Euro devaluation is eating deeply into the profitability of CPA member manufacturers. I just got off the phone with Jack Davis, owner of I Squared R Element Company in Albany NY.  I Squared R is the largest U.S. manufacturer of silicon carbide heating elements (see picture above).  Because the euro has dropped 30% in value…

China produces and consumes about 60 percent of the world’s cement — the Three Gorges Dam alone required 16 million tonnes of it. To put China’s massive 21st century construction splurge and concrete consumption into perspective, Bill Gates made a mind-blowing comparison. According to his blog, between 2011 and 2013, China consumed 6.6 gigatons of…