“Billion-dollar blow shook us a year ago - Columbus Dispatch” plus 4 more

Billion-dollar blow shook us a year ago - Columbus Dispatch
China files WTO complaint on US tire tariffs - Miami Herald
China Files WTO Complaint Over U.S. Tariffs On Tires - All Headline News
Realtors looking ahead to better days in sale, lease of industrial ... - HamptonRoads.com
Car sharing: Blessing or curse? - Detroit Free Press

Billion-dollar blow shook us a year ago - Columbus Dispatch

Posted: 14 Sep 2009 08:28 AM PDT

A mighty wind pummeled Ohio and several other states a year ago today.

The remnants of Hurricane Ike rose up from Texas and blasted through Ohio on Sept. 14, killing seven people. The winds also closed 450 Ohio schools, tore up trees, damaged buildings and left almost 2 million people here without power.

Virtually no rain fell. It was all wind, and 84 of the state's 88 counties reported damage. It amounted to more than

$1.25 billion -- more than the cost in today's dollars of the tornado that leveled Xenia in 1974.

Across central Ohio, some rooftops remain draped in the once-ubiquitous blue plastic, still awaiting the attention of roofers who have been busy for a year.

"When the hurricane first hit, our phones were ringing off the hook," Bill Hall, a manager at Jim O'Brien Construction, said yesterday.

"In Columbus, you (normally) don't get that kind of wind. A lot of those homes had old roofs and got torn."

The cost of a roof replacement after the storm has averaged $8,000 to $10,000, with most covered by insurance, he said.

The Worthington-based company has fixed about 700 roofs since last September, said Chuck Powers, a partner in the company.

"We've fixed a lot," Hall said. "There's also a lot more repairs that need to be made."

Many homeowners "just weren't aware of what's happened to their house," Hall said. Their relatives and friends whose roofs have already been fixed are prompting them to call.

"Sometimes, they can have a lot of damage," he said.

Yesterday in Licking County, Pilgrim Lutheran Church in Granville commemorated the one-year anniversary of the storm.

The church lost its steeple, part of its roof and two windows. Bonnie Lamvermeyer, a deacon of fellowship, was there when the steeple fell.

"I just walked around the church and behind me, it fell," she said. "I was just very happy to be alive."

The repairs cost about $135,000, said Robert Warner, president of the congregation, which numbers 50 to 75 members.

The cross atop the renovated steeple is a symbol of a new beginning for the church.

"The real message the church is trying to send is, 'We're not going away,' " he said. "We're in for the long haul."

The Ohio Insurance Institute updated the $1.255 billion damage estimate last week and said the Ohio and Federal Emergency Management Agencies estimate additional local government costs for protection and cleanup at $38.6 million.

The storm packed winds at speeds equal to a Category 1 hurricane, which is up to 74 mph, and hit hardest in counties south of I-70.

Ike hit land a day earlier at Galveston, Texas, which suffered more than $3.2 billion in damage. The storm was the costliest natural disaster in Texas history, causing more than $29 billion in damage. Ike was blamed for at least 72 deaths in the U.S., including 37 in Texas.

Ike was the fifth-costliest U.S. disaster in terms of insured losses, according to Property Claim Services, which provides property-loss information for the insurance industry. Ike caused damage in nine states, from Texas to Pennsylvania. Texas suffered the highest insured losses, estimated at $9.8 billion. Ohio was second, with $1.135 billion.

Winds moved diagonally across Ohio from southwest to northeast over a four-hour period that Sunday afternoon, according to Ohio EMA reports. And the National Weather Service acknowledges that the collision of the remnants of Ike from the south and a cold front from the north over the Ohio Valley caught many people off guard.

A weather-service advisory on that Sunday morning predicted higher than usual winds for the day. By afternoon, the advisory became a high-wind warning. But it was still sunny -- and deceptive.

"Everyone knows what a severe thunderstorm warning could be, or a tornado warning," Andy Hatzos, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Wilmington, told The Cincinnati Enquirer. "But a high-wind warning on a sunny day? That could be confusing.

"The way things came together was out of the ordinary."

Insurance claims across the state hit a record, according to the Property Claim Services. It estimates that at least 270,000 claims have been filed in Ohio, including 220,000 by homeowners, 30,000 for commercial structures and 20,000 for auto damage.

"The message for Ohioans at this one-year anniversary mark is not just its record losses, but to serve as a reminder that we are not immune to natural disasters," said Daniel J. Kelso, president of the Insurance Institute in a release.

edostal@dispatch.com

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China files WTO complaint on US tire tariffs - Miami Herald

Posted: 14 Sep 2009 08:28 AM PDT

BEIJING -- Beijing filed a World Trade Organization complaint Monday over new U.S. tariffs on Chinese tires, stepping up pressure on Washington in the latest in a series of trade disputes.

The conflict is a potential irritant as Washington and Beijing prepare for a summit of the Group of 20 leading economies in Pittsburgh on Sept. 24-25 to discuss efforts to end the worst global downturn since the 1930s.

The Chinese complaint to the WTO in Geneva triggers a 60-day WTO process in which the two sides are to try to resolve the dispute through negotiations. If that fails, China can request a WTO panel to investigate and rule on the case.

"China believes that the above-mentioned measure by the U.S., which runs counter to relevant WTO rules, is a wrong practice abusing trade remedies," said a Chinese government statement quoted by the official Xinhua News Agency.

The WTO confirmed that China has filed a "request for consultations" on the issue.

Beijing's unusually prompt response to Friday's tariff decision shows the urgency China attaches to maintaining exports amid slumping global demand.

President Barack Obama approved the higher duties to slow the rapid growth of U.S. imports of Chinese-made tires blamed for the loss of thousands of American jobs. Beijing criticized the move as a violation of free trade and called on other governments to oppose protectionism.

The Office of the United States Trade Representative in Geneva said Washington had not stepped out of line.

"The United States' actions on tires are entirely WTO consistent and, indeed, in keeping with an explicit component of the deal China agreed to when it joined the WTO and asked for time to phase in certain commitments to open its market," said spokeswoman Carol Guthrie. "The US will be monitoring carefully China's response to ensure that any such response is consistent with its WTO obligations."

The United States and China, the world's largest and third-largest economies, have been embroiled in disputes over access to each others' markets for goods including steel pipe, auto parts, poultry, movies and music.

The White House said Obama acted under a provision in the U.S.-Chinese agreement on Beijing's accession to the WTO that allows Washington to slow the rise of Chinese imports to give time to American industry to adjust.

Obama's order raised tariffs for three years on Chinese tires - by 35 percent in the first year, 30 percent in the second and 25 percent in the third.

The United Steelworkers brought the case in April and said more than 5,000 tire workers have lost jobs since 2004 as Chinese tires flooded the U.S. market.

On Sunday, Beijing announced it would investigate complaints that American auto and chicken products are being dumped in China or benefit from subsidies. The ministry said the U.S. imports have "dealt a blow to domestic industries."

Last month, Beijing was forced to change its tariffs on imported auto parts after losing an appeal of a WTO ruling in a case brought by the United States, the European Union and Canada. They challenged Beijing's policy of requiring automakers to use at last 40 percent Chinese-made components or pay more than double the usual tariff on imported parts.

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Associated Press Writer Frank Jordans in Geneva contributed to this report.

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China Files WTO Complaint Over U.S. Tariffs On Tires - All Headline News

Posted: 14 Sep 2009 07:59 AM PDT

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September 14, 2009 11:02 a.m. EST

Geneva (AHN) - The Chinese government said Monday it has filed a complaint with the World Trade Organization over American tariffs on Chinese-made tires.

In a statement on Xinhua, the official Chinese news agency, the Chinese mission to the WTO said that the tariffs, "which runs counter to relevant WTO rules, is a wrong practice abusing trade remedies."

President Barack Obama instituted tariffs of up to 35 percent on car and light truck tires.

The statement added that China has requested talks with the U.S. under dispute settlement rules set out by the WTO. The two countries have 60 days to reach an agreement. If talks are not fruitful, China can request that the WTO investigate and rule on the case.

China's commerce ministry first reacted to the American action on Sunday, announcing the government would begin an investigation into whether the U.S. was dumping auto parts and chicken products on the Chinese market.

The ministry did not specify which auto and chicken imports would be subject to the investigation.

About 80 percent of imported chicken comes from the U.S., according to a Chinese agricultural association.

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Realtors looking ahead to better days in sale, lease of industrial ... - HamptonRoads.com

Posted: 14 Sep 2009 07:52 AM PDT

By Philip Newswanger

Inside Business

Talk to a realtor who brokers the sale and lease of industrial space about the current state of the industry and you will end up with a colorful metaphor.

There's the airplane analogy.

"They have been circling and they are about ready to land," said Clay Culbreth with Thalhimer, a member of the Cushman & Wakefield Alliance.

Then there's the baseball analogy.

"We have proposals," said Worth Remick with CB Richard Ellis. "If you have proposals, you are on second or third base, but you haven't hit a home run yet."

Both realtors, as well as others in the market, are scrambling to fill the football-field-sized warehouses that have germinated over the past couple of years in response to an upsurge in port business, due in large part to imports from Asia.

But when the economy turned and consumers started saving instead of spending, imports dipped, leaving many warehouses empty.

It is difficult to gauge how much big box warehouse space – warehouse space in excess of 50,000 square feet – is empty, as each commercial real estate firm measures the market for industrial space with a different yardstick.

Realtors break down the figures even more, saying that distribution space isn't uniform, as observers might think.

Older warehouses have bay doors with low heights and more columns than do the newer warehouses.

Plans for new distribution space always include ample tracts of land for trucks to maneuver and for parking.

Cross-docking space, for example, must have doors on each side, whereby products are unloaded on one side and loaded on the other side after packaging and tagging within a day or two.

The market is further segmented by how much space is available under one roof instead of spread over several buildings.

At the end of 2008, there was 4.3 million square feet of industrial space available with another 5.4 million square feet in the pipeline, according to Old Dominion University's 2009 Hampton Roads Real Estate Market Review.

The last major deal for more than 50,000 square feet of industrial space was in February when US Auto Parts Network Inc. signed a lease for 72,558 square feet at Indian River Distribution Center in Chesapeake.

Since then, the retailer of automotive parts and accessories based in Carson, Ca., has leased an additional 40,000 square feet.

Thalhimer realtor Culbreth said he is involved in three potential leases that, if consummated, would total more than 200,000 square feet.

He said the deals, which could land in Hampton and Suffolk, might close within the next 60 to 120 days.

"I do believe it [business] is port- related," Culbreth said. "I'm actually talking to people who have come through who have said that they are here because of the port.

"Yes, we have a couple of proposals outstanding," said CBRE realtor Remick. "We've got three proposals and a fourth prospect. If all the deals happened, that would mean a total of 370,000 square feet."

Remick said three of the four proposals are due to port activity and three of them would be new business for the region.

One is a local manufacturer that is expanding, Remick explained. Another one is the possible relocation of a firm from another metropolitan region in order to save costs and two of the prospects prefer to be situated in a foreign trade zone, meaning they are involved in buying or selling internationally.

"We said better days are ahead, but we said that two years ago," Remick said. "But we still think better days are ahead.

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Car sharing: Blessing or curse? - Detroit Free Press

Posted: 14 Sep 2009 07:45 AM PDT

By GREG GARDNER
FREE PRESS BUSINESS WRITER

In some ways, car sharing represents the auto industrys worst nightmare people who view their product as a disposable tool to get from Point A to Point B.

Where is the passion? Where is the sex appeal?

Its a long way from selling a Hummer to pitching the virtues of shrinking your carbon footprint. Wheres the profit in that?

But as Bob Dylan said 50 years ago, The times they are achanging. With enough imagination theres a market for anything.

For the visionary leaders, this trend opens new possibilities.

Car sharing could do to the auto industry what MP3 files were to the recording industry. Or it could be the breakthrough through which automakers truly become a part of our environmental solution.

Consider this: 80% of Zipcar members say they want to drive a hybrid or a plug-in electric vehicle. While Ford has sold a few Escapes to Zipcars fleet at the University of Michigan. General Motors and Chrysler are not represented at all.

Both the university and the city of Ann Arbor are telling us they want to see more domestic vehicles in the Zipcar fleet, said Grant Winston, associate director of customer service for U-M parking and transportation.

Many car sharers arent car haters at all.

Theyve seen their parents or older siblings get into deeper debt than is healthy, and theyve adjusted their expectations. Their time for a dream sportscar or a brawny pickup truck will come, just after theyve saved some money.

This is just one trend to which the industry must adjust. Right now the majority of share-mobiles are small, frugal on fuel and not very profitable. Think of it as a channel for improving your companys cool factor. Many of those loopy tree-huggers will buy a bigger car or truck someday.

Dont delete them from your radar screen.