Also: The Sun Belt is making a big play for the hot electric vehicle market//Ports struggle to right the ship after unprecedented peak season
Site & Facility Planning
This Week
Wednesday, December 29th, 2021
This Week's Must Reads
Census data reveal huge shifts out of the most locked-down states. (WSJ)
Companies like Rivian are helping drive the automotive industry's electric future. When they look to build new plants, states go all out to woo them. Sun Belt states like Georgia see an opening to chip away at the auto dominance Michigan and the Motor City have cemented for over a century. (NPR.org)
An inexorable march of containerships arriving from Asia has stressed U.S. ports like never before, resulting in record peak-season cargo volumes. As the surge rolls on into 2022, what does the recovery roadmap look like? (DC Velocity)
Sputnik was a galvanizing force, providing the shock and momentum needed to revolutionize the country’s science and technology base. In recent years, government officials and lawmakers have called for a new “Sputnik moment” as they reckon with how to successfully compete economically and technologically with China. While a singular, transformative “Sputnik moment” has yet to occur, there is growing consensus in Washington that the U.S. has fallen or is at risk of falling behind China. (TechCrunch)

Virginia was ranked the Best State for Business by CNBC for the second year in a row. Companies such as Mondelez, Sabra Dipping and Stone Brewing benefit from Richmond’s strategic location, lower costs of doing business and a more affordable quality of life for their workforce.

Notable Project Announcements
1
Starplast USA, subsidiary of Israel-based Starplast, will invest approximately $17.7 million to develop a new manufacturing facility in Chesterfield, Virginia. The project is expected to create 300 jobs over five years.
2
Roper Corporation, a Haier company and subsidiary of GE Appliances, will invest $118 million in expanding their manufacturing operations in LaFayette, Georgia. The project is expected to create 600 jobs in Walker County.
3
Sazerac Company, one of America’s oldest privately held distillers, will construct a new facility in Charlestown, Indiana. The $409 million project is expected to create 369 new jobs by the end of 2027.
4
Houston-based energy technology and infrastructure company Lancium will build a large-scale, renewable energy powered data center campus in Abilene, Texas. The project is expected to create 57 jobs.
5
Mechanical engineering company Meyer Burger Technology AG is establishing a production site for high-performance solar modules in Goodyear, Arizona. The project is expected to create 250 jobs, and over 500 jobs at full capacity.
Around The Web
Pumped storage hydro once propped up coal and nuclear power. Now it's essential for a clean, growing grid. (Popular Science)
One Chinese landscape designer has pioneered a new approach—working with water instead of trying to bend it to our will. (MIT Technology Review)
Executive Ted Dengel details the company's investments to tackle the two ends of the "package bell curve" and keep up with the volume surge. (Supply Chain Dive)
In the third quarter of 2021, almost as much energy storage was deployed in the US as was recorded for the whole of 2020, when the industry surpassed a gigawatt of installations for the first time ever. (Energy Storage News)
Surge in freight flights clogged O’Hare, other airports; shippers are staffing up to ease logjams. (WSJ)
Stephen Moret tells the Washington Business Journal about the pandemic's impact on Virginia's workforce and the future of recruiting, hiring and filling jobs — especially in the tech industry. (Washington Business Journal)
If relations—and Chinese consumption—don’t improve, more foreign companies might decide to focus on greener pastures (WSJ)
Japanese shipping company Asahi Tanker has launched and named the first of its two next-generation all-electric tankers ordered in 2020. (Offshore Energy)
Soaring inflation, tightening cargo capacity, and a shrinking labor market only add up to one thing for today’s global supply chain managers: the triple whammy. (Supply Chain Management Review)
Internet-based service firms such as Airbnb, Vacasa and VRBO had been bumping up against short-term rental caps in nearby towns. So they began aggressively soliciting property owners in quieter, unincorporated seaside neighborhoods like Kirk's, where there were fewer restrictions on rentals. Over the next year, according to a public records request Kirk filed, the number of licensed short-term rentals in unincorporated neighborhoods in Lincoln County, Oregon, grew from 385 to 601. (Pew Trusts)
Communities are becoming strategic about planning the use of their shorelines rather than relying solely on tourism and recreation to generate water-related revenue. (Route Fifty)
Baby boomers are becoming a smaller part of government staffs. An expert provides guidance on developing and retaining Generations X, Y and Z. (Route Fifty)
Foxconn Technology Group has qualified for nearly $30 million in Wisconsin tax credits, marking the first time the electronics giant has secured state aid since breaking ground on its facility in the state in 2018. (Star Tribune)
American Trucking Associations estimates that the industry needs 80,000 more drivers. That figure is expected to worsen in the years ahead with a lack of new drivers to offset retirements and growing demand. (Transport Topics)
Hyundai signals the end of the combustion engine with the closing of its engine development center, in a shocking move that relates to the recent company re-organization. (autoevolution)
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