Kickstart: Attention, Walmart molders

Walmart Inc. plans to spend $350 billion to stock more U.S.-made and -assembled goods at its stores.

The project, announced by the Bentonville, Ark., retailer on March 3, builds on previous "buy American" programs. It will spend "an additional $350 billion on items made, grown or assembled in the U.S. We estimate that this spend will support more than 750,000 new American jobs," the company said.

Walmart cited Techtonic Industries of Anderson, S.C., a maker of lawn mowers and vacuum cleaners with in-house molding and assembly, as an example of a company it is seeking to work with.

Plastics is among six priority categories along with textiles, small electrical appliances, food processing, pharmaceutical and medical supplies and "goods not for resale."

Any firm with a "shelf-ready product" can pitch to Walmart during a virtual open call event on June 30.

The fight over whether states can stop local communities from restricting plastic retail bags isn't letting up.

Communities in multiple states have tried to halt the "bans on bag bans" by state leaders. The latest example is in Pennsylvania, where the city of Philadelphia and other communities filed a lawsuit to try and stop the state action.

State lawmakers had extended a moratorium on bans by inserting it into financial rules in the summer of 2020, according to public radio station WHYY, with little opportunity for comment.

"Once again, we face a state legislature that is focused more on tying the hands of cities and towns than on solving the actual problems facing Pennsylvania," Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney said in a statement. "We are finding local solutions to local problems, and this suit is important in declaring our right to do so on this and many other issues."

The pending push to electric vehicles is prompting battery suppliers to add more production.

General Motors Co., which is already building a $2.3 billion battery plant with joint venture partner LG Chem in Lordstown, Ohio, is planning a second plant.

Reuters writes that largest U.S. automaker has confirmed it is "exploring the feasibility of constructing a second, state-of-the-art battery cell manufacturing plant in the United States" with the Ultium Cells LLC joint venture.

GM said it hopes to have a decision by June.

And in Europe, Automotive Cells Co., a joint venture of Stellantis (the auto company that includes what was once Chrysler) and energy and chemical company Total, is already planning a second plant just after opening its first.

It is also seeking business with other automakers for ACC. Its first factory, in Douvrin, France, started operations in mid-2020. A second factory in Kaiserslautern, Germany, is expected to start production in 2025.