The latest lightweight vehicle production data out of Ward’s Automotive has US production leaping by 54% from July and 15% from August of 2010. This increase reflects seasonal gains as well as continued improvement from the automotive supply chain, which was heavily damaged by Japan’s earthquake and tsunami in March. Auto sales in August were steady with July at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 12.1…

Carmakers posted higher US sales in April, boosted by the economic recovery and a discounting war led by Toyota as the Japanese carmaker sought to recover from a series of damaging vehicle recalls.

It is reported that US steel companies learned that surviving a financial downturn involves making painful, hard choices. Carmakers may be forced to do the same. Among its victims, the once mighty Bethlehem Steel Corporation, which rolled its last beam on the city's South Side in 1995, went bankrupt in 2001 and had its remaining parts sold off in 2003. Now, steel's revival may provide a road map for a…

US consumers of bulk ferroalloys are said to be looking to delay deliveries of contracted material, hoping to push back the shipment of some materials into the first quarter of 2009, amid a slump in demand and economic uncertainty. At the same time, few consumers are showing any enthusiasm to book long-term contracts on any alloy for the first quarter of next year or beyond and spot market activity is…

As Tom Arnold and Peter Oslak had reported in the Austrian industry magazine WEKA Industrie Medien GmbH, the US electric car start-up Fisker is insolvent. After negotiations with a major car manufacturer failed, the company filed for bankruptcy on Monday evening. Assets worth around 500 million to one billion dollars (467 to 934 million euros) are offset by debts of between 100 million and 500 million…

Alcoa will use aluminium instead of glass mirrors to generate power by concentrating solar power (CSP). The US Department of Energy (DoE) has awarded US$2.1 million to replace glass with reflective aluminium mirrors, which are more durable to use in CSP projects. DoE’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) is working with the aluminium producer to make CSP technology competitive in the USA by lowering…

The award is for his ability to have changed automotive production through the so-called Giga Press. Other winners include numerous key figures in the automotive industry, including Jensen Huang (CEO of Nvidia), Elon Musk (CEO of Tesla), Euisun Chung (CEO of Hyundai Motor Corp.), Oliver Zipse (CEO of BMW Group), Lisa Materazzo (Global CMO of Ford Motor Co.) and Stefan Hartung (Chairman of the Board of…

Reuters reported that Mother Nature's wrath likely had a hand in slowing US imports of aluminum and copper in February but if seasonal demand trends hold true, shipments should recover in the months ahead. Data from the US International Trade Commission showed that copper imports fell for a third straight month in February to 50,494 tonnes. The February figure brought the two-month total to 107,892 tonnes…

According to the North American Die Casting Association, US metals die casters, although facing challenges during tough economic times are seeing some business return from overseas. In a recent survey of US die casters, 78% reported that they have seen die casting parts business come back from overseas during the last two quarters. According to these reports, die cast components orders are returning to the…

Recyclingportal.eu, the portal for waste disposal, recycling, recycling economy and markets, announced that in 2010 the US scrap recycling industry rebounded more than 40% to over USD 77 billion in sales from USD 54 billion in 2009, on the basis of information released by the US based Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries. Despite the global recession which caused a sharp contraction in the US scrap…