Will future business location rankings such as Site Selection’s Business Climate Rankings see quality of life
moving up in companies’ top 10 criteria? Editor in Chief Mark Arend bets
they will.
Novelis, the aluminum rolling and recycling giant headquartered in
Atlanta that saw net sales of $12.3 billion in FY2021, has announced
plans to invest approximately $500 million in growth capital projects,
including this $375 million investment in China and a $130 million
investment at its plant in Oswego, New York. The China expansion will
allow the company to implement closed-loop recycling partnerships with
automotive customers in Asia. “As a key strategic synergy of the Aleris
acquisition completed last year, the investment will create a fully
integrated supply chain for the automotive market in China between our
Zhenjiang rolling and recycling facility and Changzhou automotive
finishing plant — from coil production to heat treatment to closed-loop
recycling,” the company said. “It will also free up rolling capacity at
the company’s Ulsan Aluminum joint venture in South Korea to serve the
can and specialty products markets. The Zhenjiang plant will continue
serving the aerospace and industrial plate sectors.”
“China is one of the fastest-growing vehicle markets in the world and
its automakers are gaining market share across Asia,” said Sachin
Satpute, executive vice president and president of Novelis Asia.
“Therefore, this strategic investment is needed to keep pace with
growing demand, particularly from EV companies.”
In late October Boehringer Ingelheim opened a new tablet production
facility in its hometown. The facility will employ around 75 workers.
“The Solids Launch Factory is further evidence of how we are modernizing
production in Germany,” said Sabine Nikolaus, Boehringer Ingelheim’s
country managing director for Germany. “The Ingelheim site is synonymous
with the production of drugs with highly complex manufacturing
technologies.” “As a smart factory, this new plant combines both
digitalization and sustainability as key drivers of innovation,” said
Rhineland-Palatinate Minister President Malu Dreyer. “For the state
government, Boehringer Ingelheim is a central partner in our aim to make
Rhineland-Palatinate a leading location for biotechnology.”
Around 52,000 Boehringer Ingelheim employees serve more than 130 markets
in three business areas: human pharma, animal health, and
biopharmaceutical contract manufacturing.
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Chris Green, assistant director of the Office of Economic Development
and Competitiveness at Washington State Department of Commerce, shares
his perspective on the health of the state’s business climate and
lessons learned from the state’s robust pandemic response.
On October 21, 2021, the World Bank Group and World Association of
Investment Promotion Agencies announced the winners of the jointly
launched Strengthening IPA Advocacy Services 2021 Award Competition,
which aimed to find and award international best practices of investment
promotion agencies (IPAs) in advocating for reforms to improve the
investment ecosystem. From more than 40 national and subnational IPA
reforms submitted to the competition, the winners were:
Gold: The Ethiopian Investment Commission, because the
country “sought the inputs of the private sector to better understand
key reforms needed to enhance its investment climate,” resulting in
revising its investment code, opening new sectors to foreign direct
investment (FDI) that were previously closed, and enhancing its
investment administration.
Silver:Toronto Global, which “developed the Shaping Our Future Playbook, focused on
understanding how COVID-19 was impacting the region’s economy and
recommending implementable reforms to reimagine growth across the region
and turn it into an innovation corridor.
Bronze:Invest India, for ramping-up innovation and
startup ecosystems in India.
Managing Editor Adam Bruns made this photo from cliffs 372 feet above
the Pacific Ocean at Torrey Pines Gliderport in La Jolla, California, on
a foggy early morning last Thursday while attending the Institute for
Citizens & Scholars Higher Education Media Fellowship Symposium nearby.
Active since the late 1920s, the Gliderport sits between the Salk
Institute for Biological Studies and Torrey Pines Golf Course, the
public course that hosted this year’s U.S. Open Golf Championship.
