United States Steel Corporation and Stelco Inc. have announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement pursuant to which U. S. Steel will acquire Stelco in a deal worth an aggregate value of approximately US$1.1 billion.

Nucor Corporation has announced that it has completed the acquisition of Magnatrax Corporation via the merger of Magnatrax with a wholly owned subsidiary of Nucor, for a cash purchase price of approximately $280 million. Separately, Nucor has announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire substantially all of the assets of LMP Steel & Wire Company for a cash purchase price of approximately $28 million.

Con-way Inc., the 5th largest for-hire trucking company in the country, has announced that it has completed its $750 million acquisition of Contract Freighters, Inc. (CFI), a privately held North American truckload carrier based in Joplin, Mo. The acquisition adds to Con-way's substantial presence in the truckload market with CFI's fleet of more than 2,600 tractors and 7,000 trailers. Combined with Con-way's fleet of more than 7,750 tractors and 22,400 trailers, the combined company will now operate a fleet of more than 10,350 tractors and well over 29,000 trailers.

PACCAR and Eaton Corporation have announced that they have entered into an agreement to jointly develop proprietary hybrid technology for heavy-duty commercial vehicles in North America. The innovative new products will be introduced exclusively in Kenworth and Peterbilt trucks in the North American market, targeted for initial production by the end of 2009.

Tower Tech Holdings Inc. has agreed to acquire Brad Foote Gear Works, Inc., an Illinois-based manufacturer of gearing systems. Established in 1924, Brad Foote manufactures spur, helical, bevel, herringbone, and worm gears, parallel shaft gearboxes, right angle gearboxes, and planetary gearboxes at two locations in Cicero, Illinois and one location in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Shell Lubricants has introduced Shell Albida® Grease SDS 1, a heavy-duty synthetic lithium complex grease specially developed for use in severe applications, such as plain and rolling element bearings operating under heavy loads and extremely slow speeds, even when operating at high temperatures.

Imperium Renewables has opened a 100 million gallons biodiesel plant near Grays Harbor, Washington, the largest biodiesel plant currently operating in the nation. There are now 148 operating plants throughout the U.S. The average plant size is currently about 9.5 million gallons per year.

General Motors is the latest vehicle manufacturer to join the Model Fuels Consortium, whose members also include Chevron, Conoco Phillips, Cummins, Dow Chemical Company, Ford Motor Company, Honda, L'Institut Francais du Petrole, Mazda, Mitsubishi Motors, Nissan, PSA Peugeot Citroen, and Toyota.

The Third Edition of our Synthetic Lubricant Cross Reference Chart Series is scheduled to begin September 11 with a newly revised chart in each publication of the I&C Lube News. These revised charts will list over 7,000 (fully) synthetic lubricants marketed by over 450 worldwide lube manufacturing & marketing companies and equipment OEMs.