China’s Industrial Software enters its “Platinum Era”
Sep 18, 2012
The term “industrial software” refers to computer applications used for management and support of machinery, production and operations, as well as quality control, safety & facilities, inventory control, and R & D, in an industrial enterprise. This software is usually classified in 5 categories: production R&D, production management, production control, collaborative integration, and embedded industrial software.
With the arrival of the “third wave” of industrial revolution, and the ongoing integration of IT into all aspects of design, management and manufacturing, Chinese industrial software is entering a platinum era.
|
|
|
“Made-in-China” Under Siege
Sep 18, 2012
Throughout the human history, no developed country has thrived merely through the export of resources and low-cost labors. Given the pressing competition picture, China will have to develop its own critical infrastructure, and learn to apply the highest levels of technology, to be positioned for the next round of competition.
|
|
|
High-end Equipment Manufacturing Sector: Industrial Development Plan Released
Sep 18, 2012
According to the 12th Five-year Development Plan for the High-end Equipment Manufacturing Sector released on May 7th, the sector will account for 15% of the overall equipment manufacturing industry by 2015 and 25% by 2020. The goal is that this will ultimately become one of the pillars of the Chinese economy.
|
|
|
China Issues Producer Price Indexes (PPI) of Industrial Products for July, 2012
Aug 20, 2012
Official data released on 9th August shows that in July, 2012, the ex-factory price of industrial products of China fell 2.9% year on year, larger when compared with 2.1% in June, and a drop of 0.8 percentage points month-on-month. The purchase price of industrial products saw a year-on-year decline of 3.4% compared with 2011. The average ex-factory and purchase prices of industrial products from January to July, 2012 dropped 1.0% and 0.8% respectively.
|
|
|
China’s Rare Earth Situation and Policies
Jul 20, 2012
China's rare earth reserves account for approximately 23% of the world’s total; however, 90% of the rare earths in the world market are supplied by China, which has become an increasingly serious environmental concern. Moreover, the current rare earth prices have deviated from a true reflection of value, i.e., the scarcity is not fully captured. The phrase “the loss outweighs the gain” can summarize the exploitation of Chinese rare earths in recent years.
|
|
|
Analysis of Sluggish Chinese Steel Market
Jun 21, 2012
This year, the fall of steel prices is closely related to the large-scale production of crude steel, but it’s not the dominant factor. In addition to the fall of steel prices, a primary cause is the loss of market confidence resulting from global economic woes, notably Europe’s debt crisis. If the euro zone is unable to come to grips with this crisis, there may be further weakening of global demand. In the first four months of this year, the crude steel output grew by less than 2%, yet steel prices fell sharply.
|
|
|
Steel Buyers Report Brighter Outlook: ISM
Feb 10, 2012
Steel buyers’ expectations of incoming orders, backlogs, general economic activity and even their own business plans improved in January compared with December, an industry survey shows.
|
|
|
Metals Jobs Grow As Manufacturing Dips
Feb 10, 2012
There is still a long way to go to get manufacturing jobs and output above pre-recession levels
|
|
|
Mexico Trade War With Brazil Brewing
Feb 10, 2012
Mexico has sent a high-level ministerial and diplomatic delegation to Brazil to try to save a trade deal worth billions of dollars to the automotive, bus and truck industries in both countries.
|
|
|
Metals employment recovers slightly
Sep 21, 2011
U.S. primary metals producers added 1,200 workers to their payrolls in August, although the 0.3-percent gain did not make up for the 1,400 jobs lost in July.
|
|
|
American Steel Coalition Re-Forms
Sep 21, 2011
Market participants up and down the supply chain have joined forces to relaunch the American Steel Coalition (ASC), a grassroots organization intended to garner support for pro-manufacturing policies on Capitol Hill.
|
|
|
Americans Torn On Manufacturing: Survey
Sep 21, 2011
In a survey conducted by The Manufacturing Institute, 86 percent of respondents said the country’s manufacturing base is "important" or "very important" to their standard of living, according to the nonprofit affiliate of the Washington-based National Association of Manufacturers.
|
|
|
Steel Center Shipments Climb 4.5%, Stocks Lag
Jul 14, 2011
Steel shipments by U.S. and Canadian service centers last month increased 4.5 percent from April to the second-highest level this year. But inventories rose just 1.3 percent, with distributor sources telling AMM exactly why they aren’t replacing steel at the same rate they’re selling it.
|
|
|
Industry Advocates Plead For Robust Pro-Manufacturing Policies
Jul 14, 2011
The United States will "never realize its full potential to grow the manufacturing sector of the economy without a robust strategy and aggressive set of public policies to complement private-sector efforts by business and labor to maintain a globally competitive industry," according to Scott N. Paul, executive director of the Alliance for American Manufacturing (AAM).
|
|
|
Manufacturing Initiative Draws Mixed Reviews
Jul 14, 2011
Lobbying efforts by America’s metals and manufacturing sector may be beginning to pay off if a $500-million-plus initiative announced Friday by President Obama delivers on its promise to create high-quality manufacturing jobs while enhancing the nation’s global competitiveness.
|
|
|
Fed Checking Pulse, Industry by Industry
Jun 16, 2011
The Beige Book, the Federal Reserve Bank’s regional economic activity survey, takes the pulse of major industries every six weeks. This is a snapshot as described by survey respondents in the report.
|
|
|
Pace of Growth Slows in Manufacturing
Jun 16, 2011
Manufacturing activity continued to expand in 10 of the 12 Federal Reserve Bank districts through the end of May, but was somewhat less frenetic than in the first quarter, according to the Beige Book, the Fed’s regional economic activity survey conducted every six weeks.
|
|
|
Iron and Steel Trade Deficit Grows in April
Jun 16, 2011
For the first four months of the year, the value of U.S. iron and steel mill product exports rose 21.5 percent but imports jumped 42.6 percent, pushing the year-to-date deficit to nearly $2.17 billion from $1.02 billion in the first four months of last year.
|
|
|
The Steel Manufacturers Association and official Washington meet, greet and speak steel at annual spring event
Aug 13, 2010
The philosophy underpinning the Steel Manufacturers Association's conference schedule is similar to the ideology of its mini-mill electric furnace industry membership. The association holds only two events a year, taking pride in embracing a lean operating policy.
|
|
|
Five months after a devastating earthquake, Chile faces a mandate to rebuild but not enough domestic steel capacity to meet demand
Aug 13, 2010
Rebuilding Chile with modern infrastructure more resistant to seismic activity would require an immense amount of steel. Currently, however, Chile only has two iron and steel companies, which together produced just 60 percent of national consumption in 2009. And both were severely damaged in the earthquake.
|
|
|
Reasons mount for manufacturers to re-think the “total” vs perceived cost of off-shoring operations
Aug 13, 2010
U.S. manufacturing—or at least a portion of it—appears to be on course for a U-turn as work previously pushed offshore might be coming home. Statistics on the reshoring of U.S. manufacturing are hard to come by, but mill suppliers see an interest.
|
|
|
Q&A With Six Steel Industry Executives
Jul 19, 2010
This time last year, the US steel industry's capacity utilization was south of 50 percent and major markets were in full retreat. Twelve months have made a difference but 'we still have a ways to go,' says AK Steel's James Wainscott, one of six executives who sat down with AMM at the AISI's annual meeting in May to address a list of topics headed by the lack of a national manufacturing agenda.
|
|
|
Risky Business: AMM’s Readers Rate the Pros and Cons of Credit Insurance
Jul 19, 2010
It's expensive, limits and coverage can change virtually overnight and more than a few subscribers are convinced that if you can get insurance on a certain customer you likely didn't need it in the first place. AMM surveyed its readers to get a real-world fix on the state of play between insurers and the metals supply chain. The results may surprise you.
|
|
|
A Weak Dollar Strengthens the Prospects of Rising Steel Exports for US Mills
Jun 03, 2010
February 1, 2010
For years, the words 'steel trade' were virtually synonymous in industry circles with wave after wave of cheap imports and expensive and time-consuming anti-dumping and countervailing duty filings to stop them. The trade suits keep coming, but for the first time in a long time a combination of factors-not the least of which is a weak dollar-have strengthened the prospects of the export market.
|
|
|
Auto Industry Evolution Presents Growth Opportunities for Suppliers
Jun 03, 2010
February 9, 2010
This is the time for automakers and their suppliers, especially in North America, to get it right-invest in the right technologies, consolidate platforms and depend on local sourcing-and thereby gain more control over costs and profits in the future, according to analyses from two global accounting and advisory firms.
|
|
|
Aluminum Distributors Said Looking to Imports
Jun 03, 2010
February 9, 2010
With a growing number of domestic aluminum mills pushing lead times out to the end of the second quarter, many North American distributors are beginning to lean more heavily on imports, service center sources told AMM. "Historically, one of the advantages a domestic mill had over an offshore supplier was lead time. They could never compete with the price, but they had the lead time to their advantage," one North American distributor said, but with domestic lead times now extended to May or June, U.S. and Canadian suppliers no longer have an upper hand.
|
|
|
The State of Steel: What comes after the deluge?
Jun 03, 2010
March 1, 2010
The temperature outside was a balmy 60-some degrees. The atmosphere inside the Sheraton Sand Key in Clearwater, Fla., was decidedly less temperate as more than 20 presenters and panelists gathered in late January to exchange views on the state of the North American steel industry.
|
|
|
Optimism grows on airliner build rate
Jun 03, 2010
March 11, 2010
Optimism is building in the commercial aerospace sector as the world's two largest airliner manufacturers said this week they are either increasing production rates or seriously considering such a move.Airbus SAS said that starting in December it will raise the build rate on its A320 family of planes to 36 per month from 34 currently.
|
|
|
Equipment maker Caterpillar eyeing new factory in US
Jun 03, 2010
March 12, 2010
Global heavy equipment manufacturer Caterpillar Inc. has kicked off a study that it said could lead to construction of a new hydraulic excavator factory in the United States. Such a move could triple Caterpillar's current capacity of hydraulic excavators now produced domestically and significantly boost job creation linked directly to higher excavator production, Peoria, Ill.-based Caterpillar said.
|
|
|
Aluminum stands its ground, crushing claims that composites would erode its share of the aero-market
Jun 03, 2010
April 1, 2010
Boeing's announcement that its cutting-edge 787 Dreamliner would be fabricated mainly of carbon fiber composites set off cries of 'May Day' across the aluminum heat-treat plate sector. Today, some seven years later, a combination of new alloys and a better understanding of the benefits and shortfalls of composites have kept aluminum from losing altitude.
|
|
|
GM reports $4.3-billion loss as it looks to repay Treasury
Jun 03, 2010
April 8, 2010
General Motors Co. said it is working in the short term to repay U.S. and Canadian government loans and in the longer term to become a publicly held corporation again. The company, which emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization last summer, this week reported a net loss attributed to shareholders of $4.3 billion for the period from July 10 to Dec. 31, 2009, on global revenue of $57.5 billion.
|
|
|
North America, Western Europe Lagging in Construction Recovery
Jun 03, 2010
April 8, 2010
North America and western Europe are lagging the rest of the world in building back construction activity following the global recession, according to analysts at IHS Global Insight Inc. "Although the worst is behind us and double-dip recession concerns are subsiding, many markets are still recovering, especially the United States," Scott Hazelton, director of the Lexington, Mass.-based consulting firm's Construction Services division, said during an outlook conference call Thursday.
|
|
|
Global iron ore trends spark concern
Jun 03, 2010
May 10, 2010
The World Steel Association is greatly concerned with the global iron ore situation, director-general Ian Christmas said during meetings of the OECD Steel Committee in Paris. Christmas reiterated WorldSteel's alarm at the potential negative impact on steel and its customers from recent developments in the iron ore and metallurgical coal markets. He said the Brussels-based organization is concerned not only with the rapid price runup but also the potential of additional consolidation, which would further concentrate pricing power in the iron ore market..
|
|
|