http://engineeringcrossing.blog.com Sat, 18 Oct 2008 04:00:16 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.7 en hourly 1 http://engineeringcrossing.blog.com/2008/10/17/apollo-ponies-up-funds-for-hexion/ http://engineeringcrossing.blog.com/2008/10/17/apollo-ponies-up-funds-for-hexion/#comments Sat, 18 Oct 2008 04:00:16 +0000 engcrossing Hexion Specialty Chemicals’ parent company, private equity firm Apollo Management, is providing $540 million in funding to help Hexion complete its $10.6 billion acquisition of global chemicals manufacturer Huntsman. “We are grateful for Apollo’s support as we continue to work toward closing the Huntsman transaction,” Hexion CEO Craig O. Morrison told Chemical & Engineering News. The move is a response to a judgment against the Columbus, Ohio-based Hexion in its lawsuit in the Delaware Court of Chancery seeking permission to back out of the Huntsman deal. In that suit, Hexion argued that the combined company would be insolvent and that, owing to Huntsman’s increased debt, alternative financing was necessary to complete the merger. In August, Hexion rejected a bid from major Huntsman shareholders to provide about $500 million in financing. The court, siding with Huntsman, is ordering Hexion to “perform all of its covenants and obligations” under the merger agreement. To that end, Hexion also recently agreed to sell its specialty epoxy resins business to Czech resins maker Spolchemie, fulfilling antitrust requirements imposed on the deal There has been a sharp increase in Huntsman’s share price since the Apollo financing was announced, which suggests a growing confidence on Wall Street that the deal will be consummated. Huntsman shares climbed 29% to $11.54 that day. But Huntsman is still trading at a significant discount from the $28-per-share acquisition price.

]]> http://engineeringcrossing.blog.com/2008/10/17/apollo-ponies-up-funds-for-hexion/feed/ http://engineeringcrossing.blog.com/2008/09/24/ca-economy-remains-in-slump/ http://engineeringcrossing.blog.com/2008/09/24/ca-economy-remains-in-slump/#comments Thu, 25 Sep 2008 02:23:52 +0000 engcrossing EmploymentCrossing.com On Tuesday, UCLA economists released a report on California’s Economy, saying that California will continue to experience hard times all the way up until 2009. According to Jerry NIckelsburg, a UCLA economist, consumer sales will continue to be low and personal incomes will decline. He said that CA residents should also plan on having a high unemployment rate for the next 18 months. However, on a positive note, he did say that a few sectors may begin to see improvements soon. In August, California’s unemployment rate reached a shocking 7.6 percent, according to the Employment Department. Nickelsburg believes that one factor contributing to the unemployment rate is the lack of new jobs. According to economists, the New Year should shed some more light on CA. A majority of the sectors will begin there recovery process in 2009 and others, like the taxable sales sector, will begin recovering in 2010. Unfortunately, Nickelsburg predicts that the unemployment rate will continue to stay in the 7 percent range through 2009.

]]> http://engineeringcrossing.blog.com/2008/09/24/ca-economy-remains-in-slump/feed/ http://engineeringcrossing.blog.com/2008/09/18/alba-creates-jobs/ http://engineeringcrossing.blog.com/2008/09/18/alba-creates-jobs/#comments Thu, 18 Sep 2008 07:59:59 +0000 engcrossing http://www.EmploymentCrossing.com This video is about the Edinburgh-based biotechnology firm, ALBA Bioscience, secured £1.8 million in research and development funding yesterday. The investment from Scottish Enterprise created 16 jobs at the Liberton HQ’s of Alba. which produces blood products and reagents for diagnostic tests. The company, which produces blood products and reagents for diagnostic test, said 70 per cent of its sales currently come from overseas. It wants to expand its antibody production and freeze drying.

]]> http://engineeringcrossing.blog.com/2008/09/18/alba-creates-jobs/feed/ http://engineeringcrossing.blog.com/2008/09/15/global-warming-reality/ http://engineeringcrossing.blog.com/2008/09/15/global-warming-reality/#comments Tue, 16 Sep 2008 04:45:10 +0000 engcrossing http://www.EmploymentCrossing.com Evidence continues to build that global temperatures are rising precipitously, and that human activity is the primary culprit. In a new report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, scientists conclude concluded that temperatures fluctuated marginally over the past 1,300 years but increased profoundly from about 1980 to now. The new study “establishes further evidence that the recent warming isn’t just part of a typical cycle,” said climatologist Michael Mann, director of the Earth System Science Center at Pennsylvania State University. He told McClatchy Newspapers that the study alone does not establish the cause of the warming. But scientists can explain the rapid rise in temperatures in recent years only by taking human activity into account — specifically, the production of gases from burning fossil fuels. As evidence mounts, global warming skepticism, usually evinced by people with a conservative or pro-business bias, is rapidly going the way of Holocaust revisionism and Intelligent Design as a discredited idea. Skeptics often claim that global temperatures are not rising, or that human activity can not be blamed.

]]> http://engineeringcrossing.blog.com/2008/09/15/global-warming-reality/feed/ http://engineeringcrossing.blog.com/2008/09/12/hurricane-ike-threatens-fuel-prices/ http://engineeringcrossing.blog.com/2008/09/12/hurricane-ike-threatens-fuel-prices/#comments Sat, 13 Sep 2008 02:21:36 +0000 engcrossing http://www.EmploymentCrossing.com As Hurricane Ike approaches, it’s bringing along storm clouds to your gas stations. With the storm threatening the Texas coast, which is home to refineries and offshore rigs that account for over one fifth of the nation’s refining capacity; companies will be forced to shut down operations. Exxon Mobil, Valero Energy, and Marathon Oil all will have to suspend production as the Hurricane is set to tear through the Texas gold coast. Meanwhile, gas prices are expected to rise nearly 50 cents. As “panic buying” will set prices between $4 and $5 dollars for those worried about a supply shortage. Gas prices had dropped recently, as some relief was short lived at the pumps. But with Ike threatening lives of those in the Gulf coast, the rest of us looking to fill up our tanks, will have to wait out the storm.

]]> http://engineeringcrossing.blog.com/2008/09/12/hurricane-ike-threatens-fuel-prices/feed/ http://engineeringcrossing.blog.com/2008/09/09/calgary-job-market-ranked-no-2/ http://engineeringcrossing.blog.com/2008/09/09/calgary-job-market-ranked-no-2/#comments Wed, 10 Sep 2008 05:12:10 +0000 engcrossing http://www.EmploymentCrossing.com This video is about Manpower Services Canada Ltd. It released a survey on Tuesday announcing that 34 percent of Calgary’s employers expect to expand their workforce from October to December. According to Manpower’s Alberta region chief executive Randy Upright, of the Canadian cities, Calgary is ranked second in terms of the proportion of employers looking to expand in the last three months of 2008. According to reports 64 percent plan on staying the same, while 2 percent are unsure. The Manpower survey also found that 20 percent of employers across the nation plan on hiring, while 7 percent plan on having job cuts. The mining, public service, and construction sector had the highest net hiring bias. On Friday, Statistics Canada also announced that in August Canada had a jobless rate of 6.1 percent and Alberta had a jobless rate of 3.5 percent. 1,700 employers across Canada participated in the Manpower survey

]]> http://engineeringcrossing.blog.com/2008/09/09/calgary-job-market-ranked-no-2/feed/ http://engineeringcrossing.blog.com/2008/09/09/panasonic-nukes-500-american-jobs/ http://engineeringcrossing.blog.com/2008/09/09/panasonic-nukes-500-american-jobs/#comments Wed, 10 Sep 2008 02:39:53 +0000 engcrossing http://www.EmploymentCrossing.com Japan’s Matsushita Electric is shuttering its Panasonic car stereo manufacturing plant in Georgia, cutting loose 500 people American workers. The plant closing is one of the largest business losses in the Peach state this year. Panasonic workers were notified of the decision on Thursday, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The company will still operate its product development department and regional administrative headquarters at the Peachtree City location, which opened in 1987. Panasonic says they are responding to the troubled U.S. auto market, which has been affected by high gas prices, falling home prices and the poor economy. “All the companies that supply the auto industry right now are affected by the downturn,” said Jim Reilly, spokesperson for Panasonic North America. The closing will happen in phases over the next 16 months.

]]> http://engineeringcrossing.blog.com/2008/09/09/panasonic-nukes-500-american-jobs/feed/ http://engineeringcrossing.blog.com/2008/09/09/large-hadron-collider-will-probably-not-destroy-the-earth/ http://engineeringcrossing.blog.com/2008/09/09/large-hadron-collider-will-probably-not-destroy-the-earth/#comments Wed, 10 Sep 2008 02:00:47 +0000 engcrossing http://www.EmploymentCrossing.com Scientists Friday published a report meant to put to rest fears that the Large Hadron Collider, the world’s largest particle accelerator, might cause disastrous, Earth-destroying events, such as the creation of black holes. “The LHC will enable us to study in detail what nature is doing all around us,” said the facility’s Director General, France’s Robert (“row bear”) Aymar. “The LHC is safe, and any suggestion that it might present a risk is pure fiction.” The LHC, which has been under construction at Europe’s CERN (“sern”) research facility since 1998, will conduct its first experiments on Wednesday. The device, basically a 17-mile ring-shaped underground concrete tunnel, is expected to produce evidence of the Higgs boson (“bow sawn”), the mysterious fundamental particle that gives objects mass. The cost of construction of the LHC is 1.6 billion Euros, or $2.3 billion dollars. The safety report was prepared by a group of scientists at CERN, the University of California, Santa Barbara, and the Institute for Nuclear Research of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The scientists are responding to media reports that the experiments might produce dangerous phenomena, such as micro black holes, strangelets, vacuum bubbles and magnetic monopoles. Some members of the public are fearful that the Earth will be destroyed by the experiments at the LHC, and scientists associated with the project have received many protests. Much of this concern has arisen due to the book “Our Final Century?: Will the Human Race Survive the Twenty-first Century?” in which Britain’s Astronomer Royal, Martin Rees, estimates a 50% chance that mankind will destroy itself before the year 2100.

]]> http://engineeringcrossing.blog.com/2008/09/09/large-hadron-collider-will-probably-not-destroy-the-earth/feed/ http://engineeringcrossing.blog.com/2008/09/08/canada%e2%80%99s-job-market-rebounds/ http://engineeringcrossing.blog.com/2008/09/08/canada%e2%80%99s-job-market-rebounds/#comments Tue, 09 Sep 2008 02:25:43 +0000 engcrossing http://www.EmploymentCrossing.com Canada’s job market rebounded slightly in August, recovering from heavy job losses the previous month. This is easing fears of an economic downturn on the eve of a federal election. According to Statistics Canada, an official government agency, 15,200 (to find manufacturing jobs, click here) jobs were created in August. In July, the nation lost 55,000 jobs, the biggest monthly job loss since 1991. The unemployment rate remained unchanged at 6.1 percent (to find more engineering jobs, click here). The job creation, minor though it may seem, is good news for Conservative Party Prime Minister Stephen Harper, whose reelection campaign began Saturday. The election will be held October 14. Opposition parties blame the Conservative government for ignoring heavy factory layoffs caused by weaker U.S. demand, high energy costs and fierce competition from Asia. To find out more about energy jobs in Canada, click here.

]]> http://engineeringcrossing.blog.com/2008/09/08/canada%e2%80%99s-job-market-rebounds/feed/ http://engineeringcrossing.blog.com/2008/08/27/industrial-employment-rate-dropped-13-percent/ http://engineeringcrossing.blog.com/2008/08/27/industrial-employment-rate-dropped-13-percent/#comments Wed, 27 Aug 2008 07:45:28 +0000 engcrossing According to the 2009 West Virginia Manufacturers Register, West Virginia’s industrial employment rate dropped 1.3 percent over the past year. From June 2007 to June 2008, 1,191 industrial jobs were eliminated. West Virginia is the home of 2,148 manufacturers and employs over 89,000 employees, according to Manufacturing News. One manufacturer, Spencer Veneer’s, which represents the lumber and wood sector, had to close its doors last June. This highly contributed to the 7.9 percent job loss in that sector. It was reported that the coal mining sector did not have a significant change in the job loss rate. However, the chemicals and allied products sector was down 1.4%, the transportation equipment center was down 10% and the Stone/clay/glass/concrete sector was down 4.3% http://www.EmploymentCrossing.com

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