Manufacturing & Technology News articles from August 2004

Manufacturing & Technology News archives from August 2004

Copper.
August 13, 2004... Large U.S. consumers of copper are up in arms over the Chinese copper industry's "criminal" activities and the Chinese government's subsidization of the sector. But large U.S. copper consumers are even more irate at the U.S. federal government...

Forest products.
August 13, 2004... The U.S. forest products and paper industry is accusing China of unfairly subsidizing its paper and forest products sector and of putting in place a systematic plan to "radically expand its forest products industry with government funds," says...

Television.
August 13, 2004... The only remaining U.S.-owned television manufacturer had a choice to make recently: either go out of business or use U.S. trade laws to fight what it thought were unfair imports from China. Five Rivers Electronics Innovations, which purchased...

Outsourcing & the creation of virtual enterprises leads to lost revenue from 'trusted' partners.
August 13, 2004... Companies are losing huge amounts of money in business relationships that involve trust in the "self-reporting" of payments, according to KPMG International. The growing number of "virtual" networked relationships with suppliers, vendors,...

CPAs address outsourcing ethics issue.
August 13, 2004... The issue of outsourcing of financial accounting services to overseas companies has struck a nerve within the accounting profession. The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) is proposing new rules to require its CPA...

Congress will fund a definitive study on offshore outsourcing.
August 13, 2004... The House of Representatives has approved $2 million in funding to study the effect of outsourcing on U.S. workers and the economy. The House-Justice-State Appropriations bill approved by the full House directs the National Academy of Public...

Re-competition of MEP centers is cancelled: Manufacturing Extension program is whipsawed by changing political winds.
August 13, 2004... The Bush administration has decided against its plans to re-compete all of the nation's Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) centers. During a cross-country trek in July and early August, the Commerce Department was questioned about its...

Visa delays cost U.S. business billions.
August 13, 2004... Delays in the U.S. government's issuance of visas to business people traveling to the United States are costing U.S. companies billions of dollars in lost sales and revenues, according to a survey conducted for eight large trade associations....

Sen. Lieberman proposes a new version of Ronald Reagan's competitiveness commission.
August 13, 2004... A major new federally mandated commission needs to be established to study and recommend how the United States can successfully confront the economic challenges it faces in the global economy, says Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.). ...

ITC finds U.S. manufacturing is quickly losing ground to Chinese producers.
August 13, 2004... The trade position of every manufacturing sector worsened last year, with some sectors experiencing a severe deterioration of their status in world markets, according to a detailed analysis conducted by the U.S. International Trade Commission....

Manufacturing remains the locomotive of Pennsylvania's economy, though losing steam.
August 13, 2004... Manufacturing remains the most important sector of Pennsylvania's economy, accounting for 16.1 percent of total state output, or $63.5 billion, according to Deloitte Consulting. "No other industry contributes even 10 percent" to Pennsylvania's...

Bush signs bill to protect standards groups from lawsuits.
August 13, 2004... Organizations that develop standards are being granted protection from being sued under antitrust laws. In late June, President Bush signed into law the Standards Development Organization Act of 2004 (H.R. 1086), which provides antitrust...

Huge fiscal stimulus has not yet generated strong mfg.job growth.
August 13, 2004... There were 10,000 new manufacturing jobs created in July, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in what has become a widely anticipated monthly report. "Since its most recent low in January of this year, manufacturing employment has...

Small manufacturers do not sell much overseas, says NFIB.
August 13, 2004... Most small businesses in the United States are not very successful selling their products overseas. Only 13 percent of small businesses surveyed say they have exported over the past three years, according to the National Federation of...