Page 3
VOLUME
1
, ISSUE
8
NEWS & NOTES
Washington, D.C.
The US trade deficitshrank more than forecast in Decemberand showed the first annual drop since2001 as the faltering economy erodeddemand for imported autos and Chinesemade consumer goods. The gap nar-rowed 6.9 percent from November to$58.8 billion, the Commerce Depart-ment said yesterday. Imports fell 1.1percent, while exports increased 1.5percent, aided by stronger growthabroad.
San Francisco
Intel Corp. plans toinvest $7 billion over two years to buildnext-generation U.S. chip manufactur-ing plants, unveiling its biggest spend-ing plan for new technology amid adeepening economic recession andhuge internal job cuts. Intel, who is inthe business of making computer micro-processors, wants to make faster,smaller chips that use less energy. In-tel's investment will be apportionedamong existing manufacturing sites inOregon, Arizona and New Mexico andwill support about 7,000 jobs at thoselocations.
Wolfsburg, Germany
Volkswagen,Europe's biggest carmaker, and Toshibahave unveiled an accord to jointly de-velop electric drive units and other ele-ments that VW said will allow it to be-come the first manufacturer of an af-fordable electric vehicle. The Wolfsburgbased company said it hoped to pushthe development of future drive tech-nologies in many fields and that moreresearch and development would beneeded, particularly for smaller butmore powerful lithium-ion batteries. VW said it aimed to be the first manu-facturer to provide "an emissions-free,affordable and safe large-scale produc-tion electric vehicle."
Shanghai, China
Aluminum Corp. of China said it will invest $19.5 billion inRio Tinto Group, easing the Anglo- Australian miner's heavy debt burdenwhile securing Chinese access to long-coveted mining resources. The deal,announced Thursday, is China's biggestoverseas investment so far and high-lights the country's growing financialbroad range of categories. Gasoline sta-tions and electronics and appliance storesboth notched up 2.6% sales gains fromDecember. Clothing sales also rose 1.6%and grocery stores posted a 2.2% in-crease. Reflecting the prolonged housingcrisis and the winter season, sales of building material and garden equipmentstores had the sharpest decline, of 3.2%.Furniture and home furnishingsstore sales tumbled 1.3%.
Randers, Denmark
Vestas Wind Sys-tems reported strong results for the all of 2008 on Feb. 11 and posted a 75.6% risein net profit to 511 million euros (US$661million) on sales that were up 24% on anannual comparison to 6.03 billion euros.Its operating profit meanwhile climbed50.8 % to 668 million euros. The windturbine maker also said it had posted its"biggest fourth quarter ever," with salesof 2.48 billion euros and an operatingmargin of 15.4%, up from 1.88 billion insales on a margin of 12.3% for the sameperiod a year earlier. The company plansto expand its production capacity in Colo-rado, where it aims to more than doubleits blade capacity to 4,000 blades in2010. Vestas also said it was establishingthe world's largest tower factory, as wellas its first U.S. nacelle factory in Colo-rado.
Richmond, VA
Gov. Tim Kaine recentlyunveiled proposed amendments to thefiscal year 2008-10 biennial budget andannounced a new initiative aimed at cre-ating jobs by attracting renewable energycompanies to Virginia. The governor willseek legislative support for both propos-als in the coming months. The Renew Virginia Initiative is the governor's plan toboost job creation and position the stateas a leader in alternative energy genera-tion and R&D. Gov. Kaine created a newInteragency Task Force for Energy Pro- ject Recruitment that consists of stateagencies, university research centers andfederal labs. The Virginia Economic De-velopment Partnership is charged withassembling a marketing plan for promot-ing the state.
~FTALK NEWS
clout even as it grapples with the world'sworst economic downturn in decades.
Wauconda, IL
The Aluminum AnodizersCouncil invites you to help shape the con-tent of this years conference program willa “call for papers” announced for relevanttopics for their annual conference. Thecouncil issues the proceedings of theconference on CD to all delegates on siteand will need to receive papers (and li-cense of copyright) well in advance of theconference. The program is scheduled forthe first week in October 2009 in FortWorth, Texas, USA. The committee iseager to plan the next conference andlooks forward to your response beforeJanuary 15, 2009.
San Francisco ,CA
State Science & Technology Institute will co-host a TIP-MEP Regional Meeting on March 12,2009. Officials from the Technology In-novation Program (TIP) and the Manufac-turing Extension Partnership (MEP) arehosting the meeting to inform smallmanufacturers of opportunities for Fed-eral assistance and will include topicssuch as; new federal funding opportuni-ties, new resources to support early-stage research, new products and ser-vices to expand manufacturing, new toolsto help foster growth and innovation incompanies you work with, new models toaccelerate technology commercializationand translation, and new ideas aboutways to integrate state, local, and federalinvestments. To register for the meeting,please go to: http://www.ssti.org/tipreg/tipreg.htm alternate reservation number800.228.9290
Birmingham, England
Britain will cre-ate 10,000 jobs on former MG Rover site,south of Birmingham by building nearly1,500 homes on the site. The 750-million-pound (US$ 1.1 billion) 15-year plan wassubmitted to the government in Feb. A section of the 140-hectare site is nowused for car production by Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp.
Washington, DC
U.S. Retail Sales Re-bound with the adjusted data reportedthe sharpest monthly percentage gain inretail and food services sales since Nov.2007. Rising retail sales were seen in a
Leave a Comment