Elm Analytics - Automotive Supply Chain Risk Digest #45 - December 15 - 21, 2017

Dec 22, 2017

CHANGE IN MANAGEMENT

Renault executive Denis Le Vot is taking over as chairman of Nissan North America. Le Vot has worked for Renault since 1990.

Gestamp has promoted its former CFO, Francisco Lopez Pena, to CEO.

HUMAN CAPITAL

The New York Times reported that many female workers at Ford's Chicago factories have been subject to harassment and retaliation. Ford has since issued an apology.

INDUSTRY DIRECTIONS

From the rise of electric vehicles to increasing amounts of data generated by connected vehicles, strategy expert Paul Eichenberg lists his top 5 automotive stories of 2017.

Toyota will first launch its EVs in China (then Japan, India, US and Europe).

GM sees lots of opportunity in the future of shared autonomous vehicles and believes that profits from shared AVs will quickly surpass its core business of selling cars and trucks.

LITIGATION

Honda announced the 20th death attributed to faulty Takata airbags on Tuesday night. The victim was driving a 2004 Honda Civic that had an airbag salvaged from a 2002 Honda Civic.

ArcelorMittal has agreed to pay a $1.5m settlement over allegations that its west Pennsylvania coke plant showered the surrounding area with soot and pollutant daily. In addition, the company must implement pollution controls at an estimated cost of $2m.

MERGERS, VENTURES, ACQUISITIONS

BMW is partnering with Colorado-based battery maker Solid Power to develop solid state batteries for EVs. Solid state batteries are expected to have two to three times the energy density of today's lithium-ion batteries.

Honeywell and Karamaba Security have collaborated on a new end-to-end automotive cybersecurity solutions for securing vehicle communications that will debut at the 2018 Consumers Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

PLANT CLOSING

Automotive insulation supplier Janesville Acoustics is closing its Richmond, Indiana plant by August of next year. The closure will cost around 70 workers their jobs.

PLANT OPENING

SABIC Polymers has started production at a new Polypropylene extrusion facility in Geleen, The Netherlands. The new plant is located next to their existing polymerization plant.

Korea's Hanon Systems will build a third plant in Dalian, China to produce compressors.

Sealing and Anti-Vibration systems supplier Henniges Automotive has opened a new 79,500sf plant in Suzhou, China. The plant has created around 70 new jobs and has the potential to expand up to double its current size.

PLANT SHUTDOWN

Maserati will halt production at two of its Italian plants to account for a sales slowdown in China. Their plants in Grugliasco and Mirafiori are closed now through mid-January 2018.