Factory

DETROIT — Mazda Motor Co. has decided to stop building the midsize Mazda6 sedan in the United States, raising questions about the future of a US factory that it runs jointly with Ford Motor Co. The Japanese automaker said yesterday that it will continue building the car at the factory in Flat Rock, Mich., near Detroit, until the end of the current model’s life cycle. But the next version of the car will be built at Mazda’s Hofu plant in Japan, the company said. A company spokesman wouldn’t say when US production would stop, nor would he say whether Mazda would...

Italian Premier Mario Monti has promised to help small-scale businesses, especially factories and farms, in the region of northern Italy struck by quake Monti's visit to the Emilia Romagna region included a stop at a ceramics factory where two workers died after it collapsed. In all, the quake claimed seven lives. Monti said that a Cabinet meeting later Tuesday will declare a state of emergency for the stricken area. Under consideration is suspension of tax payments while residents rebuild.

CASABLANCA, Morocco - A fire broke out yesterday in a mattress factory in Casablanca, killing 55 people and injuring a dozen others, the official news agency reported. The morning blaze began on the ground floor of the factory and quickly spread through the five-story building, according to the MAP news agency. More than 100 firefighters rushed to the factory in an industrial section of Casablanca and battled the blaze for about three hours, as scores of residents looked on. The Wilaya of Greater Casablanca, the city government, said in a statement that 55 were killed and 12 were injured.

Factory jobs in Massachusetts, once confined to a museum display, are not only alive and well, but quite profitable for the workers holding them. So finds a new study from the Brookings Institution, which looked at the state of manufacturing across the United States and found that even at reduced numbers, factory jobs can pay high wages, especially to those performing the most sophisticated production work. In Boston for example, factory workers who make the most demanding technology products, such as advanced electronics gear or specialized drugs, earn average wages of more than...

Goodrich Corp. is closing its landing gear factory in Cleveland because of declining orders. The company said Wednesday 400 employees will be affected by the closure, which should be completed by the end of 2012. The aerospace contractor said it expects to record pre-tax charges of $39 million for the closure. It expects to record $16 million in costs during the second quarter and about $5 million in the second half of 2011. The company expects $15 million in costs during 2012.

Lawyers for a French woman are seeking class-action status in a case filed against Bain Capital, alleging fraud and unfair practices in the sale and subsequent bankruptcy of a Samsonite luggage factory in France. The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Boston last month, alleges Boston-based Bain's sale of the factory circumvented French labor laws. The lawsuit involves 186 people affected by the closing of Samsonite's Henin-Beaumont factory in France. The lead plaintiff is Murielle Abdallah.

SAVAR, Bangladesh -- A nine-story garment factory in Bangladesh collapsed after a boiler exploded yesterday, killing at least 21 people and trapping about 200 others, police and rescuers said. Rescuers used welding machines to cut holes in the rubble to reach people and pump air to survivors at the sweater-making factory near Savar, an industrial town 20 miles northwest of the capital Dhaka. Police said at least 300 people were in the factory when it collapsed. Twenty-one bodies were recovered, and rescuers were looking for workers believed trapped under the...

NEW YORK - General Electric Co. will build the largest solar factory in the United States near Denver. The company, which announced in April that it would build the factory, said yesterday it had selected Aurora, Colo., a suburb east of Denver, as the location. GE is a leader in manufacturing natural gas turbines and wind turbines, but it had mostly stayed away from solar until it acquired PrimeStar Solar, a small panel maker, earlier this year. GE is entering the solar business at a brutal time for makers of solar panels, the squares of crystalline silicon or thin...

General Motors says it will spend $47 million at a factory in Defiance, Ohio, so it can build more parts that go into the company’s small four-cylinder engine. The investment won’t create any new jobs at the plant about 60 miles from Toledo. But it will buy equipment so the factory can crank out more parts for the 1.4-liter engine that goes into the hot-selling Chevrolet Cruze compact and the Chevrolet Volt electric car. The motor also will power the Chevrolet Sonic subcompact, which goes on sale later this year.

Hundreds of villagers in eastern China have been demonstrating against pollution they say is caused by a solar panel factory. Some protesters have stormed the compound and overturned vehicles. The government of Haining city said Sunday that more than 500 villagers in the city in Zhejiang province gathered in front of the Zhejiang Jinko Solar Co. Ltd. on Thursday demanding an explanation for the alleged pollution. It says some protesters charged into the factory compound, overturned eight company vehicles and destroyed its offices.

WASHINGTON - Demand for US factory goods dropped in March by the most in three years, driven lower by a sharp fall in volatile orders for commercial aircraft. Still, more recent data suggest the decline may be temporary. The Commerce Department said Wednesday that orders for factory goods fell 1.5 percent. That was the steepest decline since March 2009, when the economy was mired in recession. Orders rose 1.1 percent in February. A key reason for the drop was aircraft orders plummeted nearly 50 percent.

Strong sales in North America and China are generating big profits for General Motors. Now the company needs the rest of the world to play along. GM's net income totaled $1 billion in the first quarter as it sold more vehicles at higher prices in the U.S. But the earnings fell 69 percent from a year earlier. The reasons: Big one-time charges and high operating costs in Europe, and lackluster earnings in South America. For GM to continue its rebound from bankruptcy three years ago, it needs Europe and South America to improve, especially if North American...

Federal immigration officials granted a one-year stay of deportation Tuesday to a Honduran woman suffering from postpartum depression, more than five years after she was arrested at a massive factory raid in New Bedford. Lessy Noelia Ramos, a 27-year-old mother of two, had tried to fight deportation, but lost her case in Boston immigration court in 2009 and again on appeal last year. She was to prepare for her departure Wednesday by reporting to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Burlington with an airplane ticket and her...

When Bruce Cochrane's family furniture company became an empty factory, he wouldn't drive by the building, even though it was just a short ride from home. There were just too many memories of what was — and what he was sure would never be again. Five generations of Cochranes had been furniture makers, starting with his great-great grandfather, William, who built church pews in the 1850s. By the mid-1990s, though, the long, proud family tradition appeared to be at an end. Like so many other American industries, the furniture trade was moving to China, land of cheap...

Ford will expand its biggest factory complex in China to meet growing demand in the world's largest car market. The $600 million expansion will include a new assembly line, body shop and paint shop at its Chongqing site in southwestern China, Ford said Thursday. Chongqing is the company's largest manufacturing operation outside of the Detroit area. Ford is trying to catch up with rivals who have been in China longer and command a bigger share of sales. The expansion will give the automaker the ability to make 350,000 more vehicles per year, increasing its...

WASHINGTON - Businesses ordered more machinery and equipment from US factories in February, a signal that many are investing in their companies despite the expiration of a tax credit. Orders to US factories increased 1.3 percent in February, the Commerce Department said. That offset a similar decline in January. Demand for so-called core capital goods, a gauge of business investment plans, rose 1.7 percent. That was better than the government's preliminary estimate last week and followed a steep drop in January.

MUMBAI - Ford Motor Co. laid the cornerstone for a $1 billion factory in India on Thursday, pressing ahead with expansion plans despite an uncertain outlook for Asia's number three economy where growth in car sales has waned. Ford's plant will have the capacity to manufacture 240,000 cars and 270,000 engines a year when it is complete in 2014. "We are committed to significantly increasing our manufacturing output and aggressively expanding our business in India," Michael Boneham, Ford India's managing director, said in a statement.

NEW BEDFORD - A leather-goods factory raided in 2007 by US immigration agents will close its doors by July 31, the company that owns the plant said yesterday. Alliant Techsystems, a Minneapolis-based military contractor, said in a statement that the factory was operating well below capacity and that the closure is part of a consolidation plan of its wholly owned subsidiary, Eagle Industries Inc. US Representative Barney Frank called the closure "absolute corporate savagery" and said it made ATK "unfit" to continue as a US contractor.

GRANBY — Few foods manage the double role of unassuming staple and symbolic superstar as well as the egg. Since ancient times, beginning with pagan spring rites, the fertile egg, with its looping, spherical shape, has represented the continuity of life, the cycles of death, and renewal. Every spring the egg transitions from what's for breakfast into a significant carrier of religious meaning. For Jews during Passover, a hard-cooked and roasted egg has come to represent one of the festival offerings made in the destroyed Temple of Jerusalem.

WASHINGTON - US factories stepped up hiring and production in March, the latest evidence that manufacturing is growing at a healthy pace and fueling the recovery. But a separate report on construction spending showed that building activity declined in February for the second straight month, disappointing economists. The reports show "that the economy is still locked on a very gradual healing trajectory," said Steven Ricchiuto, chief economist at Mizuho Securities. The Institute for Supply Management, a trade group of purchasing managers, said Monday that its index of...