Can Shale Boom Really Boost Manufacturing? from the Pittsburgh Business Times
"Earlier this week, we wrote about an article in The Wall Street Journal looking at the shale boom and its impact on manufacturing. One of our sibling newspapers, the Houston Business Journal, explores the Journal article's contentions and how it's playing out in Houston and elsewhere."

Rust Belt Renaissance: The Future American City (Josef Goodman) from The Politic: The Yale Undergraduate Journal of Politics
"Faced with deindustrialization and demographic decline, Rust Belt cities looking to reverse their fortunes need look no further than Pittsburgh."

Health Care, Manufacturing Jobs Rise as U.S. Unemployment Falls from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"The national unemployment rate ticked down slightly in February by one-tenth of a percentage point from 7.8 percent to 7.7 percent as the country added 236,000 new jobs."

Manufacturers, Educators Brace for Budget Cuts from the Pittsburgh Business Times
"...she is wary about the future based on the uncertainty surrounding the looming across-the-board federal spending cuts. “If people lose their jobs they can’t afford to go shopping and the stores are in trouble,” and if the stores don’t have customers who are building or remodeling, that means air curtain and air door orders could drop, she cautioned. “It is a crazy thing to allow to go through,” she said of the possible cuts. “(It’s) just irresponsible.”"

EDITORIAL!!

Narrow the Skills Gap: Community Colleges are Critical in Training the Work Force We Need (regional community college presidents) from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 
"In a report submitted last year by the Governor's Manufacturing Advisory Council it was noted that the number of new workers entering manufacturing, coupled with the manufacturing sector's growth, has left a staggering gap of available skilled workers. Simply put, every decent-paying job today takes more skill and more education, but too many Americans aren't ready."
Laura Fisher at the Allegheny Conference comments on this editorial HERE. 

U.S. Steel Touts Coke Plant Project as Good for Jobs, Air from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"U.S. Steel today formally commissioned a new battery of ovens at its Clairton coke plant, a $500 million project the company said will preserve steelmaking jobs in the Mon Valley and improve the region's air quality. The project is a scaled back version of the $1 billion proposal the Pittsburgh steelmaker announced in late 2007, before the global recession decimated steel demand and caused the industry to retrench."

Natural Gas Could Boost Steel Industry from the Pittsburgh Business Times 
"Bloomberg reported that the steel industry could be the next to benefit from the Marcellus and other shale plays in the U.S., which would be a needed boost for steelmakers who have seen declining profits and production since the recession began."
Here's the Bloomberg story.

Post-Gazette Series Pt. 5

Industry Drawn Again to Pittsburgh by Resources that Once Supported Steel Mills from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
""It's paradoxical that the area is ripe for a resurgence precisely because of the legacy industrial infrastructure," said David N. Taylor, president of the Pennsylvania Manufacturers' Association."

Post-Gazette Series Pt. 4

Local Manufacturer Learns to Adapt and Thrive from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"Oberg's ability to adapt to changing markets and technology, and to remain focused on quality are the main reasons the company not only survived Pittsburgh's manufacturing recession, but is bigger and stronger three decades later."

Butler Manufacturer Survived Decades-long Churn of Skills, Tech, Economy from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"The ability of Buffalo Township-based Oberg to adapt to changing markets and technology are the main reasons the company has thrived."

Corbett Provides Spark to New Industry Drive from the Pitt News [of the University of Pittsburgh]
Gov. Tom Corbett on Tuesday doled out a portion of Pennsylvania’s $5 million contribution to a $70 million public-private partnership that government and industry officials hope will spark a manufacturing renaissance in the state. Corbett said two Pittsburgh companies and one in Bucks County will get state funds to hire graduate students from Carnegie Mellon University and Lehigh University to help the companies with projects involving additive manufacturing, a technology that is expected to revolutionize manufacturing."

River Industry: Anti-Drought Efforts Hurt Commerce from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"River industry officials say drought-fighting measures taken by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers threaten to further disrupt barge traffic on the Mississippi River or even close the river to commerce, jeopardizing about $7 billion in shipments of grain, coal and other commodities."

Pittsburgh Glass Works Expanding from the Pittsburgh Business Times 
"The Pittsburgh Glass Works will be hiring as many as 60 new employees as it expands thanks to an upturn in the automotive industry."

Westinghouse-Driven USS Enterprise to be Decommissioned from the Pittsburgh Business Times
"The Pittsburgh region has a long history with the ship; it has eight A2W nuclear reactors and four steam turbines developed by Westinghouse in West Mifflin."

Petrochemical Facility Building Boom Could Delay Beaver County Cracker Plant, Expert Says from the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
"A petrochemical building boom planned in the Gulf Coast makes it unlikely that Royal Dutch Shell plc could open a proposed cracker plant in Beaver County sooner than 2020, an industry expert said on Wednesday at a Downtown conference."

Kennametal Wants More Veterans in its Ranks from the Pittsburgh Business Times
"Tooling maker Kennametal Inc. (NYSE: KMT) is launching an initiative to hire military veterans. Already, this fiscal year, which started July 1, the company has hired four military veterans and intends to hire at least 50 veterans by the end of the fiscal year."

Cheap Natural Gas Gives New Hope to the Rust Belt from the Wall Street Journal [partial subscription wall]
"BEAVER COUNTY, Pa.—Three decades after being devastated by the closing of steel mills, this gritty river valley is hoping its revival will come from cheap natural gas. The hope doesn't rest on drilling rigs, but on a multibillion-dollar chemical plant that Royal Dutch Shell PLC is
considering building here because of a flood of domestically produced natural gas. Community leaders are touting the plant as the first step toward reviving a manufacturing industry many thought was gone for good."

LOCAL DOCUMENTARY!!

Fighting for Jobs and Education from WESA's program, Essential Pittsburgh
"We'll talk about the new documentary, Death By China, which focuses on America's loss of manufacturing jobs to China. Then local education leaders discuss the controversial new movie, Won't Back Down, which was filmed in Pittsburgh."

Pittsburgh’s Economic History Forged in the Steel Mill from the Pitt News [of the University of Pittsburgh]
"For many years, people associated the city of Pittsburgh with the steel industry and entrepreneurs such as Andrew Carnegie and Henry Clay Frick. But recently, the economy in Pittsburgh has become more modernized, and experts say it has allowed the economy to thrive in the 21st century. Anne Madarasz, museum division director at the Heinz History Center in the Strip District, said that during the 1930s and 1940s, regional leaders accounted for the eventual decline of the steel industry by working with local business owners to address structural economy issues."

ArcelorMittal to Reopen Monessen Coke Plant from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"Company will sink $50 million into upgrades to modernize the plant, which closed in May 2009."