industrial

the invisible leak that locked a town in an industrial dystopia

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This afternoon, the Basque authorities restrictions have been lifted in Muskizbut the fear still remains. Living in the shadow of the largest refinery in the Basque Country, Petronor, has turned this Biscayan municipality into a scene straight out of England at the end of the 19th century. Its streets have been empty, schools with minimal activity and neighbors equipped with masks. The mist that covered the town on Thursday and part of Friday was not fog, but a toxic cloud. The invisible escape. It all started on Thursday morning due to a technical incident in a gasoline tank at the petrochemical plant, which caused the evaporation and emission into the atmosphere of the volatile fraction of the fuel. According to the Muskiz city councilbetween 10:15 and 11:00 a.m., stations such as the one in the San Julián neighborhood recorded peaks of between 100 and 200 micrograms per cubic meter (µg/m³) of benzene. To put the figure in perspective, the regulatory limit value for the annual average is just 5 µg/m³, meaning that emissions far exceeded the recommendations of the World Health Organization (WHO). In addition, the chemist Néstor Etxebarria (UPV/EHU) warned that not only benzene escapedbut also toluene and xylene, completing the dangerous chemical cocktail known as BTEX, very volatile and toxic substances. The real danger of hydrocarbons. To understand the severity of the leak, it is necessary to explain what benzene is. Simply put, it is a colorless, volatile liquid with a sweet smell. that penetrates very easily into the bloodstream through the lungs. In the short term, acute inhalation causes poisoning similar to that of solvents: drowsiness, dizziness, headaches, tremors and, in severe levels, loss of consciousness. However, the real danger lies in its long-term effects. International health and environmental agencies (IARC, ATSDR, EPA) classify benzene as a confirmed human carcinogen (Group 1). This substance directly attacks the bone marrow, depressing the formation of blood cells, which can trigger aplastic anemia and acute myeloid leukemia. The WHO itself assumes in its guidelines that, being a genotoxic agent, there is no exposure threshold that the human body can safely tolerate. Any dose, no matter how small, increases the risk. Communication chaos, dizziness and fear. Despite the obvious chemical danger, the management of the crisis has outraged those affected. Although the escape occurred on Thursday morning, The Mail denounced that the Basque Government It did not issue preventive confinement recommendations until 8:17 p.m., ten hours after the incident. The usual Petronor emergency sirens, which sound every Thursday as a drill, remained silent yesterday, and neither mass alert was sent (ES-Alert) to cell phones because Public Health considered that “it was not an emergency.” While the Local Police patrolled with megaphones asking residents to lock themselves in, the director of Public Health, Guillermo Herrero, minimized the crisis in Radio Euskadiensuring that there was no “risk for the population” and that a “normal life” could be led. This vision contrasted head-on with that of the mayor of Muskiz, Eduardo Briones, who to the microphones Chain Being, He recommended not going out because “it is better to sin by excess.” The human impact was immediate. In statements to The MailItxaso Etxegarai recounted how her asthmatic daughter lost her appetite and suffered severe headaches, while her eyes stung. For his part, retiree José Taboada had to go look for his wife at work because, after inhaling the air, “he had gotten dizzy” and “had lost consciousness a little.” Panic also crossed the walls of the refinery. chow to detail The Jumpdozens of contract workers abandoned their jobs on Friday morning. “No one has told us anything clearly. While we are waiting, we are at the site of toxicity,” an operator reported to the BEsuffering from a sore throat. Unions such as LAB and CCOO demanded the paralysis of the plant. Impunity and legal loopholes. This episode is not an isolated event, but rather the straw that breaks the camel’s back for a population accustomed to living with industrial pollution. In fact, it is the third incident in just two months (in December there was another leak, and this same Sunday an electrical failure caused immense flames and black smoke) As detailed by the chemist and environmental disseminator Julen Rekondo in COPE chainthe problem lies in a flagrant legal vacuum: Spanish regulations sanction companies if they exceed the annual average of benzene, but does not contemplate punitive limits for sharp point peaks. This allows serious episodes not to count as an infraction. Neighborhood fatigue. Petronor’s shadow is long. The refinery is responsible of more than 10% of greenhouse gas emissions and Public Health data show that the Muskiz area registers mortality rates from lung cancer between 11% and 45% higher than the Basque average. Added to this is citizen distrust due to “revolving doors.” The residents gathered this week remembered that former senior officials of the Basque Government, such as Josu Jon Imaz or Iñaki Zudaire, ended up occupying positions of maximum power in Petronor and Repsol, which raises doubts about the rigor of institutional control. To channel this satiety, the neighborhood platform “Las Karreras Variant Stop“has called a protest demonstration for this Sunday, March 1, at 12:00 p.m., demanding real solutions. The air clears, but the indignation remains. The sirens never sounded, but the silence in Muskiz has been deafening. Although at two in the afternoon on Friday, February 27, the authorities lifted the preventive confinement when benzene stabilized at 2 µg/m³, normality here is a fragile concept. The gas will dissipate with the wind currents, but the uncertainty of living in a chemical Russian roulette remains entrenched in the lungs of a people who demand to stop being the collateral damage of industrial progress. Image | Zarateman and Gustavo Fring Xataka | The United Kingdom has found lithium under its feet, but extracting it is going to be a billion-dollar logistical nightmare

China manufactures 90% of the world’s humanoid robots and the reason is not its industrial policy: it is crossing the street

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On Chinese New Year, 16 Unitree humanoid robots danced a folk dance before almost a billion viewers. The West reacted as always: some with panic, others with disdain, others with an undisguised admiration that sometimes tends to concoct theories with more clichés regarding China than real analysis. None of those answers is entirely true and that blindness has a cost. The context. China manufactures about 90% of the humanoid robots sold in the world. In 2025, about 13,000 units were shipped, with Chinese companies (AgiBot, Unitree, UBTech…) dominating the ranking by volume, according to Omdia data collected by Bloomberg. Tesla, with all its brand reputation and all its industrial apparatus, internally deployed around 800 units of the Optimus that same year. The figure. He Unitree G1 It costs $13,500. He Tesla Optimus will exceed 20,000. That gap is the difference between being able to iterate ten times with the same budget or staying at one. Between the lines. The story circulating in the West has two versions, equally lazy: The first: all this is the five-year plan, the hand of the State, industrial policy made robot. The second, reserved for the most condescending: it is because they copy. Neither of them explains what is really happening. China’s advantage in robotics does not come from the Communist Party. It comes from the Pearl River Delta and the Yangtze Delta: the two densest manufacturing ecosystems on the planet. Motors, actuators, sensors, custom PCBs… everything is available within walking distance. Is what it describes Rui Xuan engineer who has worked in robotics startups in China and Silicon Valley. When Unitree wants to test a new joint design, it crosses the street and comes back with the right component. A team in San Francisco has to wait weeks to receive the same component from China. The background. That difference in iteration speed changes everything in hardware engineering. It stops being a problem of talent, because Chinese and American engineers are equally capable, and becomes a problem of infrastructure. Breaking a robot, learning, replacing it, and trying again: that’s what builds cumulative technical advantage. If breaking a robot costs three weeks of logistics, learning stops and times become longer. Yes, but. China does have state support, and it is completely legitimate to point this out. The government has injected a lot of money into that sector and has set production targets. But it’s not that Silicon Valley is an impoverished region: it has more capital, investors with more experience and resources, and more decades of experience financing high-risk bets. If this were a war to see who has the fattest checkbook, the United States would win handily. But it is not. Furthermore, Chinese state money comes with strings attached: it is classified as “state asset” and founders assume personal liability if the company fails. That pushes capital toward politically safe bets, not necessarily toward the most innovative ones. The question. Can the West make up ground in robotics? Yes, but not like he’s trying. Attracting foreign talent helps on the margin, but does not solve the underlying problem. The equalization involves building local supply chains capable of delivering a spare part in two days, not two weeks. And that is not an immigration or R&D problem. It is an industrial-based problem, and solving it takes many years of work. And of thankless work, from which those who arrive later may reap the fruits. Until then we are going to see many more viral videos of Chinese robots doing pirouettes with increasing naturalness. And it’s because they’ve built the best environment in the world to break things and try again. In engineering, that explains almost everything. Featured image | CCTV In Xataka | Folding clothes or taking apart LEGOs has always been a tedious task. Xiaomi’s new AI for robots has put an end to it

mining and industrial ponds

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Spain has its eyes riveted on the intense rains this week in Andalusia. According to meteorological expertsbetween 60 and 80 liters were expected, but the orography has acted as a wall causing accumulations of 180 liters, a scenario where the technology has failed by more than double in a short-term prediction. However, while the cameras focus on the water running through the streets of white towns, a much quieter and potentially devastating threat is brewing far from the media spotlight. The real technical and military concern lies in the stability of the industrial waste infrastructure in the province of Huelva and part of Seville. Over there, as detailed in the local pressis located the largest toxic waste deposit in Europe. It is a time bomb composed of mud and heavy metals that is being subjected to a water stress test without recent precedents. What has happened to the mining ponds? Before the arrival of the storm Leonardothe reaction of the authorities has been of unusual speed. Yesterday, the management of the Emergency Plan for the Risk of Floods commissioned the Military Emergency Unit (UME) to carry out an urgent analysis and assessment of the situation of these deposits. Officially, the message it’s calmsince the regional emergency service assures that the work carried out has provided “complete peace of mind” and that “no incident or probable risk” has been detected. However, the reality on the ground shows a different operational tension. Far from limiting itself to observing, the UME has taken direct action with a massive deployment: a contingent of more than 250 soldiers and 90 specialized vehicles has been mobilized to the area. According to Andalusian public televisionthe troops have installed a retaining wall using “Hesco Bastion” and heavy machinery in the Los Frailes mine, in Aznalcóllar, because the rainwater is already carrying pyrite and they are seeking to prevent it from draining into the reservoir at all costs. The war of stories. The situation has caused a mix of messages between political prudence, business demands and social alarm. The president of the Junta de Andalucía, Juanma Moreno, has been unusually explicit about the nature of the danger. As you have collected ABCthe Andalusian president has justified the military mobilization by the need for anticipation, crudely warning that these facilities are “mining ponds that could overflow with materials, some of which are toxic, especially in a very special way in the province of Huelva.” Faced with this political warning, the industry’s response has been blunt. The company Atalaya Riotinto Minera has issued a statement guaranteeing the safety of the waste deposits at the Riotinto mine. They ensure that their facilities operate normally in accordance with strict technical standards and that these exceptional situations “have been contemplated in the design and construction”, with adequate safety margins. Furthermore, the company wanted to emphasize that it maintains “full communication and coordination” with the competent authorities and the Civil Guard for continuous monitoring of the situation. At the other extreme, political voices like Izquierda Unida They warn that this is not a drill. The training indicates that the ponds, which accumulate toxic materials after decades of exploitation, enter a “potential situation of risk of breaking” due to the pressure of the water on the slopes. Its provincial coordinator has denounced the “historical inability” to maintain these soils and demands a truthful diagnosis in real time, describing the situation as a non-hypothetical risk. The ghost of ’98. The fear that runs through the spine of western Andalusia has a memory. The inevitable reference is the disaster of Aznalcóllar from 1998but the current dimensions are much larger. The main focus of the threat today is located in the Riotinto Mining Basin, in the Gossan, Cobre and Aguzadera dams. This complex stores more than 182 million cubic meters of sludge, an amount that exceeds thirty times the volume of the spill that caused the ecological catastrophe almost three decades ago. Environmental organizations provide disturbing data on current operators. They recall that the Aznalcóllar mine is now managed by a subsidiary of Grupo México, a company with a history of pond failures in its country of origin, such as the one in the Sonora River in 2014. In addition, they denounce that there were already prior warnings: in March 2025, during other intense rains, an episode of contamination occurred in the Agrio counter-reservoir due to runoff from the mine. ANDthenWhat are the forecasts? The current problem is not only the amount of water that falls, but where it falls. As meteorology experts explain“it rains in the wet.” The month of January already broke historical records with accumulations of 1,300 liters in some areas, leaving the soil, composed mainly of clay, completely saturated. The infiltration rate is zero; The ground no longer supports even one more drop. This takes us to a limit hydrological situation. The reservoirs of the province of Huelva are at 85.83% of its capacity, a figure much higher than the average of recent years. This has forced the Board to carry out preventive and controlled discharges in seven of the eight dams it manages to guarantee their safety. However, the greatest physical danger in mining ponds is technical, that is, the risk of sludge liquefaction. The experts warn that An episode of extreme rain increases the hydrostatic pressure on the retaining walls. If this occurs, the mud can lose its solid behavior and suddenly collapse the structure. There is one more threat. Beyond the mines, the Huelva orography hides another critical point: the phosphogypsum ponds in the Tinto marshes. There are 1,200 hectares that accumulate 120 million tons of industrial waste just a few kilometers from the capital. Studies add a factor of instability additional, since a “progressive sinking of the land” has been detected in this area. Added to this scenario is the opacity denounced by social groups. Ecologists in Action claims to have requested repeatedly provided information on surveillance reports on the raised walls in Riotinto and on the company’s financial guarantees … Read more

Germany is experiencing a new “industrial miracle” that it already experienced 90 years ago: that of weapons

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Germany has been living a transformation silent but very deep. The country that saw the birth of the industrial miracle of the automobile is seeing something similar again, but from a perspective completely different: rearmament, which until recently was a political taboo and a social discomfort, has become a great industrial and labor accelerator. War as a driving force. The country, pushed by the russian invasion of Ukraine and the feeling that the American umbrella is already It’s not so automatic As before, it has been shifting its center of gravity towards defense with a mix of strategic urgency and productive ambition. And that mutation is measured in something very specific: employment, factories, supply chains and a demand that is no longer described as temporary, but as a new normal that promises to last for years, with orders that come in like a wave and companies that prepare to produce at scale, with war economy rhythms without the need to call it that. Mass hiring. German defense contractors have entered into a veritable hiring feverincreasing its workforce by nearly a third in just four years. The data provided by a representative group of large companies and start-ups shows a jump from around 63,000 workers in 2021 to almost 83,000 today Within its defense-focused divisions, a 30% growth which reflects the extent to which the industry is expanding at real speed. I remembered the financial times that, although these figures do not cover the entire sector and there are large companies that did not participate, the portrait is enough to understand the direction of the country: Germany not only buys more weapons, but is rearming its industrial muscle to manufacture, sustain and modernize them, with a labor market that is beginning to reorganize itself around this new priority. Rheinmetall Panther KF51 The budget turn. The great fuel for this expansion is public money converted into contracts. Since 2022, the German Ministry of Defense has signed arms deals worth of 207,000 million eurosand last year alone it concentrated 83,000 million, a figure that contrasts with the 23,000 million in 2021 and that summarizes the break with the previous stage. The most significant thing is that the trend does not aim to stop: Chancellor Merz, in office since May, has relaxed the strict debt rules to allow the level of spending needed in defense, a message that, beyond politics, works as an industrial signal: there will be stable demand, continuity and visibility, just what companies need to invest, expand capacity, hire and plan for the long term without fear that everything will freeze with the next electoral cycle. The real size of the sector. Even with this boom, the German defense industry remains a relatively modest player in terms of employment when compared to the country’s historical giant: the automobile. The Ministry of Economy itself cited around 105,000 jobs direct in defense in 2022, and although the figure will have risen since then, it remains far from the approximately 700,000 workers in the automotive sector, today hit by layoffscompetitive pressure and technological transition. This comparison is important because it cuts to the root a repeated idea: that rearmament can “replace” the car as a great work cushion. Defense can grow a lot, even draw on industry and attract talent, but due to volume it does not seem capable of absorbing the size in the short term. of the engine crisisat least not quickly or massively. Airbus and Reinmetall. Within the employment map, Airbus stands out as the largest employer, with around 38,000 people working in defense worldwide and just over half in Germany, manufacturing key pieces of European military architecture such as the Eurofighter Typhoon and the transport plane A400M. right behind Rheinmetall appearswhich has become the most visible symbol of the boom: the producer of tanks, artillery and ammunition has grown from about 15,400 employees in 2021 at 23,500 todaythe greatest absolute leap among the companies analyzed, and its CEO, Armin Papperger, has even projected a target of 70,000 employees in three years. In parallel, Rheinmetall has begun to experience something that in Germany is a cultural indicator: social attractiveness. He speaks of hundreds of thousands of applications in a single year, as if defense had stopped being a dark or secondary sector to suddenly become a bet for the future for engineers, technicians and industrial profiles. Military startups. The big relative surprise is in the new scene of military start-upsyoung companies focused on surveillance systems or weapons not always publicly detailed, that are raising hundreds of millions in financing and growing at a rate almost unthinkable a decade ago. The most striking case It’s Helsing.which makes armed drones and whose workforce has grown 18-fold in four years after evolving from an artificial intelligence software approach to hardware productiona leap that involves going from selling algorithms to build real objects with parts, assembly lines, logistics and maintenance. This movement is, in itself, a statement: European defense no longer wants to depend only on digital innovation, it wants to convert innovation in physical and deployable systemsand for that you need companies capable of manufacturing and scaling, not just programming. The State accelerates. From within the sector, the discourse is one of sustained takeoff. The BDSV employers’ association, in the voice of Hans Christoph Atzpodien, insists that growth will accelerate because Germany has streamlined processes purchase and has given more visibility on future demand, which allows capacity planning with less uncertainty. The phrase is almost industrially literal: now everything is placed so that large orders “arrive at the doors” of manufacturers. If you want and how do we countthe scenario describes a change of era: for years Europe talked about spending more on defense, but it did so with administrative slowness, political doubts and eternal programs; now the feeling is that the system is being reconfigured to buy and produce urgently, because the threat is perceived to be close and the margin for improvisation has been exhausted. The great temptation: “steal” the car. … Read more

China does not want to give up ground as the world’s factory. Their plan involves deploying a legion of industrial robots with AI

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For years, looking at the label of any device, garment or charger has been almost a formality. The answer used to be the same: “Made in China“. That phrase became silent proof that the Asian giant had managed to establish itself as the factory of the world. From American brand mobile phones to small components of European appliances, much of what we use every day has come from Chinese production lines. But that reality is beginning to change. China’s industrial leadership is no longer sustained solely by abundant labor and low costs, and the model that dominated the last decades needs to be transformed. The shift is not only economic, but also social. Fewer and fewer young Chinese want to work in factoriesa phenomenon that in the United States follows similar patterns: physical jobs, long hours and little professional projection. In both cases, the industry is no longer synonymous with progress for many and is perceived more as a destiny from which one tries to escape. Even so, both China and the United States consider that manufacturing remains strategic, either to maintain global influence or to reduce dependence on foreign countries. Everything indicates that none of them are trying to recover the model of the past, but rather to build a new one based on automation and artificial intelligence. Robots and factories to avoid losing “Made in China” When the Chinese Vice Minister of Industry, Zhang Yunming, said that Adopting artificial intelligence is a necessary and not optional task, I was not speaking only in technological terms. He was referring to protecting one of the country’s great assets: its manufacturing industry, which represents around 25% of the national economy, well above the world average. China remains the world’s largest producer, but it can no longer rely solely on volume or labor. The challenge now is to maintain that leadership by manufacturing with fewer people and more artificial intelligence. In this context, China is responding decisively. The pace at which it is deploying industrial robots is unmatched. Last year alone it installed 295,000 units, almost nine times more than the United States and more than the rest of the world combined. according to the International Federation of Robotics. In some facilities there is already talk of “dark factories”, operations so automated that the plants can operate with minimal human intervention. The Wall Street Journal mentions the Baosteel caseone of the largest steel plants in the country, where workers only intervene every half hour, when before they did so every three minutes. Automation no longer consists only of mechanical arms that repeat movements, but of connected plants, capable of making decisions. The aforementioned newspaper points out how Midea uses an AI system that coordinates robots, sensors and virtual agents to detect failures, assign tasks and adjust processes without human intervention. In the textile industry, Bosideng uses AI models developed with Zhejiang University to conceptualize and design garments, reduce development times and cut costs. This type of solutions not only speeds up production, it also generates a competitive advantage over Western manufacturers that implement changes more slowly. Where China’s industrial ambition is also clearly seen is in the ports. In Tianjin, a fleet of autonomous trucks moves containers without visible human presencewhile artificial intelligence optimizes variables such as ship arrival times and crane capacity. The system, called OptVerse AI Solver, has compressed planning tasks that previously took 24 hours to about ten minutes. PortGPT, a system developed together with Huawei to analyze images and monitor security operations, has also been deployed. The American discourse is based on the idea of ​​sovereignty: manufacturing more within the country to depend less on the outside. The Trump administration has raised that strategy through tariffs on China, Vietnam and other Asian economieswith the aim of attract factories and rebuild supply chains. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick maintains that automation is not incompatible with employmentbut it can generate better-paid technical professions. In an interview he stated that “it is time to train people for the jobs of the future, not for those of the past,” and defended that these factories could support families for several generations. One of the differences between the two models is clearly seen in the ports. While China has deployed autonomous trucks, AI-based planning systems, and tools like PortGPT without significant union opposition, in the United States automation is subject to collective bargaining. The International Longshoremen’s Association and port operators they agreed to veto new automated terminals until the end of 2030, also limiting the use of artificial intelligence in administrative tasks. For unions, automation means losing jobs and bargaining power. For China, it is a national strategy. China wants to continue being the world’s factory, but not exactly the same. It is no longer about cheap labor, but about factories capable of producing more with fewer people and with more artificial intelligence. The United States seeks its own path, with more work conditions and a different rhythmbut with the same objective of not depending on the outside. What is at stake is not just where it is manufactured, but how. And it is possible that, in a few years, the label we find will not only be “Made in China”, but a different form of manufacturing where robots will no longer be accessories, but protagonists. Images | Homa Appliances | Xataka with Gemini 3 In Xataka | Nexperia China has been trying to contact the Dutch headquarters for days. The only response has been absolute silence

The US industrial plan is crumbling because it is being eaten up by a new sector: that of insatiable AI

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Generative AI is stupid. Is Yann LeCun’s opinionone of the godfathers of the artificial intelligencewhich has grown tired of how the AI ​​majors seek AGI and it seems that he is going to set up his startup to achieve it. To make AI more “smart” you have to train it, and for that you have to build data centers. And boy is it being done. To the point that there are already those who calculate that the rise of AI threatens the plan of reindustrialization of the United States. AI walks or doesn’t walk. The United States has a plan: invest whatever it takes to achieve superintelligence before China. China is also investing, but while what it seeks is a cheap and functional AI to monetize nowwhat the US wants is artificial general intelligence, or AGI. That costs money and, above all, investment in huge data centers. One of the Donald Trump’s election promises During his two campaigns he orbited around the commitment to return millions of jobs to Americans. To achieve this, the opening of new factories on national soil through tax incentives and an “America First” policy that we have seen echo in the rest of the world in the form of tariffs. In Xataka SoftBank has always been characterized by very risky investments. And now he just abandoned NVIDIA Capital redistribution. ANDfactories are opening and reopeningbut perhaps not as many expected. In Bloomberg They point to a devastating fact: spending on new data centers has increased by 18% in the last seven months. This is a colossal increase, but it goes hand in hand with another fact: spending on new factories has fallen 2.5% this year. While large technology companies are committed to building data centers, the policies of recent months, immigration restrictions, withdrawal of support for electric vehicles and tariffs are generating uncertainty in the market that slows down investment aimed at opening other types of factories. Not only are factories not opened, but they are laid off. American manufacturing heavyweights are not only facing the biggest corporate tax hike since the 1990s, but are estimated to have lost 38,000 manufacturing jobs this year. Mostly in sectors such as electronics, automobiles or household appliances. In August alone, 12,000 people lost their jobs (and why don’t we include those from the video game industry here…). In Xataka Quietly, the great AI industry has found a gateway to Europe: the United Kingdom brutal difference. Estimates suggest that the monthly spending of manufacturing plants will situates at $18.8 billion, but while the trend is downward, if we look at spending on AI, we see a radically different scenario. Among the big four technology companies (Amazon, Microsoft, Meta and Alphabet) $400 billion will go to AI infrastructure in 2025 alone. This is an increase of 60% compared to last year and it is not a peak: it is something sustained. In fact, the investment in 2026 is expected to be higher. There are other companies with their own plans, such as OpenAI what is the most valuable private company and can afford lose 11.5 billion in just the last 90 days which is making an investment of between 400,000 and 500,000 million dollars between 2025 and 2027. {“videoId”:”x9sjece”,”autoplay”:true,”title”:”CHINA is WINNING the TECH WAR because they planned it that way 10 YEARS AGO”, “tag”:”china”, “duration”:”721″} Help Uncle Sam. This AI boom is driving other directly linked sectors, such as the construction of the data centers themselves (someone has to build them as long as they do not use already manufactured facilities) and that of energy. Because these facilities need ridiculous amounts of energy to runso much so that Google wants to take them to space and China is submerging them in the sea to spend less on dissipation. Thus, reopening nuclear power plants or investing in modernizing gas turbines to supply data centers is on the horizon, but it is still something that does not impact the American worker, they are not new factories that need personnel. And part of the money needed is coming from the state itself. Recently, AMD announced that the United States Department of Energy had allocated 1,000 million public to power the infrastructure. And both OpenAI and NVIDIA have dropped the need for the United States to get involved to sustain this new industry, which is already awakening bubble feelings. In Xataka While the US reopens nuclear plants, China has already resolved the great limitation to the development of AI: energy Echoes of the 2008 blow. When we talk about such astronomical figures, it is very difficult to get an idea. It was already happening with the 70,000 million dollars that Microsoft paid to take over Activisionand if we now go to amounts of 400,000 or 500,000 million, things are going to get worse. What is evident is that, as we say, these investments fly over the fear of the bubble bursting. If in July of this year 37% of fund managers believed that we were facing a bubble, in October the figure increase up to 54%, although from the technology industry itself It seems that there is no one who brings sanity. Because it is spending a lot, a lot, more than during the dotcom era which did not end too well for many, and even figures as interested as Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, have commented that, while it is true that many are oversizing their investments, it is better than being left behind. Only time will tell how everything turns out, obviously, but the article Bloomberg It closes in a quite interesting way. Arno Hill, former mayor of Lordstown, a municipality where there was a large GM plant already closed and which is now part of SoftBank and Foxconn’s plans to create a data center, says that he does not know what will happen with AI, but that people will always need cars. Image | Google Data Centers In Xataka | The world of AI has a problem: there is no energy … Read more

While industrial production collapses in the European Union, in Switzerland is triggered. And it is an energy issue

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In the midst of the European energy storm, Switzerland seems to live in a bubble of prosperity. In a recent publicationthe geopolitical analyst Velina Tchakarova showed how the Swiss industry continues to grow in front of the European Union. And the data does not deceive anyone: in the first quarter of this year the industrial production of the Helvetic increased 8.5% year -on -yearwhile in Germany recorded last June A 1.9%collapse, the worst data in years. The contrast is even more evident in the long term: since 2011, Swiss industrial production It has grown almost 40%in front of the German stagnation. The Swiss road. True to its neutrality, but knowing how to position itself, the Swiss industry is dominated by sectors of high added value and low relative energy consumption, like pharmaceuticals and biotechnology. But here is the most revealing: that low energy consumption is not only efficiency, but also outsourcing (a sophisticated strategy of Green offshoring). An EBP consultant study for the Federal Environmental Office (BAFU) shows that two thirds of the environmental footprint of Switzerland They are generated outside their borders. The report Umwelt Schweiz 2022 Confirm this pattern: the country reduces its internal impact at the expense of moving it abroad. There are different examples that illustrate it well: the Roche company announced in May A new biopharmaceutical plant in Shanghai, the Lonza company operating in Guangzhou Or, the most striking case, Siegfried managing a global network with headquarters in different countries that allows you to distribute phases of the chain outside the Helvetic territory. Together, these movements illustrate how the Swiss industrial “miracle” retains the added value at home while displacing the most polluting and expensive part abroad. To this is added an electrical system less vulnerable to gas: the Hydroelectricity and the nuclear They represent a good part of their mix. The Labyrinth of the EU. At this time you are going through an industrial decline: Eurostat reported that in June the production fell 1.0% in the EU as a whole and 1.3% in the eurozone. The setback It was coming last yearwhen the manufacturing volume was 2% lower than in 2022. And Ing Think analysts They warn that European industrial production It remains 5% below two years ago, a prolonged stagnation signal. To this fall is added a perfect storm: high energy costsCO₂ and an internal debate about its energy model. France, With a reactor -based systemleads the block that defends nuclear energy as a backbone of the transition. Spain and Portugal, with solar and wind abundance, demand otherwise: more interconnections and networks To take advantage of renewable surplus. In addition, it is added The tireless search by the EU of looking for another output to stock up that it is not Russia in terms of gas. While Switzerland transfers its heaviest loads to Asia, Europe is enclosed in its own rules, paying CO₂ rights that further increase its energy intensive industries. Switzerland outsourizes, Europe internalizes. Switzerland harvest added value, Europe assumes added costs. The awkward contrast. Here the paradox emerges. Switzerland exhibits an expansion industry, favorable environmental statistics and a more stable electricity supply. Everything seems to indicate that it has found the perfect formula to prosper in the midst of European chaos. For its part, the European Union is paying the price If pioneer: its factories face much higher energy costs, their energy intensive industries lose competitiveness and their governments carry the pressure of meet strict climatic objectives. But Swiss success relies on a small print. The report itself Umwelt Schweiz 2022 He admits that two thirds of the country’s environmental footprint are generated outside their borders. That is, Switzerland retains at home the added value of its pharmaceutical and technological industry, while the energy cost and pollution are transferred to other places. That apparently virtuous model implies a strategic risk: to depend on global supply chains and expose themselves to political vulnerabilities in Asia. In climatic terms, the question is inevitable: are global emissions really reduced when Switzerland “is cleaned” at the cost of others getting more? Or, in other words, isn’t its industrial miracle with another way to outsource the environmental invoice? Forecasts On paper, Switzerland seems greener and more prosperous. But the true story is told in the chimneys of China and in the closed factories of Germany. The Helvetic miracle works, to a large extent, because the energy and climatic invoice is paid by others. While industrial production collapses in the European Union, in Switzerland is triggered. However, that balance, sustained in global chains and in others, could be broken when geopolitics tightens. The real unknown is not how much the Swiss miracle can last, but who is willing to pay his invoice. Image | Freepik and Unspash Xataka | Nuclear fever in the middle of AI: Uranium rises like foam while stumble

Install 280,000 industrial robots per year

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China is obsessed with robots. The Humanoid robots They are the ones that attract more looks, but there is another silent invasion of robots that is working without stopping with a goal: to ensure that China remains “the world factory.” 280,000 robots. They tell it in the Financial Times. It is the figure of industrial robots that Chinese factories are installing every year. To put it in context, it would be half of the global total. According to Data from the International Robotics FederationChina placed itself as an absolute leader in industrial robots facilities, although the leadership in terms of the density of Robots vs workers keeps it South Korea, followed by Singapore and thirdly China. Own manufacture. The thrust towards automation by industrial robots is part of the Made in China 2025 plan promoted by Xi Jinping, in which robots and industrial machinery were two of the key pillars. According to the Chinese consultant Market Intelligence Resourceat least half of those robots are manufactured by Chinese companies. Chengdu Crp Robot Technology is one of those companies and has managed to highlight robots 60% cheaper than its rivals. Efficiency and salary increases. The strong commitment to automation is pending in the Chinese industry, to local manufacturers of low -cost goods, and is paying fruit. Manufacturers are able to reduce costs and remain efficient despite salary increases of recent years. The average salary of a worker in a Dongguan factory is about 625 euros, while in India, one of its main competitors in this sector is only 165 euros. More exports. Automation is causing an increase in exports in industries such as toys, which in the last four years has increased from 54.3 to 56.9%. In furniture, its quota has increased by 1.5% and other items such as stationery or cleaning have grown nine percentage points. And less employment. China became the world factory thanks to the cheap labor, but now that this is over they are going to robots to maintain their advantage. The negative part is that employment is falling. Financial Times estimates that between 2011 and 2023, employment in twelve industries with a strong presence of labor has fallen by 26.5%. In parallel, new jobs derived from automation are emerging, they are the so -called “Purple Collar” workers Dedicated to the maintenance of these robots, although it is not enough to match the loss of jobs. World leader. When it is said that China is the world factory is not an exaggeration. However, it has not always been so. The video about these lines perfectly reflects how the ranking of countries that most manufacture has been moving. Until 2009, the United States went to the head, but then China advanced and consolidated a leadership that is maintained until today with 27.7% of the total. Competence. The above data refer to the global of all industries, but in certain China sectors it has found strong competition in Southeast Asian countries that offer cheap labor. Vietnam has been placed as the second shoe exporter in key markets like the United States and is also The second largest smartphones manufacturer. In the textile industry, Bangladesh is a leader in yute manufactures and second in clothing. Automation is China’s great asset to maintain its position. Image | Chengdu Crp Robot Technology In Xataka | China is overturned in robots. So much so that he has mounted them some Olympics in which they play the ping pong u order medicines

Industrial espionage is threatening the largest chips manufacturer on the planet: TSMC

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It is no secret: espionage is very present in The semiconductor industry. It is in other sectors and we can be sure that a strategic industry such as integrated circuits It is not at all immune to him. On this occasion “the victim” is the Taiwanese company TSMC, The largest integrated circuit manufacturer of the planet. And, curiously, this plot of industrial espionage does not arrive at any time. And this company is about to start the large -scale manufacture of chips using its most advanced integration technology: The 2 Nm. What we know at the moment is that, According to Reutersthe Taiwanese authorities have arrested three TSMC employees because they have allegedly stole commercial secrets of this company. As we can expect, behind this detention is TSMC itself, as He has revealed The Taiwan Superior Prosecutor’s Office in a statement. According to Nikkei Asiathose responsible for this company have realized that two employees and a former employee have been made with critical information about the photolithography of 2 Nm of TSMC. This information is very valuable. In fact, it could be used by a competitor to optimize its own semiconductor manufacturing processes. The research has not yet determined whether this stolen information has reached another company, but United Daily News ensures that researchers have registered the offices of the Japanese company Tokyo Electron. At the moment this last signature has not confirmed or denied anything. Other industrial espionage frames that have given much to talk Our next protagonist is Asml. This Dutch company is the only one that is currently capable of manufacturing teams of extreme ultraviolet photolithography (UVE) that are necessary to produce avant -garde chips. At the end of 2023 Peter Wennink, the then general director of ASML, confirmed that a Chinese origin employee had abandoned the company in 2022 after being recruited by Huawei with the purpose of revealing this Chinese company secrets of the Dutch firm that a priori could compromise their business. According to the Dutch medium, Russia has something important in its favor: it has spies inside Asml This event was so serious that those responsible for ASML decided to include it in their 2022 annual report and Wennink was forced to Give explanations In a meeting with investors. According to this executive, the information stolen by the former Chinese employee It was partial. In fact, he described it as “one piece in a puzzle whose box is not in your power.” This Wennink statement rightly reflects The titanic complexity that have the most advanced lithography equipment produced by ASML. At the end of last year this company starred in another plot of espionage. Again as “victim.” The Government led by Vladimir Putin intends to have a prototype of UVE lithography equipment capable of manufacturing 130 Nm chips ready in 2026. And in 2028 another similar one trained to produce integrated 7 nm circuits. A priori it is difficult to believe it, but, according to the Dutch medium USRussia has something important in your favor: it has spies within ASML. Like China. In fact, one of them, a former employee of Russian origin, He has been arrested and is accused of stealing critical commercial secrets. The last plot of industrial espionage that I propose that we review is starring the South Korean company SK Hynix and the Chinese company Huawei. In mid -April 2024 a former employee of Chinese sk Hynix origin It was stopped at a South Korean airport when he was about to enter the country. The accusation that was cernia about it was very serious: it was suspected of having stolen confidential information about semiconductor manufacturing processes Used by SK Hynix to give it to Huawei. This employee decided to print 3,000 pages of technical documents, and that movement gave it away because it aroused suspicion immediately within the company. He faces 18 years in prison. Image | TSMC More information | Reuters | Nikkei Asia In Xataka | South Korea fears US reprisals. To avoid their old lithography equipment, they take dust on a warehouse

The industrial paradox that has put worldwide trade to the limit

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In Europe, steel costs less than a bottle of water. In the United States, it costs almost double if it comes from abroad. And in China, it produces so much that the world no longer knows what to do with it. According to estimates by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), The excess world capacity will reach 721 million tons within two years. And no one is willing to stop. Steel that is left over. The steel industry lives a perfect storm: global overproduction, state subsidies, fall in internal demand in China and protectionist policies. In a report for the New York Times They have explained it through the Tata Steel plant in Ijmuiden (Netherlands), one of the most advanced in Europe. It manufactures steel on commission for high precision applications. Even so, the company announced 1,600 layoffs this spring, while 18,000 jobs were cut throughout the European Union and nine million tons of capacity were closed in 2024. The background reason, As explained by the same mediumis the avalanche of cheap steel from China, which manufactures more than the rest of the combined world. This overproduction, fueled by government support and lower environmental standards, has flooded global markets, forcing traditionally non -exporting countries such as South Korea and Japan to seek buyers desperately. A scale problem. Steel is much more than an industrial product. As He remembered for the New York environment Atlantic Council researcher Elisabeth Braw, steel is one of the few goods that every country wishes to have “in any circumstance.” Its use ranges from food cans and forks to war tanks and combat planes. However, there is another aspect to take into account: steel pollutes. As We have already explained in Xatakaeach ton produced emits two tons of CO₂, which is equivalent to 7% of global emissions. This makes steel an obstacle to achieving climatic objectives. The paradox is clear: the world needs less steel, but nobody wants to be the first to close ovens. The industry is too big to abandon it, but too inefficient to sustain it as it is. This generates a vicious circle between price drop, minimum margins, lack of investment in clean technologies and greater pollution. The King of Steel. China is not only the largest world producer of steel, but also exerts a disproportionate influence on the global market. It produces more than the rest of the combined planet, largely thanks to a more lax state and environmental regulations system than in the West. According to data from the National Statistics Office cited by BloombergChinese production registered in June the greatest fall in ten months, due to adjustments in the capacity and government pressure to contain internal competition. Even so, more than 60 % of Chinese gatherings are already profitable, a notable leap compared to 30 % of just a year ago, driven by the rebound in demand in sectors such as automotive, machinery and, above all, exports. These exports have continued to grow despite international tariffs and commercial tensions, flooding markets in Europe, Asia and Africa with steel at dumping prices. This dynamic has reduced the margins of Western steel and left them without sufficient resources to invest in low carbon technologies, a problem that the OECD considers a critical obstacle to achieve the climatic objectives. With an still weak internal consumption for the real estate crisis, Beijing seems to bet more and more to export its excess steel as an economic influence tool, which multiplies clashes with the United States and Europe. Another power wants to face. The United States also wants to regain control of its industry. In January 2025, then President Joe Biden blocked the purchase of Us Steel by the Japanese Nippon Steel, claiming national security motifs. The decision, backed even by Donald Trump and by the unions in the sector, generated diplomatic discomfort in Tokyo and tensed the relationship with one of its main strategic allies. Six months later, that same logic translates into terrain conversions. In an article for The Washington Post They have detailed as in Weircon (Western Virginia), a city forged by the steel, the company Form Energy has occupied part of the vacuum left by the closure of the local steelter, hiring more than 400 workers – many of them extrabajadores of the steel – to manufacture energy storage batteries. Although initially driven by federal subsidies, the initiative has even survived the cuts of the Trump administration, and represents an attempt to reindustrialize without fully renouncing the steel legacy. The message is clear: the United States does not want to let your steel, your industrial narrative, fall into foreign hands. And Europe is trapped. In all this triangle, Europe loses ground, trapped Between the Chinese dumping and Tariff hostility of his Atlantic ally. And now, in addition, committed to buying massive amounts of fossil fuels to avoid major sanctions. Being more concrete, Europe has some of the most advanced gaits in the world, such as the Tata Steel plant in Ijmuiden, the Netherlands, which manufactures specialized steel for batteries and high -end cars. However, he is facing a perfect storm: high energy costs, strict environmental standards, unfair competition and political pressure. Despite attempts to modernize – like Tata’s plan to go to hydrogen – the necessary investment is counted in billions. In addition, American tariffs have hindered European exports, just when block countries need income to finance ecological transition. As for the United Kingdom, the government has had to intervene high ovens and subsidize plants to avoid massive closures. And in Germany, European industrial bastion, the approaches face the largest decline in decades, with a 11.6 % drop in production during the first half of 2025, According to The New York Times. Where does steel go? The steel faces a crossroads: between the industrialization of the twentieth century and the ecological demands of the 21st century. The only sustainable output seems to be green steel. Companies such as Swedish SSAB have already begun to produce it through … Read more

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