♦  The Chinese market for high-power AC drives will expand with a CAGR of 12.9% in the five years to 2012, taking it from $1bn in 2007 to nearly $1.9bn in 2012, according to the market analyst, ARC Advisory Group.

♦  SKF is reducing its global workforce by around 2,500 people as a result of sharply reduced demand, mainly from automotive customers, but also extending to industrial markets, during the last quarter of 2008. The cost of the restructuring, is estimated at about $60m. About 2,400 SKF employees are now on short-time working.

♦  The Japanese motor-maker Nidec has scrapped its unsolicited $325m bid to buy Toyo Denki Seizo, blaming resistance from Toyo Denki. Nidec, the world’s largest manufacturer of motors used in hard drives, has also abandoned plans to take a stake in Fuji Electric’s compact motor business because of “the dramatic deterioration in the business environment”.