Aren't New England, Maxim, Sterling, and PMI all the same company???
Maxim is a line of New England's ropes. New England was acquired earlier this year by an Austrian company. The other two (Sterling and PMI) should be independent and so should be Bluewater.
Metolius (Lanex) are made in chekoslavacia I believe. They got an excellent review in Climbing magazine a while back when "skinny" ropes were being introduced. Bloody expensive though.