BATON ROUGE, LA-Mississippi and Louisiana are finalists for Hawker Beechcraft’s new aircraft parts manufacturing facility. MORE

RUTHERFORD COUNTY, NC-CMI Enterprises Inc., a supplier of automotive trim materials, will locate a new assembly plant here, creating creating 53 jobs. MORE

CHICAGO-The new Ford Explorer SUV to be assembled at Chicago’s South Side assembly plant will have inflatable seat belts, a lighter body and two engine options that provide greater fuel economy. MORE

HENDERSON, TN-Arvin Sango Inc. will restart construction of a new assembly plant here to supply exhaust systems for Toyota’s new assembly plant in northern Mississippi. MORE

TUCSON, AZ-Raytheon Missile Systems has chosen Huntsville, AL, as the future home of a new $75 million missile factory. The factory will provide final assembly and testing for a sea-based missile interceptor and an advanced ship-defense weapon. Groundbreaking on the 70,000-square-foot facility is expected later this year. MORE

FARNBOROUGH, England-BAE Systems is reconfiguring its F-35 fuselage assembly line to speed up production. MORE

FOSHAN, China-A worker at Chimei Innolux Corp.’s LCD assembly plant here committed suicide yesterday. MORE

GREENVILLE, SC-OSHA has fined Jarden Home Brands $197,500 for safety violations at its assembly plant here. MORE

Two solar panel manufacturers have announced plans to build new assembly plants in the United States.

Amonix is planning a 214,000-square-foot facility in North Las Vegas, NV, that will have a production capacity of 150 megawatts annually and employ 278 people. MORE

In addition, Solexant Corp. will build its first commercial-scale manufacturing facility in Gresham, OR. The plant will have a capacity of 100 megawatts annually. MORE

NANCHANG, China-Ford and its Chinese partner Jiangling Motors Corp. began building a $300 million assembly plant here. MORE