About 80 percent of Johnson Controls Inc. employees laid off from their jobs at JCI’s Oakland Parkway facility are expected to return to work Feb. 9 when GM’s Spring Hill manufacturing plant reopens for business. More than 100 of those who work at the Columbia plant were put on indefinite leave Dec. 23. MORE

DUBLIN, Ireland-U.S. computer maker Dell Inc. is cutting its Irish workforce by about 1,900 and shifting its European manufacturing operations to Poland in an effort to boost profits. MORE

LANSING, MI-After winning $7.3 million in state tax incentives, Global Wind Systems Inc. is on track to become Michigan's first manufacturer of utility-scale wind turbines. MORE

BEIJING-China’s fast-growing Chery Automobile Co, posted a 6.6 percent decline in annual sales in 2008 as the ongoing downturn in the economy hit consumer spending both at home and abroad. MORE

INDIANAPOLIS-Battery developer EnerDel Inc. has applied for $480 million in low-interest federal loans through a new program intended to help U.S. automakers and their suppliers build more fuel-efficient cars. EnerDel would use the money to double the manufacturing capacity at its plants in Indianapolis and Noblesville, IN, lifting production of lithium-ion battery packs for hybrid vehicles to 600,000 by 2011. MORE

CHATHAM, Ontario-Navistar International Corp. is cutting 200 jobs at its truck plant in Ontario, raising concerns the company may soon close the plant entirely. MORE

SANTA CLARA, CA-Chipmaker Intel Corp. says fourth-quarter sales dropped 23 percent, from $10.7 billion to $8.2 billion. MORE

TOKYO-Toyota Motor Corp. is asking it unionized workers in Japan to accept a pay cut at the same time it extends a domestic production halt to cope with plummeting demand for new automobiles. MORE

TOKYO-Toyota Motor Corp plans to stop production at all of its Japanese plants for 11 days in February and March in response to the recent sharp drop in sales in the United States. MORE

DETROIT-Every major manufacturer selling automobiles in the United States reported sales drops of more than 30 percent in December, capping the largest year-over-year drop in sales since the energy crisis of the early 1970s. MORE