Manufacturing Industry News

​CHICAGO – Because natural gas has skyrocketed in price over the past few months, coal-fired electricity generation is expected to be ratcheted up. But that’s not going to be a viable solution in states like Illinois, where their Governor Pritzker recently signed into law a bill that bans coal plants by 2045.

More on TMA News.com 

SCHAUMBURG – The Technology & Manufacturing Association is once again celebrating Manufacturing Month during October. Last year, the association shared live tours of Chicago area manufacturers with interested high school students via Facebook. Before that, TMA sent staffers to video and interview TMA members about the manufacturing efforts they do every day.
This year, as the COVID pandemic continues to impose restrictions in Illinois, the association took on a campaign of gathering questions from high school students and posed them to manufacturers.
Check out the campaign: TMA #AsktheMakers Campaign builds Manufacturing Month interest 

From Industry Week - 
The U.S. transportation secretary on Sunday warned that America's supply chain woes including clogged ports will drag into next year, potentially cramping the upcoming holiday shopping season in the world's largest economy.
Pete Buttigieg did the rounds on U.S. political talk shows to stress that President Joe Biden's administration was doing everything it could to alleviate congestion at the country's overloaded ports, railways and roads, and that the government will "re-evaluate all of our options" to relieve the bottlenecks.
But "a lot of the challenges that we have been experiencing this year will continue into next year," the transport chief and former presidential candidate told CNN's "State of the Union" show.
Buttigieg added that the supply side crunch was being exacerbated by extraordinary pent-up demand in the United States.
"Demand is off the charts, retail sales are through the roof," he said, and the country's transportation and shipping infrastructure has been unable to keep up.
Industry Week goes on ... ​

SCHAUMBURG – Picking up on its annual volunteer effort, members of TMA gathered September 21 at the non-profit group “Feed My Starving Children”  – organized and promoted by TMA’s “Christians in Manufacturing” community. 

PHOTO GALLERY HERE: 

Among the 40 TMA volunteers putting together nearly 20,000 meals for needy children worldwide was TMA’s new President Patrick Osborne, Executive Vice President Dennis LaComb, past TMA Board Chairman Tom Hacker and his wife Anne. 
The TMA Community will host its annual Prayer Breakfast November 5th at the Chandlers Steakhouse in Schaumburg, IL.  For more information, see HERE: https://web.tmaillinois.org/events 

​A survey from the Precision Metalforming Association indicates that many metalforming companies expect lead times to continue increasing in the months ahead. The survey, based on reporting from 114 manufacturing companies that are members of the PMA, reflects conditions as they were reported at the beginning of September.

​More at TMANews.com 

WOOD DALE IL  – Chicago Welding & Fabrication has moved to a new facility in Wood Dale, Illinois that provides double the space of its former location, giving the full-service welding and metal fabrication company much-needed room to grow and to add new equipment, including additional robotic welding systems.

“Our previous facility was becoming crowded as work demand increased,” says the company’s CEO/President Walt Kopp. “That was threatening to restrict our ability to expand services and handle our current customer workload in a timely way. The new facility gives us the space and flexibility that lets us better manage larger projects and higher volumes while continuing to add new services for our customers and turn around projects quickly while performing quality work.”

More at TMANews.com 

In late May, TMA members were briefed on manufacturing related actions of the Illinois General Assembly. The update was provided by TMA lobbyist Jay Shattuck, who was joined by Illinois House Minority Leader Jim Durkin.

Just prior to the update, state lawmakers returned home expecting to reconvene to discuss an all-important energy bill expected to include over $600 million in Exelon Corporation subsidies the company says is needed to keep several Exelon nuclear plants from closing.

FY 2022 STATE BUDGET
Controlling party lawmakers chose not to release any information about the proposed FY 2022 State Budget
until 24 hours before the May 31 scheduled adjournment.
The final budget – SB 2800 – was nearly 3100 pages long. Changes that will directly affect TMA members include:

• Restricting the use of corporate net operating losses to $100,000 per year for any taxable year ending on or after December 31, 2021 and prior to December 31, 2024.

• Decoupling from federal tax bonus depreciation (100 percent expensing – Illinois had previously coupled from bonus depreciation of less than 100 percent expensing).
• Eliminating the phase-out of the Franchise Tax
• Requiring an addback for taxable years ending on or after June 30, 2021 of GILTI (the deduction allowed under IRC Section 250(a)(1)(B)(i))) and an amount equal to the deduction allowed under IRC Section 243(e) (certain dividends received from foreign corporations) and IRC Section 245A (deduction for foreign source-portion of dividends received by domestic corporations from specified 10 percent owned foreign corporations).

More on the 2021 Legislative Update 

From May/June 2021 TMA News Bulletin