Free Republic

Domestic demand for machine tools will reach a record high this year as the country steps up efforts to achieve its goal of becoming a leader of the world's manufacturing industry. Wang Liming, vice-president of the China Machine Tool and Tool Builders' Association, announced yesterday in Beijing that the country's spending on machine tools is expected to hit about US$10 billion in 2005. Last year, the figure was US$9.46 billion, making China the world's largest machine tool consumer and importer for three successive years. Robust growth in the aerospace and aviation, automobile, power equipment manufacturing, ship-building, metallurgic and petrochemical equipment...

BAGHDAD, Iraq, March 12 - In the weeks after Baghdad fell in April 2003, looters systematically dismantled and removed tons of machinery from Saddam Hussein's most important weapons installations, including some with high-precision equipment capable of making parts for nuclear arms, a senior Iraqi official said this week in the government's first extensive comments on the looting. The Iraqi official, Sami al-Araji, the deputy minister of industry, said it appeared that a highly organized operation had pinpointed specific plants in search of valuable equipment, some of which could be used for both military and civilian applications, and carted the machinery...

Machine tool sales are offering another sign of a manufacturing economy on the mend, although growth has been somewhat uneven and less than certain. Sales of machines that factories use to make everything from automobiles to appliances were up nearly 32% the first six months of 2004, a report released this week says. "We are doing pretty well right now, but what's scary is the majority of our work is for one customer," said Howie Taylor, an executive with Key Products Co., a machine-tool company in Milwaukee. Taylor has been in the toolmaking industry more than 30 years, and most...

A London accountant has described how Pakistan's disgraced nuclear hero Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan visited the West African state of Mali on three occasions between 1998 and 2000. Abdul Ma'bood Siddiqui accompanied A.Q. Khan on three mystery trips  between 1998 and 2000. Their final destination was Timbuktu, a remote outpost in the desert that has always been a magnet for explorers and adventurers from around the world. The mystery behind the visits has deepened following recent revelations that Khan is also the owner of a small hotel in the town that he has named after Hendrina, his Dutch-born wife and...

WASHINGTON, July 13 (Reuters) - U.S. machine tool demand fell in May from the year-ago month, and also fell slightly from April, two industry trade groups said in a joint report on Sunday that underlined the sluggishness of the economy. The American Machine Tool Distributors' Association (AMTDA) and the Association for Manufacturing Technology (AMT) said U.S. May machine tool demand stood at $140.78 million, down 36.4 percent from $221.25 million in May 2002. May demand was also off 0.8 percent from a revised $141.90 million in April. April demand was revised downward from $169.57 million reported a month ago. In...