construction will begin in 2017.

Singapore's fifth wastewater reclamation plant, delivered by BEWG International and UES Holdings, has opened, enabling NEWater to meet 40% of the nation's daily water demand.