Editor’s note: Welcome to So That Happened, our editors’ takes on things going on in the manufacturing world that deserve some extra attention. This will appear regularly in the Member’s Only section of the site.
Alcoa, The Data Center Power Player?
Shuttered industrial sites often get another chance at being put to productive use, although it might take lots of TLC and even more cleanup dollars. Aluminum titan Alcoa Corp. has built up its share of experience on that front and, if it’s up to President and CEO Bill Oplinger, will significantly build up its coffers in coming years by playing a role in the global data center boom.
On a recent conference call after reporting Alcoa’s fourth-quarter results, Oplinger was asked about monetizing properties the company has idled. He took the opportunity to point out that Alcoa was ahead of the data-center curve: In 2021, it sold 31,000 acres in Texas as well as a 2,100-acre site in Maryland for a combined $340 million—with the Maryland property slated to house a data center campus with a $5 billion price tag.
Look for more such deals.
“We’re going to make sure that we get maximum value out of these sites,” Oplinger said Jan. 22. “We’re not in a rush to sell but it is actually a good market right now.”
Oplinger said several Alcoa sites are particularly attractive to data-center players because they have already connections to the energy grid. Among them are a former smelter in Massena, New York, that was closed in 2014 and an alumina refinery in Point Comfort, Texas, that Alcoa shut down six years ago and is still being demolished.
Interested parties shouldn’t come knocking with low-ball offers: Oplinger said some early bids for Alcoa’s 31,000 acres in Texas came in around $40 million, hoping Alcoa might be up for a fire sale. The company eventually netted $240 million for its land.
“These things take time and I want maximum value,” Oplinger said.
—Geert De Lombaerde
Bridgestone to Close Tennessee Plant in Optimization Effort
Bridgestone Americas will be shutting down its LaVergne, Tennessee, tire plant as part of a broader effort to “optimize its business footprint,” the Nashville tire manufacturer announced earlier this month.
The closure is slated for July 31, 2025, and approximately 700 workers will be impacted.
The LaVergne tire factory was Bridgestone’s first North American manufacturing site, joining the Japanese manufacturer’s fold in the early 1980s when Bridgestone purchased it from Firestone Tire & Rubber Co. Only a few years later, in 1988, the company would purchase all of Firestone, which significantly expanded its North American reach.
Bridgestone America’s optimization effort is not limited to LaVergne. The manufacturer also reported that it will reduce capacity and headcount at its Des Moines, Iowa, agriculture tire plant, as well as pursue workforce reductions at its U.S. corporate headquarters and elsewhere, including in Latin and South America.
“Decisions like this are not easy because of the impact it has on our teammates and their families, and at the same time we are optimizing our business footprint for the future,” said Scott Damon, CEO, Bridgestone West and Group President, Bridgestone Americas, in the announcement.
The company has not released the total number of positions impacted by these latest moves, but an email attributed to company spokesperson Emily Weaver said, “Of our nearly 44,000 teammates across North America and Latin America, just under 4% of our teammates are leaving the company as part of the voluntary and involuntary workforce reductions.”
In its announcement, the company also pointed out new investments, such as an expansion and modernization effort at its factory in Warren County, Tennessee. Additionally, in October 2024 Bridgestone announced that it had received a DOE grant and would use that money for a pilot plant to explore a more sustainable and cost-effective approach to sustainable rubber.
—Jill Jusko
Industrial AI Adoption Rates Remain Low
I’m less concerned with who plans to use industrial AI and who has actually deployed it already. Based on a new report, only around a fifth of manufacturers might have embraced the technology.
Siemens released a report titled "A New Pace of Change: Industrial AI x Sustainability," based on a survey of 200 senior executives directly involved with shaping technology and sustainability strategies.
The report mostly concerns predictions and future planning but has some concrete data about the current use of industrial AI. When asked about use of AI for operations:
- 21% of respondents cited energy management and predictive maintenance as current deployments for industrial AI
- 18% cited real-time operational decision-making
- 16% cited resource efficiency management
When asked about use of AI for development of sustainable products:
- 16% cited AI-enhanced product testing and simulation
- 15% cited AI-enhanced products and services
- 14% cited product customization and personalization and generative design for physical products
Based on this data, the manufacturing industry has a long way to go before AI truly becomes a ubiquitous technology.
—Dennis Scimeca
Colombian Crisis Averted?
The new administration set in motion and subsequently averted the makings of a trade war all before completing the first week of Trump’s second term. On Sunday, Colombian President Gustavo Petro blocked flights carrying deportees from landing after accusing the U.S. of treating migrants like criminals in a social media post on X.
To retaliate, Trump announced he would impose an emergency 25% tariff on all Colombian imports that would rise to 50% after one week, among other sanctions. In retaliation to the retaliation, Petro said he would impose a 25% tariff increase on all U.S. imports.
Despite the drastic threats, Colombia and the U.S. came to an expeditious agreement. Later that same evening, it was announced that Colombia agreed to accept migrants “without limitation or delay,” according to a press secretary statement. “The fully drafted IEEPA tariffs and sanctions will be held in reserve, and not signed, unless Colombia fails to honor this agreement.”
For now, it seems that the U.S. has avoided a potentially damaging tariff war with Colombia, but that doesn’t mean our supply chains aren’t in danger.
With Trump’s crackdown on immigration, many manufacturing and agricultural industries expect to lose workers. According to the 2021-2022 National Agricultural Workers Survey, 42% of crop workers are unauthorized to work in the U.S. With Trump’s promise of mass deportation, will there be an adequate amount of U.S. citizens to fill these jobs? And if not, many are left wondering what will happen to the food supply as well as the overall economy.
Brooke Rollins said at her Senate confirmation hearing for USDA secretary she would work to reform and potentially modernize the H-2A visa program, but many concerns remain regarding worker abuse and exploitation through this program.
So, even though a trade war may have been averted, worries of supply chain disruptions and inhumane treatment of foreign workers remain.
—Anna Smith
Looking for Power and Cash on the Big Board
A small builder of on-site power systems for industrial firms is seeking its big break—again—on the New York Stock Exchange.
Based in Findlay, Ohio, One Power was founded in 2009 and bills itself as the largest installer and owner of behind-the-meter wind energy in the United States. It is looking to sell shares via an initial public offering, the terms of which haven’t yet been nailed down. In a letter to prospective investors, Founder, Chairman and CEO Jereme Kent says the business is a “Utility 2.0” combination of a developer, contractor, engineer and financier that puts power where industrial users need it.
“We design and build substations, we build high-voltage power systems, we built electrified industrial parks emerging industries, we build wind turbines and solar systems for power generation,” Kent wrote. “And we have the privilege and responsibility of owning and operating all of those assets for decades.”
One Power’s client list features some notable names, including DTE Energy Inc., Whirlpool Corp. and can manufacturer Ball Corp. But things have been rocky financially: It lost $20 million on $6 million in sales in 2023 and booked a net loss of another $33 million on $4.4 million in sales through the first nine months of last year. Last August, Kent and his team pulled the plug on a planned merger with TortoiseEcofin Acquisition Corp. III, a special-purpose acquisition company that NYSE officials delisted after the two entities struck their deal.
If his team’s IPO succeeds, Kent will be able to strike out on the “blue ocean of opportunity” that comes with the rising demand for power in the United States. But he—and his securities attorneys—also are realistic about the need to turn around those financials. Cue the caveat:
“Our management believes our existing cash and cash equivalents, along with proceeds from this offering, will be sufficient to meet our operating working capital and capital expenditure requirements for at least the next twelve months from the date of this prospectus. However, this belief is based on assumptions which may prove different from actual results and future circumstances.”
—Geert De Lombaerde
Just Like Mama Used to Extrude from Industial Equipment
You're home sick, sitting on the couch mindlessly watching TV and hoping for the pounding in your head to subside. It's time for comfort food, and what could be more comforting than homemade soup from your mother's kitchen? General Mills' Progresso soup line thinks a hard candy could be the answer.
Food scientists at General Mills, looking to upend the millennia-old field of soup science, have released aSoup Drop version of their chicken noodle soup. Think of a cough drop, except tasting of chicken broth instead of menthol and lemon.
MC Comings, VP and business unit director for Progresso, notes that chicken noodle soup is a classic meal for the ailing. “When you’re sick, nothing is truly more reassuring than chicken noodle soup. So, we thought, why stop at the soup bowl?”
The company notes the drops’ unusual form factor means stew stans can allegedly enjoy a facsimile of chicken noodle soup while running errands that typically preclude keeping a steaming bowl of broth on hand. Because when your head feels twice its normal size, you have a fever and your nose is raw from all of the tissue use, the last things you want to be encumbered by are bowls and spoons!
The stunt soup — cooked up for National Soup Month, which is January — is only available online for order, and each can of the wrapped, savory “hard candy drops” comes with a can of the traditional liquid-based stuff. At press time, the website shows the drops as sold out, with one more “drop” of drops to be made available before the end of the month. It is unclear if soup drops will return after January 2025.
—Ryan Secard
