EoW March 2012

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EuroWire – March 2012 38
Transatlantic cable
An exhibit at the huge show showed the 11 di erent materials,
including magnesium and acoustic foam, that go into the body
of the Cadillac ATS, a compact luxury sedan from General Motors.
“We’re tinkering more and more with all kinds of metals and
plastics for every part,” Dieter Eulenbach, director of sales and
engineering at the German auto-parts giant ZF Friedrichshafen
AG, told the WSJ. “Always trying to nd the right balance
between cost, weight, durability, and plasticity.” Decades ago,
steel was dominant in the production of automobiles in the
United States. As of January, it was, still.
Elsewhere in steel . . .
† Mirko Cvetkovic, the Serbian prime minister, on 28 th Jan-
uary told journalists in Sarajevo that his country would
repurchase, for $1, the troubled steel maker that US Steel
acquired in 2003 for $33 million and on which it has spent
at least $150 million. As reported by Len Boselovic in the
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the sale would end an eight-year
e ort by US Steel to convert a government-owned mill
ravaged by wars in the 1990s into a viable free market
enterprise. But the Pittsburgh-based steel giant did not
immediately respond to the assertion by Mr Cvetkovic.
US Steel’s European operations, which include a larger plant
in the Slovak Republic, generated $50 million of operating
losses during the third quarter and $73 million in losses over
the rst nine months of last year.
Mr Boselovic wrote: “The company said in October it was not
satis ed with [US Steel Serbia’s] results and was considering
what to do about them. The plant operated at a little more
than half of its 2.4 million ton annual capacity in 2010.
One blast furnace has been idle since the second quarter of
last year.”
† A Canadian bank has led a $15 million federal suit alleging
that DCM Erectors, the Manhattan-based company
assembling the steel skeleton for One World Trade Center,
has defaulted on money it borrowed. As reported in the New
York Daily News (24th January), Maple Trade Finance (Halifax,
Nova Scotia) is claiming breach of contract on the part of the
Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
The PA is owner of the iconic site and also directs the
huge reconstruction project there. The skyscraper was
originally called the Freedom Tower, but the name yielded
to public sentiment in favour of the World Trade Centre
a liation. The building will be the centrepiece of the
rebuilt site of the terrorist attacks on New York in 2001.
Maple Trade says it hopes to resolve the matter before
it goes to trial. The PA declined to comment on the suit,
but its executive director Patrick Foye said that construction
on the building will not be a ected. Mr Foye told the News
(24th January): “They continue to fabricate steel and deliver it,
and we continue to install it.”
Employment
Millions of older Americans are rejoining
the labour force or staying in it longer
While the recession has thinned the ranks of other generations
in the US workforce, more people over 55 are employed than
ever before, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).
The phenomenon is closely linked to a broad shift that began
in the ’80s in the United States away from reliance on company
pensions and toward the adoption of personal savings plans.
Peter Whoriskey of the Washington Post observed that the
trend is one of the factors that has dramatically increased the
incentives for Americans to work on into the later years.
Latest BLS gures indicate that the number of people past
55 who are working has actually risen by 3.1 million, or 12%,
since the beginning of the recession in December 2007.
This includes people aged 75 and older, more of whom are
working today. By contrast, the number of people between the
ages of 25 and 54 who are working has shrunk by 6.5 million, for
a drop of 6.5% over the same period. (“Amid Downturn, More
Older Americans Employed than Ever Before,” 12th January).
BLS statistics also show that older people – more all the time
– are serious about work. The percentage of people 55 and
above who are working or seeking work climbed from 38.9%
to 40.3% since the start of the recession, while the percentage
of workers between the ages of 25 and 54 who are working or
seeking work dropped from 83.1% to 81.5 percent. “The notion
of retirement is relatively new in American history,” wrote
Mr Whoriskey. “And the boom in older workers reveals that it
continues to evolve.” He noted that, according to historians,
until the end of the 19th Century people generally worked as
long as they could. While the reasons for the current surge of
older American workers may be complex, it would appear that
a very contemporary mix of necessity and preference may be
prompting a return to the ways of an earlier time.
Of related interest . . .
† Another Washington Post sta writer, Michael A Fletcher,
reported that the US unemployment rate dipped to its
lowest level in nearly three years in December – news
that rippled through rival presidential campaigns whose
prospects could hinge on the pace of the economic recovery.
Unemployment had declined in four consecutive months, to
8.5%, its lowest level since February 2009 – President Barack
Obama’s second month in o ce.
Mr Fletcher wrote (6th January). “However fragile, it is the
kind of trend that Mr Obama is counting on to convince
voters that he deserves a second term in the White House.”
According to government data, at that writing there were
1.7 million fewer jobs in the nation than when Mr Obama
took o ce, a fact often cited by Republican critics of this
Democratic president’s economic stewardship. Yet employers
added 200,000 jobs in December, a pace that, if maintained
through the November election, would enable Mr Obama to
claim that he is a net job creator.
In brief . . .
† Under European regulations that took e ect with the New
Year, airlines ying into and out of Europe must purchase
certi cates tied to the carbon dioxide emissions produced
by their planes. Immediately, Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines –
the world’s second-largest carrier in passenger tra c behind
Chicago-based United – began adding $6 per round trip to
the price of tickets sold in the US for travel to Europe.
The German airline Lufthansa also announced that it will
pass on to customers its estimated cost for the required
certi cates ($168 million this year) by way of higher fuel
surcharges, but did not give a per-passenger gure.
Lufthansa board member Carsten Spohr said that the
inclusion of airlines in the European Union emissions-trading
system would make ying within or via Europe more
expensive, and that international opposition raises the
possibility that the system will upset competitive balance
in the airline industry. Together with airlines in China, India,
and some other nations outside Europe, carriers in the