Global industrial giants are struggling under the weight of a strong dollar, reeling commodity markets and weak demand in emerging and advanced economies alike, from Brazil to Europe to China. But domestically oriented U.S. manufacturers are faring better, with steadier business buoyed by the relatively brighter auto, housing and job markets.
San Francisco-based makeup and skincare company Bare Escentuals is moving its headquarters to New York. . . The company did not say how many employees it has in the Bay Area, but LinkedIn lists 400-plus employees in the region.
Sen. Connie Leyva, D-Chino, said it would only benefit high-income, out-of-state residents who don’t need tax incentives. Although she supports the growth of the California electric-vehicle maker, she said, “I don’t even know if anyone in our district even owns a Tesla.”
The February 2015 explosion that shuttered the ExxonMobil plant in Torrance was the costliest disruption at a California refinery in the past 16 years, with motorists paying at least $2.4 billion in higher pump prices in the following six months, according to a recent RAND study.
The Institute for Supply Management on Monday said its index of manufacturing activity fell to 50.8 in April from 51.8 in March. For a second straight month, however, the measure remained above 50, the threshold that divides expansion from contraction.
The layoffs in Folsom amount to a little more than 4 percent of the company’s 6,000 employees there. But it’s also the second significant downsizing in a little over a year. Last year Intel said it would eliminate 152 jobs in Folsom.
He says his employees make on average a little less than $15 an hour now – so he would have to give them all a big raise. He said he can’t afford to do that because his company is locked into long-term contracts with customers where the price is already set.
Since 1990, the number of people working in aerospace in Southern California has more than been chopped in half. When the Cold War was winding down, there were more than 270,000 local aerospace workers, according to the Los Angeles Economic Development Corporation. In 2014, there were 85,500 in 2014. It’s a big reason why ever since, the region has had some of the weakest job growth in the entire country.
After years of net losses, moving production out of Los Angeles is necessary for the survival of American Apparel, industry experts said. The company initially considered staying in California and moving to the city of Vernon, according to a person familiar with the discussions who was not authorized to speak publicly. After the state raised the minimum wage, executives began looking at manufacturers in the South, the person said.
Intel is slashing its global workforce by 12,000 jobs, or 11 percent of its employees, as the chip giant grapples with a dramatically shifting market for its products.
Industrial production—a broad gauge of output across U.S. factories, mines and power plants—decreased a seasonally adjusted 0.6% in March from the prior month, the Federal Reserve said Friday. Output has fallen for six of the past seven months. From a year earlier, industrial production decreased 2% in March. Manufacturing output, the largest component of the index, fell 0.3% in March.
SunEdison Inc said an independent audit committee had identified several issues with the company’s cash-flow management but found no “material misstatements” in its historical financial reports.
Last November, the Washington Times reported Abengoa had received at least $2.7 billion in federal loan guarantees since 2010 to build several large-scale solar power projects in the United States. There was no certainty any of the government loans would be paid back amid a collapse that dwarfed the $530 million loss to the U.S. taxpayer with the collapse of Solyndra in 2011.
The February 2015 explosion, which triggered state and federal investigations, led to higher gas prices in Los Angeles than the rest of the nation. The fully operational refinery provided a fifth of the refined gasoline capacity in Southern California and 10% of the statewide capacity.
Elio is developing a low-cost ($6,800 to start) very high mileage (80-plus MPG) commuter car. . . Elio, in contrast, merely offers its cars – which you’re free to buy or not. And if you don’t want one, they’re not gonna force you (via Uncle) to “help” other people buy one. . . The execrable element is that Tesla expects you to pay for its toys. Not for yourself. But so that other people – affluent people – can play with them. . . that every “sale” entails an extortion payment extracted from a real car company – a “carbon credit” that is “sold” to offset the less-than-Teslian characteristics of functionally viable but “greenhouse gas” producing conventional cars… that it is necessary to bribe even rich people who have money to burn on toys with thousands of dollars of tax write-offs (the costs for these written off onto the backs of those who pay the taxes) in order to complete each transaction.