The tariffs imposed by U.S. president Donald Trump dominated the front page of Fastener Industry News for  2018.  

There were 21 Page One articles on tariffs during 2018. Those articles and the year in tariffs will be summarized on GlobalFastenerNews.com next week.

  • Acquisitions: Dozens of fastener company acquisitions during 2018, but the most talked about was Lindstrom acquiring Stelfast in September.

An article summarizing the previous year announced “2017 Ties 2016 as Top Acquisition Years.” Acquisition consultant Richard Hagan has been monitoring the numbers since 1994.

In May an article summarized American Elite Molding filing a lawsuit against Advance Cable Ties – which ACT termed as “retaliatory” against a previous court ruling.

CEO’s come and go, but one of the most widely known company names put a family member at the helm: Daniel Bossard Succeeds Dean as Bossard CEO.

  • Multiple conferences conducted by fastener associations provided good information for the industry, but two were directly fastener issues:  

Prop 65: Fastener Industry Not ‘Low Hanging Fruit’ – which was a session led by Carmen Vertullo at the International Fastener Expo.  

MWFA Panel: No Chance Fastener Prices Dropping. The Mid-West Fastener Association featured a panel on “Fastener Inflation.”

All of the above articles can be found by FIN Subscribers on GlobalFastenerNews.com. After logging in, type keywords in “Search.”

While the articles mentioned above are from the front page of the traditional print edition, news is posted almost every day on GlobalFastenerNews.com.