TPT September 2007

From the AmericaS

was part of an underground network of mains and service pipes that delivers steam for air conditioning and heat to thousands of customers including the Empire State Building, Rockefeller Center, and the United Nations. The rupture in the 83-year-old asbestos- insulated steam pipe, which sent up geysers of steam, dirt, and asphalt, was a stark reminder that New York City’s infrastructure includes a complicated underground system. Consolidated Edison, the utility in charge of Manhattan’s 105 miles of steam pipes, claims the age of the steel pipes is not an issue because they are well maintained. But the pipes, wrapped in layers of insulation, encased in concrete, and buried as deep as 15 feet underground, have exploded before. Nearly 20 years ago, a steam pipe blast killed three people. It also exposed residents in the area to particles of asbestos in the pipe insulation. While Con Ed said it is spending $20 million this year on the system’s upkeep, it was not reassuring that the damaged steam pipe had just been inspected and declared sound by a utility crew, a routine procedure after a rainstorm. Automotive › Ford Motor Co opened its largest European dealership on 16 July, in Moscow. In marked contrast to its lacklustre performance in the US, Ford has seen its sales in Russia – Europe’s fastest- growing car market – go up 122 per cent in the first six months of the year, compared with the same period of 2006. As a benefit of the oil boom that has lifted middle-class wages in Russia, Ford is

meeting demand for compact family cars. Ford has moreover made a speciality of consumer financing at its dealerships in 93 Russian cities. The company was the first foreign automaker to open a wholly owned production line in Russia, in 2002, in the district around St Petersburg that has become known as Russia’s Detroit. › In Detroit, on 16 July General Motors said that it was buying 50 per cent of the Italian diesel engine maker VM Motori from Penske Corp (Bloomfield Hills, Michigan) and would jointly introduce a new high-performance 2.9-liter V-6 turbo diesel engine. VM Motori is to have responsibility for the engine’s design, development, and testing, and will build the new unit at its plant in Cento, Italy, for scheduled use in the GM Cadillac CTS in Europe, in 2009. › The auto parts maker Delphi Corp (Troy, Michigan) said July 18 that on its exit from bankruptcy it would accept as much as $2.55 billion from Appaloosa Management LP and other investors in return for preferred and common stock in the company. On July 9, Delphi said it had ended a previous financing agreement with a private equity group headed by Cerberus Capital Management LP, from which it hoped for an infusion of up to $3.4 billion. Delphi was expected to file motions seeking an expedited hearing and approval of the new agreement in the US Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. The struggling auto parts supplier said the agreement is supported by both of its court-appointed committees as well as General Motors Corp.

Dorothy Fabian , Features Editor (USA)

Rohrwerk Maxhütte Competence - Reliability - Quality Seamless steel tubes

Quality for high standard applications  Seamless steel tubes (hot rolled / cold rolled / carbon steel / alloyed steel)  Black / galvanized tubes (own galvanizing plant)  Dimensions: 21.3mm - 139.7mm (OD)  Individual tube treatment and processing (in own workshops)  Tubes with threads and couplings

Rohrwerk Maxhütte GmbH Germany Rosenbachstr. 11 phone: ++49 - 96 61 / 814 - 4 18 fax: ++49 - 96 61 / 814 - 4 19

D - 92237 Sulzbach-Rosenberg email: em418@rohrwerk-maxhuette.de http://www.rohrwerk-maxhuette.com

MH-ROHR

129

S eptember /O ctober 2007