Missouri Moves To Recycle Magnets

Happy Tuesday, hope everyone enjoyed the long Labor Day weekend!

The build this week: US Strategic Metals and Ionic Rare Earths have signed a term sheet for a $100 million magnet-recycling plant near Fredericktown, Missouri.

Underneath: $24 million in unmanned-boat orders, a faster shipbuilding plan, a new Austin chip lab, and nine industrial transactions moving capital into physical systems.

The Lead

US Strategic Metals and Ionic Rare Earths signed a non-binding term sheet Thursday for a 50/50 joint venture that would build a permanent-magnet recycling plant near Fredericktown, Missouri. The partners put proposed initial capital at $100 million and aim to complete definitive agreements by the end of 2026.

The planned line would process end-of-life neodymium-iron-boron and samarium-cobalt magnets, along with swarf and other production scrap. Those are the compact, high-value components inside motors, generators, robotics, industrial equipment and defense systems. Today, an old magnet can be easier to discard than to turn back into separated material for another one.

The proposed plant would sit on US Strategic Metals' fully permitted, 1,750-acre campus. Ionic would contribute $2.5 million and a nonexclusive U.S. license to its recycling technology. US Strategic Metals would contribute another $2.5 million plus $95 million of property, infrastructure, equipment and site development.

Recycling magnets is one process step. Handling feedstock, separating rare-earth oxides, managing chemical systems and moving material toward new alloy and magnet production requires a larger operating platform. Fredericktown already has the land, utilities and metallurgical infrastructure that can hold those steps together.

Should this deal go through, Missouri gains a new source of domestic rare-earth feedstock without waiting for a new mine to mature. The plant would give used magnets and factory scrap a shorter path back into the industrial base. Fredericktown's advantage is the chance to put that loop on one operating site.

Defense & Space

• Kymeta received a $20 million Defense Department order for more than 100 Osprey u8 satellite terminals plus connectivity.

• Northrop Grumman received a $508.5 million missile-target support award covering hardware, spares and logistics work in Arizona, Utah and Maryland.

• Boeing received a $241.3 million award to repair F/A-18 and EA-18G flight-control surfaces in Jacksonville and St. Louis.

• Lockheed Martin Space received $90.2 million for Trident II life-extension design work in Titusville, Florida.

• Griffon Aerospace received a $17.5 million award for Outlaw unmanned-aircraft subcomponents and training.

Maritime & Shipbuilding

• Seasats booked more than $24 million in committed orders for Lightfish unmanned surface vessels serving the Marine Corps, Navy and other national-security customers.

• HII is targeting another 15% increase in shipbuilding throughput in 2026 as Newport News and Ingalls expand supplier work across a roughly 40-ship backlog.

• General Dynamics NASSCO received a $149.6 million award for USS Pinckney maintenance and modernization in San Diego.

• L3Harris received a $139 million award supporting submarine low-profile photonics masts in Northampton, Massachusetts.

Semiconductors & Electronics

• Silicon Labs opened an Austin Innovation Center with a new lab for advanced chip design and testing tied to a $23 million Texas CHIPS Act award.

• General Dynamics Mission Systems received a $99.3 million award for Mobile User Objective System ground infrastructure.

• Flex agreed to acquire EPC Power for $4.4 billion, adding U.S. power-conversion hardware for AI data centers and grid applications.

Manufacturing & Automation

• Pentaq Manufacturing received a contract with a $763.1 million ceiling for physical-fitness gear produced in Puerto Rico.

• Stanley Black & Decker agreed to sell Excel Industries, moving a mower business with about $300 million in expected 2026 revenue to Bad Boy Mowers.

• PerkinElmer completed its acquisition of SimoTech, adding manufacturing automation and GMP information systems used by large pharmaceutical producers.

• Morito Scovill Americas acquired Edward Segal, adding automated eyelet and assembly machinery in Thomaston, Connecticut.

Energy & Materials

• USA Rare Earth completed its combination with Serra Verde Group, connecting rare-earth feedstock with magnet capacity in Stillwater, Oklahoma.

• PG&E, Rewiring America and Google launched the SHARE virtual power plant to turn flexible residential demand into a California grid resource.

• Powder River Crude Services opened a binding capacity season for shippers on its crude-pipeline system.

• Williams closed its Momentum Midstream acquisition, adding roughly 4,000 miles of pipeline and six billion cubic feet per day of capacity.

Supply Chain & Freight

• OTC Industrial Technologies acquired Global Energy Solutions, adding motor and pump repair facilities in Oklahoma City and Fort Smith, Arkansas.

• Richelieu acquired Penrod's hardware division, adding about $70 million in annual sales and a Virginia Beach operating base.

• One Equity Partners invested in Metro East Industries, backing an Illinois rail-services shop and six mobile repair locations.

Dealbook

• US Strategic Metals and Ionic Rare Earths signed a 50/50 joint-venture term sheet for a proposed $100 million magnet-recycling plant in Missouri.

• Flex agreed to buy EPC Power for $4.4 billion.

• USA Rare Earth completed its combination with Serra Verde Group.

• Stanley Black & Decker agreed to sell Excel Industries to Bad Boy Mowers.

• OTC Industrial Technologies acquired Global Energy Solutions.

• Richelieu acquired Penrod's hardware division.

• PerkinElmer completed its acquisition of SimoTech.

• Morito Scovill Americas acquired Edward Segal.

• Canerector acquired Alloy Casting Industries, adding high-spec steel and alloy casting capacity in Ontario.

Back Thursday.