Monday Manufacturing Round-Up:

Easter has passed, and the days in April are dwindling away. Construction season is steadily approaching as well as we continue to progress into spring. Our links this morning include the latest construction news, and an increase of solar panel usage. On to the links:

• The National Home Builders Association published their latest report on their Eye on Housing blog. Numbers on last month’s housing starts, and what the summer building season could have in store are included in the blog entry.
• Market Watch takes a look at a recent White House fact sheet on the state of solar panels. While solar panels are still a minor generator of overall energy in the US, there have been more solar panels installed in the previous 18 months than in the last 30 years combined.
• Fiat and Chrysler plan on making three models of Jeep in China. Manufacturing.net reports that the company is attempting to increase their sales of the Jeep model in a section of the world where they’ve historically struggled.
• SME.org writes about the continuing integration of CAD and CAM software.

That does it for the links today. Here’s to a productive start to your week.