LANDRUM, S.C. — Charles Martin’s been in manufacturing for more than 30 years, and over those years faraway Las Vegas has always served as an important, if not odd, barometer for his company that makes commercial-grade door hinges. Even in bad times, casinos were still going up in Nevada. Not so today. ‘When gamblers aren’t building, forget about people who make rational decisions,’ said Martin, president of Bommer Industries, the last completely American manufacturer of door hinges for hotels, malls, universities and other big commercial buyers. ‘I think that says as much about the U.S. economy as anything I can say. The gamblers have quit building, and they’re always optimistic.’ The U.S. manufacturing sector is clawing back from a deep downturn, and manufacturing globally is on the skids. The climb back will be long and painful because the situation facing the sector isn’t just bad. It’s awful. The Federal Reserve’s latest measure of industrial output shows that in June, U.S. manufacturers were operating at 64.6 percent of their installed capacity. It means they are producing at more than a third below their potential, and this is the worst rate since these records began being kept in […]