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Leipzig plant becomes first automotive facility on the continent to deploy AI-enabled humanoid machines. BMW Group has taken a significant step in the race to automate European manufacturing, confirming the deployment of humanoid robots at its Leipzig plant in Germany — the first time a carmaker has introduced such technology into active automotive production on the continent. The robots, designated AEON and developed by Hexagon Robotics, a unit of Stockholm-listed industrial

Munich engine maker raises dividend 64 per cent as investors weigh exceptional 2025 against supply chain constraints ahead. Munich's MTU Aero Engines delivered the strongest financial performance in its history last year, posting record revenues of €8.7 billion and pushing adjusted operating profit up twenty-nine per cent to €1.4 billion. Yet the numbers that impressed came with an asterisk — and the market knows it. The figures, presented at the company's headquarters in lat

The de facto closure of the world's most critical oil chokepoint is reviving memories of 2022 for European policymakers and energy traders alike Commercial shipping through the Strait of Hormuz has collapsed to near-zero, with Maersk, Hapag-Lloyd and CMA CGM all suspending operations through the waterway following US and Israeli strikes on Iran that began on 28 February. The effective closure — enforced not by physical blockade but by the withdrawal of war-risk insurance, whi

China's CRRC has cracked Western Europe's long-distance rail network. The question now is whether Siemens and Alstom can respond — or whether Brussels will simply close the door. When Austria's private open-access operator Westbahn quietly rolled four Chinese-built double-deckers onto the Vienna–Salzburg corridor last November, many in the European rail industry hoped the story would fade. It has not. As Westbahn simultaneously announces a high-speed expansion southward throu

The closure of one of the world's busiest aviation corridors is forcing carriers from Frankfurt to Paris to count the cost of a conflict they cannot control When US and Israeli forces struck targets inside Iran on 28 February, the shockwaves travelled almost immediately into European airline operations centres. Within hours, the skies above the Gulf — a corridor handling tens of thousands of flights each week — had effectively closed, leaving carriers scrambling to reroute, c

The Chinese electric vehicle maker is gaining ground on the continent's legacy manufacturers at a moment when they can least afford it Europe's car market has started 2026 in retreat — but not everyone is losing. As the continent's traditional automakers navigate one of the most challenging demand environments in years, BYD is accelerating in the opposite direction. New vehicle registrations across the European Union fell 3.9 per cent in January, continuing a pattern of weakn

A Czech open-access operator has drawn the sharpest battle lines yet in Poland's long-running rail liberalisation fight, launching commercial services on the country's most strategically important domestic corridor. Leo Express began regular services on the Warsaw–Kraków route on 1 March 2026, becoming the first private challenger to take on state incumbent PKP Intercity on a corridor that functions as the spine of Poland's intercity network. Until now, PKP Intercity has effe

Europe's automotive industry has issued its most pointed challenge yet to Brussels over electric vehicle targets, warning that the regulatory framework underpinning the continent's green transition is failing to keep pace with commercial reality. Meeting in Brussels on 5 March, the board of the European Automobile Manufacturers' Association — whose members include Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz, Stellantis and Renault — told legislators that the flexibility measures proposed in De

With 147 vessels sheltering in the Gulf, European supply chains brace for the next wave of disruption The world's largest container shipping group has moved to suspend key trade arteries linking Europe and Asia as the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz compounds what was already shaping up to be one of the most testing years in recent memory for the maritime industry. Copenhagen-based Maersk confirmed on March 6 that it was halting two critical services — its FM1 route

Fuel costs surge and route networks fracture as airlines scramble to contain the damage. Europe's major airlines entered crisis mode this week as the escalating US-Israeli military campaign against Iran triggered the most severe disruption to global aviation since the pandemic, closing vast swathes of Middle Eastern airspace and sending jet fuel prices to their highest levels in more than two years. Shares in International Consolidated Airlines Group, the parent company of Br

The European Commission's Industrial Accelerator Act cleared its first major hurdle this week, setting Brussels on a collision course with the continent's own automotive industry in what is shaping up to be one of the most consequential regulatory battles the sector has faced in years. The act, which establishes "Made in EU" preferences in green public procurement, passed after months of delays and an overnight revision session that produced 44 last-minute amendments. Under t

The Budapest–Belgrade flagship project finally moves freight — but a clash of signalling standards is casting a long shadow over its passenger future After four years of construction delays, cost overruns and post-Novi Sad political turbulence, freight trains began running on Hungary's section of the Budapest–Belgrade railway on 27 February. The milestone was swiftly cast in triumphant language by Budapest. The operational reality, however, tells a rather different story. The