Lawson Products, Inc., Des Plaines, IL, has sold Assembly Component Systems, Inc. (ACS), a wholly owned subsidiary, to Supply Technologies LLC., a wholly owned company of Park-Ohio Holdings Corp.. The sale price is $19 million, consisting of $16 million of cash and a $3 million promissory note, plus the assumption of certain liabilities. More

McJunkin Red Man Corp., Houston, TX, No. 5 on MDM's list of top 40 industrial distributors, has agreed to acquire operations and assets from Dresser Oil Tools & Supply. Dresser has four branches in North Dakota and one in Tioga, MT. More

MSC Industrial Direct Co., Inc., Melville, NY, No. 13 on MDM's list of top 40 industrial distributors, announced the release of the 2010/2011 Big Book, Sept. 1, 2010. The 2010/2011 edition includes over 43,000 new customer-focused products from top industry brand names. The new catalog will be available online and in print and will contain more than 500,000 items in 40 product categories. More

3M, St. Paul, MN, has agreed to acquire Attenti Holdings S.A. from an investor group led by Francisco Partners for a purchase price of $230 million in cash. Based in Tel Aviv, Israel, Attenti is a supplier of remote people monitoring technologies. More

3M also has agreed to acquire Cogent Inc., Pasadena, CA, for $943 million. Cogent Inc., provides finger, palm, face and iris biometric systems for governments, law enforcement agencies, and commercial enterprises. More

The Timken Company, Canton, OH, has opened a new office in Jakarta, Indonesia. The new office, affiliated with the Timken Singapore Pte, Ltd. subsidiary, will serve growing demand in the region particularly from customers in the metals, mining, cement, rail, energy and power generation industries. More

Timken will increase prices on cold-drawn carbon and alloy seamless mechanical tubing by up to 30 percent, depending on the size and product specification, effective with shipments beginning on Oct. 1, 2010. Raw material surcharges will remain in effect. More

Diversified industrial manufacturer Eaton Corp., Cleveland, OH, has completed its purchase of Wright Line Holding, Inc. Wright Line provides customized enclosures, rack systems, and air flow management systems to store, power, and secure IT data center electronics. More

Distribution International, Inc., Houston, TX, has been acquired by Audax Group, Boston, MA. Audax purchased the distributor of insulation and related specialty products from private equity firm Grey Mountain Partners, Boulder, CO. More

Bunzl has acquired Cool-Pack LLC, a distributor of plastic and pulp packaging to fruit and vegetable growers in the U.S. Revenue was $51.4 million in the year ended Dec. 31, 2009.

Bunzl also acquired A.M. Supply Comércio Representação e Serviços Ltda. Based in Macaé, Brazil, A.M. Supply supplies personal protection equipment to the oil and petrochemical sectors in the state of Rio de Janeiro. More

Kaman Corp., Bloomfield, CT, announced that Steven J. Smidler has assumed the role of president of its subsidiary, Kaman Industrial Technologies Corporation (KIT). Smidler succeeds T. Jack Cahill, who retired. More

Regal Beloit Corp., Beloit, WI, has acquired Rotor B.V., Eibergen, the Netherlands. Rotor sells standard and special electric motors to a variety of industries including the marine industry, shipbuilding and offshore oil and gas. More

Canadian real gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 0.5 percent in the second quarter, after increasing by 1.4 percent in the first quarter, according to Statistics Canada. Final domestic demand advanced 0.9 percent, led by business investment in machinery and equipment. Real GDP increased by 0.2 percent in June. Consumer expenditures on goods and services, as well as business investment on residential structures, grew at a slower rate than in the first quarter. More

Construction spending in July 2010 was estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $805.2 billion, 1 percent below June and 10.7 percent below July 2009, according to the U.S. Census Bureau of the Department of Commerce. For the first seven months, construction spending was $460.3 billion, 11.8 percent below the same period a year ago. More

Manufacturing continued to grow in August, according to the latest Manufacturing ISM Report on Business. The PMI registered 56.3 percent, an increase of 0.8 percentage point when compared to July. The Production Index increased 2.9 percentage points to 59.9 percent, while the Employment Index grew 1.8 percentage points to 60.4 percent. The ISM New Orders Index fell 0.4 percentage point in August, but continued to indicate growth at 53.1 percent. More

North American HVACR distributor sales for the month of July 2010 were up over 13 percent from last year, according to the Monthly Targeted and Regional Economic News for Distribution Strategies (TRENDS) Report from HARDI. More

Canada's Industrial Product Price Index (IPPI) edged up 0.1 percent in July, led mainly by primary metal products, according to Statistics Canada. The Raw Materials Price Index (RMPI) rose 1.8 percent, largely because of higher prices for crude oil. More

In the first six months of 2010, global fastener distributor Bossard Group's sales were CHF 244 million (US$240.15 million), an increase of 18.5 percent. Compared with the first six months of 2009, profit quadrupled, for a total of consolidated net income quadruplet, reaching a total of CHF 22.4 million (US$22.04 million). 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 1.6 percent in the second quarter of 2010 (that is, from the first quarter to the second quarter), according to the "second" estimate released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis.  In the first quarter, real GDP increased 3.7 percent. More

New orders for manufactured durable goods in July increased $0.6 billion, or 0.3 percent, to $193.0 billion, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. This increase followed two consecutive monthly decreases. More

The Chicago Fed Midwest Manufacturing Index (CFMMI) increased 2.2% in July, to a seasonally adjusted level of 81.4 (2007 = 100). Revised data show the index fell 0.2% in June to 79.6. The Federal Reserve Board's industrial production index for manufacturing (IPMFG) increased 1.1% in July. Regional output in July rose 13.1% from a year earlier, and national output increased 8.1%. More

Denver, CO-based ProBuild Holdings Inc., No. 1 on MDM's list of top 10 building materials and construction distributors, has appointed Bill Myrick chief executive office. Myrick succeeds Paul Hylbert who has served in that post since 2007. More

The European economy is recovering from the severe recession of 2009, albeit gradually and slower than anticipated, according to the semiannual Manufacturers Alliance/MAPI European Industrial Outlook: 2010-2011, a report that analyzes 14 major industries. Forecasts for gross domestic product (GDP) oscillate around 1 percent growth for the Eurozone for 2010, and for approximately 2 percent growth in 2011. GDP growth in the non-euro economies should reach upward of 2.5 percent, led by Central Europe. More