Commerce Department

WASHINGTON -- Orders placed with U.S. factories increased unexpectedly in July to a record level, a sign that manufacturing could be poised for faster growth, the Commerce Department said yesterday.The 0.2 percent increase in July factory orders to a seasonally adjusted $330.282 billion followed a revised 1.7 percent gain in June to $329.554 billion. Previously, the government estimated that June orders rose 1.2 percent to $327.9 billion. Before yesterday's report, analysts had expected a 0.1 percent decline in July factory orders.

WASHINGTON -- U.S. consumers put their wallets away the past two months after a winter spending spree -- a sign that the economic slowdown for which Federal Reserve policy-makers have been looking may finally be here.Retail sales fell 0.3 percent in April after a poorer performance in March than previously reported, leading to an overall sales level last month that was lower than expected, the Commerce Department reported yesterday. Sales fell in April, even once sluggish auto sales are excluded.

At least once a day, a CIA courier stops by the Department of Commerce in downtown Washington with a packet of top-secret information, gathered around the globe by satellites picking up phone calls, agents inside foreign governments and American spies posing as businessmen abroad.The Central Intelligence Agency packets have gotten fatter in recent years, as U.S. spies have shifted their focus from Soviet missiles to international trade. And the nuggets of information inside can be used not only to make policy but to make a buck.

WASHINGTON -- Employees of the Commerce Department spent much of yesterday in a state of subdued shock, monitoring radios and televisions for the latest reports about the plane crash in Croatia that may have killed the head of their department and several colleagues."

WASHINGTON -- South Asia's potential for explosiveness -- both good and bad -- is finally getting the Clinton administration's attention.Newly eager for world trade, with a population soon to reach 1 billion, India is high on the Commerce Department's list of "big emerging markets" ripe for U.S. exports and investment.And nowhere in the world, U.S. officials believe, is there a greater likelihood of nuclear war -- between India and its neighbor and enemy of four decades, Pakistan.One consequence is a trip to the region this week by Strobe Talbott -- his first as deputy secretary of state -- in part to present an arms-control proposal to cap both sides' nuclear and missile development.

WASHINGTON -- A review by the Commerce Department has found that the U.S. government missed key national security problems when it allowed a Japanese company to buy the only U.S. manufacturer of some computer components used in the Patriot and Trident missiles.The transaction, involving a unit of Applied Magnetics Corp. of Goleta, Calif., was approved by the Bush administration in January. The sale was the first foreign investment issue taken up by the Clinton administration, which theoretically could still cancel it.Foreign embassies and many U.S. and foreign corporations have followed the case as a bellwether of the new administration's attitudes toward the sale of companies with militarily strategic technologies.

An effort by U.S. steel companies to block the flow of cheap foreign steel into the United States received a boost this week with a preliminary ruling by the U.S. Commerce Department that six countries were "dumping" steel pipe in the United States.The determination came three weeks after import quotas expired and talks on a multinational steel agreement broke down in Geneva. Since then, Bethlehem Steel Corp. and Inland Steel Industries Inc. have filed unfair-trade charges against steel producers in four countries.

WASHINGTON -- The Commerce Department tentatively ruled yesterday that several foreign steel companies were selling some types of bars and pipes in the United States at unfairly low prices or with unfair subsidies and moved to impose punitive customs duties on these imports.The rulings involve narrowly defined categories of pipes and bars. Imports in these cases totaled $314.5 million last year. The decisions are important mainly for the precedents they set for the Commerce Department's consideration this winter of 72 legal cases filed by U.S. steel producers June 30 against flat-rolled and plate steel imports from four dozen countries.

Indicators point to '93 growthThe nation's main gauge of the economy's prospects rose again in November, the government said yesterday, but other reports hinted that the fledgling recovery still has its share of trouble.The Commerce Department said its index of leading economic indicators climbed 0.8 percent last month, the strongest gain since February and the second increase in a row. But the department also said sales of new homes dropped a surprising 8.3 percent in November.@

The nation's main gauge of the economy's prospects rose again in November, the government said yesterday, but other reports hinted that the fledgling recovery still has its share of trouble.The Commerce Department said its index of leading economic indicators rose 0.8 percent last month, the strongest gain since February and the second increase in a row. The index, which measures 11 business components, is designed to forecast economic activity six to nine months in advance.But in another report, the department said sales of new homes dropped a surprising 8.3 percent in November, after having fallen 8.2 percent in October.

As a government report showed yesterday that sales at the nation's retailers plunged to record lows in October, employees at Lauman's Home Furnishings in Perry Hall prepared to shut down for good. Sales at the 27-year-old furniture store on Belair Road slowed during the past year after customers lost jobs, were turned down for credit or put off buying new sofas, chairs and other furnishings amid the housing slump. But in the past two months, "It just really went beyond slow, and what else do you do?"

Maryland officials should not block a liquefied natural gas terminal proposed in eastern Baltimore County, the federal Department of Commerce said yesterday in a decision that could provide more momentum for the project's approval. Commerce Secretary Carlos M. Gutierrez concluded that the need for natural gas outweighs any environmental damage that could be caused by the LNG terminal and the dredging that would be needed in the Patapsco River to accommodate the tankers importing the fuel.

Dealing a blow to a major Western Maryland manufacturer, the U.S. International Trade Commission decided not to slap tariffs on cheaper Asian paper imports. The 5-1 decision to overturn a decision by the Commerce Department to impose anti-dumping and anti-subsidy duties on coated and glossy paper from China, Indonesia and South Korea could have repercussions for NewPage Corp.'s Luke paper mill, with 950 employees the largest manufacturing plant in Allegany County. NewPage had filed the complaint seeking punitive tariffs, claiming the imports were being illegally subsidized and sold at unfairly low prices.

The Commerce Department approved duties on imports of coated paper from China yesterday, brightening the future for several hundred workers at the NewPage paper mill in Allegany County and setting a precedent for other industries that have complained about unfair trade with China. Workers at the plant in Luke just saw 130 colleagues laid off after Dayton, Ohio-based NewPage Corp. permanently shut down line No. 7, blaming China for its woes. The company also temporarily idled a production line in Maine, which affected more than 50 jobs.

WASHINGTON - Some Chinese shrimp exporters will have to pay discouragingly hefty tariffs of more than 100 percent if they want their products to appear on American dinner tables, the Commerce Department ruled yesterday. The department's International Trade Commission also placed lower-than-expected tariffs on shrimp imports from Vietnam in a move likely to relieve pressure on the U.S. import market and prevent a surge in retail prices. The decisions were seen as a victory by the domestic shrimp industry, which has suffered in recent years as cheap shrimp imports from Latin America and Asia have increased supplies and dropped prices in the United States.

WASHINGTON - The future of the U.S. shrimp industry and the price Americans pay for shrimp could be affected by a decision tomorrow by the Commerce Department on whether to charge tariffs on foreign shrimp. The tariffs would be imposed if the department determines that foreign shrimp farmers dumped cheap exports on the U.S. market - meaning sold for less than it costs to produce them - in an effort to harm the domestic shrimp industry. The Commerce Department will issue final determinations on tariffs for shrimp producers in China and Vietnam tomorrow, and for Thailand, India, Brazil and Ecuador in December.

WASHINGTON -- Orders placed with U.S. factories increased unexpectedly in July to a record level, a sign that manufacturing could be poised for faster growth, the Commerce Department said yesterday.The 0.2 percent increase in July factory orders to a seasonally adjusted $330.282 billion followed a revised 1.7 percent gain in June to $329.554 billion. Previously, the government estimated that June orders rose 1.2 percent to $327.9 billion. Before yesterday's report, analysts had expected a 0.1 percent decline in July factory orders.

WASHINGTON -- U.S. consumers put their wallets away the past two months after a winter spending spree -- a sign that the economic slowdown for which Federal Reserve policy-makers have been looking may finally be here.Retail sales fell 0.3 percent in April after a poorer performance in March than previously reported, leading to an overall sales level last month that was lower than expected, the Commerce Department reported yesterday. Sales fell in April, even once sluggish auto sales are excluded.

At least once a day, a CIA courier stops by the Department of Commerce in downtown Washington with a packet of top-secret information, gathered around the globe by satellites picking up phone calls, agents inside foreign governments and American spies posing as businessmen abroad.The Central Intelligence Agency packets have gotten fatter in recent years, as U.S. spies have shifted their focus from Soviet missiles to international trade. And the nuggets of information inside can be used not only to make policy but to make a buck.

WASHINGTON -- Employees of the Commerce Department spent much of yesterday in a state of subdued shock, monitoring radios and televisions for the latest reports about the plane crash in Croatia that may have killed the head of their department and several colleagues."