OEMs – Page 15
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ArticleZotye seeks to break into US market
Chinese carmaker Zotye Automobile has agreed to set up a US sales and distribution base in Lake Forest, California, in partnership with Haah Automotive Holdings. Haah, through its Zotye USA subsidiary, will have US distribution rights to sell Zotye Automobile’s full range of SUVs. The goal is to start selling ...
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Ford starts shutdown at Bridgend engine plant
Work at a production line at Ford’s engine plant in Bridgend, south Wales, has been put hold for five days, just as the company starts work on building a new engine. The halt is on the AJ line which is making an engine for Jaguar, the BBC reported. A Ford ...
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Ford appoints Chen to tackle sales slump in China
Ford is turning its business in China into a stand-alone business unit, Ford China, headed by Anning Chen (pictured). The move is part of a general reorganisation of the OEM's Asia-Pacific operations designed to return the company to profitable growth. The change takes place against a background of falling sales ...
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Ford highlights the high cost of US-made steel
Ford has highlighted the high cost of US-made steel, in the aftermath of the 25% import duties on the metal imposed by President Donald Trump. Speaking about the cost of key input materials at a recent event to mark the start of Ranger pick-up production at the Wayne assembly plant ...
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Opel tasks Gefco with further cost reduction
Opel/Vauxhall has renewed its fourth-party logistics (4PL) contract with Gefco for a further four years, starting in January, tasking it with finding further cost reduction measures and intensifying its optimisation and network engineering activities. Gefco’s 4PL Solutions division provides services for Opel/Vauxhall across Europe and Turkey, including the management of ...
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A race against time for the UK car sector
It is still very uncertain what the UK’s exit from the European Union is going to look like at the end of March 2019 but it is going to have a big impact on the automotive industry whatever it looks like. At this year’s Automotive Logistics UK summit, major carmakers ...
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Testing times
The start of September this year marked the point at which all new car registrations in the EU had to comply with the new CO 2 emissions test – the Worldwide Harmonised Light Vehicle Test Procedure (WLTP). This laboratory test is designed to introduce more realistic and stricter criteria ...
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Pressing a point
Slightly to the north of Wolverhampton in the UK’s industrial Midlands – and perhaps more crucially just a few miles off a key transport route, the M6 motorway – lies one of the latest additions to the worldwide roster of production facilities for stamped automotive metal parts. In mid-September, Spanish-owned ...
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Ford to end Focus production in Argentina
Ford plans to stop manufacturing the Focus compact car in Argentina next May as part of an effort to reduce losses from its South American operations. The carmaker also stopped producing what was once its most popular models in its home base Michigan earlier this year because of declining US ...
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Sika sets up plant in Mexico with integrated logistics
German components supplier Sika is opening a manufacturing plant in Querétaro, Mexico to supply acoustic treatments and body structural products to carmakers operating in the country. The new factory includes an integrated logistics centre and will also house the Mexican subsidiary of Faist ChemTec, which makes sound abatement and weight ...
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P3 to develop warehouse near Mercedes-Benz
European logistics property developer P3 is expanding its business in Germany with the acquisition of a 6.5-hectare site in Horb am Neckar, near Stuttgart. P3, which is based in Prague, Czech Republic, plans to build a new 33,900 sq.m warehouse there by the end of 2019. The site is ...
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Emissions test and product recalls hit BMW
New emission tests, product recalls and trade wars have forced BMW to warn it anticipates a poorer financial performance this year. The shift to the new Worldwide Harmonised Light Vehicle Test Procedure (WLTP) has led to significant supply distortions in several European markets and unexpectedly intense rivalry, the German luxury ...
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Ford cancels Focus imports to US from China
Ford has scrapped plans to export the Focus Active model from China to the US because of tariffs of 25% being imposed by the US government. Exports from China were due to begin next year following plans first announced in 2017 , when the carmaker decided to supply the car ...
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US announces tentative deal with Mexico
Following a year of renegotiations over the North Atlantic Free Trade Agreement (Nafta), the US administration has this week outlined the basics of a new bilateral agreement with Mexico on trade in agriculture and manufactured goods, including finished vehicles and automotive parts. The move follows President Trump’s rejection of the ...
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Manta reports huge increase in vehicle traffic
The port of Manta, in northern Ecuador, has reported a doubling in the volume of finished vehicles it handled over the first seven months of this year to 42,056 units, compared to 20,691 units in the same period last year. Roberto Salazar, president of Manta Port Terminals (TPM) – the ...
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Standoff between the US and Turkey raises questions for OEMs
The collapse in the value of the Turkish lira and the political stand-off between Turkey and the US have some potentially serious consequences for the continued growth of the automotive sector in the country. Car and light van production in Turkey has grown steadily in recent years, to around 1.4-1.5m ...
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Ford uses motion tracking to improve workstations
Ford is using motion tracking technology on workers at its Almussafes plant, in Spain, to help it design less physically stressful workstations on the production line. The OEM said the goal was to reduce worker injuries while making the workstations more efficient and improving manufacturing quality. In a pilot project, ...
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Honda’s Celaya plant out of action until mid-November
Damage caused by the flooding of Honda’s car assembly and engine plant in Celaya, Mexico, which happened at the end of June this year, has forced the carmaker to suspend production there until November. The company said that expert teams had completed an investigation of the damage to the ...
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Exports prop up UK car production despite trade uncertainty
The number of cars made in the UK fell by 5.5% to 128,799 last month, with domestic demand plummeting by 47.2% to 15,647, according to figures from the Society for Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT). However, production was bolstered by a 6% rise in exports to 113,152 units, with almost ...
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Vehicle makers grapple with cost of trade wars
Carmakers are faced with shifting production, higher purchase costs, lower profits and the possibility of raising the price of their products as a consequence of the continuing global trade conflict. Volvo Cars of Sweden is shifting production of its XC60 SUV for the US market from China to Europe to ...
