MDM News Digest 3923

Acklands-Grainger Inc., Toronto, Ontario, subsidiary of industrial distributor Grainger, has acquired the assets of the K&D Pratt Industrial Division. The industrial division, with 2008 sales of C$12 million (US$11.34 million), is a distributor of industrial and safety products with facilities in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, and Saint John, New Brunswick. It was previously one of six business units owned and operated by K&D Pratt Group Inc. More

Noland Company, a distributor of plumbing supplies and heating and air conditioning equipment, has opened new locations in Florida and Virginia to serve commercial and residential contractors and their customers with HVAC equipment, consulting services and luxury items for the home. Noland is a subsidiary of WinWholesale Inc. More

Airgas, Inc., Radnor, PA, has acquired Fitch Industrial & Welding Supply, an industrial gas and welding supply distributor with three locations in Oklahoma and one in Wichita Falls, TX. The Lawton, OK-based business employs 39 people and had more than $10 million in revenue during 2008. More

Central Welding Supply Company Inc., Marysville, WA, has acquired Pacific Welding Supplies LLC. Tacoma, WA-based Pacific Welding Supplies is a supplier of welding and industrial equipment and gas services, with six locations in Washington. The company has annual sales of about $20 million. More

Beacon Roofing Supply Inc., Peabody, MA, reported sales for its fiscal year ended Sept. 30, 2009, were $1.73 billion, down 2.8 percent from fiscal year 2008. Profit increased 30.1 percent to $52.4 million. Residential roofing sales increased 18.3 percent while nonresidential roofing and complementary product sales declined 17.1 percent and 21.6 percent respectively. More

Caterpillar Inc., Peoria, IL, has agreed to acquire seal manufacturer JCS Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of South Korea-based manufacturer Jinsung T.E.C. Co. Jinsung T.E.C. specializes in producing undercarriage components for earthmoving and other off-road machinery. More

Alstom and Schneider Electric have announced they are in exclusive talks to buy Areva T&D, the transmission and distribution business of Areva. The French companies have offered a little more than 4 billion euros for the unit, which includes equity and debt. More

Manufacturer Cooper Industries plc, Dublin, Ireland, has acquired Pearland, TX-based Pauluhn Electric from Federal Signal Corporation. Pauluhn Electric manufactures specialized marine, offshore and industrial lighting and connecting products for harsh and hazardous locations and corrosive environments. More

The manufacturing sector expanded in November for the fourth month, according to the latest Manufacturing ISM Report on Business. The rate of growth however slowed. The PMI was at 53.6 percent. New orders and production remained at positive levels, and the prices index fell 10 points, indicating less inflationary pressure on manufacturers' costs. More

New orders for manufactured durable goods in October decreased $1 billion or 0.6 percent to $166.2 billion, the U.S. Census Bureau announced. This was the second monthly decrease in the last three months. This followed a 2 percent September increase. Excluding transportation, new orders decreased 1.3 percent. Excluding defense, new orders increased 0.4 percent. Machinery, down following two consecutive monthly increases, had the largest decrease, $1.9 billion or 8 percent to $21.8 billion. More

Construction spending in October was estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $910.8 billion, nearly the same as September. October is 14.4 percent below October 2008, according to the U.S. Census Bureau of the Department of Commerce. During the first 10 months of this year, construction spending was $794 billion, 12.6 percent below the same period in 2008. More

Real gross domestic product - the output of goods and services produced by labor and property in the U.S. - increased at an annual rate of 2.8 percent in the third quarter of 2009, (from the second quarter to the third quarter), according to the second estimate released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. More

Construction employment declined by 27,000 over the month. In November, construction job losses were concentrated among nonresidential specialty trade contractors (-29,000). Manufacturing employment fell by 41,000 in November. About 2.1 million manufacturing jobs have been lost since December 2007; the majority of this decline has occurred in durable goods manufacturing (-1.6 million). More

Manufacturing sector productivity grew 13.4 percent in the third quarter of 2009, as output rose 8.4 percent and hours worked fell 4.4 percent. The third quarter gain in manufacturing productivity was the largest in the series, which begins in the second quarter of 1987. More

Privately-owned housing starts in October were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 529,000, 10.6 percent below September and 30.7 percent below October 2008, according to the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Single-family housing starts were at a rate of 476,000, 6.8 percent below September. More

Canada's Industrial Product Price Index declined 0.3 percent in October, continuing its downward trend that began in September 2008. The Raw Materials Price Index rose 2.5 percent, mainly as a result of higher prices for crude oil. More

Canada's real gross domestic product (GDP) increased 0.1 percent in the third quarter, the first quarterly gain since the third quarter of 2008. Final domestic demand advanced 1.2 percent, as capital investment and personal expenditures both increased. Real GDP was up 0.4 percent in September, as most major industrial sectors increased production. More

The Chicago Fed Midwest Manufacturing Index (CFMMI) increased 0.5 percent in October, to a seasonally adjusted level of 82.9. The Federal Reserve Board's industrial production index for manufacturing (IPMFG) was down by 0.1 percent in October. Regional output in October declined 13.6 percent from a year earlier, and national output decreased 7.5 percent. All four regional industry sectors increased in October. More

The Chicago Fed National Activity Index was -1.08 in October, down slightly from -1.01 in September. A decline in the contribution of production and income indicators offset small improvements in the other three broad categories of indicators that make up the index. The index�¢??s three-month moving average, CFNAI-MA3, declined for the first time in 2009. This suggests that growth in national economic activity remained below its historical trend. More

The manufacturing sector enjoyed a resurgence in the third quarter of 2009 – increasing production at an 8 percent annual rate – but the general economic and industrial recovery will be hard-pressed to maintain that pace of growth, according to the latest Manufacturers Alliance/MAPI U.S. Industrial Outlook: No V-Shaped Recovery, a quarterly report that analyzes 27 major industries. More