Global Fastener News

The tariffs imposed by U.S. president Donald Trump dominated the front page of Fastener Industry News for  2018.  

There were 21 Page One articles on tariffs during 2018. Those articles and the year in tariffs will be summarized on GlobalFastenerNews.com next week.

• Acquisitions: Dozens of fastener company acquisitions during 2018, but the most talked about was Lindstrom acquiring Stelfast in September.

An article summarizing the previous year announced “2017 Ties 2016 as Top Acquisition Years.” Acquisition consultant Richard Hagan has been monitoring the numbers since 1994.

• The FIN Fastener Stock Index showed fastener stocks keeping pace with other industrial stocks and aerospace fastener companies boosting the FINdex.
• Court battles got on the front page twice: PennEngineering Won a $14 Million Judgment against China-based Pinconn in August.  

In May an article summarized American Elite Molding filing a lawsuit against Advance Cable Ties – which ACT termed as “retaliatory” against a previous court ruling.

• Anniversaries: XL Screw and Semblex reached 50.
• Personnel changes: IFI Names Walker as 8th Managing Director. In its 87-year history, the Industrial Fasteners Institute has had only eight managing directors.

CEO’s come and go, but one of the most widely known company names put a family member at the helm: Daniel Bossard Succeeds Dean as Bossard CEO.

• Multiple conferences conducted by fastener associations provided good information for the industry, but two were directly fastener issues:  

Prop 65: Fastener Industry Not ‘Low Hanging Fruit’ – which was a session led by Carmen Vertullo at the International Fastener Expo.  

MWFA Panel: No Chance Fastener Prices Dropping. The Mid-West Fastener Association featured a panel on “Fastener Inflation.”

• In July a Perspective headline made note: FIN Begins 40th Year of Covering Fastener Industry. Founder and first editor Dick Callahan published the first FIN on July 10, 1979.

All of the above articles can be found by FIN Subscribers on GlobalFastenerNews.com. After logging in, type keywords in “Search.”

While the articles mentioned above are from the front page of the traditional print edition, news is posted almost every day on GlobalFastenerNews.com.