In October, International Textile Group, acquired by a private equity firm a year ago, announced plans to close the storied Cone Denim White Oak plant in Greensboro, N.C. That factory was a 112-year-old shrine to bluejeans and the last major manufacturer of selvage denim in the United States.

American manufacturing has improved during the year since Donald Trump's election, despite a lack of promised policy changes aimed at lifting the sector's fortunes.

The number of piracy incidents against ships in Asia last month increased compared to the same period in 2016.

On a Tuesday in Mexico City, employees at DSV Air & Sea, S.A. de C.V. were in the middle of a normal workday in the head office when a 7.1-magnitude earthquake struck - killing more than 350 people.

A robotic material handling unit zips through a global toy manufacturer's six-story distribution center. As the unit retrieves an open-top plastic container filled with freshly molded toy planes from an automatic storage and retrieval system (ASRS), sparks from a frayed electrical cable on the robot fly everywhere, igniting both the toy planes and the plastic container in which they are stored.

The achingly slow progress of the U.K.'s divorce talks with the European Union could already be having a serious effect on suppliers on both sides of the English Channel, an industry body has warned.