EuroWire November 2016

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Transatlantic cable
November 2016 32
With a CAGR of close to 4 per cent for the forecast period,
the market for valves and pumps is expected to grow at the
fastest rate – the demand supported by hydraulic fracturing
(“fracking”), chemical, nuclear, desalination and waste-disposal
applications.
In terms of geography, Asia-Paci c (APAC) is the largest and
fastest-growing steel casting market and China the dominant
player. The market is driven by the automotive and construction
sectors, with the Chinese construction market expected to grow
at a CAGR of over 12 per cent (to $2.5 trillion) during the forecast
period.
According to Chandrakumar Badala Jaganathan, a lead analyst
at Technavio for metals and minerals research, the primary
demand driver for industrial castings in the APAC region is the
rapid increase in industrialisation and development in China,
India and South Korea.
Ongoing urbanisation in India is a notable factor, with the
Indian government investing heavily in infrastructure and thus
boosting demand for steel castings. As noted by Technavio,
Indian steel companies “have been investing massively over the
last seven years” to increase steel capacity. The growth rate of
steel consumption in India is projected at seven to nine per cent
to 2020.
Even as the steel castings market grows in size, the product
grows in sophistication. By pinpointing the location of internal
defects, Dr Jaganathan said simulation-based casting technique
optimises casting design and method. In allowing visualisation
of the casting processes (mould lling, cooling, solidi cation),
it saves time for manufacturers while enabling them to more
reliably satisfy critical dimension, size and weight requirements.
Elsewhere in steel . . .
† A news story from Minnesota may call into question the
increasingly popular choice of stainless steel for residential
gas lines. According to Christopher Dean, the re chief of
Muskegon Heights, the stainless steel gas line in a recently
renovated house contributed to a re on 29th August.
As reported by Lynn Moore on (2nd September),
Mr Dean said that the coating on electrical wires melted in
an earlier, unrelated, re in the structure. The wires grounded
out on the stainless steel tubing, causing it to overheat and
ignite oorboards and other building material. Both res
were extinguished quickly.
Milestones
A historic rst: a scheduled passenger
jet ight from the USA to Cuba
Shortly after 10am on 31 st August, JetBlue Flight 387 took o
from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, en route to Cuba. As noted by Jen
Kirby of New York Magazine, this was the rst scheduled USA
commercial ight to depart for Cuba since 1961, when airlines
were still operating propeller planes.
The 150-strong payload of Flight 387 included US Department of
Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx and Frank Barreras, the
JetBlue pilot and son of Cuban immigrants. CBS News reported
that Mr Barreras’s father ed Cuba on one of the last USA-bound
commercial ights before the rupture between the two Cold War
foes ended that connection for a half-century and more.
The plane landed in Santa Clara – about 175 miles east of
Havana, the Cuban capital – around 11am, the rst ight
under new USA rules that loosened travel restrictions after the
resumption of diplomatic ties in December 2014. This May,
a USA cruise ship docked in Havana for the rst time since
President Barack Obama launched an e ort to normalise US
relations with the island nation 90 miles o shore Florida.
According to the New York Times, six American carriers have
been approved for commercial air service to nine Cuban cities.
The commuter line Silver Airways was next up, after JetBlue, with
its initial Cuban ight set for 1 st September. American Airlines
was to follow suit the following week. (“Scheduled Flights to
Cuba From US Begin Again, NowWith Jet Engines,” 31st August)
Earlier reports indicated that the USA cities of origination
for Cuba ights would be Atlanta; Charlotte, North Carolina;
Houston; Los Angeles; Newark, New Jersey; and New York; plus
four in Florida – Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Orlando and Tampa. Of
the 20 daily non-stop ights slated for Havana, 14 will leave from
Florida, home to the largest population of Cuban-Americans.
† Together with hundreds of thousands of Cuban-Americans,
who have been able to travel to Cuba without restriction
since 2009, nearly 160,000 USA leisure travellers ew there
last year. Previously, expensive and time-consuming charter
ights provided their sole recourse.
But the Times reported that Americans who qualify for travel
to Cuba under the approved 12 categories (eg family visits,
o cial business, and educational or religious activities) can
now book ights on an airline’s website, and many have paid
fares as low as $99 each way.
† Conservatives in Congress have been unwilling to lift the
trade embargo of Cuba, which includes a travel ban. That
means that most Americans still cannot legally visit Cuba.
But, with the easing of the rules, enterprising travellers
are free to design their own “people-to-people” cultural
exchange tours with little oversight.
Carpe diem
Massachusetts looks into an unusual
suggestion for retaining its best and
brightest: extend the hours of daylight
A 2013 Boston Federal Reserve study showed that New England
had the lowest retention rate of college graduates of the entire
USA, with only about 63 per cent of the class of 2008 still in
Massachusetts a year after earning their diplomas. A Boston-area
resident, Tom Emswiler, saw a direct connection between this
statistic and the restiveness he had noted among young people
in a city that goes dark about three hours after lunch.
As reported by Tom Moroney and Anne Mostue of Bloomberg
News, of all the major cities on America’s eastern seaboard, none
is as far north and east as Boston, where the sun sets really early
in winter. On 9th December last year, sunset in Boston was at
4.11pm, only 22 minutes later than in the Yukon.
Mr Emswiler’s insight, developed at some length in a Boston
Globe op-ed, found a receptive reader in Massachusetts
Governor Charles Baker, who recently signed a bill ordering
a feasibility study of moving his 10,555-square-mile state into a
time zone that would brighten the end of the day in the months
during which the Northern Hemisphere is tilted away from
the sun.