♦  Timken is selling its needle roller bearings business to Japan’s JTEKT Corporation for around $330m in cash. The business, which Timken acquired when it bought Torrington in 2003, employs about 3,400 people in North America, Europe and Asia. Timken wants to focus on industrial sectors with strong aftermarkets.

♦  On 22 July, the European Commission published a regulation (640/2009) implementing the introduction of mandatory minimum energy efficiency levels for industrial motors, to be phased in between 2011 and 2017.  

♦  Light Engineering (LE), a US company specialising in high-efficiency amorphous-iron-based motors and generators, is establishing a partnership with China’s Advanced Technology & Materials (AT&M) to manufacture and market amorphous-iron-based machines in China using AT&M’s amorphous materials.  

♦  LEM has acquired the Danish company Danfysik ACP (Advanced Current Products), which specialises in high-precision current transducers for three main markets: industrial motor controls; test and measurement; and medical scanners.  

♦  The Austrian bearings manufacturer NKE has invested more than €15m in a new headquarters building with a floorspace of 10,000m², 6,000m² of which is devoted to doubling its manufacturing capacity. NKE plans to increase its workforce from 180 to around 230 over the next three to five years and has access to 35,000m² of land for further expansion.