Global sales from natural rubber exports by country in 2015 amounted to US$14 billion.
That amount represents an average -69.7% drop in value since 2011 when natural rubber shipments were valued at $45.9 billion. Year over year, rubber shipments depreciated by -17.8% from 2014 to 2015.
Robots that work as assistants alongside people are set to upend the world of industrial robotics by putting automation within reach of many small and medium-sized companies for the first time, said industry players.
Collaborative robots, or "cobots", tend to be inexpensive, easy to use and safe to be around. They can easily be adapted to new tasks, making them well-suited to small-batch manufacturing and ever-shortening product cycles.
Prices for most commodities, including oil, are forecast to rise in 2017, as a long period of declining prices appears to be bottoming out.
It’s often and comprehensively reported that we’re hurtling towards the fourth Industrial Revolution, the Factory of the Future or Industry 4.0, as the Europeans call it.
But are we really ready for it?
From German Aerospace Center, to Facebook and NASA, here are the top aerospace innovators of the year!
In September, energy prices rose 0.9%, while non-energy commodities slipped 0.8%.
Food prices dropped by 1.0%. Beverages increased 0.9%.
Raw materials fell 0.1%, and fertilizers rose 0.7%.
Metals and minerals fell 1.6%, and precious metals by 1.2%.
Research breaks major barrier in transistor size by creating gate only 1 nanometer long.
Engineers have been eyeing the finish line in the race to shrink the size of components in integrated circuits. Now, a team of researchers has succeeded in creating a transistor with a working 1-nanometer gate. For comparison, a strand of human hair is about 50,000 nanometers thick.