Goodyear to supply
tires for Ford Flex

Goodyear said it will supply original equipment tires for the 2009 Ford Flex vehicle.

Goodyear said its Assurance ComforTred tire in the size P235/60R18 has been chosen. No other details of the agreement were disclosed.
JumpStart to invest
$350,000 in Tursiop

JumpStart Inc., the Northeast Ohio organization working to accelerate the growth of early stage businesses, will invest $350,000 in Cleveland-based Tursiop Technologies.

Tursiop is developing a novel nanomaterial-based coil that is said to improve image quality for magnetic resonance scanners (MRIs.)

Targeting a projected billion-dollar market by 2012, Tursiop already has built, tested and generated images with several prototype coils.
Honda's new fleet
of railcars on tracks

Honda is launching a new fleet of railcars to ship its vehicles, a move that's designed to save fuel and be kind to the environment.

The fleet of 400 multilevel Auto-Max railcars has hit the tracks, with the capability of holding 22 vehicles each.

The railcars are one of Honda's environmental initiatives, said Ron Lietzke, spokesman for Honda of America Manufacturing.

The company says the new railcars will save Honda 2,436 gallons of fuel and 54,432 pounds of carbon-dioxide emissions per year.

A $7 million redesign of the rail system was required at the Marysville and East Liberty plants, so the longer railcars could fit easier and be loaded more efficiently.
InBev CEO says
distributors 'key'

InBev NV Chief Executive Officer Carlos Brito, addressing critics of the company's previous cost-cutting initiatives, said Anheuser-Busch Cos.' wholesale distributors will be ''key'' if its $43.6 billion takeover offer for the maker of Budweiser is accepted.

The philosophy of the world's largest brewer is to target ''nonworking dollars'' within companies, Brito said in a video released on the Belgium-based company's Web site.

Some distributors were forced out of business when the Brazilian brewer that combined with Interbrew SA to form InBev increased the amount of beer it shipped directly to retailers to cut costs.
Boeing marks
jetliner milestone

Boeing Co. said it has completed the process of powering up its 787 jetliner, marking a major milestone for the much-delayed program.

The ''power on'' announcement keeps Chicago-based Boeing on track for a first flight later this year of the company's first newly designed commercial plane in more than a decade.

The 787 program has been plagued by parts shortages and delays resulting from its unusually heavy reliance on suppliers.
Huntington rises
most in 28 years

Huntington Bancshares Inc., the Columbus-based bank that lost more than half its market value this year, rose the most in at least 28 years after saying uncollectible loans will be within its second-quarter forecast.

The bank rose $1.53, or 30 percent, to $6.67 in Nasdaq Stock Market trading after saying in a statement late Thursday that unpaid loans will be at the high end of its previously announced range of 0.60 percent to 0.65 percent. The company also said it had enough capital to meet regulatory requirements.

Writedowns possible
for Ford, GM units

General Motors and Ford finance units might have to write down more than $1 billion each as values of used trucks plummet, Lehman Brothers analyst Brian Johnson said.

The writedowns could total $1.5 billion at GMAC LLC and $1.1 billion at Ford Motor Credit, the analyst said. The value of vehicles coming back from consumer leases could be ''lower than original expectations, which could impact loss rates'' at the finance units, he said. The value of large pickups has dropped 12 percent since the end of the first quarter, he said.