Only 10 weeks have passed since I wrote my last column in mid-March, but the world has changed so much that it seems a lifetime ago. The phrase “going viral” has gone full-circle and come back to its original and more literal meaning.

My last column in February targeted some politico/economic factors that could affect the global and domestic forging industry through 2020. What wasn’t on that list was any mention of COVID-19, the virus-induced petroleum price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia and the U.S. stock exchanges plummeting toward the earth’s molten core.

With the new year freshly underway, it seems a good time to gaze in the crystal ball and consider what trends will likely impact the climate for manufacturing in the U.S. and abroad during this year.

According to Wikipedia, in 1982 Carnegie Mellon University of Pittsburgh installed a Coke machine in one of its buildings.

On March 16, 1926, Professor Robert H. Goddard was scurrying around a snow-covered field in Worcester, Mass. He was preparing to ignite a small rocket assembly mounted on a metal-framed “launch pad.”

In 1956, there was a workshop at Dartmouth College attended by scientists from industry and academia.

For the third consecutive time, Cleveland played host to the biennial Forge Fair, which was held on the shores of Lake Erie May 21-23, 2019. Nearly 2,000 attendees and 169 exhibitors made Forge Fair 2019 the largest ever.

Depending on your source, definitions of the word tariff vary, but virtually all of them include the word “tax” or “duty.” Most etymologists say the word comes from the Italian tariffa, or “list of prices, book of rates,” derived in turn from the Arabic ta’rif, meaning “making known” or “to define.” For convenience sake we will go with Wikipedia’s simple definition: “A tariff is a tax on imports or exports between sovereign states.”

Surprise! Today your boss instructed you to attend Forge Fair 2019 this coming May in Cleveland, Ohio!

Ongoing trade discussions between the U.S. and China were high in the news cycle in March. The economic relationship between China and the U.S., which has expanded enormously during the last few decades, has been one filled with tensions, allegations of currency manipulation, outright theft of intellectual property (IP) and other speed bumps in the highway of trade between the two countries.