USA and Canada

The Timken Company held a groundbreaking ceremony today to mark the commencement of work on a $225 million expansion of the Faircrest Steel Plant in Stark County, Ohio.

The investment by the specialty alloy steel and industrial components manufacturer is expected to improve the Faircrest plant's productivity, expand its product range and increase capacity to serve growing demand for Timken specialty alloy steel bars.

Swiss food giant Nestlé has agreed to acquire Pfizer Nutrition for $11.85 billion, it has been announced.

Nestlé said the acquisition would be a strategic fit with its infant nutrition business, given US-based Pfizer Nutrition’s complementary portfolio and strong presence in high-growth markets.

Nestlé described Pfizer Nutrition as a high-quality, high-growth infant nutrition business with strong brands, value-creating and accretive to the Nestlé model.

GE, the largest industrial company in the United States, reported its eighth consecutive quarter of operating earnings growth in Q1 2012.

While total revenue fell 8 percent to $35.2 billion compared with the same quarter of 2011, this year’s figures do not include revenues from NBC Universal, in which a majority stake has been sold to Comcast.

Otis Brazil has won a significant contract to install 21 energy-efficient elevators and escalators at Rio de Janeiro's famous Maracana Stadium, the site of the 2014 FIFA World Cup final championship match and the 2016 Summer Olympics' opening and closing ceremonies.

Otis Brazil, a unit of Otis Elevator Company and United Technologies Corp, also recently won contracts to supply equipment at two other Brazilian World Cup stadiums, the Salvador Arena in Bahia and Pernambuco Arena in Sao Lourenco da Mata.

After a significant gold discovery at Hope Brook in Newfoundland, Castillian Resources is forging ahead with an aggressive drilling programme to extend the resource and take the project forward to the preliminary economic assessment stage. CEO Dr Bill Pearson talks to Gay Sutton about the project’s prospects.

In minerals exploration, some people seem to have a knack for spotting huge potential where others see nothing. Dr Bill Pearson, CEO and president of junior exploration company Castillian Resources, has the knack.

Complex chronic disease has been described as the number one health care challenge of the 21st century: Bridgepoint Health is dedicated to meeting this challenge, and is building a magnificent campus in downtown Toronto.

Irish convenience food producer Greencore Group has announced it will acquire US-based Marketfare Foods for £22.6 million.

Marketfare, which is headquartered in Arizona, is a leading manufacturer of food-to-go products for convenience and small stores in the US. Its principal customer is 7-Eleven, with whom it has partnered for over 20 years.

DuPont has opened its latest ballistics testing facility at the DuPont Knowledge Center in Hyderabad, India.

The state-of-the-art facility houses a ballistic testing range, a 600-ton helmet press and stab testing equipment.

It is the fifth DuPont site for testing protection materials in ballistic applications. Others are located in Richmond, Virginia; Meyrin, Switzerland; Paulina, Brazil and Wilmington, Delaware.

Clinicians from across Africa attended a week-long workshop in Durban, South Africa, to learn about image-guided RapidArc IMRT technology.

Doctors and decision makers from South Africa, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Kenya and Angola gathered at Addington Hospital in Durban, which has treated 250 patients with RapidArc since becoming the first public hospital in Africa to use this technique in 2010.

Lithium Exploration Group has begun the initial testing of its ultrasonic generator in Pennsylvania, United States.

The testing begins today and will run for ten days. The purpose of the test is to operate all of the componentry together, bring the generator to optimal speed and pressure to harness the cavitation and produce steam, and identify the optimal settings for all of the stages of the unit.