Manufacturing & Technology News articles from August 2006

Manufacturing & Technology News archives from August 2006

National academies: United States loses lead in telecommunications.
August 17, 2006... The United States must adopt a more aggressive strategy to fund research and development needed to foster its telecommunications industry, concludes a new study from the National Academies of Sciences. "The U.S. position as a leader in...

Australia unexpectedly drops out of intelligent Mfg. systems program.
August 17, 2006... The international Intelligent Manufacturing Systems (IMS) project is losing one of it primary members. Australia has decided to back out of the multi-million dollar R&D collaboration. The Australian government "has decided to focus its support...

Universities rest on their laurels as other countries surpass U.S. in higher education, says commission.
August 17, 2006... "The future of our country's colleges and universities is threatened by global competitive pressures, powerful technological developments, restraints on public finance and serious structural limitations that cry out for reform," states a draft...

Big drop in foreign students at U.S. Universities.
August 17, 2006... Not as many foreigners are coming to the United States for advanced study in the sciences and engineering, according to the National Science Foundation. "2004 marks the third straight year in declining first-time, full-time enrollments of...

GAO: better oversight needed of H-IB visas.
August 17, 2006... The Department of Labor needs to improve its monitoring of companies hiring foreigners using the H-1B visa, according to the Government Accountability Office. The Labor Department "does not use its full authority to oversee employers'...

General aviation market is UP.
August 17, 2006... General aviation manufacturers continue to ship airplanes at a record pace. During the first half of 2006, the industry shipped a total of 1,843 airplanes, an increase of 19 percent over the same period of 2005, according to the General...

Aerospace market is UP.
August 17, 2006... The U.S. aerospace industry is on a record course this year. Orders, shipments and backlog "showed significant gains in the first half of 2006, which would put the sector ahead of last year's record-setting numbers if the trend continues," says...

Semiconductor market is UP.
August 17, 2006... Worldwide sales of semiconductors rose to $19.6 billion in June, up 9 percent from the same month in 2005, reports the Semiconductor Industry Association. Total sales for the fist six months of the year hit $118 billion, up 8.3 percent from the...

Market forces blow in wind energy's favor.
August 17, 2006... The installed base of wind power in the 20 member counties of the International Energy Agency (IEA) is quickly growing. In 2005, wind capacity in the IEA countries increased by 20 percent over 2004, or by 8,927 megawatts to a total installed...

Wanted: complaints about China.
August 17, 2006... U.S. companies harboring a beef against China have an opportunity to express themselves to the U.S. government and the World Trade Organization. "This fall, the WTO will hold its fifth annual review of China's compliance with WTO commitments,"...

Commerce Secretary seeks business companions for Chinese trade trip.
August 17, 2006... Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez will lead a business development mission to China in November, in an attempt to help companies increase business there. Executives interested in traveling with the secretary can apply on-line at...

Bush rejects AFL-CIO's 301 petition of Chinese labor abuses.
August 17, 2006... The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) has rejected the AFL-CIO's recent call for an investigation into labor practices in China. The USTR issued the same rebuff as did in turning down a similar petition in 2004: "We do not need to...

Toyota is bullish on U.S. market, due to rapid population growth.
August 17, 2006... Despite downbeat news about domestic automotive manufacturers, the United States auto sector is strong and growing, according to Toyota's top U.S. executive. "What we're seeing is not the demise of the U.S. industry, it's the globalization...

Motorola, Wipro create company aimed at telecom outsourcing.
August 17, 2006... Motorola has entered into a joint venture with Wipro Ltd. of India, one of the leading companies in outsourcing of IT services. The two firms have created a company called WMNetServe to sell outsourcing services for planning, deployment,...

U.S. industry is on the nanotech ball.
August 17, 2006... A great many more industrial sectors of the U.S. economy are "transitioning resolutely to the nanofuture," according to a survey of 600 industry executives. Progress toward applying nanotechnologies has been across the board, from both...

FDA creates nano-tech commission.
August 17, 2006... The Food and Drug Administration has created an internal Nanotechnology Task Force. The group is charged with determining regulatory approaches "that encourage the continued development of innovative, safe and effective FDA-regulated products...

As U.S. production declines, so too does manufacturing energy use, reports EIA.
August 17, 2006... The U.S. manufacturing sector's use of energy declined between 1998 and 2002, reports the Energy Information Administration. The drop can be attributed to a decline in real value added by virtually all industrial sectors save for chemicals,...

Aeronautics R&D budget is way down, and current proposals are filled with pork.
August 17, 2006... The Senate Appropriations Committee has joined the House in providing more funding for aeronautics research at NASA than was requested by the White House, but industry experts told members of the House Science Committee that much more money is...

Singapore is a manufacturing success story.
August 17, 2006... Singapore's manufacturing sector is flourishing. The Singapore Economic Development Board found the country's total manufacturing output increased by 22.5 percent from June 2005 to June 2006. Virtually all sectors of manufacturing experienced...

GAO will audit U.S.-China Commission.
August 17, 2006... The Government Accountability Office (GAO) is embarking on a study of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) at the request of Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.). GAO's work may have implications for the panel's 2007 activities:...

Brookings discovers Mfg. job loss issue.
August 17, 2006... Seven Great Lake states have been hit hard by job losses in manufacturing over the past five years, accounting for 37.5 percent--or 1.1 million--of the three million lost jobs in manufacturing, according to an analysis by the Brookings...

Fall conference calendar.(Calendar)
August 17, 2006... August 27-31 European Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Riva del Garda, Italy: http://ecai2006.itc.it/. August 28-31 Training for Programming and Implementation of the Dimensional Measuring Interface Standard (DMIS 5.0), Brighton,...

A new policy approach is needed in this era of rapid globalization.
August 17, 2006... The United States is in "urgent need" of a "new policy agenda" that comes to grips with the fact that globalization has driven a wedge between corporate interests and national interests, according the former chief economist of the U.S.-China...

Chinese government promotes massive investment in steel.
August 17, 2006... Chinese steel production increased by 175 percent between 2000 and 2005, from 126 million tons to 348 million tons of steel annually, according to Alan Price of Wiley Rein & Fielding, a firm representing the American Iron and Steel Institute...

Manufacturers Alliance/MAPI develops innovation model.
August 17, 2006... It takes six years before investments in frontier research at academic institutions get turned into products made by industry, according to a new "innovation model" developed by two economists at the Manufacturers Alliance/MAPI. "This accounts...

Europe creates RFID consortium.
August 17, 2006... A consortium of 31 global organizations supported by the European Commission has launched a three-year research, development, training and demonstration project focused on radio frequency ID (RFID) tags. The so-called "Building Radio frequency...

PWC opens tax charts to public.
August 17, 2006... Corporate and individual tax rates in over 100 countries have been posted by PricewaterhouseCoopers on its Web site for the first time. "The 2006 release marks the first time the Worldwide Tax Summaries will be available digitally and free of...

Kerry challenges new SBA chief.
August 17, 2006... President Bush's nominee to head the Small Business Administration received an earful of complaints from Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) during his recent Senate confirmation hearing. Steve Preston, described by Kerry as being a "serious nominee who...

GAO: DOD wastes billions.
August 17, 2006... The Department of Defense is wasting billions of dollars due to fraud and abuse, according to an assessment from the Government Accountability Office (GAO). "DOD's pervasive financial and business management problems adversely affect the...

Steel embarks on PR blitz.
August 17, 2006... The American Iron and Steel Institute has found that Washington policymakers don't understand how modern steelmaking has become, and that policymakers' perceptions about the industry are wrong. A recent Harris Interactive poll of Congress...