Industry in United States

  • US Is World’s Top Arms Supplier With $36.2 Billion In Sales

    UNITED STATES, 2016/01/03 The US remains the world’s chief supplier of armaments, having sold $36.2 billion worth of weaponry this year and controlling over 50 % of the market, the New York Times reports. According to the newspaper, this increase in foreign arms sales, compared to the $26.7 billion revenues of 2013, was due to major contracts with South Korea, Saudi Arabia and Qatar. Russia, which currently ranks second in terms of world arms sales, earned $10.2 billion from arms exports. Sweden sold $5.5 billion of arms, while France and China earned $4.4 billion and $2.2 billion respectively from sales of military equipment.
  • U.S. Wholesale Inventories Unexpectedly Dip 0.1% In October

    UNITED STATES, 2015/12/10 Reflecting decreases in inventories of both durable and non-durable goods, the Commerce Department released a statement on Wednesday showing an unexpected drop in U.S. wholesale inventories in the month of October. The Commerce Department said wholesale inventories edged down by 0.1 % in October next rising by a downwardly revised 0.2 % in September. Economists had expected inventories to rise by 0.2 % compared to the 0.5 % increase originally reported for the previous month. The statement said inventories of durable goods dipped by 0.1 %, reflecting a 1.1 % drop in inventories of metals and minerals, except petroleum. Inventories of non-durable goods as well slipped by 0.1 % amid a 5.2 % decrease in inventories of farm product raw materials.
  • Big fund firm blacklists directors who support poison pills

    UNITED STATES, 2015/05/04 A major funds company is putting directors on notice: if you adopt poison pill anti-takeover measures without shareholder approval, you will be blacklisted. Since October, Dimensional Fund Advisors, the eighth major U.S. mutual fund firm with $398 billion in assets, has been sending warning letters to companies whose stock it owns and who have adopted the measures without shareholder approval. In the letters, the Austin, Texas-based money manager warns that it will vote against directors who approved those measures - not just at the company with the poison pills, but at each company they serve - unless they remove those pills or put them up for shareholder vote. The campaign, which hasn’t been before reported, will from presently on target 250 companies. DFA is worried that companies too often use the measures to deter acquirers and shareholder activists who could benefit shareholders, said Joseph Chi, the firm’s co-chief of portfolio management.
  • GM mulls investments worth billions at home

    UNITED STATES, 2015/04/30 According to a statement coming from a source that talked to Reuters, the major US automaker is preparing the announcement of an investment strategy worth a lot of billions of dollars and spanning several years. Additional importantly for the US market, GM will direct the spending towards certain US manufacturing factories in a bid to lift both production quota and build quality, according to the unnamed person that has knowledge of the carmaker’s plans. Gm so far has not confirmed or denied the statement, but has by presently scheduled for Thursday a conference call at its stamping facility in Pontiac, Michigan, where it would statement a “major US manufacturing announcement.”
  • GM Arlington Assembly Plant;

    UNITED STATES, 2015/04/30 U.S. auto sales for April look like they’re headed for the highest April in a decade, according to forecasts from J.D. Power and LMC Automotive, and other analysts. Sales of new cars and trucks are expected to reach almost 1.5 million for the month. That would be a 5 % increase from the same month last year, and the highest April since 2005, forecasters said. Kelly Blue Book had a similar estimate, which included a prediction for strong sales for the Jeep brand and for the sport-utility vehicle segment in general. Relatively low gas prices have revived interest in pickups and SUVs.
  • Huayi joins Hollywood for 18-film deal

    CHINA, 2015/03/19 China’s major privately run film production company, Huayi Brothers Media, says that it has reached a transaction to finance, co-produce, and release 18 feature films by 2017 with an unnamed US partner. The Beijing-based company did not identify its US counterpart but people familiar with the situation said it was Burbank-based STX Entertainment. The venture is not the initial co-production transaction Huayi has done in Hollywood, but it is — according to the film group — the initial time a Chinese company will take part in all process of Hollywood filmmaking, from investment to production and distribution, and get a cut of total world revenues from films in addition to the Better China distribution rights.
  • Fiat flies on Chrysler takeover

    ITALY, 2014/01/05 Fiat stocks soared as much as 16% before the close of trading Thursday, a day next the Italian automaker announced it had gained full control of American carmaker Chrysler in a $4.35-billion transaction, raising questions at home about the next of production for Italy's biggest private corporation. The transaction was made final next additional than a year of negotiations with VEBA, a healthcare trust associated with the United Auto Workers union, to acquire the remaining 41.46% share of Chrysler. In exchange, Fiat and Chrysler will pay out $3.65 billion in cash to VEBA, sharing the cost, while Chrysler has agreed to pay it over the next three years an additional $700 million starting once the transaction closes. The transaction, which is expected to be finalized January 20, is part of a plan by CEO Sergio Marchionne to merge Fiat and Chrysler into the world's seventh-major auto group.
  • Oil traders and analysts have said that improved fuel economy could curb fuel request increase.

    UNITED STATES, 2013/12/15 The average fuel economy of vehicles sold in the United States hit a record high 23.6 miles per gallon (mpg) for the model year 2012, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said on Thursday. Projections for the model 2013 year indicate a rise of 0.4 mpg, the EPA said, though the agency added that it did not from presently on have final data for 2013. The 23.6-mpg reading for 2012 was a 1.2 mpg increase over the previous year and the second major increase in the last 30 years, the EPA said. The boost is part of a trend that has seen fuel economy increase by 2.6 mpg, or 12 %, since 2008, and by 4.3 mpg, or 22 %, since 2004, according to the EPA.
  • US service sector growth jumps in July

    UNITED STATES, 2013/08/11 The pace of increase in the US services sector accelerated in July, picking up from a three-year low as new orders surged to their highest level in five months, an industry statement showed on Monday. The Institute for Supply Management (ISM) said its services index rose to 56 from 52.2 in June, easily topping economists' expectations for 53.
  • Ford and Chrysler have best US sales

    UNITED STATES, 2013/04/03 Ford and Chrysler enjoyed their best US sales month in nearly six years in March, as buyers armed with tax refund cheques were lured by flashy new vehicles and low interest rates.