PACKARD will be out first with tubeless tires at no extra cost. Other automakers will follow. Lincoln will use tubeless tires next year, and Cadillac is testing three makes (Firestone, U.S. Rubber, Goodrich), hopes to pick one.

FRENCH AUTO MERGER between Simca and Ford of France will result in the biggest privately owned French auto company, topped only by the government-owned Renault works. Under the deal, Simca will acquire Ford's modern operating plant at Poissy, near Paris, continue to make Ford's small Vedette model.

BIGGEST U.S. GAS DEAL has just been signed between Dallas' Oil & Gas Property Management, Inc. and Panoma Corp. of Amarillo, Texas, one of the biggest independent gas producers. O.G.P.M., formed two years ago by Manhattan Bankers Henry Brunie and C. L. Rice Jr. purchased $18 million in Southwestern properties, will buy up Panoma's entire holdings (two gas-extraction plants, 218 gas wells, 133,788 acres of leaseholds) for a total $118 million, pay for it with $40 million in cash, the rest out of production.

NON-STOP AIRLINE RACE is still picking up steam. Lockheed has modified T.W.A.'s Super Connies to add 10 m.p.h. to their speed, bring them within 23 m.p.h. of American Airlines' 360 m.p.h. DC-7s.

NORTHWEST LUMBER STRIKE of 100,000 A.F.L. and C.I.O. woodworkers, the first time both unions have gone out together, will boost national lumber prices if it keeps on much longer. In two weeks West Coast lumber prices have gone up 20% (up to $20 per 1,000 board ft.).

PAYROLL FIGURES must be turned over to unions from now on whether employers like it or not. The National Labor Relations Board, which never before specified how much information unions should get, has ruled 4 to 1 that any recognized union is entitled to "all wage information essential to intelligent representation of employees."

OFFICE BUILDING BOOM may backfire in the next few years, warns the National Association of Building Owners and Managers. After surveying 162 cities, the association reports an increase from 2.3% to 2.9% in the U.S. vacancy rate in the six months from October to May, expects a bigger jump during the second half of 1954 if building of offices stays at current levels.

FLORIDA ORANGE JUICE futures will probably be traded on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange after Aug. 1. The juice-concentrate business is now estimated to be worth $150 million annually.

SHERATON'S HOTEL CHAIN, which operated 27 hotels east of the Rockies (business: $64 million in the last fiscal year), is expanding to the West Coast. The $125 million chain has just laid out some $4,000,000 for Pasadena's Huntington Hotel, which says it is the West's biggest resort hotel.

PORK PRICES will probably drop more than seasonally this fall. The spring pig crop is estimated at 56 million head, 13% above a year ago, and the autumn crop 10% higher than in 1953.

BOSTON & MAINE RAILROAD, second biggest in New England (after the New Haven), will spend $11.2 million to revamp its passenger service, has ordered twelve diesels. a fleet of 55 high-speed, self-propelled stainless-steel commuter cars to be built by Philadelphia's Budd Co. Delivery date: mid-1955.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.