Business Briefs: Chattanooga area business leaders at White House

photo The White House in Washington, D.C., is pictured.

Chattanooga area business leaders at White House

About a half-dozen business people from the Chattanooga area will join their peers from across Tennessee at a forum at the White House today, according to the group Business Forward.

Senior officials from the Obama Administration will participate in a discussion on creating jobs, the importance of workforce development, accelerating the economic recovery, and addressing the immigration system.

Among local people to take part are Charlie Brock, CEO, Launch Tennessee; Stephen Culp, CEO, Delegator.com; Travis Horton, partner, HHM CPAs; Erik Jannerbo, an attorney at Miller & Martin PLLC; and Robert Marshall, vice president of business development for MetalTek International.

Aisin expands Clinton, Tenn., plant

Aisin Holdings of America Inc. plans to invest $53.8 million in its Clinton, Tenn., automotive castings facility, adding 81 new jobs over the next two years in Anderson County, Tenn.

The exisiting 524,000- square-foot facility in the Interstate 75 Industrial Park in Clinton currently employs 595 workers. The Clinton operation is a full-process, die casting facility that includes casting, machining and assembly to produce engine components such as water pumps, oil pumps and pistons.

"With the increasing sales of engine components in North America, the role of our plant here in Clinton becomes even more important to the overall business expansion of the Aisin Group," said Stephen Barnes, president of Aisin Automotive Casting Tennessee Inc.

Tennessee is home to more than 900 automotive suppliers.


Current account deficit declines

The U.S. current account deficit narrowed in the July-September quarter to the lowest level in four years as a rise in Americans' foreign investment earnings helped offset a bigger deficit in goods.

The deficit in the current account declined to $94.8 billion in the third quarter, the Commerce Department reported Tuesday. It was the smallest trade imbalance since the third quarter of 2009 when the country was climbing out of a deep recession. The deficit was 1.8 percent lower than a revised $96.6 billion deficit in the April-June quarter.

The current account is the country's broadest trade measure covering not only goods and services but also investment flows.

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