Manufacturing & Technology News articles from June 2006

Manufacturing & Technology News archives from June 2006

Treasury Dept. uses 'Flawed' Chinese data to rule in favor of China's currency practices.
June 7, 2006... The U.S. Treasury Department is upholding its controversial use of Chinese government trade data as the basis for its twice- yearly determination of whether China is manipulating its currency, in effect dismissing charges by the China Currency...

Los Angeles economy is buoyed by growing imports.
June 7, 2006... The rapid growth in imports is working wonders for the economy of Los Angeles. "International trade in Southern California is big and fast growing," says the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp. LACEDC). Increased trade through...

Commerce Dept. drops bid to place severe restrictions on foreign researchers in U.S.
June 7, 2006... The Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) last week said it was withdrawing a pair of proposed measures that could have strengthened the barriers against access to sensitive technology faced by foreign nationals who...

Manufacturing issues make it onto the senate's defense planning & spending agenda.
June 7, 2006... Manufacturing programs at the Department of Defense have received a boost from the Senate Armed Services Committee. Senators say that recent reports from the National Academy of Sciences and the Defense Science Board (DSB) raising concerns...

Congress hopes cash prizes will spur innovation in hydrogen.
June 7, 2006... Legislation that would establish cash prizes designed to entice researchers to work toward breakthroughs in hydrogen technology is making its way through Congress. No sooner had the House passed its version of the H-Prize Act of 2006 (H.R....

Physical sciences R&D spending boost clears first hurdle in Congress.
June 7, 2006... The House has delivered an initial endorsement for the administration's American Competitiveness Initiative (ACI), voting to provide a 15 percent funding increase in 2007 for the Department of Energy's Office of Science (DOE-OS). DOE is one of...

U-mass wins $16-million grant to create nanotechnology center.
June 7, 2006... The University of Massachusetts Amherst has won a five-year, $16-million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to establish a research facility whose mission will be "to move nanotechnology from laboratory innovation to...

West Coast Universities in nano tie-up.
June 7, 2006... Stanford, UCLA, UC Berkeley and UC Santa Barbara have created a new Western Institute of Nanoelectronics to be headquartered at UCLA's engineering school. The institute will employ 30 "eminent" researchers to explore the development of...

Pentagon assesses China's impact on metals used in military systems.
June 7, 2006... Skyrocketing demand in China for metals is helping drive up the prices of steel and aluminum for the production of U.S. weapons systems, leading to longer lead times for materials, according to the Office of Industrial Policy at the Department...

Aerospace manufacturing creates tons of Muda--96% scrap rates.(QUOTABLE)
June 7, 2006... "The amount of metals to be procured for the production of an aircraft (Material Buy Weight) is significantly greater than the actual amount of that same metal present in the delivered aircraft (Material Fly Weight). "For example,...

India's R&D brass to enlighten U.S.
June 7, 2006... Indian Minister of Science & Technology Kapil Sibal and Surinder Kapur, who chairs the country's National Mission on Manufacturing Innovation, will be among the speakers featured at a June 16 conference on "India's Changing Innovation System"...

Diesel vehicle growth ready to roll.
June 7, 2006... Global demand for light vehicles that run on diesel fuel should nearly double over the next 10 years, increasing from 15 million units in 2005 to 29 million in 2015, according to J.D. Power Automotive Forecasting. World market share for diesels...

Securities industry drives economy.
June 7, 2006... The U.S. securities industry, which includes finance, insurance, real estate, rental and leasing, is an economic "powerhouse that continues to strengthen the U.S. economy," says Marc Lackritz, president of the Securities Industry Association....

'ExtraNets' not great for business.
June 7, 2006... Companies are relying more on "extranet" Web sites to conduct electronic commerce, but the trend "is resulting in additional supplier costs for the supply chain," according to the Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA). A survey of...

Sematech opens training partnership.
June 7, 2006... Sematech, the chip research consortium, has entered into a partnership with the Austin Community College to launch a $4- million program to train technicians and engineers in nanoelectronics. The Nanoelectronic Workforce Development Initiative...

Emerging economies create powerful global competitors.
June 21, 2006... A new competitive force is emerging from the world's most rapidly developing countries: a large group of companies that are challenging the world's leading corporations. Until recently, there were only about a dozen or so companies from...

White House puts MEP Advisory Board out of business.
June 21, 2006... The Advisory Board for the Commerce Department's Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) program is currently defunct, due in large part to the Bush administration's longstanding desire to stop funding the program, according to former board...

AFL-CIO seeks formal review of China's labor practices.
June 21, 2006... The AFL-CIO is calling on the Bush administration to open an investigation into labor practices in China, citing "the Chinese government's persistent denial of internationally recognized workers' rights" as an "unfair trade practice" under...

Manufacturing continues to shrink as a percentage of U.S. economic activity.
June 21, 2006... Manufacturing's share of the U.S. economy continues its 50-year decline. Last year, manufacturing GDP fell to an all-time low of just 12 percent of the economy, according to a Manufacturers Alliance/MAPI analysis of recent data from the...

Duke study throws doubt on argument that U.S. has lost its lead in engineers.
June 21, 2006... Conventional wisdom holds that China and India are graduating hundreds of thousands more scientists and engineers than is the United States. But that notion, which is being used to rationalize a new round of hand-wringing about the nation's...

India expects huge increase in manufacturing jobs, and a doubling of exports.
June 21, 2006... The manufacturing sector in India should create 25 million new jobs by 2010, predicts the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM). Manufacturing exports from India should also grow substantially during the next four...

India expects big growth in outsourced service sectors.
June 21, 2006... India should be able to capture 6 percent of the global market for information technology services and software by 2010, up from its current level of 3 percent, according to the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ACCOCHAM)....

MEP outlines a future that revolves around innovation and technology transfer.
June 21, 2006... The federal government's Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) program has developed a new strategic plan aimed at enhancing its role in innovation and technology transfer to small-and medium-sized manufacturers. Having been in business for...

The Information Technology Association of America (ITAA) has selected Phillip Bond to be its next president and CEO.(PEOPLE)
June 21, 2006... The Information Technology Association of America (ITAA) has selected Phillip Bond to be its next president and CEO. Bond, vice president of government relations for Monster and former Under Secretary of Commerce for Technology from 2001 to...

The Aerospace Industries Association has named Cord Sterling to be its new vice president of legislative affairs.(PEOPLE)
June 21, 2006... The Aerospace Industries Association has named Cord Sterling to be its new vice president of legislative affairs. Sterling joins AIA from the Capitol Hill office of Sen. John Warner (R-Va.), chairman of the Senate Armed Service Committee....

Letters to the editor.(Letter to the editor)
June 21, 2006... Regarding "Are 800 Million Chinese Peasants On The Threshold Of Opportunity Or Oblivion?" (MTN May 15, 2006 page 1) I agree with Joshua Muldavin, professor of Asian studies at Sarah Lawrence College. While the remaining manufacturing companies...

Europe moves one step closer to creating a technology institute.
June 21, 2006... The proposed European Institute of Technology still has a way to go before it becomes reality, according to the latest draft plan for the organization from the European Commission. The latest iteration of the proposed institute has embraced the...

Quotable.
June 21, 2006... "Our nation's strong economic position in IT today is due largely to the fact that starting in the late 1950's we have been making critical investments in fundamental research. Let's look at a case in point: Google. In less than a decade......

Valve maker provides good opportunity for investors.
June 21, 2006... Circor International, the Burlington, Mass.-based manufacturer of industrial valves, is positioned to experience a steady and profitable period of growth, according to Cliff Ransom, an independent institutional analyst who specializes in...

In annual budget process, some S&T programs fare well, while others fare less well.
June 21, 2006... The House Appropriations Committee this week sent to the House floor a version of the Science, State, Justice & Commerce (SSJC) Appropriations bill that would set 2007 funding for the Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) at $92 million,...

Private sector leads growth in pollution cleanup market.
June 21, 2006... The U.S. market for cleaning up hazardous waste sites and polluted properties grew by 6 percent during 2005, according to Environmental Business International Inc. Growth in the industry was fueled by projects involving brownfield sites, due to...