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My husband and I have a couple of credit cards we never use. However, we have read that one shouldn’t cancel credit cards because it has a bad effect on credit score. We might refinance our house. Should we cancel these cards?
China Shougang Group has tied up with Malaysia’s Hiap Teck to build a 1.8 billion ringgit ($573 million) steel mill, its first such investment outside of China.
A joint statement says the mill in Malaysia’s northern Terengganu state will produce 700,000 metric tons of steel slabs a year to cater to Southeast Asia’s growing markets when completed in mid-2013. It said Monday the mill, run by a joint venture called Eastern Steel, will later be expanded to raise output to 1.5 million metric tons.
Shougang, one of China’s top steel makers, controls 40 percent of Eastern Steel. Hiap Teck holds 55 percent.
Officials say there is strong demand in Southeast Asia, which imports more than 4 million metric tons of steel slabs annually, mostly from eastern Europe.
U.S. builders started slightly fewer homes in October but submitted plans for a wave of apartments, a mixed sign for the struggling housing market.
Builders broke ground on a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 628,000 homes last month, down 0.3 percent from September. That’s roughly half the 1.2 million homes that economists say must be built to sustain a healthy housing market.
Building permits, a gauge of future construction, rose nearly 11 percent. The increase was spurred by a 30 percent increase in apartment permits, which reached its highest level in three years.
New-home construction and sales are in the midst of one of its worst years in history. Demand for new homes is weak and historically-low mortgage rates and plunging home prices have done little to help.
Stock futures are rising on hopes that a solution will be found to expand Europe’s financial rescue program.
Slovakia rejected a bill Tuesday that would have increased the powers of the regional rescue fund. The 16 other countries that use the euro have already signed off on the bill, but the measure requires unanimous support. Still, there are ways around Slovakia’s opposition, and investors expect the bill to ultimately pass before a meeting of European leaders next week.
About 90 minutes before the opening bell Wednesday, Dow Jones industrial average futures are up 86 points, or 0.8 percent, at 11,416. Standard & Poor’s 500 index futures are up 8, or 0.7 percent, at 1,198. Nasdaq 100 index futures are up 21, or 0.9 percent, at 2,310.
Some 55 million women across North America read other women
In a boost to the region’s moribund auto industry, General Motors will inject $380 million into its Wentzville assembly plant, adding 1,850 jobs and a new pickup line as part of a proposed new labor contract, the United Auto Workers announced Tuesday.
The announcement is part of GM’s commitment to invest a total of $2.5 billion in facilities nationwide and create or retain 6,400 jobs over the life of the four-year contract, according to the UAW.
The union and GM reached an agreement Friday, but did not reveal details of expansion plans until Tuesday. The 48,500 union members working for GM nationwide must still ratify the contract next week.
UAW Local 2250 Chairman Mike Bullock said the contract called initially for the Wentzville plant to add a second production shift of between 400 and 700 people in the first quarter of 2012. Local 2250 represents hourly workers at the Wentzville plant, which produces Chevrolet Express and GMC Savana full-size vans. About 1,300 people in one production shift currently work at the Wentzville facility.
“This will be a real shot in the arm for Wentzville and the St. Louis area,” Bullock said in a phone interview. “This really is a tribute to the men and women who work at the Wentzville assembly center and produce the best quality product at the best cost.”
The local automotive industry has been devastated in recent years. Closures included the Ford plant in Hazelwood five years ago and Chrysler’s two Fenton plants in 2008 and 2009. Multiple local automobile suppliers that feed those plants with parts also closed. In 2009, GM eliminated a shift at the Wentzville plant, affecting more than 800 workers.
Some were laid off, and some took voluntary transfers to GM facilities elsewhere.
Some of those transferred and laid-off employees could be eligible for rehiring, according to UAW officials. Sixteen former Wentzville GM employees were transferred to GM’s Fairfax assembly plant in Kansas City, Kan., and 27 laid-off employees remain on Local 2250’s recall list.
GM also will be offering openings to unemployed GM union workers nationally who have recall rights. The number of such workers was unavailable.
Additionally, there are 350 people on a local referral list who could be tapped for the new jobs, Bullock said.
The investment by GM would pay for a 500,000-square-foot addition to the Wentzville’s current 3.7 million-square-foot facility, improvements to its paint department and other upgrades. The new contract also details plans for a midsize pickup to be produced in Wentzville. More than 1,000 workers would start working on that new line in 2013 for a 2014 model pickup, Bullock said.
“We’ve been waiting patiently a long time to hear this news,” said Tom Brune, UAW communications coordinator for Local 2250.
As Joe Gurrieri, 31, of O’Fallon, Mo., used a mechanical arm to swing dash panels into place on a steady stream of Chevy Express vans Tuesday, he said he was hopeful current workers would have more job security. Gurrieri, a 12-year employee, said he had returned to work in November after being laid off. “It’s good to be back, and it’s good to know we’ll be here for a while,” he said.
Some analysts have speculated that GM will shift production of its Chevrolet Colorado or GMC Canyon pickups, which currently are made in Shreveport, La., to Wentzville. The Shreveport assembly facility, which employs more than 900 people, is not owned by GM and had previously been slated to close as part of GM’s emergence from bankruptcy in 2009. A GM spokesman declined to comment on the pending contract or expansion details.
Last week, plant manager John Dansby told the Post-Dispatch that he believed Wentzville had been selected for expansion because of the plant’s emphasis on producing high quality vehicles at low costs.
“We’ve been working really hard at the plant to try to position ourselves to be very competitive,” Dansby said.
Last year, the plant forecast production of 80,000 vehicles and ended the year producing nearly 100,000.
“Our volumes are increasing, and the buying public has done a great job supporting our product,” he said.
TAX BREAKS
To help finance the expansion, Wentzville’s board of aldermen approved last week partial tax abatement for GM if it expands. As part of the deal, GM would make “payments in lieu of taxes” to local school districts, and have 75 percent of its property taxes for the new development abated for 10 years.
Wentzville Mayor Paul Lambi said he was hopeful the new jobs would bring back what was lost when the GM plant downsized in 2009. “There was an unbelievable ripple effect,” Lambi said, describing the closure of nearby restaurants and retailers two years ago. “Every business that relies on retail sales was affected. Bringing back a second shift is extremely good news.”
A couple of miles from the plant, Dan Strantz, owner of Mama’s Grill, also welcomed the news. The diner’s location near the intersection of Highway 40 and Interstate 70 opened about a month and half ago, he said, but his family has been in the restaurant business since 1972. “It’ll be good that there will actually be people with money to go out and spend,” he said.
If the expansion proceeds, GM is likely to pursue state incentives. The automaker has been in talks with Gov. Jay Nixon’s office and Department of Economic Development officials for a year, according to the governor’s spokesman, Sam Murphey. The automaker has not yet applied for any state incentives.
“We are strongly encouraged by the recent steps GM has taken, and we look forward to continuing to work closely with GM throughout this process,” Murphey said in a statement Tuesday.
The UAW outlined investments proposed by GM at several other plants nationwide, including plans to invest $925 million at three Michigan factories that will generate 900 jobs during the life of the contract. GM also plans to invest in plants in Spring Hill, Tenn., which had been idled, and Fort Wayne, Ind., that will generate or preserve a combined 3,700 jobs.
Gerrion Grim, 53, of O’Fallon, Mo., has worked at the Wentzville plant for about 18 months. He said he was laid off for a while and returned to work in April. Now, he said, he would like to see job security. “I’m definitely hoping for some longevity,” he said. “I just hope it all goes well.”
Shane Anthony of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.
A week after the state ended its relationship with SynCare, the embattled Medicaid contractor, the company on Friday laid off its workers and circulated a terse memo threatening to dock their final paychecks under a variety of conditions paydayloans.
The memo struck a certain irony with SynCare workers who had awakened to learn that SynCare
Italy’s government, waffling for weeks on an emergency austerity plan, received a stern warning Saturday from the European central bank chief to promptly implement the deficit-fighting measures and to stay on target.
Premier Silvio Berlusconi is caught between trying to placate allies and satisfying both nervous markets and worried European Union officials.
Italy’s Parliament is preparing to take up approval of the package of spending cuts and new taxes which Berlusconi promised will add up to a euro45.5 billion ($64.86 billion) austerity package. But every few days has seen some measures _ including new levies on high-earners and reform of a generous pension system _ dropped to appease coalition partners.
With Italy’s uncertainty, European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet urged Rome to keep to its word and push the package, announced in early August, toward completion.
“It is essential that the target which was announced to diminish the deficit will be fully confirmed and implemented,” Trichet said at an annual economics forum at a Lake Como resort. “This is absolutely decisive to consolidate and reinforce the quality and the credibility of the Italian strategy and its credit worthiness.”
Italy got a boost last month by the ECB when Rome’s borrowing costs dipped, thanks to the central bank’s program of buying peripheral bonds. The intervention helped stem the widening debt costs.
The Italian foreign minister, Franco Frattini, told reporters as he arrived late Saturday at the forum that his government will insist that the ECB keep buying the bonds, the Italian agency LaPresse reported from Cernobbio.
The outgoing central banker deemed as “extremely important” all measures to improve the “flexibility” of Italy’s economy. Both industrialists and union leaders have denounced the austerity plan as relying too much on slashed spending and new taxes and offering little to stimulate the country’s practically flat growth or to encourage job creation.
But the ECB’s own policies were being taken to task on the sidelines of the annual Ambrosetti forum.
“We need more stimulus, we need a weaker euro,” which could spur exports, said New York University economist Nouriel Roubini. “You can’t just talk about austerity.” He urged the ECB to “at least send a signal there is going to be monetary easing” soon.
Asked by The Associated Press to respond to Roubini’s criticism, Trichet, during a brief stroll of the posh lakeside Villa d’Este grounds at lunch time, declined to comment, saying he wouldn’t talk about matters related to policy.
With Berlusconi widely considered to be distracted by a sex scandal linked to his self-acknowledged penchant for young, beautiful women, Roubini expressed concern that whatever the measures are, markets won’t be reassured.
“Italy is always bickering,” the economist, who has warned of a possible double-dip recession in some European countries, told reporters during a break in the closed-door forum sessions.
“Investors have lost credibility in this government,” Roubini added, noting the repeated widening of the spread between Italy’s bond interest rates and that of benchmark German rates.
The latest Berlusconi government proposal to achieve several billion euros in deficit reduction through a crackdown on widespread tax evasion could also rattle the markets since it’s impossible to predict just how much revenue that strategy could achieve.
Earlier in the day, Italian President Giorgio Napolitano echoed Trichet’s call to his country, saying the proposed measures must be quickly “translated into concrete terms” to achieve Berlusconi’s goal of balancing the budget by 2013.
“In effect, we need now and in the near future from Italy clarity and certainty of intentions and of results,” said Napolitano, who noted that an earlier austerity plan in July failed to placate nervous markets.
Napolitano urged Berlusconi’s bickering government to be “coherent and courageous” in meeting the economic crisis. He recalled that Italy, suffering from lackluster productivity, already was lagging before the latest global economic crisis.
“There is no doubt that in general the political (arena) is struggling, in the face of the tensions of the crisis and the risks to which the eurozone is exposed, and that the internal political and social equilibrium of individual countries are being put to a tough test,” Napolitano said in a video hookup from the presidential palace in Rome.
Austria’s former chancellor, Wolfgang Schuessel, went further in characterizing the effects of the crisis on citizens.
“This loss of confidence and trust is much more damaging than any economic data,” he said.
The three-day meeting of bankers, economists and politicians began on Friday and has been marked by generally gloomy assessments of global economic prospects.
Coca Cola Co. said Thursday it plans to invest $4 billion in China as food brands scramble to expand in its fast-growing consumer market.
The investments will take place over three years beginning in 2012 and raise Coca Cola’s total investment in China between 2009 and 2014 to $7 billion, the company said.
Global food brands are investing heavily in China, looking to a relatively healthy economy that expanded by 9.5 percent in the quarter ending in June to drive sales amid global uncertainty.
“China is one of our most important growth markets,” said Coca Cola chairman and CEO Muhtar Kent in a statement announcing the plans.
Chinese retail spending in June rose 17.7 percent over a year earlier, according to the government.
In July, Nestle SA announced the purchase of a 60 percent stake in candy maker Hsu Fu Chi for $1 no fax payday loans.7 billion. Earlier this year, Nestle also bought a controlling stake in Chinese food processor Yinlu Foods Group.
Restaurant chains such as McDonald’s Corp. and Yum Brands Inc.’s Pizza Hut and KFC also are expanding.
Kent said Coca Cola’s sales volume in China for the first half of 2011 was double that of five years ago.
Coca Cola, based in Atlanta, opened five new facilities in China in 2009-10 and this year has opened one and plans to open a second and break ground for a third, according the company.
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