Industrials and Manufacturing Sector

Mitsubishi Electric is building three new production facilities in Japan to manufacture electronic systems for the Global Combat Air Programme, targeting a defence sales increase to 690 billion yen ($4.4 billion) by March 2031, channelnewsasia.com reports. The capital commitment signals that the joint British, Italian, and Japanese initiative to deploy a next-generation fighter by 2035 is progressing from preliminary design into hardware deployment. CFO Kenichiro Fujimoto expects the project to boost company earnings around fiscal 2029 or 2030, with government funds compensating the group for prototype builds and initial staffing. The company is relying on a looser Japanese export regime to drive this growth alongside shipments of warship equipment to Australia and components for RTX Corp.'s AMRAAM missiles. Beyond fixed fighter contracts, Western stockpiles depleted by conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East present an immediate demand driver for Japanese defense lines. Mitsubishi Electric aims to expand annual defence revenues by over 50 percent from current levels, driven largely by foreign military sales.

U.S. rail traffic expanded 2.5% year-over-year in Week 30 as a 4.8% gain in intermodal freight offset a 0.4% decline in carloads, according to industry data reported by freightwaves.com. Broad-based industrial demand fueled the expansion, with seven of the ten commodity categories tracked by the Association of American Railroads posting increases. U.S. carloads grew 2.1% once coal is excluded from the haul. Steel manufacturing drove the heaviest volume gains, with scrap iron and steel rail traffic leaping 20% and metallic ores rising 16%. Grain shipments grew 4%, while chemical shipments dropped 2.2%. Industrial freight moves without hockey-stick momentum. On a year-to-date basis, total U.S. rail traffic is up 3.3%, supported by a 2.7% gain in carloads and a 3.8% increase in intermodal containers. The volume gains land as the Surface Transportation Board holds its review of Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern's proposed merger in abeyance while regulators evaluate over 400 pages of supplemental filings.

Stardust Power signed a non-binding letter of intent with battery technology firm Charge CCCV to supply up to 20,000 metric tons of battery-grade lithium carbonate annually by 2030. According to mining.com, the proposed deal structures a phased supply agreement from Stardust's planned Muskogee, Oklahoma refinery, starting with 3,000 metric tons in 2028 and scaling to 10,000 metric tons in 2029. Charge CCCV, which operates US battery manufacturing platforms, would take the refining output to feed its domestic gigafactory joint ventures. The non-binding structure means no cash changes hands today, leaving execution dependent on Stardust finalizing the contract and bringing its Oklahoma plant online. This agreement follows a February deal to supply Japan's Sumitomo Corporation with at least 20,000 metric tons annually. Despite the prospective order book, investors pushed Stardust Power's stock down 8.5% on Wednesday, leaving the micro-cap developer with a $6.6 million market capitalization.