Industry Report

Berlin – November 04, 2026 -- Germany recovered 159.2 million tonnes of its 175.2 million tonnes of non-hazardous construction and demolition waste in 2024, lifting the recovery rate to 90.9% from 90.4% in 2022, according to the 15th monitoring report of the Initiative Kreislaufwirtschaft Bau.

The report is based on official data from the Federal Statistical Office. It is the first survey built on the legal framework of the Mantelverordnung, the national ordinance package that took effect in 2023.

Waste volumes fall 15.7% as construction activity weakens

Mineral construction waste fell by 32.7 million tonnes from 207.9 million tonnes in 2022, a decline of 15.7%. Initiative spokesman Dr. Berthold Schäfer attributes the drop to the continued weakness of the construction sector. Demolition volumes follow construction investment, he said, and total demand moves with them.

NEW YORK – October 31, 2026 -- The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) has proposed three new electric vehicle standardization gaps in its October 2026 Gaps Progress Report, covering damaged battery handling, accessible charging equipment and public charger reliability.

The report, issued by the ANSI Electric Vehicles Standards Panel (EVSP), updates standards, research and conformity assessment activity against 30 previously identified gaps.

Three new gaps target batteries, accessibility and public charging

The proposed additions are:

NEW YORK – October 29, 2026 -- Total brand value in Interbrand's Best Global Brands 2026 ranking reached $3.87 trillion, up 8.1% from $3.58 trillion in 2025, as Nvidia entered the Top 10 with the fastest growth of any brand, a gain of more than 71%.

Entertainment overtook Automotive as the second most valuable sector. Automotive recorded the sharpest sector decline.

Nvidia ranks sixth after a 71% brand value surge

Technology remained the biggest driver of value creation, with AI reshaping markets and producing new leaders. Nvidia ranks #6. Google holds #3, while YouTube (#10), Netflix (#23) and Spotify (#39) all posted significant gains.

Interbrand's data also indicates that technology companies are generating revenue faster than they build emotional connection and long-term brand preference. The consultancy stresses the need for sustained brand investment even during periods of explosive growth.

ROCHESTER, N.Y. – October 27, 2026 -- Eagleview told emergency managers that a below-average 2026 Atlantic hurricane season does not mean low risk, pointing to 1992, when six named storms still produced Hurricane Andrew and $27.3 billion in damage. The geospatial intelligence (GeoAI) provider issued a preparedness briefing after NOAA, Colorado State University and AccuWeather all projected a below-average season.

Andrew destroyed more than 63,000 homes in one of the quietest seasons on record

The 1992 season's six named storms compare with a 30-year average of 14.4. Andrew, a Category 5 storm, destroyed more than 63,000 homes in South Florida. Eagleview puts the damage at about $67 billion in 2026 dollars.

Robert Locke, President of Eagleview's Government business unit, said, "It only takes one storm to create a catastrophe." He added that the agencies responding best are those that prepared before the first advisory.

New York – October 13, 2026 -- The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) has mapped more than 500 published hydrogen standards and concluded that deployment is often held back not by missing standards but by difficulty in implementing and applying them. The finding comes from a new report, "Advancing Hydrogen Standards and Codes," and a companion document, the Hydrogen Standards Landscape.

The report summarizes ANSI's hydrogen standards workshop, held June 22-23, 2026, in Washington, DC. It was the latest activity of the Hydrogen Standards Coordination Initiative. Participants came from industry, government, standards development organizations (SDOs), conformity assessment bodies, research institutions and end-user communities.

Taipei – October 08, 2026 -- A new DIGITIMES Intelligence report finds that rising rack-level power demands from AI computing are pushing data center operators toward 800VDC power architecture, a shift set to redraw competitive lines across the semiconductor and infrastructure supply chain.

Rack power density is turning electricity delivery into a system-level design problem

As AI accelerators and GPUs scale compute density, DIGITIMES Intelligence notes that power delivery is no longer a facility-level afterthought. Operators and server makers must now jointly optimize conversion efficiency, power density, system footprint, and thermal management across the entire path from grid to chip.

Hong Kong – September 30, 2026 -- City University of Hong Kong (CityUHK) climbed three places to rank 70th globally in the Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings 2027, its best result to date.

CityUHK retains world No. 1 in Industry pillar for fourth straight year

The university scored a perfect 100 in the Industry pillar, topping the global ranking for the fourth consecutive year on the strength of patent development, technology commercialisation and its innovation ecosystem. THE evaluated 2,297 institutions across 118 countries using 17 indicators across five pillars: Teaching, Research Environment, Research Quality, Industry and International Outlook.

Washington – September 16, 2026 -- The American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI) released new research identifying which telematics metrics deliver the greatest value to motor carriers, exposing a gap between what fleets currently measure and what actually drives safety and operational gains.

Cost-per-mile ranks as top operations metric despite limited adoption

The report, titled "From Telematics Data to Decisions: High-Value Performance Metrics for Trucking Operations," found that managing cost-per-mile scored highest for importance among operations KPIs, yet only 73 percent of surveyed carriers currently track it.

Four safety metrics dominate current fleet adoption

Critical events, speeding, risky driving behavior and hard braking emerged as the four most widely used safety-related KPIs among motor carriers surveyed for the study.