Precision Steel Warehouse, Inc

02/23/2015

Businesses Welcome West Coast Ports’ Labor Deal.
The Los Angeles Times (2/22, Hsu, Khouri, Jamison), analyzing the “tentative agreement” reached late Friday between West Coast seaport-terminal operators and their union dockworkers, noted that the new five-year contract covers 20,000 employees at 29 ports. With those ports “emerging from the most contentious labor dispute in more than a decade,” however, “lingering resentment and structural problems may complicate a return to normality,” the Times cautioned. The paper cited “trade experts” including business groups as saying the ports’ normal operating pace could take months.

02/12/2015

US Becomes Hot Spot For Aerospace Manufacturing.
Reuters (2/12, Scott) reports that a new study from the consulting group ICF International shows that companies are beginning to shift their aerospace manufacturing activities back to the United States, as the savings from lower labor costs overseas has declined and automation has advanced. An example of the shift is seen at Boeing Co., which has moved production back to US plants and reduced outsources in the manufacturing of its 787 Dreamliner. The article notes that different regions are increasing efforts to land aerospace investments.

02/06/2015

US Manufacturing Regaining World Market Through Technology, Brandname Identification.
An analysis piece in the Palm Springs (CA) Desert Sun (2/5, Beschloss) reports that despite a strong dollar compared to foreign currencies, the US manufacturing sector has “strengthened its global competitiveness perceptibly” for a number of reasons, including technology that “has exceeded that of all other major nations,” stable industry wages, and “U.S. brandname identification [that] has never been more illustrious.” The article notes that these reasons have led to US manufacturing “slowly, but surely, regaining some of the manufactured product segments” it has previously lost.

01/21/2015

01/21/2015

Industry News

U. Of Rochester Scientists Develop Method Of Making Metal Surfaces Water-Repellent.
In a piece picked up from the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, USA Today (1/21, Goodman) reports that a pair of University of Rochester scientists “have found a way of using powerful laser beams to make metal surfaces last longer and be more suitable for a wide range of practical purposes.” In a process detailed in a Tuesday article in the Journal of Applied Physics, Chunlei Guo and Anatoliy Vorobyev, they “developed changes the surface of metals by repeatedly subjecting the surface to bursts of lasers. Water tends to stick and spread on metal surfaces, but that doesn’t happen on the treated ones.”

01/07/2015

US Factory Orders Down 0.7% In November.

The AP (1/6, Crutsinger), citing Commerce Department data released Tuesday, reports that orders to US factories declined for a fourth consecutive month in November, with a 0.5% drop in demand in the “closely watched” category of primary metals, industrial machinery, and military aircraft, indicating that planned business investment was down for the third month in a row. The AP said economists nonetheless “remain optimistic that the drop in orders is a temporary soft patch” and that a strengthening economy fueled by greater consumer spending “will trigger a rebound in demand in 2015.” The Commerce Department also said that demand for durable goods fell 0.9% in November, the third decline in the past four months. On a seasonally adjusted basis, total factory orders in November amounted to $492.7 billion, giving the first 11 months of 2014 a gain of 3.4% over the same period in 2013.

01/06/2015

MANUFACTURING
Forbes Lists “30 Under 30” Who Are “Reinventing” Manufacturing.
Alex Knapp at Forbes (1/5) describes the work of 30 young people in manufacturing and how they’re transforming the sector into “a world of custom products, 3-D printing, nanoscale chemistry and a green outlook.” Another manufacturing-related theme this year is robotics, writes Knapp, noting that entrepreneurs Antoine Balaresque and Henry Bradlow have developed “a drone that can follow you around and take pictures like a flying GoPro.” Then there’s the co-founder of toy company Roominate, 26-year-old Alice Brooks, who produces construction toys that “employ basic engineering principles from pulleys to electric circuits, allowing kids to learn STEM concepts while they play.”

01/05/2015

From NAM

Analysis: In 2015, Manufacturers’ Challenges Will Persist, But Demand Should Improve.
In an analysis of business trends for 2015, the Wall Street Journal (1/5, B1, Subscription Publication) predicts that US manufacturers that export will see a continuation of challenges from 2014, when the nation’s trade deficit in manufactured goods grew yet larger – to $606 billion for the first 10 months of the year, mainly due to weak demand in Europe and Latin America, even as the dollar grew stronger and the US increased imports of merchandise from China. In 2015, demand for US goods is likely to be a bit stronger from Europe, Japan, and Latin America, according to economist Daniel Meckstroth of the research foundation MAPI. He also forecasts that the US economy will grow at a faster pace than those of other advanced economies, a trend that would help boost imports to the US.

12/15/2014

This piece of metal artwork by Sequim artist Per Berg was unveiled not long ago at a local business, High Energy Metal, in Carlsborg. It’s really gorgeous.

Metal Man was commissioned by the co-owner of High Energy Metal, Dave Brasher, a longtime friend of the artist’s family. It is over 8 feet tall and 300 lbs. Berg took about six months to complete the piece. An art graduate of The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Berg created the skeleton with steel rods and then used a plasma cutter to cut the steel pieces of the shape. A hammer refined the figure’s contours. The local Peninsula Daily News quoted Berg, 25, “Metal art is cool but a lot of artists are intimidated by it. I got a sunburn from it once and I caught myself on fire.”

12/11/2014

This is why the Cubs can buy Jon Lester

The lender will be the Cubs' exclusive banking partner and get a wide array of signage rights at a renovated Wrigley Field under a new deal with the team.

12/08/2014

Manufacturers’ Optimism Hits New High, Survey Shows.

Writing in IndustryWeek (12/8), the National Association of Manufacturers’ chief economist, Chad Moutray, cites the newly issued NAM/IndustryWeek survey for the fourth quarter showing 91.2% of respondents are either “somewhat or very positive in their own company’s outlook.” Moutray lists as potential downside risks the “slowing global economy, a still-cautious consumer, rising interest rates, a stronger dollar, and tax and regulatory uncertainty"