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Treasury Secretary John Snow will be pressing Chinese officials to take additional steps toward more flexible currency valuation when he meets with them this month, a State Department official told copper industry executives.
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The value of new construction contracts increased 2 percent in August to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $667.6 billion thanks to a push from nonresidential building, which continued to strengthen after its weak volume earlier in the year, according to the McGraw-Hill Construction division of the McGraw-Hill Cos., New York.
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Driving for a return to profitability, Ford Motor Co. plans to overhaul its supplier system by slashing the number of suppliers it uses for key high-impact parts and components by about 50 percent.
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Chinese metals producers posted strong profits in the first eight months of this year, although the growth rate continued to slow, according to China's National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
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South Carolina port officials said the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has awarded $5.2 million in security grants, the largest ever received by the state's port authority.
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Heavy equipment manufacturer Caterpillar Inc., Peoria, Ill., is boosting production of mining trucks and equipment to meet "unprecedented" demand from customers around the world.
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North American production of family vehicles totaled 1,507,838 units in August, the highest monthly tally since March last year, but production of 10,373,792 vehicles in the first eight months of 2005 remained 1.9 percent below 10,572,363 in the same period last year, according to data from Ward's Communications.
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Workers at the port of St. Petersburg, Russia, have officially approved the union's decision to put their job action on hold until they sign a new contract with port authorities-a move that effectively brings their intermittent strikes to an end.
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Metals processor and manufacturer Gibraltar Industries Inc., Buffalo, N.Y., has purchased the Gutter Helmet product line of Hart & Cooley Inc., Holland, Mich. The terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
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Having completed a leading role in the consolidation of the steel industry, New York-based private equity investor Wilbur L. Ross Jr. is now making plans to take on the same job in the downstream automotive parts supply industry.
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The Mid-America Chapter of the Metals Service Center Institute (MSCI) and local National Tooling and Machining Association members will conduct a town hall meeting in Kansas City, Mo., to focus attention on the state of North American manufacturing.
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Metals processor Gibraltar Industries Inc., Buffalo, N.Y., has purchased a manufacturing facility near Shanghai, China, that produces copper and copper alloy-based powder metal products.
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A combination of continued higher-than-expected costs for steel and other materials and increased energy costs have prompted automotive components supplier Dana Corp. to lower its 2005 earnings forecast by more than $100 million.
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The U.S. Trade Representative has added an expert on China and its manufacturing capabilities to his staff to aid its formation of U.S. trade policy.
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U.S. machine tool consumption totaled $250.1 million in July, down 4.1 percent from a revised $260.7 million the previous month but 22.4 percent ahead of $204.4 million in July 2004, according to a joint report by the American Machine Tool Distributors' Association, Rockville, Md., and the Association for Manufacturing Technology, McLean, Va.
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Automotive parts supplier ArvinMeritor Inc., Troy, Mich., plans to move the shock and strut portion of its manufacturing operations to its plant in Queretaro, Mexico, from Chickasha, Okla.
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Four chassis and two powertrain plants are among 17 plants and six other facilities that will be transferred from Visteon Corp. to a new company managed by Ford Motor Co. on Oct. 1 under a deal aimed at making Visteon profitable.
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An old LTV Steel Mining Co. facility in Minnesota is changing hands-and usage.
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The value of new construction contracts increased 1 percent in July to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $662 billion. Nonresidential building maintained its improving trend of recent months following a lackluster performance at the outset of 2005 and residential construction continued to see robust activity, according to the McGraw-Hill Construction division of the McGraw-Hill Cos., New York, while nonbuilding construction (public works and utilities) settled back slightly from the previous month.
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Rail service provider RailAmerica Inc., Boca Raton, Fla., has agreed to buy four short-line railroads from Alcoa Inc. that serve the aluminum producer's operations in Texas and New York and a former specialty chemicals facility in Arkansas.
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China Minmetals Corp. is considering forming nickel and iron ore joint ventures in Latin America, according to reports.
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The Port of New Orleans has set a goal of Sept. 14 for working its first commercial cargo ship as the port and other Gulf Coast shipping operations struggle back from disruptions caused by Hurricane Katrina.
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Mark Kaplan, former president and chief financial officer of Weirton Steel Corp., Weirton, W.Va., is joining a Pittsburgh-based electric utility company as its financial chief.
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Economic activity in the U.S. manufacturing sector grew in August for the 27th consecutive month and the overall economy expanded for the 46th month in a row, albeit it at a slower pace than the previous two months, according to the latest business report from the Institute for Supply Management, Tempe, Ariz.