BY ANDREW E. KRAMER
New York Times

MOSCOW — Executives at Avtovaz, the largest Russian carmaker, are reportedly considering laying off about 27,000 employees to improve performance at a factory that has been clobbered by the sharp drop in demand for cars.

The…

BY MARY WILLIAMS WALSH
c.2009 New York Times News Service

The federal government said it would take over the pension plans of the Delphi Corp. at a cost of $6.6 billion Wednesday, after years of demanding that the assets of the company…

BY CHRISTOPHER DREW
New York Times

The chief executive of the Boeing Co. said Wednesday that the aircraft maker was making “solid progress” toward fixing a structural weakness that was discovered last month on its new jet, the 787 Dreamliner.

But the…

BY NELSON D. SCHWARTZ
New York Times

TYCHY, Poland — For decades, automakers looking for the secret to small-car success would journey to Toyota City in Japan. These days, they are coming to Tychy.

Since Fiat effectively took over Chrysler this year, engineers…

Production at Chrysler LLC’s Fenton pickup operations has been idled this week, a union official said today.

The plant, where the Dodge Ram is assembled, employs about 1,000 workers. Production is expected to restart next week, said Don Ackermann, vice president…

MEMC Electronic Materials Inc. said today that it will lay off 200 workers of its Korean-based subsidiary, as it cuts deeper to align manufacturing abilities with lower production needs.

The Korean operations are a joint venture between MEMC and Samsung Electronics…

Shares of wafer maker MEMC Electronic Materials Inc. slid today after the company issued an earnings outlook Thursday that fell below analysts’ expectations.

In afternoon trading, MEMC shares fell $2.96, or 16 percent, to $15.98, from Thursday’s close of $18.94. Today was…

Thermadyne Holdings Corp. investor John P. Pecora has increased his stake in the Chesterfield-based company to 6.9 percent, according to a regulatory filing today.

Pecora, whose listed address is in Princeton, N.J., used personal funds to buy a total of 928,000…

St. Louis-based Sigma-Aldrich Corp. has launched an online portal to promote the company’s products for stem-cell researchers.
Sigma-Aldrich, which makes fine chemicals used in scientific research, said today that it has more than 1,100 products that expected to support all stages of the…

Another round of layoffs is coming to the remaining workers at United States Steel Corp.’s Granite City Works.

About 390 union and non-union workers soon will join more than 1,600 workers already laid off from the steel mill, U.S. Steel spokesman…