USA and Canada

US defense group L-1 Identity Solutions is to be sold to French rival Safran, with the UK’s BAE Systems also acquiring three of its Intelligence Services divisions, the company announced today.

BAE Systems, Europe’s largest defense contractor, will take over SpecTal LLC, Advanced Concepts, Inc., and McClendon, LLC, after which transaction Safran will take over the remaining units, Secure Credentialing Solutions, Biometric and Enterprise Access Solutions and Enrollment Services.

Energy Automation Systems, Inc. (EASI), which develops, manufactures and markets energy saving technologies, has started construction on a $1.5 million, 20,000 square-foot manufacturing facility in Gallatin, Tennessee.

The company expects to manufacture approximately $30 million of products annually at the new site.

The facility is located on an eight-acre tract of land that EASI officials bought 10 years ago in anticipation of company growth. Project completion is scheduled in late December 2010.

British aero engineer Hampson Industries has won its largest ever tooling contract, worth $53 million (£34 million).

The contract is to design and manufacture lightweight mandrel tools for carbon fibre lay-up for a major commercial aerospace programme.

Although the West Midlands-based company did not name the customer, it is widely believed to be Boeing, the world's second largest commercial plane maker.

A public-private partnership (PPP) project for police facilities in the Canadian province of Ontario has been awarded to German-owned HOCHTIEF Concessions.

Its subsidiary HOCHTIEF PPP Solutions North America has been contracted to design, build, finance and maintain a total of 18 provincial police facilities.

HOCHTIEF PPP Solutions has a 50 percent stake in the project company Shield Infrastructure Partnership. Over the 30-year term of the agreement, the project has a contract volume of C$412 million. The investment volume is C$117 million.

Honeywell today announced it has completed its acquisition of Sperian Protection for approximately $1.4 billion, including the assumption of net debt.

Sperian Protection is a leading provider of personal protective equipment (PPE), and will be combined within Honeywell's Automation and Control Solutions' Life Safety business.

A123 Systems has opened the largest lithium-ion automotive battery manufacturing plant in North America.

The new facility in Livonia, Michigan, is a welcome boost for employment in the beleaguered state and will expand A123’s production capacity up to 600MW hours per year when fully operational, contributing to the company's plan to expand global final cell assembly capacity to more than 760MW hours annually by the end of 2011.

BAE Systems, Europe’s largest defense contractor, is considering the sale of its US-based component manufacturing business Platform Solutions, for up to $2 billion.

Platform Solutions makes electronic components including cockpit displays for military jets and digital engine controls for commercial aircraft. The company, part of BAE's Electronic, Intelligence and Support (EI&S) division, also produces electrical components for hybrid buses. The unit has facilities in Fort Wayne, Indiana, Irving, Texas, Johnson City, New York, and Redmond, Washington.  

Gerbig Engineering Company, a designer, fabricator and installer of modular cleanrooms, has completed a move to a new location with increased square footage in Burnsville, Minnesota.

The new location provides expanded production, warehouse and office areas. A laboratory area for cleanroom environmental monitoring and room for a future cleanroom products testing lab are also included in the space.

The attempt by Air Products to acquire Airgas has taken some twists and turns this week.

The week began with Airgas resoundingly rejecting a revised offer from Air Products to purchase the remaining Airgas shares that it does not already own, referring to the offer of $65.50 per share in cash as “grossly inadequate”. Air Products then accused Air Gas of ‘value destructive tactics’.

The US trade deficit narrowed more than expected in July, as imports fell and exports climbed to their highest level in almost two years, according to Commerce Department figures released today.

The deficit in international trade of goods and services narrowed by 14 percent to $42.78 billion, from $49.76 billion in June, with imports down by 2.1 percent to $196.11 billion from $200.33 billion in June. Exports rose 1.8 percent to $153.3 billion, their highest since August 2008, and up from $150.57 billion in June.