Manufacturing & Technology News articles from July 2008

Manufacturing & Technology News archives from July 2008

The view from on high: America can't compete because Americans are dumb.('AMERICANS DON'T GET WHAT'S GOING ON IN THE WORLD')
July 15, 2008... "At the dawn of the 21st Century, the United States is the most competitive economy in the world." So stated the narrator on the opening Department of Commerce video that kicked off the federal government's "2008 National Summit on...

Letters to the editor.(Letter to the editor)
July 15, 2008... Front-page coverage of free trade from the perspective of a domestic textile producer on one side and multinational company CEOs on the other in the June 30 issue of Manufacturing & Technology News generated a dozen or more responses from...

[CO.sub.2] capture will become a big industry.
July 15, 2008... Capturing carbon as it leaves smokestacks is a growth industry. Last year, the global market stood at $88.7 billion and it is projected to grow by 22 percent per year through 2012, to $236.3 billion, according to BCC Research, in one of its...

America's housing wealth evaporates.
July 15, 2008... "The vast majority of Americans have accumulated little or no wealth," concludes a report from the Center for Economic and Policy Research on the "Impact of the Housing Crash on Family Wealth." The collapse of the housing market has led to...

Another day, another competitiveness summit.
July 15, 2008... The federal government's "National Science and Technology Summit" is scheduled to take place on August 18-19 at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee. The summit, the latest in what has become a countless series of federally sponsored,...

CertainTeed Corp.(NEW PLANTS IN THE UNITED STATES)
July 15, 2008... CertainTeed Corp. has opened a new fiber cement siding manufacturing plant in Terre Haute, Ind. The 370,000-square-foot facility will have a workforce of 140 employees. The product is made with 30 percent recycled material including fly ash,...

Federal-Mogul Corp.(NEW PLANTS IN THE UNITED STATES)
July 15, 2008... Federal-Mogul Corp. has announced plans to expand its manufacturing operations in Avilla, Ind., and create 50 new jobs by 2010. The manufacturer of powertrain, chassis and safety technologies for the automotive, marine, rail and heavy-duty...

Shanti Inc.(NEW PLANTS IN THE UNITED STATES)
July 15, 2008... Shanti Inc. has announced plans to re-open a wire coat-hanger plant in Mayfield, Ky., thanks to the federal government's ruling that China was dumping coat hangers into the U.S. market. The facility, which was previously owned by Laidlaw in...

Reliance Industries.(NEW PLANTS IN THE UNITED STATES)
July 15, 2008... Reliance Industries has announced plans to open a factory near Kinston, N.C. The company will invest $215 million in the plant that will produce resins used in plastic containers and specialty polyester yarns. The company will hire 204 workers...

Santana Textiles.(NEW PLANTS IN THE UNITED STATES)
July 15, 2008... Santana Textiles of Brazil has announced plans to build a new denim fabric factory in Edinburg, Texas, that will cost $180 million and create 800 jobs. The city plans to pay for utility improvements at the site and Texas will spend $1.6 million...

Trumpf.(NEW PLANTS IN THE UNITED STATES)
July 15, 2008... TRUMPF has built a new 83,000-square-foot laser R&D and manufacturing facility in Farmington, Conn. The $20-million, 55,200-square-foot facility will employ 120 workers and will produce [CO.sub.2] and solid-state laser resonators mostly for the...

The Air Force Research Laboratory.(NEW PLANTS IN THE UNITED STATES)
July 15, 2008... The Air Force Research Laboratory, Wright State University and Select Tech Services Corp. have come together to build a new "Air Force Advanced Manufacturing Facility" costing $4 million and creating 100 new jobs. Officials plan to add 60 more...

Johnson Controls.(NEW PLANTS IN THE UNITED STATES)
July 15, 2008... Johnson Controls announced it will be opening a new manufacturing plant in West Point, Ga., beginning in the summer 2009, to produce vehicle seating and interior products for Kia Motors' manufacturing plant in Georgia. The 130,000-square-foot...

Aspen Aerogels.(NEW PLANTS IN THE UNITED STATES)
July 15, 2008... Aspen Aerogels has opened a $30-million, 150,000-square-foot manufacturing plant in East Providence, R.I., to produce nonporous thermal insulation products used in a variety of industries, including defense, building and construction,...

Ford Motor Co.(NEW PLANTS OVERSEAS)
July 15, 2008... Ford Motor Co. has announced plans to invest $3 billion at its Cuautitlan, Mexico, assembly plant to start producing its Fiesta subcompact automobile. It is the largest investment ever made by an automobile company in Mexico and will result in...

Carrier Corp.(NEW PLANTS OVERSEAS)
July 15, 2008... Carrier Corp. has entered into an agreement with Guangdong Midea Electric Appliances Co., the largest producer and exporter of air-conditioners in China, to create a manufacturing joint venture. Midea will hold a 60 percent stake in the new...

Trac Precision Machining.(NEW PLANTS OVERSEAS)
July 15, 2008... Trac Precision Machining, based in the UK, has announced plans to manufacture turbine blades for commercial jet engines and power generation equipment in Guaymas, Sonora, Mexico, during the first quarter of 2009. The company says the sinking...

General Motors.(NEW PLANTS OVERSEAS)
July 15, 2008... General Motors has started construction on a $200 million engine and automotive component plant in Joinville, Brazil. The facility is expected to employ 500 workers and will start production in late 2009. "The decision to build a new engine...

PacificGMP.(NEW PLANTS OVERSEAS)
July 15, 2008... PacificGMP, a contract pharmaceutical manufacturing company based in San Diego, Calif., has signed a contract to open a 200,000-square-foot manufacturing plant in Taizhou, China. The company will merge with Pacific Biopharma Group to create...

Alstom.(NEW PLANTS OVERSEAS)
July 15, 2008... Alstom is entering a $500-million joint venture with Indian company Bharat Forge to produce super-critical turbine-generator sets for both thermal and nuclear power plants. Bharat Forge will use its new production capability to sell into the...

Geely Automobile Holdings.(NEW PLANTS OVERSEAS)
July 15, 2008... Chinese carmaker Geely Automobile Holdings has announced plans to build a new $500 million automobile assembly plant in Mexico. Its output will be sold in North, Central and South America. Geely chairman Li Shufu said the company is still...

Celerity, Inc.(NEW PLANTS OVERSEAS)
July 15, 2008... Celerity, Inc., a Milpitas, Calif.-based maker of precision instruments for the semiconductor and electronics industries, is opening a new manufacturing facility in Singapore. The 17,000-square-foot facility will enable the company to serve...

Laird Technologies.(NEW PLANTS OVERSEAS)
July 15, 2008... Laird Technologies has announced plans to open its first offshore manufacturing facility in India near Chennai. The plant is expected to employ 1,200 people and cost $15 million. It will manufacture wireless baseband equipment, such as antennas...

MGS Mfg. Group.(NEW PLANTS OVERSEAS)
July 15, 2008... MGS Mfg. Group has opened a new molding manufacturing facility in Chihuahua, Mexico, that employs 150 people. The 75,000-square-foot facility makes products for the electronics, consumer product and automotive industries.

Jockey International.(PLANTS CLOSING IN THE UNITED STATES)
July 15, 2008... Jockey International has announced plans to close its Cooleemee, N.C., knitting plant early next year and lay off more than 200 workers. It is also closing another sewing plant in Jamaica and laying off an additional 570 employees. The company...

La-Z-Boy.(PLANTS CLOSING IN THE UNITED STATES)
July 15, 2008... La-Z-Boy has announced plans to close its plant in Tremonton, Utah, due to a slowdown in sales. The company will lay off 600 workers and move its sewing and cutting operations to a plant in Mexico and transfer other operations to five other...

Gates Corp.(PLANTS CLOSING IN THE UNITED STATES)
July 15, 2008... Denver-based Gates Corp. is closing an automotive and industrial belt manufacturing plant in Moncks, S.C., and transferring the work to other facilities in North America. Gates is part of Tomkins PLC, which has 34,000 employees.

Dana Corp.'s Automotive Systems Group.(PLANTS CLOSING IN THE UNITED STATES)
July 15, 2008... Dana Corp.'s Automotive Systems Group has announced plans to lay off 130 employees at its plant in Owensboro, Ky., by eliminating its second shift. The facility builds frames for Toyota Tundra and Sequoia pickup trucks, but demand for parts has...

Ball Corp.(PLANTS CLOSING IN THE UNITED STATES)
July 15, 2008... Ball Corp. has announced plans to close its Brampton, Ontario, Canada, plastics plant by the end of September. It will lay off 90 workers. The company says closing the plant will save $4 million annually. The facility was purchased by Ball in...

Katahdin Paper Co.(PLANTS CLOSING IN THE UNITED STATES)
July 15, 2008... Katahdin Paper Co. is closing its mill in Millinocket, Maine, and laying off 200 workers. The company says fuel costs that have doubled in the past year have made keeping the plant in operation impossible. Last year, the Millinocket mill...

Radford Co.(PLANTS CLOSING IN THE UNITED STATES)
July 15, 2008... Radford Co. has announced plans to close its manufacturing plant in Oshkosh, Wisc., and lay off 52 employees. The privately owned firm founded in 1871 makes doors, windows, moldings and columns. The company's business is being hit hard by the...

General Motors.(PLANTS CLOSING IN THE UNITED STATES)
July 15, 2008... General Motors has announced plans to close its Moraine plant in Dayton, Ohio, the company's last plant in the Dayton region. The company will lay off 2,500 workers who make the Chevrolet TrailBlazer, GMC Envoy and Saab 9-7X SUV. The...

General Motors.(PLANTS CLOSING IN THE UNITED STATES)
July 15, 2008... General Motors will close its Janesville, Wisc., plant, and lay off 2,500 workers. "We are all numb," said Brad Dutcher, president of the local union at a press conference attended by Wisc. Gov. Jim Doyle. "It was just a kick in the gut," Doyle...

General Motors.(PLANTS CLOSING IN THE UNITED STATES)
July 15, 2008... General Motors announced plans to halve production at its Oshawa, Ontario, Canada, truck facility and lay off up to 2,600 workers. The facility, which produces the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra will close next year. GM will also close it...

Chrysler.(PLANTS CLOSING IN THE UNITED STATES)
July 15, 2008... Chrysler has announced plans to close its St. Louis South minivan plant in Missouri, and cut a shift at its St. Louis North pickup truck plant. It has also extended summer shutdowns at its SUV plants in Detroit, Delaware and Toledo. The...

Shaw Industries.(PLANTS CLOSING IN THE UNITED STATES)
July 15, 2008... Shaw Industries has announced plans to close its spun yarn plant in Stevenson, Ala., due to sluggish sales in the housing industry. The company will lay off 400 workers. The company says it will work "diligently to help find future careers for...

Whirlpool.(PLANTS CLOSING IN THE UNITED STATES)
July 15, 2008... Whirlpool will close its refrigerator plant in La Vergne, Tenn., and lay off at least 500 employees. "I don't know yet what I'll do," said Alice Wilson, 56, of Nashville, who worked for Whirlpool for the past 23 years. "I'm too young to retire...

Haverhill Paperboard.(PLANTS CLOSING IN THE UNITED STATES)
July 15, 2008... Haverhill Paperboard in Haverhill, Mass., has announced plans to close down its operations and lay off 174 workers. The company, which has been in business since 1902, said the recent increase in the cost of natural gas and electricity has made...

Firestone Industrial Products.(PLANTS CLOSING IN THE UNITED STATES)
July 15, 2008... Firestone Industrial Products sent a notice to the United Steel Workers that it will likely close its air-spring manufacturing facility at Noblesville, Ind., because its competitors are producing in low-cost countries. The plant has 300...

Clarcor.(PLANTS CLOSING IN THE UNITED STATES)
July 15, 2008... Clarcor of Franklin, Tenn., has announced plans to close its Purolator air-filter factory in Henderson, N.C., in August and lay off 130 workers. "We didn't get a warning letter from the company or from the state," said Henderson mayor Becky...

Furniture Brands International.(PLANTS CLOSING IN THE UNITED STATES)
July 15, 2008... Furniture Brands International has announced plans to close its furniture plant in High Point, N.C., by the end of the year. The plant is closing due to "competitive pressure," says Furniture Brands CEO Ralph Scozzafava. About 300 people will...

Lehigh Press.(PLANTS CLOSING IN THE UNITED STATES)
July 15, 2008... Lehigh Press has decided to close its 84-year-old book printing plant in Pennsauken, Penn., and lay off 206 workers.

Visant.(PLANTS CLOSING IN THE UNITED STATES)
July 15, 2008... Visant has notified the SEC that it will close its Lehigh press plant in Armonk, N.Y., and consolidate its operations in Rockaway, N.Y., Milwaukee and Hagerstown, Md. About 120 press operators, prepress workers and lithographers are expected to...

Hallmark Cards.(PLANTS CLOSING IN THE UNITED STATES)
July 15, 2008... Hallmark Cards has announced plans to close card manufacturing plants in Toronto, Siloam Springs, Ark., and Bloomington, Ind. It will consolidate the work into its Lawrence and Topeka, Kan., facilities. It will lay off 335 employees.

American Axle and Manufacturing Holdings Inc.(PLANTS CLOSING IN THE UNITED STATES)
July 15, 2008... American Axle and Manufacturing Holdings Inc. is moving forward with plans to close its Tonawanda Forge plant in Buffalo, N.Y,. and its Cheektowaga manufacturing facility in Detroit. The company also expects to reduce its hourly workforce by...

Portola Packaging Inc.(PLANTS CLOSING IN THE UNITED STATES)
July 15, 2008... Portola Packaging Inc. has announced plans to close its Clifton Park, N.Y., factory and consolidate its production in three other plants in Clifton Park, N.Y., Kingsport, Tenn, and Phoenix, Ariz.

Pfizer.(PLANTS CLOSING IN THE UNITED STATES)
July 15, 2008... Pfizer is cutting 275 jobs at its largest manufacturing plant in Portage, Mich., in an "ongoing effort to remain globally competitive," says company spokesman Rick Chambers. The facility makes sterile injectable drugs, liquid medications,...

General Motors.(PLANTS CLOSING OVERSEAS)
July 15, 2008... General Motors has announced plans to end production of four cylinder engines at its Holden plant in Melbourne, Australia, and lay off 531 workers. It was an "extremely difficult announcement, as people and their families will be affected,"...

Siemens AG.(PLANTS CLOSING OVERSEAS)
July 15, 2008... Siemens AG expects to cut up to 4 percent of its workforce worldwide, or about 17,200 of its 435,000 workers. About 6,400 of the cuts will be in Germany, where the company employs 136,000 people, according to the Financial Times. The company...

Iron ore consolidation produces an iron grip.
July 15, 2008... Iron ore prices have recently been in the headlines, having jumped by 85 percent. This news is troubling, as such price increases threaten to raise steel prices, which will add to cost inflation and further undermine economic activity. ...

U.S. container exports still dominated by junk.
July 31, 2008... The United States continued its years' long trend of exporting scrap paper and commodities, while importing orders of magnitude greater amounts of high value-added manufactured goods. In 2007, U.S. retail giants, Wal-Mart, Target, Home Depot...

Manufacturing jobs in China surge beyond 110 million.
July 31, 2008... The number of manufacturing jobs in China has been increasing substantially since 2002, according to Judith Banister director of global demographics at The Conference Board. In 2002, manufacturing employment in China dropped to a 14-year low of...

Foreign and trade interest groups lobby Bush for an investment treaty with China.
July 31, 2008... Thirty of the nation's largest trade associations, business and financial organizations have commended President Bush's decision to negotiate a new "Bilateral Investment Treaty" with China. Such a treaty, if signed, "will help promote our...

BEA's decision to stop collecting specific FDI data riles U.S.-based producers & labor groups.
July 31, 2008... The U.S. Congress should require the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) to reverse its decision to stop collecting data on the specific types of foreign direct investment being made in the United States, according to a letter signed by 38...

EPI study: trade deficit with China ruins job prospects for millions of manufacturing workers; U.S.-China council disagrees.
July 31, 2008... "The growth of U.S. trade with China since China entered the World Trade Organization in 2001 has had a devastating effect on U.S. workers and the domestic economy," states the opening sentence of a report from the Economic Policy Institute....

Congressional disregard for R&D tax credit leads to thousands of lost jobs, says ITAA.
July 31, 2008... By allowing the research and development tax credit to expire and not renewing it, the Democratically controlled Congress has allowed the economy to lose more than $10.5 billion in new economic activity over the last six months, according to...

Top 100 U.S. importers via ocean container transport-2007.
July 31, 2008... As measured in 20-foot-equivalent container units or TEUs The first number listed for each company is the number of TEUs imported in 2007, followed by 2004 and 2002. NR means the company was not on the top 100 list for that year. SOURCE:...

Top 100 U.S. exporters via ocean container transport-2007.
July 31, 2008... As measured in 20-foot-equivalent container units or TEUs The first number is the number of TEUs exported in 2007, followed by TEUs exported in 2004 and 2002. NR means the company was not on the list of top 100 for that year. SOURCE:...

Bankruptcy indicator heads in wrong direction.
July 31, 2008... Business bankruptcies are on a "relentless upward pace" and the trend could increase "substantially" as the year progresses, according to accounts receivable insurer Euler Hermes ACI. In gathering data from the Administrative Office of the U.S....

Job cutting grips U.S.
July 31, 2008... A national "job-cutting spree" continued through June, with announcements among American companies to reduce payrolls by 82,000, according to the Challenger, Gray & Christmas outplacement firm. In the past three months, employers have announced...

NIST tech program seeks bidders.
July 31, 2008... The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has issued a call for proposals under its reconfigured "Technology Innovation Program." TIP is seeking proposals for technologies that can inspect and monitor roads, bridges and drinking...

Laid off execs not so gung ho about starting new companies.
July 31, 2008... Entrepreneurial activity in the United States is in a trough. In previous economic slowdowns, a large number of laid off white-collar managers have usually started new companies. But that isn't happening now, due to the difficulty of raising...

The words of Henry Ford.
July 31, 2008... "Whether you think you can do a thing or think you can't do a thing, you're right." "The competitor to be feared is one who never bothers about you at all, but goes on making his own business better all the time." "You can't build a...

China lobby pushes to drop shoe tariffs.
July 31, 2008... Seemingly minor pieces of legislation can embody large principles. The Affordable Footwear Act of 2007 (H.R. 3934) is a case in point. It currently has 156 co-sponsors. Its advocates say the broad bipartisan support is due to the bill's...

A workforce betrayed: watching greed murder the economy.
July 31, 2008... The collapse of world socialism, the rise of the high-speed Internet, a bought-and-paid-for U.S. government and a million-dollar cap on executive pay that is not performance related are permitting greedy and disloyal corporate executives, Wall...

NAM president ruffles Senate Majority Leader's feathers.
July 31, 2008... A recent meeting with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and John Engler, president of the National Association of Manufacturers, to discuss means in which the Democratic majority in Congress could improve manufacturing in America...

NAM names policy pros.
July 31, 2008... The National Association of Manufacturers has named Keith Smith director of employment and labor policy. Smith has been at NAM since 2005, having worked for former Sen. George Allen (R-Va.). NAM has a new director of transportation and...