Economics
Germany’s Industrial Heartland Is Coming Back to Life
A $450 million plant could serve as a case study on how to apply old-school engineering to a new era.
Steam billows from chimneys, and hissing sounds mix with hammering and drilling from a sprawling construction site that represents a $450 million wager on Germany’s industrial future.
In the country’s Rust Belt — dotted with shuttered coal mines and struggling steel mills — Evonik Industries AG is building a plant to make a material the chemicals company believes will become the gold standard for industrial-scale 3D printing.