Over the weekend, we headed over to McCormick Place to pay a visit to the 2011 Chicago Auto Show. One of our most anticipated events of the year, we spent hours ogling the latest offerings from most of the major auto makers, as well as a few concepts for future vehicles. more ›

Ford Motor Company and the Chrysler Group LLC, are opposing a proposed free trade agreement with South Korea, saying that the treaty would open the American market to South Korean-produced vehicles without doing enough to open the Korean market to American exports. more ›

Just a year out of bankruptcy, Chrysler Group LLC is set to add 500,000 square feet to its Belvidere, Illinois plant. The space is expected to be used for a larger body shop in the plant that currently produces the Dodge Caliber. Mayor Fred Brereton says the announcement means that the plant will be both competitive, and around for awhile. "They estimated 200,000 hours of construction, so when you equate that into payroll it's going to be significant," Brereton told WTVO news. more ›

Lake Forest-based Solo Cup Company is planning plant closings in the near future, according to a report in Crain's Chicago Business. Although it is unknown which of Solo's 12 U.S. plants will be shuttered, it is expected that the move will cost between $113 million and $133 million, including $4 to $6 million in severance payments, $17 to $20 million in equipment-related expenses, and $4 to $6 million in post-closure lease payments, the company said in an SEC filing. Solo has facilities in Chicago and Urbana, as well as a distribution center in University Park. The disposable plates, cups and flatware company has struggled since buying competitor Sweetheart, and has reported losses since the economic crisis of 2008. more ›

Illinois doesn't need more bad economic news, but bad news just keeps coming. According to the 2010 Illinois Manufacturers Directory, the state lost 51,925 industrial jobs and 709 manufacturers last year, the sharpest decline since Manufacturer's News, Inc began publishing statistics. Twenty years ago, Illinois had over 1.1 million manufacturing jobs, compared to just over 800,000 the state has currently. more ›

The U.S. International Trade Commission approved tariffs on imports of steel pipes from China yesterday, in a move that signals an emphasis on American manufacturing by the Obama administration. A group of American steelmakers, including United States Steel (which has four plants in northern Indiana, one in downstate Illinois, and a warehousing facility on the South side of Chicago), and the United Steelworkers union sought trade duties earlier this year, claiming that the government-subsidized Chinese steel industry was flooding the American market with product that was being sold at artificially low prices. “The determination by the commission against illegal stainless steel pipe imports from China was desperately needed to preserve American family supportive jobs,”said USW President Leo Gerard. He pledged that “the USW and the companies who employ our members will continue to vigorously battle these Chinese unfair trade practices.” more ›

A federal arbitrator dealt what may be the final blow to United Steelworkers Local 7367. The steelworkers' union had argued that ArcelorMittal Steel USA had committed to keeping its Hennepin, IL plant open until 2012, as long as it was productive and profitable. The arbitrator ruled that ArcelorMittal could close the plant permanently. The union had been fighting to reopen the plant, or get ArcelorMittal to agree to sell it to someone who would. more ›

Members of USW Locals 101, 1011 and 7367 held a rally in downtown Chicago Thursday afternoon at the Federal Plaza to demand that ArcelorMittal Steel either reopen their Hennepin, IL finishing plant or allow it to be sold to another company that will. Despite turning a profit of $48 million last year, the global steel giant has idled the Hennepin finishing mill, leaving 300 families downstate unemployed in a county with a 14.1 percent jobless rate. Governor Pat Quinn joined the rally as well, declaring that Illinois needs strong middle class jobs if the state is going to thrive in the economic recovery. more ›