Distributor

WESCO International Inc., Pittsburgh, has confirmed that it is seeking to acquire Anixter International Inc., Glenview, Illinois. The offer is valued at $90 per Anixter share. The offer came one day after Anixter reported it had agreed to a bid worth $86 per share and $2.50 per share contingent value rights from private equity firm Clayton, Dubilier & Rice. More.

AD, Wayne, Pennsylvania, the largest contractor and industrial products wholesale buying group in North America, and SafetyNetwork have announced that the organizations are pursuing a possible merger in the spring of 2020. This partnership would bring together two organizations to create AD’s only safety-dedicated division focused on the growth of independent distributors that specialize in the safety market. More.

Kaman Corporation, Bloomfield, Connecticut, has completed the previously announced acquisition of Bal Seal Engineering, Inc., a leader in the design, development, and manufacturing of highly engineered products including precision springs, seals and contacts.  More.

Imperial Dade, Jersey City, New Jersey, a national distributor of disposable food service and janitorial supplies, has acquired Wagner Supply Company, a distributor of janitorial and industrial products with branches in Odessa, Lubbock, and Wichita Falls, Texas. More.

Foundation Building Materials Inc, Tustin, California, has acquired Associated Drywall Suppliers, Inc., an independent distributor of drywall, metal framing and suspended ceiling systems serving the greater Louisville, Kentucky market. More.

WESCO International Inc., Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, a leading provider of electrical, industrial and communications MRO and OEM products, construction material and advanced supply chain management and logistics services, has announced preliminary sales for the quarter-to-date period. Through Dec 23, 2019, the company’s revenue increased by 5% versus the same period in the prior year. The company also confirmed that it expects its full year sales to be above the midpoint of its outlook range of 1% to 3%.   More.

Winsupply Inc. has promoted Eddie Gibbs to senior vice president of vendor relations and Amy Souders to vice president of vendor relations. More.

Industrial distributor MSC Industrial Direct Co. Inc., Melville, New York, has announced that Rustom Jilla, executive vice president and CFO, has decided to step down from his position with MSC effective Jan 17, 2020 to become chief financial officer of a public global manufacturing company. Greg Clark, the company’s vice president of finance and corporate controller, will assume the position of Interim CFO effective following Jilla’s departure and will report to Erik Gershwind, president and CFO. MSC will conduct a comprehensive external search to identify a permanent CFO. More.

Sales for HARDI distributor members increased by 1.1% during November, according to its monthly TRENDS report. The average annualized sales growth for the 12 months through October 2019 is 5.2%. More.

Economic

The goods and services deficit was $43.1 billion in November, down $3.9 billion from $46.9 billion in October, revised, according to the U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. November exports were $208.6 billion, $1.4 billion more than October exports. November imports were $251.7 billion, $2.5 billion less than October imports. More.

Real gross domestic product increased at an annual rate of 2.1% in the third quarter of 2019, according to the third estimate released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. In the second quarter, real GDP increased 2%. The third GDP estimate is based on more complete source data than were available for the “second” estimate issued last month. In the second estimate, the increase in real GDP was also 2.1%.  More.

Led by improvements in production-related indicators, the Chicago Fed National Activity Index (CFNAI) rose to +0.56 in November from -0.76 in October. All four broad categories of indicators that make up the index increased from October, and two of the four categories made positive contributions to the index in November. The index’s three-month moving average, CFNAI-MA3, moved up to -0.25 in November from -0.35 in October. More.

Privately‐owned housing units authorized by building permits in November were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,482,000. This is 1.4% above the revised October rate of 1,461,000 and is 11.1% above the November 2018 rate of 1,334,000. Single‐family authorizations in November were at a rate of 918,000; this is 0.8% above the revised October figure of 911,000. Authorizations of units in buildings with five units or more were at a rate of 524,000 in November.  More.

Manufacturer

Walter, a division within Swedish manufacturer Sandvik, has reached an agreement to acquire the privately-owned, US-based company Melin Tool Company, a manufacturer of solid carbide tools.  More.

3M, St. Paul, Minnesota, has completed the sale of the company’s advanced-ballistic protection business to Avon Rubber p.l.c. for $91 million, before closing and other adjustments. A further contingent consideration of up to $25 million is payable depending on the outcome of pending tenders. More.

Barnes Group Inc., Bristol, Connecticut, has entered into a definitive agreement to sell its Seeger-Orbis business to the Kajo Neukirchen Group.  More.

Swedish manufacturer Sandvik, has acquired privately owned Thermaltek Inc., a manufacturer of high temperature furnace systems and metallic heating elements headquartered in North Carolina. More.

Switzerland-based power and automation company ABB has announced Claudio Facchin, Frank Duggan and Chunyuan Gu will step down from the executive committee of ABB as part of the organizational transformation announced on December 17, 2018. More.

Bearings manufacturer NN Inc., Johnson City, Tennessee, has appointed Christina Carroll, Managing Director at Stout Risius Ross, LLC, and Tom Wilson, Managing Partner at DecisionPoint Advisors, as independent directors of the company.  The new board appointments will fill the open seats vacated by Carey Smith and Janice Stipp and complete NN’s board slate, which comprises eight directors, seven of whom are independent.   More.

North American Tool Corporation, South Beloit, Illinois, has named Steve Mayse as director of manufacturing. Mayse will be responsible for developing and implementing operational strategies to strengthen and grow the company’s manufacturing performance at North American Tool Corporation, a provider of special taps, thread mills, dies and gages to industrial markets, and Allen Benjamin Inc., a manufacturer of carbide and premium HSSE taps. More.