Manufacturers will save about $261 billion over the next decade thanks to the new Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. On paper, that should lead to new investments - in equipment, in workforce and beyond.

Steve Staub was headed west on Interstate 70 on Wednesday afternoon, back to his factory in Dayton after a meeting in Columbus with the Ohio Manufacturers' Association, when he turned on the radio and heard the news that Congress had
passed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Around that same time, over in Washington, D.C., President Donald Trump walked from the Oval Office to the White House lawn to share his comments on his first major legislation.

"I campaigned on the fact that we're not going to lose our companies anymore," Trump said. "We are going to see at least $4 trillion come back into this country."

The broad reaction to the bill has been mixed, at best - a national tracking poll published earlier this week by Politico reported that 43% of about 2,000 registered voters supported the legislation, while 39% opposed it - but corporations in general and manufacturers in particular are bullish. The National Association of
Manufacturers reported Monday that more than 94% of manufacturing CEOs surveyed were positive about their company's outlook, and almost 63% said comprehensive business tax reform would encourage their own capital spending increases.
Count Staub among them.

Staub is the president of Staub Manufacturing Solutions , a contract metal fabrication shop in Dayton whose customer list dives into heavy truck, locomotive, construction, military and aerospace, among other industries. The company is not
large, but its head count has jumped from 23 to 33 just this year during a banner 2017, and Staub said he expects the passage of the tax bill to only help the company notch another strong year of growth.

"We're excited about it," Staub said. "I'm not an expert by any means on political stuff, but ... as a pass-through small business, it makes such a big difference on the amount of taxes, the money you can reinvest in the company. We can increase capital spending, hire more workers, increase wages, grow the business. 

Manufacturers already benefit from a relatively low effective tax rate, but it will likely drop more under the plan - about six or seven points in 2018 - according to a new financial report from the Penn Wharton Budget Model . That report projects that manufacturers will save about $261 billion over the next decade. On paper, that
should lead to new investments - in equipment, in workforce and beyond.

And it's no surprise that companies represented by the National Association of Manufacturers - whose 94% optimism report was the highest in the 20 years the organization has surveyed its members - were pleased.

There are potential drawbacks, of course, even for industry. According to the Penn Wharton Budget Model report, the ability to immediately deduct the full cost of some capital equipment expires after five years, at the end of 2022. The bill also
effectively reduces the annual value of a tax credit for R&D investments. Still, the effective tax rate for manufacturers is expected to drop from 17.5% this year to 10.9% in 2018. Take advantage of that while you can, though: By 2027, it will
likely rebound back to 15.8%

Atos, a global leader in digital transformation, has signed a contract to deliver large-scale IT outsourcing services to Henkel, a global leader in adhesive technologies.

As part of the contract, Atos will be responsible for Henkel's Datacenter infrastructure, globally hosted in two main sites in Germany and the US. The new contract enables Henkel to react to the digitization of the market and to strengthen its position.Atos is Henkel's partner for managing their servers for applications as well as management and support for Oracle and SAP databases, Storage & Backup, Operations for Application Data, as well as Active Directory, File- and Print servers in remote locations.Atos will develop the existing datacenter landscape. At the core of the solution is a shared private cloud, which will provide Henkel with a foundation on which to run and manage all their applications easily and flexible.   Full story here.