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Commentary, opinions, and kibitzing by editors of Machine Design Magazine on developments in the news that relate to engineers.
Futures Magazine reports that a significant number of smaller ethanol plants have recently filed for bankruptcy or been scrapped before completion, thanks to rising corn and energy prices. Apparantly part of the problem is that farmers contracted to feedstock can’t really do it:
Well, it was bound to happen sometime the way things are going. Now it looks as though it will happen next year, according to this story from MarketWatch.com. Here is a link to the full story:
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/china-top-us-manufacturing-2009/story.aspx?guid={46448549-CE99-4D28-8325-9CB13812C55C}
China set to surpass U.S. as top manufacturer
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — China is forecast to surpass the United States as the world’s leading manufacturer in nominal dollar terms next year, earlier than expected, as the U.S. economy slows down and China’s continues to grow at unprecedented rates, according to consulting firm Global Insight.
The nominal value of U.S. manufacturing weakened somewhat sharply in 2007, and despite the outlook for modest recovery in the coming years, China will likely gain the largest share in global manufacturing as early as 2009, Global Insight said in a report released Tuesday.
“The basic reason [for China closing the gap] is that growth in the U.S. economy has essentially been zero over the last year and will continue to struggle over the next year,” said Nariman Behravesh, chief economist at Global Insight.
“We know that China is a big manufacturing giant now,” Behravesh said in an interview with MarketWatch. “What this study suggests is that it will continue to play an increasingly larger role” in the world economy.
Measured in real value-added terms, China’s share in global manufacturing is forecast to overtake that of the U.S. by 2016-2017, boosted by rapid gains in market share of textiles, basic metals, computer equipment and mineral product manufacturing, according to Global Insight.
However, the U.S. will continue to lead in certain high-value industries, such as aerospace, pharmaceuticals and specialized equipment.
The manufacturing sector accounts for only 12.5% of gross domestic product in the U.S., while it makes up 36% of the Chinese economy. Manufacturing as a share of the U.S. economy has been declining for decades, with the service sector enjoying a much more dominant role.
Manufacturing & Technology News ran an interesting item recently. They collected information about the top US imports and exports. It turns out our number-one export by volume is waste paper. Of course, this is nothing new. Waste paper has been our top export for some time. Also interesting is their list of top importers. You can find the whole article here:
http://www.manufacturingnews.com/news/08/0731/PIERS.html
And here are the two lists:
Top 50 U.S. Importers Via Ocean Container Transport — 2007
As measured in 20-foot-equivalent container units or TEUs
The first number listed for each company is the number of TEUs imported in 2007, followed by 2004 and 2002. NR means the company was not on the top 100 list for that year. SOURCE: Journal of Commerce and the Port Import/Export Reporting Service (PIERS).
1. Wal-Mart Stores, retail, 720,000, 576,000, 291,900
2. Target Corp., retail, 435,000 202,700, 173,100
3. The Home Depot, retail, 365,300, 301,200, 182,000
4. Sears (includes K-Mart), retail, 248,600, 186,000, 60,400
5. Dole Food, food, 223,200, 164,100, 142,900
6. Costco Wholesale, retail, 183,800, 66,400, 19,382
7. Lowes Cos., retail, 182,100, 100,000, 82,900
8. LG Group, conglomerate, 130,000, 43,300, 33,500
9. Philips Electronics, electronics, 127,200, 27,200, 22,000
10. Chiquita Brands Intl., food, 116,300, 115,600, 103,200
11. General Electric, conglomerate, 112,900, 51,800, 48,500
12. Ashley Furniture Inds., furniture, 104,700, 69,800, 45,200
13. Heineken USA, beverages, 104,300, 83,400, 75,000
14. Ikea Intl., retail, 102,000, 100,000, 44,700
15. Jarden Corp., appliances, 74,700, 21,800, 14,600
16. Red Bull, beverages, 72,500, 20,400, NR
17. JC Penny Corp. 68,400, 45,000, NR
18. Whirlpool, appliances, 67,300, 26,800, NR
19. Canon, computers, 66,400, 26,200, 220,000
20. Nike, footwear & apparel, 62,700, 47,900, 38,700
21. Williams Sonoma, retail, 62,400, 50,000, 19,200
22. Gap Stores, retail, 59,300, 14,800, 12,000
23. Toyota Tsusho America, autos, 58,800, 52,000, 45,000
24. Bridgestone Americas, tires, 52,300, 42,500, 26,800
25. Dollar General, retail, 51,000, 40,000, NR
26. Samsung, electronics, 50,800, 52,800, 46,200
27. Pier 1 Imports, retail, 49,600, 48,100, 46,700
28. Mattel, toys, 48,900, 49,300, 43,700
29. Sony Corp., conglomerate, 46,900, 47,100, 40,000
30. Big Lots, liquidator-retail, 46,600, 36,300, 45,800
31. Daimler AG, autos, 46,500, 14,600, 14,200
32. Family Dollar Stores, retail, 44,600, 19,300, 10,000
33. Panasonic Corp., electronics, 43,300, 52,100, 41,500
34. Furniture Brands Intl., furniture, 42,700, NR, NR
35. Kohl’s Corp., retail, 42,400, NR, NR
36. Nestle, food & beverages, 40,400, 28,500, 14,300
37. Dorel Industries, furniture, 39,900, 28,700, NR
38. Michelin, tires & rubber, 38,700, 46,100, 34,500
39. Staples, retail, 32,800, 13,200, NR
40. Yamaha, transportation mfg., 32,000, 27,300, 24,600
41. Del Monte Foods, food, 32,000, 32,400, 12,600
42. Nissan North America, autos, 31,800, 27,700, 16,500
43. American Honda, autos, 30,900, 10,300, 46,200
44. Michaels Stores, retail, 30,600, 27,100, 14,600
45. Hewlett-Packard, computers, 29,700, NR, NR
46. Coaster of America, furniture, 29,500, 13,300, NR
47. Hankook Tire Americas, tires, 28,800, 20,400, NR
48. CVS Corp., retail, 28,000, 10,200, 16,000
49. BMW, autos, 27,400, 14,200, 14,000
50. Rooms to Go, retail, 27,200, 24,200, 19,800
Top 100 U.S. Exporters Via Ocean Container Transport — 2007
As measured in 20-foot-equivalent container units or TEUs The first number is the number of TEUs exported in 2007, followed by TEUs exported in 2004 and 2002. NR means the company was not on the list of top 100 for that year. SOURCE: Journal of Commerce and the Port Import/Export Reporting Service.
1. American Chung Nam, wastepaper, 211,300, 201,100, 156,500
2. Weyerhaeuser, forest products/paper, 165,800, 154,900 95,600
3. Cargill, food, 123,800, 80,600 51,200
4. Koch Industries, paper, 123,400, 29,100, NR
5. International Paper, paper, 100,900, 42,700, 50,100
6. Dow Chemical, chemicals, 100,000, 64,700, 52,400
7. DuPont, chemicals, 93,100, 123,000, 104,000
8. MeadWestvaco, paper, 77,900, 66,800, 59,000
9. P&G, consumer products, 73,800, 54,200,48,000
10. Archer Daniels Midland, food, 73,300, 32,300, 17,700
11. Potential Industries, wastepaper, 70,800, 22,300, 11,500
12. Newport CH Intl., paper, steel recyclables, 69,700, NR, NR
13. Sims Metal Mgmt., metals, recyclables, 69,600, NR, NR
14. Cedarwood-Young, wastepaper, 64,900, 38,600, 21,000
15. CGB Enterprises, agriculture, 57,500, NR, NR
16. ExxonMobil Chemical, chemicals, 56,500, 44,300, 28,700
17. Cellmark Group, paper, 54,200, 56,700, 45,100
18. JC Horizon, waste paper, 53,000, 28,700, 25,400
19. BASF, chemicals, 52,500, 50,200, 38,500
20. Mega Fiber, waste paper, 44,300, NR, NR
21. Denison Intl., recycled paper, 43,400, NR, NR
22. DaimlerAG, autos, 41,700, 50,100, 47,000
23. General Electric, conglomerate, 41,200, 50,000, 44,400
24. Toyota Tsusho, autos/parts, 40,900, 28,100, 13,100
25. Allenberg Cotton, cotton, 39,800, 45,900, 21,200
26. AbitibiBowater, paper, 39,000, 18,900, 9,300
27. Caterpillar, machinery, 37,300,. 23,500, 19,200
28. Wal-Mart Stores, retail, 36,400, NR, NR
29. Rayonier, paper & forest products, 35,500, 31,700, 26,900
30. Mitsui, conglomerate, 34,900, 24,300, 24,300
31. Eastman Chemical, chemicals, 34,800, 37,900, 21,500
32. Staple Cotton Coop. Assn., 33,200, NR, NR
33. Schoular Co., foodstuffs, 33,100, NR, NR
34. Shintech, chemicals, 32,900, 22,300, 29,500
35. Yao Yang Enterprises, wastepaper, 32,700, 29,400, 20,600
36. Sino Paper, recycled paper, 32,300, NR, NR
37. Tyson Foods, food, 31,300, 19,600, 44,100
38. Itochu Specialty Chemicals, chemicals, 30,900, 26,700, NR
39. Rio Tinto America, minerals, 28,900, 18,500, NR
40. Kimberly Clark, consumer goods, 28,400, 23,900, NR
40. Delong, animal feed, 28,400, NR, NR
40. International Forest Products, paper, 28,400, 20,000, NR
43. 3M, chemicals, 28,300, 16,800, 14,500
44. Goodyear Tire & Rubber, tires, 27,300, 21,600, 19,000
44. Dunavant Enterprises, cotton, 27,300, 32,600, 22,700
46. Paul Reinhart, cotton, 27,000, NR, NR
47. Ford Motor, autos, 26,800, 30,200, 32,300
47. Mills Brothers Intl., food/grain, 26,800, 17,900, NR
49. Fruit of the Loom, textiles, 26,300, 16,900, NR
50. ConAgra Foods, food, 25,900, 27,400, 42,200
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The 2008 U.S. Physics Team returns home triumphant this week, having earned four gold medals and a silver medal at the International Physics Olympiad held in Hanoi in Vietnam.
Newswise — The 2008 U.S. Physics Team returns home triumphant this week, having earned four gold medals and a silver medal at the International Physics Olympiad held in Hanoi in Vietnam. Only the Chinese mainland and Taiwan, who tied for first, ranked higher than the U.S. team, which placed second along with South Korea and India.
The U.S. Physics Team’s gold medalists are:
Tucker Chan, Princeton High School, Princeton, NJ;
Danny Zhu, Stuyvesant High School, New York, NY;
Edward Gan, Montgomery Blair High School, Silver Spring, MD;
Joshua Oreman, Harvard Westlake School, North Hollywood, CA;
and its silver medalist is Rui Hu, The Charter School of Wilmington, DE.
Chan, Zhu, and Hu graduated from high school this past spring; Gan and Oreman have one more year to go.
The students were selected in June after a two-phase national contest and a ten-day training camp, conducted by coaches chosen by the American Association of Physics Teachers in College Park, MD.
Photos and student biographies are at http://www.aapt.org/olympiad2008/team.cfm?Winners=1 There is an online blog of the students’ adventures since April at http://www.aapt.org
The international competition over, these students look toward a bright future. “Here is a side of America to celebrate,” said Charles Holbrow, executive officer of the American Association of Physics Teachers. “Congratulations to the US Physics Team and their coaches. We should all be proud of these talented young people. And with the rest of the world, we should admire the achievements of all the Physics Olympiad participants. The sheer intellectual pleasure that radiates with youthful energy from their work together is a delight to behold.”
The five-member team was sponsored by the U.S. physics community. The contest and the students are supported with funds from ten professional societies: American Physical Society, The American Association of Physics Teachers, American Geophysical Union, The Society of Rheology, American Astronomical Society, American Acoustical Society, American Association of Physcists in Medicine, American Crystallographic Association, the AVS, and the Optical Society of America, which contributed one of the questions used on a selection exam.
About the Olympiad
The U.S. Physics Olympiad Program is a joint initiative of AAPT and AIP. AAPT began the program in 1986 to promote and demonstrate academic excellence. The International Olympiad is a nine-day competition among pre-university students from more than 80 nations.
About AAPT
AAPT is the leading organization for physics educators, with more than 11,000 members worldwide. The mission is to advance the greater good through physics education. It provides members with many opportunities for professional development, communication, and student enrichment. AAPT was founded in 1930 and is headquartered in the American Center for Physics in College Park, Maryland.
