All OEMs articles – Page 20
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FeatureJapanese shockwaves reach North America
The earthquakes that hit the Kumamoto region of Japan’s Kyushu island on April 15th-16th, knocking out production at assembly and supplier plants across the country, have now also affected automotive production in North America.GM has suspended production for two weeks (from Monday April 25th) at four of its high volume ...
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FeatureFord’s Hans-Bert Bong to step down this week
After more than 26 years with Ford, Dr Hans-Bert Bong (pictured), manager of material flow and supply chain management at Ford of Europe, has announced he is leaving the carmaker this Friday (April 29th).A replacement is expected to be announced in the coming days.Bong has spent nearly 20 years in ...
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FeatureChina conference: local logistics providers go global… to survive
As Chinese growth slows, and the government encourages more market reforms, Chinese automotive logistics providers are increasingly looking beyond their own borders to offer international freight services and capture new clients, writes Christopher Ludwig. Contribution by Rachael Hogg.As vehicle production and sales growth accelerated in China over the past decade, ...
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FeatureBLG-Interrijn expands inland waterway service for Ford
Left to right: Louis Kanters, Interrijn Group; Helen Clarke; Ford Europe; Markus Bangen, Duisport; Michael Blach, BLGBLG-Interrijn Automobiltransporte, the joint venture between Germany’s BLG Logistics and Dutch ro-ro provider Interrijn Autotransport, has christened its sixth inland waterway ro-ro vessel. The Fuerte is a 135-metre-long vessel with capacity for 500 ...
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FeatureChina conference: preparing for the new and the old, for growth and decline
The 11th annual Automotive Logistics China conference was held for the first time in the south-western city of Chengdu, a symbol of the automotive industry’s westward development and the centre of the revival of the old ‘Silk Road’ trade routes emphasised by the government’s ‘One Belt, One Road’ policy. Christopher ...
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FeatureChina conference: catching up with digital and automation trends
Steve Dyer, from Bain & Company, said China had a long way to go in catching up to the US and European productivityDespite China’s reputation as a manufacturing powerhouse, filling the world’s homes and stores with products ‘made in China’, rising labour and production costs are increasingly a competitive ...
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FeatureGrupo Antolin opens joint venture component facility in Wuhan
Interior component maker Grupo Antolin has opened an €11m ($12.4m) plant in Wuhan, China that is making headliners and door panels for Renault Nissan, PSA Group, Infiniti and Honda. The facility is a joint venture with Dongfeng Visteon and will mainly be making parts for DF Renault and DPCA (Dongfeng ...
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FeatureVantec opens second warehouse for Nissan in Sunderland
Left to right: Fumio Komamura of Hitachi Transport System; Irene Lucas, chief executive of Sunderland City Council; Yokinobu Kodama, president of Vantec Corporation; and Martin Kendall, managing director of Vantec EuropeUK-based logistics provider Vantec Europe has opened a 40,500 sq.m warehouse at Hillthorn Business Park in Sunderland, following an ...
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FeatureBMW opens VDC at port of Galveston
BMW has opened a vehicle distribution centre (VDC) at the US port of Galveston, Texas, following a $12m investment.The centre, which has 4,000 sq.m of processing space on an 8 hectare site, will import and process 32,500 vehicles annually for onward distribution to 45 BMW and Mini dealers across four ...
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Iran Khodro outlines export targets
Following the lifting of economic sanctions against Iran in January, the country’s main carmaker, Iran Khodro Industrial Group (IKCO), has said it intends to export 30,000 vehicles to international markets in the next 12 months.“IKCO has already picked up one or more vehicles as its main items to export to ...
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FeatureKumamoto earthquakes disrupt vehicle assembly across Japan
[Updated 21st April] The two earthquakes that hit the Japanese island of Kyushu last week have halted operations at assembly facilities across the country, including Honda, Nissan, Toyota and Mitsubishi, and dramatically affected the tier supplier base in the region. The first earthquake, which was a magnitude 6.5, hit the ...
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Analysis: PSA ‘product blitz’ will put the focus on its supply chain
'Push to Pass' plan will involve the launch of 26 new cars by 2021 with more local manufacturing in some areasPSA Peugeot-Citroën has announced some big organisational changes recently, both in terms of its group divisions and its approach to customer trends, with some big consequences for its supply ...
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FeatureRenault extends inbound contract with XPO Logistics
[Updated 14th April] Renault has awarded a further contract to XPO Logistics for the inbound supply of parts to the carmaker’s French assembly facilities in the Seine valley. XPO is already handling inbound services for the carmaker in western France following its takeover of Norbert Dentressangle last year.From its 19,500 ...
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FeatureBMW’s Thailand division to increase exports to China
BMW Group Thailand is planning to increase car exports over the next two years to 10,000 vehicles a year. The majority of that volume will be exported from the firm’s Rayong facility to China, but some units will also go to Malaysia.Last year, BMW announced a 1.1 billion baht ($31.4m) ...
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FeatureBMW starts work on second parts RDC in South Korea
[Updated 14th April] BMW is investing 130 billion won ($110m) in a second regional distribution centre (RDC) in South Korea to better stabilise the supply of aftermarket parts to BMW, Mini and Motorrad service centres across the country. The facility is expected to create 600 jobs.The new facility will be ...
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FeatureYanfeng Automotive Interiors opens second Czech plant
Yanfeng Automotive Interiors is setting up a new 20,000 sq.m interiors production plant in the Czech Republic.Construction of the new plant at Planá nad Luznici – which will produce car instrument panels and door panels, predominantly for Daimler – will begin in late May, a spokeswoman for the Chinese interiors ...
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FeatureDaimler invests €300m in Romania for automatic transmission production
Star Assembly, Daimler’s subsidiary in Romania, has started production of the 9G-Tronic automatic transmission at its facility in Sebes, following a €300m ($341m) investment in the expansion of its production capacity.Components are being fed to the Romanian plant for assembly from Heidelfingen, part of Daimler’s Untertürkheim plant in Germany, the ...
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FeatureFord continues to invest in South Africa
Ford has announced an investment of $170m (R2.5 billion) to expand operations at its Silverton Assembly Plant in Pretoria, South Africa. The OEM will produce the new Ford Everest SUV (pictured) and increase output of the Ford Ranger at the site.Production of the Ranger at the Silverton plant has been ...
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FeatureMore than a name to change...
What do automotive companies mean by ‘logistics’ and ‘supply chain’? Automotive Logistics looks at whether OEM and supplier organisations reflect the sector’s changing demands and technologyThe logic is clear: it doesn’t matter how efficient your factories and delivery networks are if they are churning out products nobody wants to buy. ...
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FeatureTwo wheels good?
From sales drops to shifting uses in different markets, the outbound demands for two-wheelers are changingVehicle logistics in Europe is, of course, not limited to passenger cars, SUVs, vans and trucks, even if collectively, these products account for a huge majority of the products that specialised car carriers, shipping lines ...