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Many projects, mergers and acquisitions are detailed in monthly updates in the Market Report’s Chapters under Industry Analysis. Click on the links below to view current updates for each industry.

CAB™ 2012 to Focus on Entire Spectrum of Nonwovens Converting and Bonding Recognizing a need for an inclusive conference to service the needs of multiple production and bonding technologies, INDA, the trade association representing the nonwoven fabrics industry, will hold the inaugural Converting and Bonding (CAB) Conference from April 17-19, 2012 at the Hyatt Regency in Greenville, S.C.

The Converting and Bonding Conference will expand on the reach – and take the place of – INDA’s successful Needlepunch Conference, which has been held on a regular basis the past few years. The new Conference will encompass a range of nonwoven bonding technologies, including needlepunch, chemical, spray, foam, powder, stitch, thermal, through-air and ultrasonic.

In addition, by including converting as an important part of CAB, INDA looks to attract a larger, more diverse audience looking for information on and solutions for their bonding and converting needs. The target audience for CAB includes roll goods manufacturers, converters and end product manufacturers for automotive and packaging applications. While the agenda is still being

finalized the sessions and topics at CAB will include:

• Tutorials on bonding and converting

• Medical, military and alternative energy market updates

• Technical sessions on machinery innovations

• New chemical applications

• Innovations in thermal bonding

• Converting applications using ultrasonic, coating, laminating, water jet and laser technologies

• Market opportunities and applications in geotextiles, building/construction and protective barriers

Market influences, ranging from sustainability, innovation, raw materials and government affairs.

Dr. Scott Dee - Pipestone Veterinary Clinic

Farmscape for January 30, 2012 (Episode 4074)

The Director of Research with the Pipestone, Minnesota Veterinary Clinic suggests air filtration is the last missing link needed to achieve sustainable freedom from Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome.

PRRS affects the reproductive performance of sows and causes respiratory disease in nursery and finisher pigs.

"Achieving Sustainable PRRSV Freedom in Swine Dense Regions: The Role of Air Filtration" was discussed earlier this month as part of the 2012 Banff Pork Seminar.

Dr. Scott Dee, the Director of Research with the Pipestone Veterinary Clinic in Pipestone, Minnesota, says in the swine dense regions of southern Minnesota and northern Iowa, where you could have 20 barns within a 4.7 kilometer radius, airborne transmission is key.

Clip-Dr. Scott Dee-Pipestone Veterinary Clinic:

We've done some work a number of years ago that showed at least out to 9.1 kilometers the virus could be recovered in the air from an infected population of pigs and there weren't any other barns within a 16 kilometer radius where other viruses could come from so it was a very isolated area and we knew that this particular virus we collected in the air had originated from our source population.

That's as far as we looked so it may be able to go farther.

Some of the conditions that are required for it to go via the airborne route, obviously you need an infected population to produce an aerosol, you need a susceptible population to receive the aerosol and then you need slow moving winds from the source to the at risk population.

You need gentle movement with the wind is what really helps keep this virus plume intact so it can move from site to site.

Dr. Dee says under laboratory conditions filtered barns have gone four years without becoming infected, while under commercial conditions in very dense regions, boar studs that have been filtered for about six years have remained PRRS free while filtered sow facilities have remained free of infection for going on to three years.

U.S. Housing Starts Fell 4.1% in December

Housing starts dropped 4.1 percent to a 657,000 annual rate in December, reflecting a slump in multifamily dwellings, Commerce Department figures showed. Building permits, a proxy for future construction, were little changed.

For all of 2011, work was started on 428,600 single-family homes. There were 606,900 homes started in 2011, up from the 587,000 in 2010 and reflecting gains in multifamily construction. Work on multifamily homes, such as apartments, townhouses and condominiums, fell 20.4 percent to 187,000 in December. For the year, multifamily starts totaled 178,300.

Permits fell 0.1 percent to a 679,000 annual rate in December.

Housing starts in fell in three of four regions in December, led by a 41.2 percent decline in the Northeast and a 17.6 percent drop in the West.

Air filter maker Clarcor Inc. (CLC), recently reported a 28 percent increase in fourth-quarter profit, driven mainly by double-digit revenue growth and stronger operating margins. Both earnings and revenues for the quarter came in ahead of Street estimates.

The Franklin, Tennessee-headquartered company's attributable net income for the quarter improved to $37.2 million from $29.0 million last year.

Chief Executive Chris Conway said, "This consistent success is a result of the continued execution of our long-term strategy including a commitment to sustainable sales growth, cost containment and continuous improvement."

Clarcor said its net sales for the quarter grew 12 percent to $307.5 million from $275.7 million last year.

Industrial/Environmental Filtration segment sales increased 11 percent to $145.0 million from last year. Net sales in the U.S. rose 22 percent while net sales outside the U.S. declined 12 percent. Growth in domestic sales was the result of higher natural gas vessel sales, increased sales of new air filtration products and incremental sales from the acquisition of TransWeb, which was completed at the end of December 2010. The reduction in sales outside the U.S. was heavily influenced by a reduction in Asian sales primarily due to several large natural gas vessel projects completed in the fourth quarter of 2010 that did not repeat in the fourth quarter this year.

Operating profit in the Industrial/Environmental Filtration segment increased 31 percent from the fourth quarter of 2010. This increase was across the broad markets they serve including $1.3 million as a result of our acquisition of TransWeb. Their 14.4 percent operating margin in the fourth quarter propelled 2011 operating margin in this reporting segment to 11.1 percent.

Net sales at Packaging segment declined 9 percent year-over-year to $24.6 million reflecting lower sales of decorated flat sheet metal including lower holiday promotional sales.

Operating margin, or operating profit as a percentage of sales, improved 1.9 percentage points to 17.8 percent from last year.

Moving forward, Conway said, "We anticipate continued growth in our Engine-Mobile Filtration segment in 2012 primarily from higher sales of heavy-duty engine filters in both the U.S. and foreign markets. We expect that our foreign growth will be higher than our domestic growth due to increased sales in China and export sales to South America and the Middle East."

Clarcor expects total sales growth for full year 2012 in a range of 6.0 to 8.0 percent.

Continuing operations October–December 2011 compared with October–December 2010:

· Net sales EUR 371.3 million (EUR 416.8 million)

· Operating loss EUR 4.2 million (EUR 9.0 million loss)

· Operating profit excluding non-recurring items EUR 1.7 million (EUR 12.7 million).

· Operating margin excluding non-recurring items 0.4% (3.1%).

· Loss before taxes EUR 10.7 million (EUR 14.5 million loss).

Highlights in October–December 2011

· Divestment of the Home and Personal business area was concluded except for the Brazilian operation that is expected to be transferred by the end of first quarter 2012.

· A new vision ‘Inspiring people, passionate about new ideas, growing with our customers’ was introduced to define the kind of company we aim to be in the future.

· Acquisition of a 49.5% stake in a developer of battery technology Porous Power Technologies, LLC.

· A new profit improvement program addressing underperforming businesses was initiated and executed.

Continuing operations January–December 2011 compared with January–December 2010:

· Net sales EUR 1,607.2 million (EUR 1,636.3 million).

· Operating profit EUR 20.1 million (EUR 46.5 million)

· Operating profit excluding non-recurring items EUR 49.7 million (EUR 66.8 million).

· Operating margin excluding non-recurring items 3.1% (4.1%).

· Loss before taxes EUR 6.6 million (EUR 18.8 million profit).

Outlook for 2012

· Net sales from continuing operations are expected to be EUR 1,575-1,735 million. Operating profit excluding non-recurring items from continuing operations is expected to be EUR 60-80 million.

Parker Reports Record Fiscal 2012 Second Quarter Sales, Net Income

Parker Hannifin Corporation (NYSE: PH), the global leader in motion and control technologies, recently reported results for the fiscal 2012 second quarter ended December 31, 2011. Fiscal 2012 second quarter sales were $3.1 billion, a second quarter record and an increase of 8.4 percent from $2.9 billion in the prior year quarter. Net income was also a second quarter record at $242.3 million, an increase of 4.5 percent compared with $231.8 million in the second quarter of fiscal 2011. Cash flow from operations for the first six months of fiscal 2012 was $563.4 million, or 8.9 percent of sales, compared with $408.2 million, or 7.2 percent of sales, for the first six months of fiscal 2011.

"We are pleased to deliver strong organic growth and second quarter record sales, net income and earnings," said Chairman, CEO and President, Don Washkewicz. "We generated 8 percent sales growth in the quarter, substantially all of which was organic, led by double-digit revenue growth in our Industrial North America business segment. Internationally, we are seeing some softening in business conditions consistent with global macro-economic indicators, which moderated our year over year revenue growth and affected segment operating margin performance. However, strong operating margin performance in the Industrial North America segment contributed to an overall increase in total segment operating margins, which reached 14.2 percent for the quarter and exceeded 15 percent year to date."

Segment Results

In the Industrial North America segment, second quarter sales increased 13.2 percent to $1.2 billion, and operating income was $195.7 million compared with $159.4 million in the same period a year ago.

In the Industrial International segment, second quarter sales increased 6.2 percent to $1.2 billion, and operating income was $165.9 million compared with $167.8 million in the same period a year ago.

In the Aerospace segment, second quarter sales increased 8.0 percent to $496.5 million, and operating income was $70.3 million compared with $63.6 million in the same period a year ago.

In the Climate and Industrial Controls segment, second quarter sales declined 2.9 percent to $208.2 million, and operating income was $9.8 million compared with $9.5 million in the same period a year ago.

Orders

Parker reported an increase of 3 percent in orders for the quarter ending December 31, 2011, compared with the same quarter a year ago. The company reported the following orders by operating segment:

•Orders increased 8 percent in the Industrial North America segment, compared with the same quarter a year ago.

•Orders increased 1 percent in the Industrial International segment, compared with the same quarter a year ago.

•Orders remained unchanged in the Aerospace segment on a rolling 12-month average basis.

•Orders declined 5 percent in the Climate and Industrial Controls segment, compared with the same quarter a year ago.

Parker Acquires Railroad Filtration Business of Camfil Farr Group

Parker Hannifin Corporation, the global leader in motion and control technologies, recently announced that it has acquired the railroad filtration business of the Camfil Farr Group. The railroad filtration business of the Camfil Farr Group is a leading manufacturer of air and liquid filtration products used in rail and transit, mining and marine engine applications. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Headquartered in Laval, Canada, the railroad filtration business of the Camfil Farr Group had sales of approximately $22 million in 2011. With approximately 90 employees and operations and sales in Canada, Mexico and India and a sales presence in the United States and Australia, approximately 75% of the ongoing revenues of the business will be reported in Parker's Industrial North America reporting segment with the remaining 25% reported in the Industrial International segment. The acquired business will become a part of Parker's Filtration Group.

"Parker sees significant opportunities to broaden our large engine and air filtration product lines and leverage products in other large combustion engine applications," said Peter Popoff, President - Filtration Group. "The railroad business of Camfil Farr brings expertise and services that allow Parker's Filtration Group to build a worldwide presence in specialized rail, marine and mining markets, while adding clean air technologies to strengthen our filtration solutions capabilities. Additionally, this transaction will give Parker Filtration manufacturing capacity in Canada and Mexico to better service customers in those markets."

Freudenberg Filtration Technologies in Suzhou inaugurated its new lab facilities for the development and production of automotive cabin air filters. Until now, the lab has been used exclusively to test filters for industrial customers.

"China’s automotive market is a very fast-moving market. Our Chinese customers in particular who make up more than one-third of our customer base expect us to complete development requests for the local market quickly, ¨ Managing Director Ralph Renner, says, explaining why the expansion was necessary.

Apart from improving customer service and speeding up response time, customers can now also benefit from local know-how and the excellent performance of the Freudenberg nonwovens used as a filter medium.

"For our local customers such as Geely or Chery, it wouldn’t make sense to set up their own labs. Our facilities give them the opportunity to cooperate on developing filters and to carry out standard tests," says lab technician Gary Dong, who is a recent recruit and holds responsibility for the test series in both sections of the lab. With approx. 230 square meters of space, the lab is now almost twice its previous size: It now houses the existing test rig for industrial customers plus the new facility for automotive customers complete with test equipment.

Ahlstrom Corporation announced that it has completed significant upgrades to its Global Filtration Technical Center in Turin, Italy.

Ahlstrom has been investing in testing and processing equipment in its Global Filtration Technical Center in Turin during the last year. Now the state of the art technical center is equipped with various filtration testing and simulation equipment. Testing can be carried out as finished filters or flat sheet configuration, and the testing facility focuses on research and development for all transportation, air and liquid filtration applications.

In addition to the several filtration testing equipment, the center provides access to pleaters and processing equipment in order to build prototypes and simulate real life filtration conditions in order to achieve the specific performance needed for filtration norms and applications.

Investments made at the Technical Center offer support and expertise knowhow to all Ahlstrom global customers. "Our investment to the testing and development facility is yet another example of our commitment to the filtration market. We are now better equipped to collaborate with our customers and work together to develop the next generation filtration ideas," states Tommi Björnman, Executive Vice President, Filtration.

Ahlstrom Filtration has 5 other Technical Centers in North and South America and in Asia, which offer research and development support globally for testing and development of filter media.

H.B. Fuller Company will purchase the global industrial adhesives business of Forbo Group. This business will generate approximately $580 million in revenue for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2011, operates 17 manufacturing facilities in 10 countries, and employs more than 1,100 people globally. Projected EBITDA for the business for the 2011 fiscal year is $35 million.

The purchase price for the transaction is $394 million on a debt-free and cash-free basis. The consideration will be paid in cash at the time of closing. H.B. Fuller has committed financing from Morgan Stanley Senior Funding, Inc., Citigroup Global Markets Inc. and JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. to support the completion of this transaction.

With this acquisition, H.B. Fuller will gain product technology and add people and skills that will make the company stronger.In addition, there will be sizable opportunities to capitalize on synergies and eliminate duplication in a number of areas, including raw material procurement, manufacturing and redundant services.

Web site:  www.mcilvainecompany.com