Frank Lanza forecasts that overall defense electronics spending for 2002-2003 will be some 20% stronger than in 2001, partly due to booming demand for bomb-detection equipment by the Transportation Security Administration. Lanza is chief executive of L-3 Communications, which makes intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and secure communications equipment. He also sees strong 2003 demand for military and public security systems, especially explosive detection systems for airport and cargo security.

Analyst Christin Armacost at SG Cowen estimates that telecommunications networking "has decelerated rapidly" this autumn because businesses have curbed spending in reaction to economic uncertainty. The networking sector depends on telecom carriers for most revenue, but Armacost and other analysts see no fourth quarter pickup in orders for network hardware and software.

Tread rubber purchasing will be flat this year, but should grow an average 2.5% annually in 2003 and 2004, forecasts the Rubber Manufacturers Association. The group earlier had predicted that 2002 shipments would rise 2.2% over 2001. Still, shipments this year should be capable of producing 16.4 million retreaded tires bought for commercial aviation, commercial trucks, school buses, and such off-road vehicles as industrial, agricultural and mining equipment.

After more than a decade of producing fatty acids and glycerin chemicals in the U.S., Lonza Inc. is selling its 140 million lb/year fatty acid and glycerin plant in Painesville, Ohio, to Twin Rivers Technologies Inc. Under a marketing deal, Procter & Gamble Chemicals will sell the fatty acids and glycerin products produced at the facility.

Toyota plans to assemble 20,000 Tacoma pickup trucks annually by 2005 at a new assembly plant in Tijuana, Baja California. The firm, Toyota Motor Manufacturing de Baja California, also will have the capacity to make 170,000 Tacoma truck beds to be used there and at the new United Motor Manufacturing Inc. joint-venture plant in Fremont, Calif., co-owned by Toyota and General Motors.

Downturn in new office construction is expected to be the primary drag on furniture demand through mid-2003, according to BIFMA trade association of furniture builders and suppliers. Shipments of steel-, wood- and plastic-intensive furniture this year is expected to drop 18% this year to $9 billion.