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WARREN, Mich.--Speaking to a group of General Motors Corp. employees, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) promised to provide a $5,000 tax credit for Americans who buy electric-powered cars such as the future Chevy Volt and "other automobiles that put us on the path to energy independence," even as he suggested he might alter his climate plan to aid the auto industry.

Trade Facilitation by: Ben Giles, July 15, 2008 The Cato Institute’s Daniel Ikenson and World Bank’s Simeon Djankov presented the findings of a new Cato trade policy analysis at the Rayburn House Office Building on July 11. Ikenson’s paper, entitled Protection without Protectionism: Reconciling Trade and Homeland Security, highlights the disconnect between Americans’ perception of the economy and the realities of international trade. “The polls tell us that Americans have soured on trade…” said Ikenson. “It’s because Americans are barraged nightly by reports on the news that they’re losing their jobs and that the economy is imperiled by globalization and...

German carmaker Volkswagen (VW) has chosen to locate its new US car plant in Tennessee, a move that could pump $1bn (£498m) into the local economy. VW opted for a site in the city of Chattanooga in preference to possible locations in Alabama and Michigan. The euro's rise against the dollar has made it costly to make cars in Europe and export them to the US, leading VW to explore manufacturing again there. The move is good news for a US car industry shedding thousands of jobs. New car Earlier on Tuesday, GM said it planned to make further cutbacks...

Chattanooga Chosen For $1 Billion Volkswagen Plant Plant At Enterprise South To Have 2,000 Jobs posted July 15, 2008 Volkswagen AG has chosen Chattanooga for its new $1 billion U.S. plant, the European carmaker announced today.

Volkswagen announced this morning that it would build a manufacturing plant in Chattanooga, Tenn. where it will build a vehicle specifically for the North American market. The plant will employ 2,000 workers from the tri-state area and is expected to invest $1 billion in the local economy. The plant is an integral part of Volkswagen's plan for expansion in the N.A. market, with sales expected to crest 800,000 units by 2018. The 1,350-acre site will produce 150,000 vehicles annually – specifically a midsize sedan – in 2011.

Bruised by a deep sales slump and a half-century-low in its stock price, General Motors Corp. is preparing to cut thousands more white-collar jobs and is considering whether it should sell or shutter more of its brands, people familiar with the matter said. Both moves are part of a broader re-evaluation of GM's strategy and of its ability to meet an internal projection of returning to profitability in 2010, these people said. [Snip] The company currently sells vehicles under eight different brands, but most, including Buick, Saturn and Saab, struggle to attract buyers despite offering new models that cost GM...

Last summer, it was Chinese-made toys, pet food and meat that caused concern. This July 4th holiday, there are new worries about the overly explosive nature of its fireworks. This week, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) issued a report saying it found that nearly half of the shipments they inspected coming from China do not meet Federal safety guidelines. That's especially worrying since, according the American Pyrotechnic Association, 98 percent of fireworks used in backyards and front lawns across America are manufactured in China. NEWSWEEK's Caitlin McDevitt spoke with Scott Wolfson, a chief spokesman for the Commission about its...

Coal, steel, oil — we think of these old-economy industries, and we picture pollution. Smoggy skies, fouled rivers, toxic waste. As we make the transition to a new economy, we imagine that industrial pollution will become a thing of the past. Mobile phones, laptops, MP3 players — they conjure images of spotless semiconductor factories and the eternal summer of Silicon Valley where the digital economy was born. But the tech industry has a dirty little secret: it has toxic waste of its own. Phones and computers contain dangerous metals like lead, cadmium and mercury, which can contaminate the air and...

<p>U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents raided an Arlington aircraft manufacturing plant Thursday and arrested 32 undocumented workers.</p> <p>Agents executed the search warrant at Aerospace Manufacturing Technologies, Inc., which supplies parts for both commercial and military aircraft, including the Boeing 737 and 777, according to an ICE news release. The raid was prompted by an ICE audit of AMT's employment records that led agents "to believe that a small percentage of the company's employees used counterfeit documents to secure their jobs," the news release said.</p>

DETROIT -- General Motors Corp. told dealers Monday it plans to raise prices on 2009 models by an average of 3.5% despite a tough market that is forcing the automaker to cut production and discount its 2008 models. Company officials said in conference calls to dealers that the increases will allow GM to recover only part of the rising cost of steel and other commodities and the cost of safety and other features on the new models. The increases will amount to about $1,000 per vehicle. GM already had increased the prices of its 2008 model year vehicles twice because...

Boeing expects Qatar to announce “within a few days� an order for two C-17s plus two purchase options, in a deal that will mark the first sale of the military transport aircraft to a Middle Eastern customer. If Qatar confirms the purchase, it will receive its two firm aircraft in August 2009, says Boeing’s C-17 business development director Dan Page. The manufacturer has delivered 174 of the 190 aircraft ordered by the US Air Force, will hand over a sixth aircraft to the UK Royal Air Force this week, and has also delivered four aircraft each to Canada and Australia....

To slow its production of pickup trucks and sport utility vehicles, the Toyota plant in Princeton, Ind., is letting employees decide if they will come to work on six days between now and August. The company announced today that it would refrain from producing the Tundra pickup truck and Sequoia SUV at the Princeton plant on six days before the end of August. Both vehicles are made in the west side of Toyota's factory in Princeton. The "nonproduction days" will affect about half of the 4,500 employees at the plant. The other half works in the east side of the...

GE's announcement a week ago that it would accept offers for its appliances business marked the death-knell of yet another US manufacturing business, one among so many in US manufacturing's long and seemingly unstoppable downtrend since 1980. - snip -The sad story of GE Appliances is a paradigm of what has gone wrong in the US economy since 1980. No, manufacturing did not need to leave the United States; US manufacturing was killed by a multitude of foolish short-term-profit motivated decisions by inept and overpaid US management.

DETROIT (Feb. 8) - Automaker Chrysler LLC aims to cut its product lineup by around a half and dramatically shrink its dealership network so it can sell its three brands under one roof, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday, citing people familiar with the plan. The proposal to cut the struggling U.S. automaker's product line of around 30 different trucks, cars and sports utility vehicles across the Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep brands to 15 or more within a few years is part of a drive to cut costs and create a leaner, more profitable company, the paper said. Analysts...

The rising cost of shipping everything from industrial-pump parts to lawn-mower batteries to living-room sofas is forcing some manufacturers to bring production back to North America and freeze plans to send even more work overseas. "My cost of getting a shipping container here from China just keeps going up -- and I don't see any end in sight," says Claude Hayes, president of the retail heating division at DESA LLC. He says that cost has jumped about 15%, to about $5,300, since January and is set to increase again next month to $5,600. HOMEWARD BOUND • The News: Soaring fuel...

Cheap exports fuelled by the weak US dollar helped a key gauge of US manufacturing activity improve last month, a new report revealed on Monday. The Institute for Supply Management’s business activity index rose from 48.6 to 49.6 in May, a better performance than the slight decline forecast by economists. Nevertheless the index remained in contraction – defined as a reading below 50 – for a fourth consecutive month, indicating the manufacturing sector is still struggling with enfeebled domestic demand. Most economists have revised their more gloomy economic forecasts in light of recent data which have painted a picture of...

Do guns kill people or do people kill people? This is the question that will be kicked around Queen's Park for the next few weeks as the provincial government debates a Private Member's Bill, introduced by Oakville MPP Kevin Flynn, which would attempt to make firearm manufacturers and importers more responsible for the actions of their products. If passed, the Handgun Manufacturers' and Importers' Liability Act 2008 proposed by Flynn would allow the victims of handgun shootings, or their families, to bring legal action against the handgun's manufacturer or importer in cases where negligence could be proven on their part....

The U.S. is the new place to go for low-cost manufacturing. As unlikely as it might seem, companies overseas are starting to get that image as they begin sending work to U.S. job shops. “Over the last six months, activity from the U.K. to the U.S. has picked up dramatically. Before that, it was insignificant,” says Mitch Free, owner of Mfg.com, a Web site for sourcing and selling manufacturing services. “We also see work coming back from Canada because the Canadian dollar now has a 28% disadvantage against the U.S. dollar. Canadian manufacturers who get contracts from the U.S. tell...

Ford Motor Co. announced it will build its new global car, the Fiesta, in Mexico for sale in North America as part of a $3 billion investment in the country. It will be Mexico's largest-ever auto investment, with President Felipe Calderon saying the only greater amounts of private investment were banking acquisitions. Some 4,500 Ford jobs are expected to be created and result in some 25,000 new direct and indirect jobs at suppliers. "The auto industry has become consolidated as one of the pillars of our economy," Mr. Calderon said. "It's one of the principal sources of exports, of foreign...

MIDLAND, Mich. (AP) -- Dow Chemical Co. will raise product prices by up to 20 percent almost immediately to offset the soaring cost of energy and raw materials, and the CEO of the chemical giant lashed out Washington on Wednesday for failing to develop a sound energy policy. "For years, Washington has failed to address the issue of rising energy costs and, as a result, the country now faces a true energy crisis, one that is causing serious harm to America's manufacturing sector and all consumers of energy," Chairman and Chief Executive Andrew Liveris said in a statement. "The government's...

American Axle and Manufacturing Holdings Inc. said Wednesday it will cut its U.S. hourly work force by 2,000, or about 55 percent, as a result of a new contract ratified last week by the United Auto Workers union.

TOKYO - Toyota is building a $192 million plant in Japan to produce batteries for gas-electric hybrid vehicles, as it seeks to keep its lead in an intensifying race for green cars among the world's automakers. Toyota's joint venture with Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., which makes Panasonic brand products, is building the plant in Shizuoka prefecture, in central Japan, Toyota spokesman Paul Nolasco said Friday. He declined to give more details. The plant will produce nickel-metal hydride batteries, now in the company's hit Prius hybrid. The Nikkei, Japan's top business daily, reported Friday that Toyota was building another plant in...

Swedish furniture maker Ikea celebrated the opening of its first factory in the United States on Wednesday. Swedwood, a subsidiary of home furnishings giant, has 40 plants worldwide. The $281 million plant in Danville, Virginia will employ 300 people by the end of 2009, said Swedwood North America president Bengt Danielsson. Virginia Governor Timothy M. Kaine was at Wednesday's ceremony to hail the economic boost to the ailing region along the North Carolina border, formerly a stronghold for the tobacco industry. Swedwood received $12 million in incentives from in state and local authorities, as well as the Virginia Tobacco Commission...

General Motors Corp.'s stock dropped almost 5 percent Friday after the company reported that strikes at some of its own plants and parts supplier American Axle will cost the automaker about $2 billion before taxes in the second quarter. GM also expects to produce 230,000 fewer vehicles during the quarter due to the nearly three-month American Axle strike, which crippled its production of large sport utility vehicles and pickups. The other strikes will cost it 33,000 vehicles. "We anticipate only a portion of this lost production will be recovered, due to the current economic environment in the United States and...

Back in August, during the panic over mortgages, Alan Greenspan offered reassurance to an anxious public. The current turmoil, the former Federal Reserve Board chairman said, strongly resembled brief financial scares such as the Russian debt crisis of 1998 or the U.S. stock market crash of 1987. Not to worry. But in the background, one could hear the groans and feel the tremors as larger political and economic tectonic plates collided. Nine months later, Greenspan's soothing analogies no longer wash. The U.S. economy faces unprecedented debt levels, soaring commodity prices and sliding home prices, to say nothing of a weak...

MONTPELIER, Idaho (AP) _ A Seattle company has picked Montpelier for a $7 million plant where workers will build environmentally friendly modular motels. Executives from Triad Resorts say they will begin construction of the new plant in Montpellier in the next 90 days, with operations expected to begin next March. The company expects to hire about 150 workers. The plant will produce fully constructed rooms on site that can be shipped by truck and linked to other modular rooms at a motel site. Jerry Ward, principal owner of Triad Resorts, says the company has a contract to also build walls,...

As immigrants, we're proud of America and the strength it derives from being uniquely open to trade, to investment, and to ideas and people. Recently, prominent voices in punditry and politics have questioned the benefits of America's openness and called for an isolationist U-turn that would choke off our innovation and prosperity. In every state of the union, such a retreat would be disastrous for jobs, economic growth and consumer choice. Nowhere is this more clear than here in Torrance, Calif., where today we are visiting a Hitachi plant that remanufactures auto parts. This "foreign" company employs 16,000 Americans --...

BEIJING (AP) -- China has established a homegrown company to make passenger jumbo jets, state media reported Sunday -- a step forward in the country's quest to become less dependent on Boeing and Airbus.

History dictates that protecting and maintaining a nation's industrial base is critical to its national security and to winning wars. This is why taking out an enemy's manufacturing infrastructure, as America did to Germany and Japan during World War II, is the first step in rendering it defenseless.Yet today in America, despite the menace of terrorism and threats from assorted despots around the globe, we are neglecting — and in some cases damaging — our own military industrial base. America has shed 3 million manufacturing jobs since 2001, many in our military supply chain. The average age of today's factory...

A01 Despite more than 100 published studies by government scientists and university laboratories that have raised health concerns about a chemical compound that is central to the multibillion-dollar plastics industry, the Food and Drug Administration has deemed it safe largely because of two studies, both funded by an industry trade group. The agency says it has relied on research backed by the American Plastics Council because it had input on its design, monitored its progress and reviewed the raw data. The compound, bisphenol A (BPA), has been linked to breast and prostate cancer, behavioral disorders and reproductive health problems in...

One huge problem with her statement is that manufacturing output in the United States has continued to EXPAND in recent decades. According to the Federal Reserve Board, America’s factories produced 30 percent more in real output in 2007 than a decade earlier and three times more than in the 1960s. And just what sort of things do Americans make? According to the U.S. Commerce Department, in 2006 U.S. factories produced: 4,522 complete civil aircraft and 12,299 complete civil aircraft engines./li> 87 million metric tons of raw steel and 113 million tons of shipped steel products.11,260,300 cars and light trucks.26,925,715 million...

In a further sign of weakening demand for large, gas-guzzling SUVs, GM has announced it is idling its 54-year-old Arlington, Texas plant for three weeks. This comes only two weeks after a GM spokeswoman said this about Arlington: "We are currently running at full production and foresee continuing to run at full production indefinitely..." Workers at the plant had been producing 900-1000 Chevrolet Tahoes and Suburbans, GMC Yukons, and Cadillac Escalades a day. Ten months ago, Autoblog reported large SUVs were holding their own. Now, these models are seeing reduced sales compared with last year as consumers react to...

In a recent editorial, writer Jesse Patrilla somewhat sarcastically commented on the consequences of a proposed economic boycott of China. "No large U.S. retailer is willing (read: stupid enough) to not carry Chinese products, " he wrote. "In the year following their 2004 joining of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and consequent release from quotas, the volume of Chinese clothing exports increased over 500 percent, and prices dropped almost 50 percent. If that’s just numbers to you, do this experiment: Check the perimeter to see if your boss is out of the way, duck in your cubicle and start checking...

Workers at Dayton, Cleveland Facilities Get Notices La-Z-Boy and Whirlpool are moving jobs to new plants in Mexico, bringing job losses to hundreds of workers in Dayton and Cleveland. La-Z-Boy employees in Dayton were told today that the cutting and sewing operation is being moved to Mexico. Kathy Liebmann, La-Z-Boy spokesperson, said the Dayton facility has over 2,000 employees, but she did not have a breakdown on those in cutting and sewing. A La-Z-Boy employee said it was around 750. Ms. Liebmann said La-Z-Boy is closing a plant at Tremonton, Utah, but will keep its other plants open, including the...

Both Oback and Hillary are stumping to bring back manufacturing to America from the third world countries where it went. Their current platforms on "Lost Jobs in America" is as far from reality as they are from working in one of those factories. The fact of the matter is that we have plenty of jobs in the manufacturing sector. The real issue is that we don't have enough workers to fill them. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (remember, these guys still classify work as 'farm' and 'non-farm' so if you didn't have to go milk this morning you...

Manufacturing is the key AMID the heady decadence of the Roaring Twenties in Berlin there arrived a man carrying a suitcase containing everything he owned. In his pocket he had a few Reichsmarks but barely enough for a city revelling in extravagance and extremes. He looked provincial, which he was, and decidedly out of place. But Gustav Krone had not exchanged the blackened skyline and smokestacks of the Ruhr to abandon himself to the fleshpots of Berlin. He was the eldest of a family of 10 children from Remscheid and was out to make his fortune. Within a few short...

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SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Dell Inc (DELL.O: Quote, Profile, Research) said on Monday it plans to save $3 billion annually over the next three years by closing its Austin, Texas desktop computer manufacturing plant and cutting thousands of jobs. The company's shares rose 1.1 percent following the announcement after closing up 1.6 percent on Nasdaq. Dell, the world's second-largest PC maker after Hewlett-Packard Co (HPQ.N: Quote, Profile, Research), also repeated its goal of cutting 8,800 jobs, or about 10 percent of the work force, and said it will review "ownership alternatives" for its Dell Financial Services business. The company said...

The Department of Defense has awarded Bell Helicopter and partner The Boeing Co. a five-year, $10.4 billion contract to make 167 V-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft. The contract includes 26 CV-22 aircraft for the Air Force Special Operations Command and 141 MV-22 aircraft for the U.S. Marine Corps. The contract includes an option for additional aircraft. The fuselage for the V-22 is built by Boeing Rotorcraft Systems in Philadelphia. Bell builds components for the aircraft in Fort Worth and completes final assembly at its Military Aircraft Assembly Center in Amarillo. The V-22 is a tiltrotor aircraft with proprotors and engines installed...

March 30, 2008 Manufacturing’s comeback chance Economic Outlook David Smith WITH apologies to any of them who might be reading this, is it time we dumped the investment bankers, accountants and consultants and concentrated on the people who make things, Britain’s manufacturers? Does the credit crunch - a term Mervyn King has now taken to using - mark the point at which we should go back to basics, by rediscovering the things that made Britain great? A week in which Jaguar and Land Rover have been sold to India’s Tata may seem a curious time to be asking such a...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- United Auto Workers union membership has fallen below 500,000 for the first time since World War II, reflecting the massive restructuring undertaken by Detroit's automakers. The union reported Friday in a filing with the Labor Department that it had 464,910 members by the end of 2007, compared with 538,448 at the end of 2006. UAW membership peaked in 1979 at 1.5 million but has been dropping ever since. Mike Smith, director of the Walter P. Reuther Library at Wayne State University in Detroit, said the last time the UAW had fewer than 500,000 members was in 1941....

TOKYO - Mitsubishi Heavy Industries is going ahead with its mid-sized regional jet — the first "made in Japan" passenger aircraft in three decades. The announcement from the company President Kazuo Tsukuda came Friday, a day after major Japanese carrier All Nippon Airways placed the first orders for the twin-engine aircraft that seats about 70 to 90 people. ANA ordered 15 of the jets from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. on Thursday for delivery from 2013, with an option for 10 more. Mitsubishi, a Japanese machinery maker, has been testing out the response to the jet — which would face tough...

As the dollar skids, dropping earlier this month to a 12-year low against the yen and another record low against the euro, U.S. exports are surging. That is providing a lone bright spot in an otherwise-gloomy economy and distinguishing this downturn from the last recession. When the U.S. faced recession in 2001, the greenback's value was riding high relative to other currencies, which hobbled exporters. This time, the opposite is occurring. Exports have already helped to counteract the impact of the beleaguered housing market. Over the past six quarters, exports have contributed, on average, nearly one percentage point to economic...

(GOLETA, California) - Wal-Mart Stores Inc will meet with its thousands of Chinese suppliers this fall as part of a big push to reduce waste and emissions at factories that make its products, Chief Executive Lee Scott said on Thursday. "We started a very aggressive program in China that is not only going to deal with environmental sustainability, but is also going to deal more aggressively with the issues of sourcing in China," Scott said during an appearance at the Wall Street Journal ECO:nomics conference in Goleta, California. As the world's largest retailer, Wal-Mart is considered one of the few...

John McCain might be taking this maverick thing a bit far. I mean, sending good aviation jobs to France? At least that's the charge from Boeing backers, who accuse the Arizona senator of helping Airbus get a $35 billion Air Force tanker contract at the expense of American jobs, including hundreds of them right here in the Air Capital. Boeing supporters, looking for a villain in this economic defeat, have put McCain in their crosshairs. "I hope the voters of this state remember what John McCain has done to them and their jobs," said Rep. Norm Dicks, a Washington...

UNDATED (AP) - It may not be organized sabotage, but many of the hottest electronic gadgets on the market are coming pre-loaded with viruses. Recent cases reviewed by The Associated Press include Apple iPods, digital picture frames sold by Target and Best Buy, and TomTom navigation gear. Some of the viruses steal passwords that can expose a computer to hackers and prompt them to spew spam. In most cases, the sources appear to be Chinese factories where many of the devices are being made. Security experts say the problem appears to be lax quality control. The malicious software is apparently...

...That's the word from Gov. Tim Pawlenty and companies across the state who met late last week at a series of roundtables to brainstorm about how to attract and prepare reluctant young workers to what in many cases remains a high-paying field. The governor, Minnesota Chamber of Commerce, Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) and MnSCU hosted roundtables in Rochester, Brainerd and South St. Paul to discuss potential solutions to the widespread problem. ...According to DEED, manufacturing accounts for 11 percent of all job vacancies in the state, second only to health care. There were 6,527 manufacturing jobs open...

US automaker General Motors Corp. on Monday said it had shuttered 11 plants and trimmed production at 18 others because of a strike at a key supplier. Many of the plants affected produce two of GM's best-selling vehicles: the full-size Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra pickup trucks. Production of the hulking Hummer H2 and Chevy Tahoe has also been affected. GM said last week that the strike has not affected sales because dealers have more than enough vehicles to keep up with customer demand for the next 60 to 90 days. However, an extended strike could have an impact on...

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) -- On one side of the Atlantic Ocean, BMW says it will cut 7.5 percent of its work force over two years. On this side of the water, the company says it plans to increase production by more than 50 percent by 2012. "This is completely driven by the plunge in the dollar," said Greg Gardner with Oliver Wyman, publisher of the Harbour Report on automotive manufacturing activity. "It is untenable to produce at a much higher cost in Germany." The euro climbed to record heights Friday, reaching $1.5463 before falling back to $1.5335 in late trading...

Survey: U.S. consumers favor Chinese products WASHINGTON, March 6 (Xinhua) -- U.S. consumers believe Chinese products have the second best value in the world, only after the American goods, a recently released survey shows. The survey, conducted by New York-based GfK Roper, a market research firm serving consumer goods companies, found that 26 percent of U.S. consumers believe Chinese-made products have the best value, up from 9 percent in a comparable survey in 1996. Some 45 percent of consumers said they believe American products to be the best value, while Japan, Mexico, Germany ranked behind the U.S. and China on...