Metals & Electronics

In 2023, global government expenditure for space programs hit a record of approximately 117 billion U.S. dollars. The United States Government spent around 73.2 billion U.S. dollars on its space programs in 2023, making it the country with the highest space expenditure in the world. The U.S. was followed by China, with government expenditure on space programs of over 14 billion U.S. dollars.

The Space Agencies Responsible for civilian space programs, as well space research and exploration, the space agencies have gained in importance over the past decades. Today, there are six government space agencies (NASA, CNSA, ROSCOSMOS, ESA, ISRO, and JAXA) with full launch and extraterrestrial landing capabilities. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is undoubtedly the most renowned of them all. Since its establishment in 1958, NASA has worked with international partners to enable human expansion across the solar system and beyond, bringing new knowledge and opportunities back to our home planet. It is therefore not surprising that most of their budget goes to toward science and exploration. NASA’s requested FY 2024 budget for all sectors is 27.2 billion U.S. dollars.

This statistic presents the projected global aircraft line maintenance market size between 2022 and 2032. In 2032, the global aircraft line maintenance market is expected to be sized at 12.2 billion U.S. dollars.

In the fiscal year 2024, Panasonic's sales revenue came to around 54 billion U.S. dollars (or 8.5 trillion Japanese yen). An increase in Japan's consumption tax and the spread of the coronavirus pandemic were among the negative factors that contributed to the company's worse financial performance.

Reliance Industries topped the 2023 ranking of the conglomerates with the highest market value worldwide. The conglomerate beat out major players such as Danaher, Honeywell International, 3M, Raytheon Technologies, and Siemens.

Rise of Asian conglomerates European and U.S. companies remained dominant in the 2023 ranking, but Asian conglomerates are on the rise. Reliance Industries of India was the leading publicly traded Asian conglomerate in terms of market value, based on closing prices as of May 5, 2023. CK Hutchinson of Hong Kong made this year's ranking. For many years, this company had been managed by Sir Li Ka-shing, who is the 28th richest individual in the world. CK Hutchison is the parent company of the Hutchison Asia Telecom Group, Cheung Kong Infrastructure Holdings, A.S. Watson Group, Husky Energy, and Hutchison Port Holdings, one of the largest marine terminal operators globally. Softbank, LG Chem, Itochu, and Mitsui were among the Asian conglomerates that made it into the top 20.

In 2023, Asia and Oceania will be the largest consumer of finished steel products, with approximately 1.3 billion metric tons of expected demand. In the same year, African steel demand is expected to reach almost 42 million metric tons.

China-based CATL was the leading EV battery maker as of June 2024, with a market share of almost 38 percent. The Chinese company BYD ranked second with a market share of 15.8 percent, followed by South Korean LG Energy Solution with a market share of 13.6 percent. 

CATL (Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Limited) was the largest battery manufacturer, having overtaken its main Chinese, South Korean, and Japanese competitors. CATL has several battery production bases in China, Germany, and Hungary. 

Considering the tightening environmental regulations, global sales of battery-electric vehicles increased 10-fold between 2017 and 2022. As a result, large-scale electric vehicle production drove a lithium-ion battery demand up to around eight terawatt-hours.

China continues to hold the global lead in crude steel production, with an estimated 67.4 million metric tons recorded in December 2023. This represented a decrease of approximately 13 percent compared to its production in December of the previous year. During that time given, India, Japan, the United States, and Russia were far behind China in steel production..

China as the global leader With a recorded 99.5 million metric tons of crude steel yield, May 2021 remains the highest production peak for China to date. Since then, the country experiencing significant fluctuations in steel production. China's "zero-Covid" policy, therefore, implementing sequential lockdowns in various cities, caused a significant setback in the steel production network of the country. The government's interventions to eliminate the spread of the virus decreased the steel demand in many lines of work, predominantly in the construction sector. Despite the bottlenecks that China currently faces, the country has remained the global leader in crude steel production.

Crude Steel Production Worldwide Production in Russia overall decreased throughout the given months, especially in June 2022; the production volume dropped by 21 percent compared to the previous month of 2022. However, high oil prices and government initiatives sustain the steel industry in the country, despite facing severe sanctions due to the Russia- Ukraine war. India saw a notable drop in crude steel production by 65.4 percent between February 2020 and April of that same year. Later, this figure increased to 10.6 million metric tons owing to India’s strong domestic demand for steel. Japan and the United States also suffered a dip in production in April 2020, though not as severe as in India. Since then, steel production in both countries has been weakly increasing, with oscillations. Increased material costs and explicitly hiking interest rates in the United States have been the main reasons for the drawbacks in production in Japan and the US.

Between 2014 and 2022, the number of active shipyards nearly halved. More than 230 yards were closed as a consequence of the ongoing consolidation process within the shipbuilding industry. This was caused by a decrease in the demand for new vessels, stemming from the uncertainty surrounding future fuel composition, propulsion systems, and environmental regulations. As of April 2022, the number of active shipyards worldwide stood at 283.

Royal Caribbean's Icon of the Seas was the most expensive cruise ship in terms of production costs in 2024, costing around 2 billion U.S. dollars. With a gross tonnage of about 250,800 tons, as well as capacity to accommodate around 7,600 guests, the Icon of the Seas ranks amongst the largest cruise ships to ever set sail.

In 2023, approximately 1.7 million automobiles were produced in the United States. This represents an increase of about two percent compared with the previous year. The years 2020 and 2021 were especially hard on the industry due to the COVID-19 pandemic and its knock-on effects on the automotive supply chain.