We’ve nonetheless acquired a month left in Q1, however I’ve already come again to the theme of the position of additive manufacturing (AM) within the ‘sustainability-as-security’ thesis — a subject that I’ve been centered on for years — greater than as soon as in 2026. That is very welcome information for anybody who believes in AM’s progress potential.
6K Additive exemplifies the sustainability-as-security case about in addition to some other firm, and the metals provider simply strengthened its place by saying a long-term take care of Siemens Power to supply nickel-based alloy powders from the cleantech big. 6K Additive will course of nickel-based revert powder — scrap from in-house manufacturing — from Siemens Power into new feedstock, supporting 6K Additive’s purpose to construct a round financial system for metallic AM.
6K Additive notes that it has already processed almost 20 tons of such powder from Siemens Power, which the previous subsequently provided to the AM market. Siemens Power has traditionally been one of many world’s largest metallic AM customers, giving 6K an excellent pipeline for high-quality scrap.
Siemens Power, in the meantime, has been massively ramping up its investments into the US market, specializing in supporting the AI growth with grid infrastructure and gasoline turbine gear, amongst different functions. In line with the corporate, its newest funding of $1 billion will create over 1,500 expert jobs within the US.
In a press launch about 6K Additive’s long-term take care of Siemens Power to supply nickel superalloy scrap, the CEO of 6K Additive, Frank Roberts, stated, “Siemens Power is a robust instance of an industrial associate dedicated to advancing circularity. Their constant and high-quality feedstock permits us to supply premium nickel alloy powders utilizing our UniMelt course of, delivering significant reductions in power use and carbon emissions whereas supporting the rising demand for sustainable AM supplies.”
The Head of Finance for AM at Siemens Power, Steve Sarcander, stated, “At Siemens Power, sustainability and accountable useful resource use are integral to how we strategy superior manufacturing. By supplying our revert materials into 6K Additive’s manufacturing course of, we’re supporting round materials flows whereas serving to to scale back waste and emissions related to metallic powder manufacturing. Partnerships like this play an essential position in strengthening the general [AM] worth chain.”
Given the sustainability-as-security context, and the truth that this explicit story includes a deal between a US firm and a European one, I feel it makes essentially the most sense to view the settlement by means of the lens of US-EU commerce relations. On the floor, whereas the connection between the US and its European allies has not often seemed rockier, there are nonetheless causes to imagine that the commerce dynamics might emerge on the opposite facet of the turmoil in stronger form than ever.
For one factor, even after President Trump imposed new, harsher tariffs on buying and selling companions, together with the EU, following the Supreme Court docket’s rejection of the tariffs that Trump has imposed since retaking workplace final yr, the EU’s commerce chief said that he’s assured that the US will “ease” tariffs on metallic merchandise coming from the EU within the weeks forward. Since metals normally, and significant minerals specifically, have grow to be so central to the continuing commerce negotiations between the US and the EU, that assertion suggests {that a} main breakthrough could possibly be on the horizon for the monumental deal the US and the EU struck in the summertime of 2025.
For an additional factor, talking of that very same commerce deal — it hinges on power flows from the US to Europe, and European nations have few choices other than the US in relation to changing baseload energy provides from Russia. Which means that a deal between the EU and the US is in everybody’s pursuits no matter what occurs with tariffs, and the EU is just now in a greater bargaining place than it was previous to the Supreme Court docket ruling.
Assuming some model of the deal goes by means of, the end result might end in many extra enterprise agreements that appear to be the one between 6K Additive and Siemens Power. The West seems to be trending in direction of a state of affairs the place North America and Europe grow to be extra interdependent on vital infrastructure provide chains, and one facet gives the uncooked supplies whereas the opposite gives the completed items.
Apparently, the character of this dynamic that’s presently in dialogue means that the connection will most frequently work the opposite manner round from the 6K/Siemens Power association, with the US supplying vital minerals and the EU offering the components. But when true round financial system for AM can really be cultivated, it’ll open up any variety of potentialities for rearranging the weather inside the general commerce framework.
Picture courtesy of 6K
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