News

Posted On: 02/24/2009

Reuters manufacturing summit offers CEO insights, video

PlantServices.com

Several CEOs and other influential figures in the manufacturing and transportation industry have visited the Reuters bureau in Chicago to discuss the outlook for these sectors in a series of exclusives interviews. The stories and videos from these  sessions at the Reuters Manufacturing and Transportation Summit are posted online at www.reuters.com/summit/Manufacturing09.

Industrial production has plummeted around the world, falling commodity prices are hurting sales of equipment and even emerging markets like China are feeling the squeeze from the recession in developed markets. Large U.S. manufacturing companies have responded to the lean times by becoming leaner themselves, in some cases by cutting tens of thousands of jobs.One of their biggest challenges may be the lack of visibility, what some have described as "blizzard conditions," which makes planning an already cyclical business especially difficult.

Guest speakers at the Reuters Manufacturing and Transportation Summit included:

• Honeywell CEO Dave Cote
• Ingersoll Rand CEO Herb Henkel
• YRC CEO Bill Zollars
• Navistar CEO Dan Ustian
• Terex CEO Ron DeFeo
• Emerson Electric Senior EVP Charles Peters
• GE Technology Infrastructure CEO John Rice
• Nordson CEO Ed Campbell
• PayNet President and Founder Bill Phelan
• Norfolk Southern CEO Charles W. (Wick) Moorman
• BBK CEO Bill Diehl
• Seaspan CEO Gerry Wang
• Caterpillar Group President Ed Rapp
• Nalco CFO Brad Bell
• Old Dominion Freight Line CEO David Congdon
• Old Dominion Freight Line CFO Wes Frye
• Baclays Managing Director and Co-Head of Industrials Group in Investment Banking Division Bob Bertagna