Investor Watch: August 24, 2026

A port city in Veracruz is part of three companies’ plans to invest $8 billion in LNG facilities across Mexico by 2030. Tucson’s aerospace cluster welcomes another player. Belgium’s Agristo will build its second-largest manufacturing site in the world in the north of France.

I-15 CORRIDOR

Plus: a look at project counts along all 1,433 miles of the I-15 corridor across six states.

TEXASEDCONNECTION INTELLIGENCE REPORT

Location intelligence indicates the coalition of small and medium-sized towns that comprise the TexasEDConnection are intelligent places to be.

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The Milan investment comes as Cambrex also continues to move forward with plans for an active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) facility at its largest global site in Charles City, Iowa, where groundbreaking is expected to take place late this year.
Rendering courtesy of Cambrex

Contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) Cambrex announced earlier this month the start of construction on a new $30 million R&D facility at its Profarmico Milano site in Milan, Italy, which is marking its 80th anniversary this year. “To accommodate future growth and rising demand for CDMO services,” the New Jersey-based company stated in a release, “Cambrex has also acquired additional land adjacent to the site, ensuring the capacity to expand and innovate for years to come.”

Site Selection in summer 2022 talked with Cambrex CEO Thomas Loewald about the company’s global portfolio in “Small Molecules, Big World.”

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Lithuanian energy company leaders and Lithuanian Minister of Energy Lukas Savickas conferred with NPC Ukrenergo leaders during a site visit to one of NPC Ukrenergo’s substations last week.
Photo courtesy of Ukrenergo

Mark Menezes, president and CEO of the United States Energy Association, issued a statement on Ukraine’s Independence Day August 20 that described how the USEA’s work with Ukraine’s energy sector over 30 years and over the past dozen years in particular “has played a vital role in protecting its grid security and national sovereignty.”

“Following the 2014 invasion of Donbas and Crimea, USEA expanded its technical assistance to Ukraine’s national transmission system operator, Ukrenergo, through the Black Sea Regional Transmission System Planning Project,” the USEA statement says, describing a timeline of actions and study that began after the 2014 invasion of Donbas and Crimea. “USEA’s years of field data, modeling and direct technical groundwork proved decisive when Ukrenergo heroically maintained grid frequency during three weeks of isolated wartime operations, enabling Ukraine to achieve historic emergency synchronization with the European power system on March 16, 2022.”

The USEA released a policy brief under its Energy Security and Prosperity for America and its Allies (ESP2A) initiative titled “From Crisis to Energy Security: A Six Point Agenda for Ukrainian/American Partnership.” The strategy addresses damage to Ukraine’s centralized grid by calling for expanded U.S. LNG supplies, turbines, batteries, distributed generation and Grid-Enhancing Technologies (GETs).

Ukrainian experience in protecting key equipment of the power transmission system and dispatch control of the power system in the conditions of a full-scale war and the priority needs of Ukrainian energy workers in preparation for the coming winter were the focus of discussion between the leadership of NPC Ukrenergo and Lithuanian Minister of Energy Lukas Savickas, colleagues from the Lithuanian transmission system operator Litgrid and representatives of leading Lithuanian energy companies during a site visit to one of NPC Ukrenergo’s substations last week, said a Ukrenergo release also distributed on August 20.

“Since the start of the full-scale russian invasion, the Lithuanian system operator has repeatedly provided NPC Ukrenergo with donor assistance for emergency repairs,” the release stated, notably lower-casing the word “russian.” “The equipment supplied to the company includes two powerful autotransformers, circuit breakers, disconnectors and other high-voltage equipment. Lithuania has also contributed approximately EUR 6 million to the Ukraine Energy Support Fund and is a donor to the Ukraine Relief, Recovery, Reconstruction and Reform Trust Fund (URTF).”

In May the Ukraine Cabinet of Ministers launched the second stage of the tender for construction of new generating capacity.

Photo by Michael Lusk courtesy of UNESCO

UNESCO in July officially inscribed Georgia’s Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge as a World Heritage Site, one of just 27 in the United States. “Ever since The Nature Conservancy helped conserve 15,000 acres of the swamp in 1978, we have worked to preserve this pristine ecosystem for people and nature alike,” said a letter from The Nature Conservancy in Georgia Executive Director Monica Thornton. “This designation confirms what all of us in Georgia have always known — there is no other place on the planet quite like the Okefenokee Swamp.”