It’s just business: manufacturing moves from Ford Motor Co., RTX, Thermo Fisher Scientific, and more and more

The business of manufacturing never stops. Industrial companies merge, invest and strategically expand to keep competitive, even under adverse business conditions. Read on for more details on five such expansions and acquisitions made by industrial and manufacturing companies.

Partnership: Jabil and Qcells announced May 7 the two companies would collaborate on residential battery storage systems. Qcells, which manufactures solar cells and modules under the parent company Hanwha, said the new storage system would be assembled in Jabil’s Auburn Hills, Michigan, factory. The new development builds on an existing agreement for Jabil to assemble Qcells’ microinverters in Michigan.

Expansion: Novartis announced May 7 that it had broken ground on a new 46,000 radioligand therapy manufacturing site in Denton, Texas. The company has vowed to spend $23 billion in U.S. R&D, including for radioligand therapies for treating cancer. In a statement, Novartis CEO Vas Narasimhan said the new site would help deliver radioligand therapy to U.S. customers “at scale.”  

Expansion: Ford Motor Co. announced May 11 that it would formally spin up Ford Energy, a new subsidiary battery energy storage system company from its existing battery-manufacturing operations in Glendale, Kentucky. In a company release, Lisa Drake, President of the new company, said its flagship product would be a 20-foot containerized battery energy storage system for sale to utilities, data centers, and other industrial and commercial U.S. customers.

Expansion: Collins Aerospace announced May 11 that it would spend $26.5 million at its Largo, Florida factory to boost production of its commercial aviation radar and defense security systems there. The company expects the expansion to create 100 jobs at the site. The expansion is expected to become operational before the end of the year.

Partnership: Thermo Fisher Scientific will collaborate with Nuvation Bio on manufacturing Nuvation’s ibtrozi brand lung cancer drug. According to a Nuvation statement released May 13, the two companies have transferring the relevant information and technology to Thermo Fisher, which will produce the branded taletrectinib drug on a contract pharmaceutical basis. In a statement, Nuvation CEO David Hung said the collaboration would improve patient access to the drug, which targets the most common form of lung cancer.