The Urethane Blog

Super Bowl MVP to Wear Helmet With TPU Cushioning

New York Giants QB Eli Manning to Wear New AiR-XP Helmet This Season

New Helmet from Schutt Sports Features TPU Cushioning instead of Foam

I've been wearing the same type of helmet from Schutt for a long time - even back to my days at Ol' Miss

I've always liked the look of the traditional helmet and always will. But the technology in this new AiR-XP made me take a closer look at it.

The new TPU cushioning system inside the helmet is different than anything I've ever worn

But I feel completely confident and comfortable in it. And it still has the traditional look that I prefer.

Litchfield, IL (PRWEB) July 31, 2009 -- When quarterback Eli Manning hits the practice fields for the opening of the New York Giants' training camp next week, he'll be throwing to a backfield full of new receivers but he'll also be throwing from underneath a new helmet.

AiR XP Football Helmet from Schutt

Just two seasons removed from winning the MVP Award in Super Bowl XLII, Manning will be wearing the new AiR-XP helmet from Schutt Sports.

"I've been wearing the same type of helmet from Schutt for a long time - even back to my days at Ol' Miss," says Manning. "I've always liked the look of the traditional helmet and always will. But the technology in this new AiR-XP made me take a closer look at it."

The AiR-XP features thermoplastic urethane (TPU) cushioning - a cushioning system first introduced to football by Schutt in 2003. Six years later, Schutt has refined the state-of-the-art technology even more.

"The new TPU cushioning system inside the helmet is different than anything I've ever worn," says Manning. "But I feel completely confident and comfortable in it. And it still has the traditional look that I prefer."

The TPU Cushioning System inside Manning's new AiR-XP eliminates the traditional foam padding found in nearly all other football helmets and replaces it with a series of cushions, which absorb and dissipate the force of impact from a tackle or collision.

Test results have shown TPU Cushioning performs significantly better in game-like conditions than foam padding, doing a better job of absorbing impact. It also has better heat management than traditional foam padding, allowing more air to circulate freely throughout the helmet.

The TPU Cushioning System is available in six different helmets produced by Schutt Sports, including several youth models.

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Dow Reports Second Quarter Earnings Results

July 30, 2009 5:51 PM EDT

Dow Chemical (NYSE: DOW) reports Q2 earnings of $0.05 per share, ex-items, above the consensus of $0.09 loss. Revenues fell 40% to $11.32 billion, versus the consensus of $13.02 billion. Shares ended the day 6.2% higher.

Highlights From DOW's Q2 Conference Call:

• (CEO) The second quarter was one of, if not the, most active quarters in our company's history.
  
• We accelerated cost reductions from restructuring activities and Rohm and Haas related synergies. And we are ahead of schedule on both fronts.
  
• We reduced our $9.2 billion bridge loan by $5 billion.
  
• We signed four definitive divestitures agreements that will further deleverage our balance sheet, and we remain on track to deliver $4 billion in asset sales by the end of the year.
  
• We will continue to preferentially invest in our Advanced Materials, AgroSciences, and Performance portfolios to further increase the percentage of our business that comes from these units.
  
• Our Electronic and Specialty Materials, Coatings and Infrastructure, and Performance Systems segments all posted impressive volume gains of at least 20% versus last quarter.
  
• And our Basic Plastics segment also showed marked improvement sequentially, with EBITDA up more than 230% on strength in consumer and industrial packaging.
  
• We also delivered significant sequential volume improvements on a geographic basis. Asia-Pacific was up 34%; India, Middle East, and Africa, up 27%, and Latin America, up 12%.
  
• These results fully offset a decline in Dow AgroSciences, driven by a number of unique headwinds in the AG chemical space in the quarter.
  
• Our cost synergy program (with Rohm & Haas) is ahead of plan, both for the quarter and on a run rate basis. In fact, we have already, in only three months, achieved a run rate of more than $570 million against our 12-month run rate target of $780 million, and we are moving quickly towards our $1.3 billion synergy commitment related to this acquisition.
  
• The announced sales of Morton Salt, our stake in Dutch refinery TRN, and our calcium chloride business will generate $2.6 billion of gross proceeds that will be used to pay down our bridge facility.
  
• This morning, we announced a fourth major divestment, an agreement to sell our interest in OPTIMAL to PETRONAS for an enterprise value of Dow's share of more than $724 million and a net equity value of $660 million. We expect this transaction to close by the end of the third quarter of this year.
  
• Although we have committed to divest $4 billion in assets by the end of 2009, our potential list of divestments totals 23 to $26 billion.
  
• (CFO) We reported sales of 11.3 billion, 40% lower than the same period last year, driven by 20% declines in both volume and price.
  
• On a sequential basis, we saw 5% improvement in volume, which gained momentum as the quarter progressed.
  
• Structural costs were down more than 375 million in the quarter and more than 600 million year-to-date.
  
• Electronics and Specialty Materials, volume was up 22% from the prior quarter on increased demand from inexpensive cell phones, low-cost netbook computers, and flat-panel TVs.
  
• Volume was also up in Performance Systems, where government spending aimed at the automotive sector helped drive demand in geographies such as Brazil, Germany, and China.
  
• Unusually wet weather in the U.S. and Europe, coupled with extreme drought conditions in Argentina, reduced wheat pressure tremendously. In addition, rapidly-falling farm commodity prices changed farmer sentiment as they looked to reduce their input costs, resulting in lower demand for ag-chemicals.
  
• Corn sales were up 76% year over year, and cotton sales doubled. We also continue to make investments in research and development as these are yielding great results, like last week's news on U.S. EPA and Canadian regulatory authorization of our SmartStax seeds.
  
• (CEO) We now view there are clear signs that stabilization is occurring, and we are seeing strong growth in Asia-Pacific.
  
• Meanwhile, we expect the recovery in Europe and the U.S. to be slow, as unemployment continues to be a drag on consumer spending. And based on these factors, our operating plan for the balance of 2009 does not count on material improvements in market conditions.
  
• (Q&A) Your prices have declined sequentially in most of the segments, and your large German competitor made some cautious comments today on their call. Does it worry you that if volumes don't pick up, that pricing may not hold? Can you comment on that price-volume dynamic, please? (A)Variable by type of business, but to stay on the commodity side for a second, clearly we're seeing operating rate improvements because of sequential volume improvements, especially in the emerging world, P.J., and so exports out of the U.S. are occurring again in our commodities, and that's really good news. Of course, we've done some right-sizing of the asset footprint, but really that doesn't reflect very much in the operating rate in the first half. Most of that stuff will appear in terms of decreased capacity in the second half on a run rate basis. So when you look at the commodities in particular, they've been either able to hold price or even increase price a little bit, based on cost push.
  Remember, oil went down to - whatever it was - the $30s and $40s and naphtha to its equivalent. It's now back up to the $60-odd mark. And naphtha followed it up. So it's more cost push pricing, not so much on snug supply demand, but on the rationale that costs are increasing and, in fact, many producers, especially those who crack naphtha, can't make money even on a variable-margin basis. And you will notice NE [ph] just announced taking down a cracker in Italy just the other day. There are lots of capacity, 9 million tons, we figure, that's coming out of the system this year because of variable margin dynamics in the commodities. So we believe there is some price momentum in the commodity side. Now, on the specialties, it's much harder. It's got nothing to do, really, with the cost push. It's got everything to do with supply demand in this sector, and the most promise there is really in the sectors that are showing sequential volume improvements of a great order of magnitude. We tabled those.
  Electronic and Specialty Materials was up 22%, sequentially. The IT sector is showing some robustness, especially in Asia. Coatings and Infrastructure, up 21%, also showing robustness, also in Asia. Performance Systems, up 20%, also showing robustness now, not just in Asia but actually around the world. Those have got decent price environments because of really large sequential improvements. So I would say to you, I'm not strong on the price curve right now, yet. I don't think we're very aggressive on it. I would say we are holding and maybe a little bit of atrophy in some areas.
  
• And quickly on K-Dow, you mentioned that there are a couple of parties interested. Would you give us your thoughts on the valuation? And would you like to sell this business at the bottom of the cycle? Thank you. (A) I think it's a great question in the context of the business we now have. The improvements we've made on the balance sheet this year to give us the flexibility to make the right decision, not just on K-Dow or its successor deal, but also on other units in Dow, is really the big headline that we'd like to articulate. We now have the flexibility to do what we have to do. On our pro forma balance sheet, with all the divestitures we've done, the equity raise, we are actually at the same point on debt-to-total cap that we would have been had we concluded the K-Dow deal, and that's a significant statement that we've performed against in the last five months. We're ahead of plan. Which really means that we have retained all of that asset and as that asset performs - you notice Basic Plastics performed very well in the quarter, we really understand the point that you're making, which is, this is bottom of the cycle. We have no desire to monetize a precious asset at the bottom of the cycle. So the people we are talking to, we had lots of inquiries, but some of them were very opportunistic, that were doing what you were just suggesting. The two we are talking to are long-term owners. They're
  like the Kuwaitis. They understand the value of this franchise. They understand that this franchise has a tremendous upturn just in front of it in the next several years, as the cycle turns. And so, normalized earnings and normalized valuations are the way we're thinking about it, and that's the way those two counterparties are talking to us.
  
• Andrew question on Dow AgroSciences, you mentioned that you are now thinking that you - because of its growth, it should be an ongoing part of the Dow portfolio. Does that really reflect the fact that you are not able to get the kind of strategic premium that you think the business is worth? (A) Don, we have, obviously, always carefully positioned ourselves here on Dow AgroSciences, and that continues on this call. Dow AgroSciences is a very, I would say, valuable property to everyone we have talked to and, of course, that includes how we view Dow AgroSciences. We were very, very deep into a full divest process because, frankly, there was no choice a few months ago. During that period of time, we had to make a lot of decisions about how much of that process would go all the way versus our alternatives. As we undertook that process, it was clear there were buyers out there that viewed this property with the same value that we viewed it, but obviously, negotiations didn't get down to an exclusive. We believed that, if it went that far, that we would definitely realize a good valuation on Dow AgroSciences. The key question, really, is would that be good for Dow's shareholders. And when I say that, the EBITDA potential of Dow AgroSciences, demonstrated and into the future, feeds our income stream and our ability to be an earnings-growth company and helps us on our gross debt to EBITDA ratios. So it's counterintuitive to sell it at anything less than a full premium. And I think that's really the mindset we are in right now. We are still having ongoing discussions. They include part monetization and they include strategic alliance with key players in the sector. And we are still maintaining full optionality on that unit. And at this point in time, though, as I said on the remarks, our personal - my personal preference is to retain it in the portfolio and seek enhanced collaborations with others.

The Dow Chemical Company engages in the manufacture and sale of chemicals, plastic materials, agricultural, and other specialized products and services worldwide.

http://www.streetinsider.com/Corporate+News/Highlights+From+DOWs+Q2+Conference+Call:+Most+Active+Quarter+in+Companys+History/4833450.html

Homebuilder Selects Polyurathene EnergyWise Insulation

Volume Homebuilder Utilizes Bayer MaterialScience Spray Polyurethane Foam Materials And EnergyWise System To Build Affordable, Energy-Efficient Homes

July 29, 2009

Pittsburgh, PA - For four generations, History Maker Homes has focused on keeping purchase prices affordable for homebuyers. In recognition of its 60th anniversary in 2009, the Dallas/Fort Worth area homebuilder is offering 60 new homes that include the EnergyWise guaranteed energy-cost saving system. These energy-efficient features are typically found only in more expensive custom homes or as an upgrade. The EnergyWise system includes BaySystems spray polyurethane foam insulation as standard in the promotional homes. Thermacote Systems is a certified Energywise contractor and is applying the foam.

The Energywise program uses a "systems" approach to residential insulation applications. It was developed out of collaboration between BaySystems' spray polyurethane foam insulation business, and EnergyWise Structures, one of the nation's leading thermal engineering firms.

"To History Maker Homes, energy efficiency and affordability go hand in hand," said Nelson Mitchell, president, History Maker Homes. "We were looking for a vendor that could provide a product for our homes that would make them affordable over the long run. Thermacote's guaranteed energy-cost savings really got our attention."

While polyurethane foam insulation systems are more expensive to install than traditional insulation materials, Thermacote offers the Energywise guarantee that homeowners will have monthly energy bills that will not exceed a specified amount for two years.

"Our job is to educate homebuilders about the benefits of spray polyurethane foam insulation and correct building science techniques so that they can educate buyers about why paying more upfront can mean more savings in the end," said Trent Blakey, president, Thermacote Systems. "By using the superior insulation from BaySystems, along with expert EnergyWise engineering, homeowners can reduce their heating and cooling costs significantly, experience better indoor air quality, and lower their home's life-cycle cost."

"First and foremost, we want to offer our customers homes that they can afford," said Mitchell. "Our homes are priced under $200,000, and we're the only builder to offer polyurethane foam insulation within that price range. Offering the EnergyWise system from Thermacote using Bayseal™ spray foam insulation gives us quite a competitive advantage."

"We are pleased that a large homebuilder like History Maker Homes recognizes the advantages of spray polyurethane foam insulation," said Renee Zierden, general manager, BaySystems. "Homeowners will undoubtedly see the savings in their monthly bills through the Energywise ‘systems approach' used by Thermacote. Bayer MaterialScience is proud to offer products like Bayseal™ that increase energy efficiency in residential structures, supporting our strong commitment to sustainable development."

Spray polyurethane foam offers several advantages over traditional fiberglass batt insulation, including:

• Ability to expand and fill all cracks when applied, thereby virtually sealing a home from moisture and air leakage.
• Ability to cure within seconds, forming the foundation of a structurally strong, virtually airtight, thermal, sound and condensation barrier.
• Adding structural strength to the building. Independent tests showed spray polyurethane foam provides resistance to shearing and racking events such as hurricanes and other strong wind situations.
• Reducing the chance of mold growth.

The Energywise systems approach that Thermacote utilizes in its installation involves proper engineering of the entire building package: the mechanical systems, doors and windows, insulation and air infiltration mitigation to work in harmony with the structure's thermal envelope and local climate conditions. Using proprietary software to create a detailed energy analysis report from each building plan, The EnergyWise program accurately projects the annual heating and cooling consumption, comparative savings, and optimal heating and cooling system sizing.

SOURCE: Bayer MaterialScience LLC

BASF Results

BASF's 2Q net profit narrows to euro343 million

By MATT MOORE (AP) – 4 hours ago

BERLIN — German chemical company BASF SE warned of a significant drop in sales and earnings this year and said its second-quarter net profit plummeted nearly 74 percent to euro373 million ($526.1 million). The recession cut into sales and its acquisition of specialty chemicals firm Ciba also hit profits.

Ludwigshafen-based BASF, the world's largest chemical company by sales, said Thursday that its net profit in the April-June period compared with euro1.3 billion a year earlier.

The company cited expenses related to Ciba as well as dropping demand for chemicals and plastics, particularly from auto makers, for the decline.

Sales slipped 23.3 percent to euro12.5 billion in the quarter compared with euro16.3 billion a year earlier.

BASF shares closed down 1.8 percent at euro34.20 in Frankfurt.

The company said its second quarter performance was down nearly all of its divisions, including oil and gas, which suffered on the global drop in energy prices. However, those declines were offset by its agricultural products division, which posted higher sales and earnings in the first six months.

Chief financial officer Kurt Bock said that despite the "significant decline" in earnings, BASF was able to increase its cash on hand by cutting costs by euro1 billion to euro3.6 billion.

"This financial stability provides BASF with a competitive advantage," he said in a statement.

Bock said that though sales and income were lower than the last year, the downturn "seems to have bottomed out" for now.

"The trough appears to have been reached in North America, and China is again growing faster," he said. "But we see no signs of a sustained upturn."

Because of that, along with expected additional costs related to its 6.1 billion Swiss franc deal to buy Swiss specialty chemicals firm Ciba, Bock said BASF expects more declines in sales and earnings through 2009.

"We are there unlikely to achieve our goal of our cost of capital in 2009," he said.

BASF plans to cut 3,700 jobs globally by 2013 as it integrates Ciba, a process the company hopes to have completed by the first quarter of 2010.

BASF said second quarter agriculture product sales improved 1 percent to nearly euro1.2 billion in part because of higher prices in North America and Europe.

BASF, which also explores for and refines oil and natural gas products, said its oil and gas segment sales fell 23 percent to nearly euro2.5 billion because of falling energy prices, while the division's pretax profit was halved to euro506 million.

The company said the chemicals division's sales decreased 41 percent to euro1.8 billion because of lower volumes and prices — but the unit still made a pretax profit euro258 million.

The company's plastics division saw sales drop 30 percent to euro1.75 billion and reported a euro138 million pretax profit — a development BASF blamed on weak demand from "almost all customer industries."

For the first six months, the company's net profit fell 68 percent to euro1.4 billion compared with euro4.5 billion in 2008 as sales fell 23.3 percent to euro24.7 billion from euro32.2 billion.

Dow Chemical Results In

Dow Chemical's 2Q surprises and shares jump 7 pct

Chemical companies still struggling, but Dow's painful cuts begin to pay off

• By Sandy Shore, AP Business Writer
• On Thursday July 30, 2009, 5:07 pm EDT

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DENVER (AP) -- Dow Chemical Co. posted a second-quarter loss Thursday on charges related to the buyout of a smaller rival and dismal sales, yet the company turned an unexpected profit excluding one-time charges. Shares rose more than 7 percent.

"In our view, the United States economy has found bottom but will be slow in recovering as unemployment continues to be a drag on consumer spending," Andrew Liveris, chairman and CEO, said in a statement.

Dow Chemical said it lost $486 million, or 47 cents per share, compared with earnings of $762 million, or 81 cents per share during the same period last year.

Dow completed a contentious $16.5 billion buyout of specialty chemicals manufacturer Rohm & Haas in April and it has aggressively tried to reduce its debt since. It has shed assets, announced about 10,000 job cuts and said it would close 20 factories.

The quarterly results included charges related to adjusting values for Rohm and Haas inventories, restructuring, other acquisition costs and discontinued operations. Excluding one-time items, Dow reported adjusted earnings of 5 cents per share.

While the cost cuts have helped, the worst recession in at least a generation has decimated sales. Dow's revenue fell 31 percent to $11.32 billion from the same period last year, far below Wall Street expectations.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters forecast, on average, a net loss of 8 cents per share and revenue of $13 billion. Analysts typically exclude one-time items.

Dow was upgraded by Citi Investment Research analyst P.J. Juvekar, who said that in the current economic climate, any improvement from the first quarter matters more than how the company performed during the same period last year.

Dow's volumes improved 5 percent from the first quarter, though prices did fall, he said in a note to clients.

Shares of Dow Chemical rose $1.26, or 6.2 percent, to close at $21.53.

The company continues to raise cash and on Thursday it announced plans to sell its Malaysian-based Optimal business to Petronas for $660 million. The deal is expected to close at the end of the third quarter.

Liveris noted strong growth in sales in the Asian Pacific, especially China, where the domestic stimulus programs are boosting demand.

The global economic downturn has been particularly tough for the entire sector because chemicals are used in so many consumer goods. Companies and consumers have slashed spending wherever the can, which cuts directly into sales for companies like Dow, DuPont, and German chemical company BASF SE.

BASF said Thursday that its second-quarter net profit plummeted nearly 74 percent to 373 million euros ($526.1 million).

Sales for BASF, the world's largest chemical company by revenue, fell 23.3 percent.

Associated Press Business Writer Deborah Jian Lee in New York contributed to this report.

Bayer Closing Resin Production at New Martinsville, WV

NEW MARTINSVILLE, W.Va. -- As part of ongoing global restructuring initiatives, Bayer MaterialScience LLC has announced the closure of its Coatings, Adhesives and Specialties (CAS) resins operations in New Martinsville. The New Martinsville resins operations, which manufacture polyesters, polyurethane dispersions and polyaspartic esters for use in the automobile, furniture and construction industries, are scheduled to cease production by the end of 2009. In the future, sourcing of these products will be consolidated into various world-scale Bayer MaterialScience facilities.

The closure will affect approximately 40 employees. These employees will have the opportunity to explore employment within other parts of the company. Bayer MaterialScience LLC's standard separation pay and benefit programs will apply to those who are displaced from the company.

The New Martinsville site will continue to manufacture a range of polyurethanes raw materials used in the same industries, plus Texin® thermoplastic polyurethane, which is used in the automobile, tool, sporting goods and medical industries. The site employs about 300.

Swimming Bans High Tech Swimsuits

Posted By Dave "Large" Larzelere 2:50 PM

If the era of the polyurethane body suit is to swimming as the steroids era is to baseball, well, then swimmers are having themselves one last ‘roid binge at this year's World Championships in Rome, and, to complete the metaphor, the ball is flying out of the park left and right.

No world record was safe from the effects of The Suit at day one of the FINA Worlds yesterday in Rome, and what's more, Michael Phelps had nothing to do with it. Britta Steffen of Germany broke the women's 100m free world record swimming the opening leg of the 4x100 relay. The Netherlands women's team then broke the relay record. A largely unknown German swimmer, Paul Biedermann, knocked off Ian Thorpe's legendary 400m free record, and an unknown female swimmer from Sweden, Sarah Sjostrom, did the same in the 100m fly, taking out Inge De Bruijn's record from 2000.

Two icons of the Sydney Olympics erased from the record books by two people who just last year did not rank in the top 20 of their given events.

Money money, it's gotta be the suits.

And it is the suits, there's no doubt about that. Unlike baseball's steroids fiasco, the swimsuit controversy is playing out in plain sight. Swimmers, coaches and officials alike have all been very open about the fact that the swimsuit technology has gotten absolutely ridonkulous. Although the effect of streamlined full-body suits has been a topic of debate going back to the Sydney Games, the suit that has really changed the playing field debuted at the beginning of the 2008 season. This was Speedo's LZR full-body, polyurethane suit that was co-designed by NASA (which begs the question … don't the frickin' geniuses at NASA have better things to do with their time?).

The impact of the LZR suit was immediate, and subsequently other companies like adidas and Arena have released similar suits that claim to one-up the LZR. Taken as a whole, the effect has been revolutionary. In 2008, a staggering 108 world records were broken. This year, another 34 have gone down, and that number is mounting by the day. The first world record of today's session at Worlds has already been broken by Aussie Brenton Rickard in the 100m breaststroke, besting the mark set at the Beijing Games by Kosuke Kitajima.

At this point, it doesn't matter what meet, what heat, or who's in the pool – any world record is vulnerable at any time. Consider that yesterday, American Ariana Kukors broke the women's 200m IM world record in the semifinals by three full seconds, and Kukors didn't even make the American team in the event. She was an alternate, only swimming because Elizabeth Pelton opted out.

It's quite a party they're having with these space-age suits, but the party is about to end. Last Week, FINA, swimming's governing body, voted to permanently ban the offending super-suits from the pool effective January 1, 2010. In other words, the 2009 World Championships are destined to be remembered as the swan song of this amazing advance in technology that has, for the past year and a half, turned men and women into dolphins. And so far, the half-human, half-dolphins are making the most of their last hurrah.

http://www.sportingnews.com/blog/the_sporting_blog/entry/view/28881/the_last_hurrah_of_the_man-dolphin_at_swimmings_2009_worlds

Tariffs, Trade Wars, and Small Business

If you ever want to know the results of legislation, ask a small businessperson involved in that area.  This is another reason why the Federal Government needs to back off and let the States and Locals figure out what's right for them.  Unintended consequences get greater the more people you try to tell what to do!

 Chinese tire ban won't save jobs

Hiking tariff hurts consumers, won't stop other imports

Ross Kogel Jr.

The U.S. International Trade Commission, at the behest of the United Steelworkers union, has proposed a tariff on Chinese-made tires imported into the United States in an effort to limit the imports and save American jobs.

But the proposal, if approved by President Barack Obama, won't save a single American job. As a resident of Michigan -- a state that has been particularly hard-hit by the recession -- and as someone deeply involved in the tire industry, I'd be in favor of anything that would help our economy. This won't.

In April, the Steelworkers petitioned the trade commission to declare that the U.S. tire industry has been harmed by an increase in tire imports from China. The commission last month proposed imposing a sweeping tariff, which would have the practical effect of banning Chinese-made tires.

But the tariff would only lead tire distributors and retailers around the nation to buy their tires from other countries. It would also cause a temporary tire shortage, likely leading to higher tire prices and additional financial burdens on thousands of independent tire businesses.

I'll leave it to U.S. trade officials to decide whether a tariff on tires is worth igniting a possible trade war with China, one of our largest trade partners. But speaking as a small businessman and a leader of a family tire business, I know for certain that a tariff on tires is not good for the typical penny-pinching consumer.

My family's company has 70 Michigan-based employees and sells tire brands such as Cooper, Pirelli, Continental, General and GT Radial to thousands of independent businesses.

While my business sells many different brands of tires at many price levels, I have a stake in both sides of this argument. Indeed, our largest supplier is the U.S.-based Cooper Tire and Rubber Co., and our second largest is GITI Tire, which has manufacturing facilities in China.

I can tell you first-hand that consumers and tire businesses will not switch their purchases to U.S.-based manufacturers if a tariff is imposed. The tariff will raise tire prices for consumers. Tire importers -- under pressure from cost-sensitive consumers -- will turn to the next best price option -- tires made in South Korea, Mexico, Indonesia and other countries.

The simple fact is that American companies don't manufacture low-cost tires, preferring to focus on higher-profit tires. You can't ask hard-pressed consumers to replace their Chinese-made tires with higher-priced American-made tires. That's like saying import restrictions on the Kia Sorento would lead Americans to buy Cadillac Escalades.

With unemployment at 9.5 percent nationally, Americans are in the throes of very hard times, with some regions like Michigan hit even harder as unemployment hovers over 15 percent. I am concerned that a tariff would impose even more pain, both financial and physical.

When people replace their tires, consumers typically look for value tires. But a tariff would push the cost of these tires higher, forcing some to wait too long to replace worn-out tires, endangering themselves and others on the road.

The Obama administration does not have to accept the ITC's recommendation. Obama has until September to render his own verdict -- and he can decide to ignore the ITC if he believes that the remedy would cause more economic harm than good. And not imposing a quota would be better for the U.S. economy and the tire industry than doing so.

The bottom line for everyday Americans: Tariffs on tires from China will only hurt jobs in my business and many of my customers' businesses. Tariffs also would cajole tire importers to bring in more tires from other countries and take away choices from the most cost-conscious customers.

Ross Kogler Jr. is president of Tire Wholesalers Co. Inc. in Troy. More opinions at detnews.com/editorial E-mail: letters@detnews.com

http://www.detnews.com/article/20090724/OPINION01/907240331/1008/opinion01/Chinese-tire-ban-won-t-save-jobs

The Battle on Bloggers

I figured this was coming . . .

 AP goes to war with search engines and blogs

POSTED AT 6:20 PM ON JULY 24, 2009 BY ED MORRISSEY
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At times, it’s amazing how badly the traditional media understand the age in which they live.  The New York Times reports on the new effort by the Associated Press to build more revenue for their product — by attacking search engines, aggregators, and blogs that link to their articles and deliver readers to them.  The AP says that even a link doesn’t represent fair use in the Internet age:

Taking a new hard line that news articles should not turn up on search engines and Web sites without permission, The Associated Press said Thursday that it would add software to each article that shows what limits apply to the rights to use it, and that notifies The A.P. about how the article is used.

Tom Curley, The A.P.’s president and chief executive, said the company’s position was that even minimal use of a news article online required a licensing agreement with the news organization that produced it. In an interview, he specifically cited references that include a headline and a link to an article, a standard practice of search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo, news aggregators and blogs.

Asked if that stance went further than The A.P. had gone before, he said, “That’s right.” The company envisions a campaign that goes far beyond The A.P., a nonprofit corporation. It wants the 1,400 American newspapers that own the company to join the effort and use its software.

“If someone can build multibillion-dollar businesses out of keywords, we can build multihundred-million businesses out of headlines, and we’re going to do that,” Mr. Curley said. The goal, he said, was not to have less use of the news articles, but to be paid for any use.

Let’s just call it the Fast Track to AP Irrelevance.  Without a doubt, the new policy will have a chilling effect on blogs and aggregators who normally link to their content.  Unfortunately for the AP, that won’t result in an increase of revenues, but in having the entire online world ignore the AP.  The Times itself discovered this dynamic when it put its columnists behind the $50 dollar Firewall of Sanity.  Not only did the world fail to beat down their door to regain access to Maureen Dowd, Frank Rich, and Bob Herbert, they also discovered that their columnists became all but invisible in the rapidly-growing and influential New Media.

Besides, the AP doesn’t get to determine what “fair use” means; Congress does.  It has been a long-accepted practice for commentators to use small excerpts from articles in order to both report the news and to comment on its delivery.  This goes back decades, when reviewers excerpted novels and media critics excerpted each other to deliver critiques.  Just because the AP doesn’t like copyright law doesn’t mean it still applies to them.  However, the threat of legal action and the cost to people working on small revenue streams will mean that their threats will mostly be effective.

And then what?  Instead of having their reports, analysis, and polls expand their influence and power, they will lose traffic as people link to news sources that don’t threaten their readers — and suppliers of other readers.  Bloggers with large readerships will link to articles from other sources, such as Reuters, Agence France-Presse, the BBC, as well as newspapers, magazines, radio, and television.  They won’t be able to replace those readers by enhancing their position with search engines, because few if any of them will pay for the privilege of helping AP boost their bottom line.  They’ll become much less interesting for the end users of media, and possibly for their partners in traditional media as well. (via Joe Windish at The Moderate Voice)

http://hotair.com/archives/2009/07/24/ap-goes-to-war-with-search-engines-and-blogs/

Thoughts for the Weekend!