manufacturing

While production of internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles are expected to decline from 12 million in 2023 to 5.2 million in 2029 and battery electric vehicles (BEVs), powered exclusively by an electric battery, would increase from 1.1 million to 7.3 million vehicles during the same period, the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago concludes the change is unlikely to cause much change in the geographic location of automobile manufacturers, according to an Economics Perspectives paper. The paper's authors investigated what impact, if any, such a change in the number of types of vehicles produced would have on the locations where cars are manufactured. They concluded that the changeover to manufacturing electric vehicles (EVs) should not cause much disruption to the geographic location of automobile manufacturers.

A Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) for a new artificial intelligence-focused Manufacturing USA institute is now available on Grants.gov. The U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), which posted the NOFO on July 22, anticipates funding of up to $70 million over five years, subject to the availability of federal funds, according to their press release. Concept papers are due Sept. 30. Applicants with the best concepts will be invited to submit full proposals. The notice on Grants.gov lists additional deadlines and other important dates.

Three pieces of federal legislation enacted in 2021 and 2022—the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), CHIPS and Science Act (CHIPS Act), and Inflation Reduction Act (IRA)—collectively authorize nearly $1.5 trillion to reshape America’s industrial landscape. But will this money help the 107 Black-owned and 151 Hispanic-owned companies in the manufacturing supply chains that the legislation is designed to support? 

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has issued a Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) seeking proposals to establish and operate a CHIPS Manufacturing USA institute focused on digital twins for the semiconductor industry. The CHIPS for America Program anticipates up to approximately $285 million in funding will be awarded to the institute. Digital twins, as defined in a press release from the U.S. Department of Commerce, are “virtual models that mimic the structure, context, and behavior of a physical counterpart.”

This article, written by Leonardo Vasquez and reproduced from the April 2024 issue of NBER Digest, is a summary of NBER Working Paper 31948, prepared by Luisa Gagliardi, Enrico Moretti, and Michael Seranfelli.

The Office of Advanced Manufacturing at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), an agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce, intends to announce an open competition for a new Manufacturing USA institute. The expected competition, according to the notice of intent (NOI), will seek to establish a Manufacturing USA institute “focused on the use of artificial intelligence to improve resilience of U.S. manufacturing.”

The White House announced on February 9 that the administration expects to invest over $5 billion in semiconductor-related research, development, and workforce needs. The $5 billion will flow through the National Semiconductor Technology Center (NSTC), a public-private entity created to handle the funds. Friday’s announcement established the NSTC as a public-private consortium of the Secretaries of Commerce, Defense, and Energy, the Director of the National Science Foundation, and Natcast. Natcast will operate the NSTC consortium.

The United States has one of the most diversified economies of any nation, yet also the most dynamic; over the past five years, from 2018 through 2022, the U.S.’ agriculture, forestry, fishing, and hunting industry has grown 53%, while other industries such as manufacturing and construction have grown at a slower pace—17% and 23% respectively—compared to a 25% increase in overall gross domestic product.

A bipartisan report from the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party says the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has failed to live up to the foundational principles of the World Trade Organization—open, market-oriented, non-discriminatory treatment. In its report, "Reset, Prevent, Build: A Strategy to Win America's Economic Competition with the Chinese Communist Party," the committee calls for resetting the U.S.'s economic relationship with China. They propose to do so, in part, through new research security measures and controls on technology exports.

Activity to build the U.S. semiconductor industry picked up steam on Monday, December 11. On that day, New York State, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced the state was committing $1 billion to what her office described as “a $10 billion partnership with leaders from the semiconductor industry such as IBM, Micron, Applied Materials, Tokyo Electron, and others to establish a next-generation semiconductor research and development center at NY CREATES’ Albany NanoTech Complex.” Also on that day, the U.S. Department of Commerce announced the U.S. Department of Commerce and BAE Systems Electronic Systems, a business unit of BAE Systems, Inc., have signed a non-binding preliminary memorandum of terms (PMT) to provide approximately $35 million in federal incentives under the CHIPS and Science Act to support the modernization of the company’s Microelectronics Center in Nashua, New Hampshire.