Blue Origin officially opens Alabama rocket engine factory
Blue Origin on Monday opened a sprawling factory in Alabama’s “Rocket City” that will allow the spaceflight company to accelerate production of its heavy-lift BE-4 rocket engine and create hundreds of jobs. The BE-4, which is under development, will power Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket as well as the United Launch Alliance’s new Vulcan rocket, which is being produced at ULA’s factory in nearby Decatur. – Made In Alabama
Alabama Motor Express buys Powell Transport Solutions
Alabama Motor Express will push deeper into the refrigerated business with purchase of Powell Transport Solutions. The acquisition, announced earlier this week, will bring 35 refrigerated trailers to AMX, the company said in a statement. A spokeswoman for AMX, in response to questions submitted by FreightWaves, said the company’s business is currently about 10% refrigerated. The AMX fleet before the acquisition was 210 trailers, she said. Powell’s business is 100% refrigerated, according to the spokeswoman. – Benzinga
Tony’s Tejas Salsa is an Alabama Maker crafting fresh flavor
For Anthony Lamar Ingram, creating the world’s best salsa is a labor of love. “People don’t make salsa the way I make salsa,” Ingram said. “All handcrafted, all fresh vegetables — people don’t make it because it’s not easy.” Ingram is the creator and owner of Tony’s Tejas Salsa, a Mobile-based company providing fresh salsa to stores, hotels and restaurants all over the Southeast United States. Ingram created his salsa more than 10 years ago to replace the store-bought bottled salsa a restaurant was serving on its fajita salad. – Alabama NewsCenter
Birmingham company unveils high-speed scanner
Birmingham’s Imaging Business Machines has unveiled a new ultra-high-volume scanner. The new ibml FUSiON Series can scan up to 730 A4-sized pages per minute and 938 checks per minute, which makes it 67 percent faster than its predecessor. That speed eliminates tedious and unnecessary pre-scan and post-scan labor, the company says. – AL.com
Car parts group Faurecia 2019 profits rise, sees challenging market in 2020
French car parts group Faurecia reported a rise in annual profits and sales, and added it was targeting further growth for 2020 even though market conditions would be challenging this year. Faurecia, which bought Japanese peer Clarion last year, said annual operating income for 2019 had risen by 0.7% from the previous year to 1.283 billion euros ($1.4 billion). Faurecia supports automotive OEMs with plants scattered around the South. – Reuters
