MDM News Digest 3716

DXP Enterprises, Inc., Houston, TX, will acquire Precision Industries, Inc., Omaha, NE, for approximately $106 million. The deal nearly doubles the size of DXP. Precision has annualized 2007 sales of approximately $250 million.   ; DXP's sales in 2006 were $279.8 million. Its sales this year will approach $340 million, based on first-half results. More

LN Acquisition Corp., St. Louis, MO, a Harbour Group company, has acquired Reelcraft Industries, Inc., Columbia City, IN. Reelcraft is a manufacturer of spring-driven hose, cord, and cable reels for use in industrial, automotive, aerospace, military and specialty applications with facilities in the U.S., Canada, England and China. Reelcraft will join Lincoln Industrial and Alemite within LN Acquisition. More

Electrical supplier Thomas & Betts Corp., Memphis, TN, has agreed to acquire Lamson & Sessions for $450 million in cash. Lamson & Sessions, with its Carlon brand and trademarked Blue Box, is a North American supplier of non-metallic electrical boxes, fittings, flexible conduit and industrial PVC pipe. Thomas & Betts's preliminary assessment is that the acquisition will contribute $500 million to revenues is calendar year 2008. More
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Hagemeyer North America has acquired Bryant Electric Supply Company, Inc., Charlotte, NC, to extend its goal of expanding its electrical market penetration in the Southeastern U.S. Bryant has annual revenues of $50 million and operates five locations.  ; More
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The Timken Company, Canton, OH, will realign the company around two major business groups, the Steel Group and the Bearings and Power Transmission Group. The latter is composed of four divisions -Mobile Industries, Process Industries, Aerospace & Defense and Distribution & Services. More
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Privately-owned housing starts in July were 6.1 percent below the revised June estimate and 20.9 percent below the revised July 2006 rate. More
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Following last month's jump in sales, U.S. distributors'sales of PT/MC products increased 2.2 percent from May to June, according to the Power Transmission Distributors Association month-end trend report. June 2007 sales came in 4.7 percent higher than in June 2006. Canadian distributors'sales in PT/MC products fell 2.1 percent from May to June and saw a 0.3 percent increase over sales in June 2006. More
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Industrial production rose 0.3 percent in July. Manufacturing output moved up 0.6 percent and mining output advanced 0.7 percent, but the output of utilities fell 2.1 percent. Capacity utilization for total industry edged up to 81.9 percent, a rate 0.5 percentage point below July 2006. More

June  ; U.S. manufacturing technology consumption totaled $347.70 million, according to the Association for Manufacturing Technology and the American Machine Tool Distributors'Association. This total, as reported by companies participating in the USMTC program, was up 5.1% from May, and up 0.4% from the total of $346.47 million reported for June 2006. With a year-to-date total of $1,982.52 million, 2007 was up 7.7% compared with 2006. More

Wholesale prices advanced 0.6 percent in July, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor

reported. This increase followed a 0.2 percent decline in June. More
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Wholesale sales in Canada grew only slightly in June (+0.2 percent), as increased sales of "other products" were largely offset by a decrease in the automotive sector. Excluding the automotive sector, sales grew  ; 0.6 percent. Wholesale sales for the second quarter were down for the first time in nearly four years. This contraction was largely attributable to the automotive sector. More
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Manufacturing shipments in Canada tumbled in June, falling  ; 1.8 percent to  ; $48.6  ; billion. This was the largest decrease since January and the third consecutive monthly decline. Despite these decreases, second-quarter shipments still managed to gain  ; 0.7 percent compared with the first quarter of  ; 2007. More
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Post-acquisition by The Carlyle Group, Goodyear Engineered Products, Akron, OH, has changed its name to Veyance Technologies Inc. The company will continue producing Goodyear Engineered Products brand industrial, military and automotive products. More
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The Home Depot reported sales for HD Supplywere down 7 percent overall in the second quarter 2007, with organic sales down 10 percent. "While the challenging housing market continues to present us with a tough selling environment, our financial performance was in line with our expectations," said CEO Frank Blake. "... We believe the housing and home improvement markets will remain soft into 2008; we will continue to invest thoughtfully for the long-term health of the business." More


Illinois Tool Works Inc. has acquired Texas-based software provider Ameri-CAD Inc. The acquisition includes Ameri-CAD's architectural services division as well as software solutions VisionREZ & VUDOX. Ameri-CAD will function as a separate business unit in the ITW Building Components Group.More


Norcross Safety Products LLC, Oak Brook, IL,  ; reported sales were $156.4 million in the second quarter 2007, up 19 percent from the prior-year period. For the first six months of 2007, sales were up 13.8 percent to $304.6 million compared with the same period a year ago. More
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Industrial gases company Praxair, Inc., Danbury, CT, has agreed to sell its majority interest in Maxima Air Separation Center Ltd., Ramat Gan, Israel, to Discount Investment Corporation Ltd., one of Israel's largest holding companies, a part of the IDB Group. DIC already holds an interest in Maxima. Maxima has two air separation plants and had sales of $23 million in 2006. More

Celanese Corp., Dallas, TX, a hybrid chemical company, has sold the Films business of its AT Plastics subsidiary to British Polythene Industries plc. The Films business manufactures products for the agricultural, horticultural and construction industries. The sale is part of Celanese's plan to divest non-core businesses. More
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Metals distributor Samuel, Son & Co. Ltd., Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, has signed a joint venture agreement with Generation Metals International Ltd., Reading, England. The new company, Samuel, Son & Co. (UK) Ltd., expands the distributor's operations to the UK. In a release, the company

said: "This partnership will enhance our commitment to Eclipse Aviation Corporation as the metal service provider for raw materials outside of the U.S." More
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Cooper Industries, Ltd. has acquired Illinois-based io Lighting, a light-emitting diode (LED) lighting fixture company, and Vermont-based Powerline Communications, Inc., a manufacturer of digital lighting control panels. Expected sales for the two companies in 2007 are $17 million and the combined purchase price is $22 million.
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Parker Hannifin Corporation, supplier in motion and control technologies, has acquired Silver Cloud Manufacturing, a maker of electromagnetic and radio frequency interference shielding products and display filters for a variety of electronics applications. Silver Cloud, a Millville, NJ, unit of Xymox Technologies Inc., sales reached $8.3 million for the year ended June 30, 2007.  ;
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Lincoln Industrial, a Harbour Group company, has acquired Lincoln Helios, Bangalore, India. LHI designs and manufactures automatic lubrication systems, ink delivery equipment and related services to clients throughout India. The company serves a variety of industries including wind energy, steel production, mining and printing. Lincoln Industrial, along with its sister companies, Alemite and Reelcraft, designs and manufactures a broad range of automated lubrication systems, dispensing equipment for high viscosity materials, hose cord, and cable reels, and related products for a variety of industrial, commercial, and consumer applications. More