ISSUE BRIEF | How China’s Physical AI Dominance Impacts America’s Auto Industry
The production of industrial robots is accelerating globally. Factories worldwide installed 542,000 industrial robots in 2024, more than double the number installed a decade earlier. Asia accounted for 74 percent of new deployments. Europe followed at 16 percent, while North America was at just 9 percent, a share that has declined relative to global growth. The U.S. automotive […]
FACT SHEET | Differences Between the Steel and Aluminum Industries
The U.S. steel and aluminum industries are vital for national and economic security. Both strategic industrial metals are essential to critical applications in defense, aviation, construction, transportation, and energy infrastructure. While both industries grapple with Chinese market manipulation, the domestic steel and aluminum industries face different challenges in access to raw material inputs, energy consumption, carbon intensity, and capacity utilization. […]
ISSUE BRIEF | Turning Scrap into Strength: The Strategic Importance of Aluminum Recycling
Aluminum is essential across nearly every major U.S. commercial sector including automotive, aerospace, defense, electronics, and energy infrastructure. To keep pace with growing aluminum demand, recycling offers significant economic and strategic advantages. Targeted investments in collection, sorting, and re-melting capacity can strengthen the security and diversity of aluminum supply chains. SAFE’s new issue brief, “Turning […]
ISSUE BRIEF | Critical Minerals Pricing Mechanisms
China’s manipulation of critical mineral markets is part of a broader geopolitical strategy to challenge U.S. economic and military leadership. While policymakers must consider solutions that resolve the root cause of market distortion, in the short-term, targeted and project-specific pricing intervention may be considered when market conditions prevent otherwise viable projects from reaching commercial operation. […]
FACT SHEET | Grid Power, Industrial Might: The Energy Solution to America’s Aluminum Problem
The U.S. faces an aluminum crisis as smelters shutter and competitors surge ahead. Providing reliable, affordable power and a modernized transmission network is necessary to revive competitiveness. Without it, we risk jeopardizing national security. […]
