Elm Analytics - Automotive Supply Chain Risk Digest #138 - September 27 - October 3, 2019
BANKRUPTCY
Automotive Logistics interviewed Alex Meza, president of Jack Cooper Ventures, about emerging from bankruptcy. The largest US car carrier filed for Chapter 11 this past summer.
CHANGE IN MANAGEMENT
Jozef Kaban is the second head of design at Rolls-Royce to leave in the past 16 months.
INDUSTRY DIRECTIONS
Tesla Model 3 owners have been posting videos showing accidents and near misses caused by the use of Tesla's new Smart Summon feature. The executive director of the Center for Auto Safety, Jason Levine, says that the automaker's continued use of the term "full self-driving" is "misleading and factually inaccurate."
LABOR DISPUTE
Despite the UAW-GM strike being in its third week, contract talks have still not made substantive progress. Both sides are still in a standoff over key issues such as wages, health care, and status of temporary workers.
Detroit Free Press: What it's really like behind doors of GM, UAW contract talks
As a result of the ongoing UAW strike again GM, Canadian parts supplier Linamar is losing up to $750,000 in earnings per day.
LITIGATION
Ford will pay $540,000 and provide additional training to employees to settle a discrimination charge involving its Kentucky Truck Plant. The US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said that an investigation found "reasonable cause to believe that the Kentucky Truck Plant failed to hire applicants due to their disabilities."
FCA will pay a settlement of $40m to the SEC after the agency determined that the automaker falsified sales report consistently from 2012 to 2016. FCA was found to have been bulking up their sales results to make it look like they had a 75-month streak of monthly sales increases.
A California labor judge ruled late last week that Tesla violated labor laws by threatening employees when they attempted to unionize. The violations included prohibiting employees from distributing union leaflets, telling employees a union vote was futile, interrogating employees about union activities, and a tweet from Elon Musk that suggested that employees would lose stock options if they unionized.
MERGERS, VENTURES, ACQUISITIONS
Mahindra & Mahindra are creating a JV with Ford to develop, market, and distribute Ford vehicles in India and Ford and Mahindra brand vehicles in emerging markets around the world. Mahindra will take a 51% controlling stake, and Ford will transfer its India operations to the JV.
Aptiv is acquiring German microduct supplier Systemtechnik GmbH for $310m. Aptiv was spun-off from Delphi in 2017.
PLANT DISASTER
A worker died in an accident that occurred as he was moving a mold in the cold pres area of FCA's Cassino, Italy factory. FIOM, FIM, and UILM Italian metal engineering unions called for an eight-hour strike to protest safety conditions.
Germany's Rheinmetall is currently losing around $4m a week in productivity due to an unspecified malware attack. The malware is presently affecting manufacturing facilities in the US, Mexico, and Brazil.
PLANT EXPANSION
Pennex Aluminum has expanded its Leetonia, Ohio extrusion facility by 110k sf.
PLANT OPENING
Tesla is aiming to start producing cars at its new plant in China this month. The automaker is aiming to manufacture at least 1,000 Model 3s per week, though it is unclear if they will be able to meet those production targets right away.
VW has confirmed it will open its new factory in Manisa, Turkey, in 2022. The plant will produce up to 300k vehicles, including the Passat and Skoda Superb.
South Korean driveshaft supplier Shinhwa Group will invest $42m into a new plant in Auburn, Alabama. The new plant will create 95 jobs and will be the company's first US plant.
PLANT SHUTDOWN
Japan's Nippon Steel will shutdown its Kimitsu plant, and Nisshin's Kure works for at least six months. Typhoon Faxai damaged a smokestack used for gas processing at Kimitsu. A fire in August destroyed vital parts of the Kure works plant as well as extensive damage to a control room. The combined output lost is reported to be 200k tons of semi-finished steel products per month. Customers Bridgestone and Toyota have started to source products from alternate sources. They do not expect any impact on production.
GM halted production at its truck assembly plant in Silao, Mexico - a result of the ongoing UAW strike in the US. The shutdown is due to part shortages related to the strike.
PRODUCTION DECREASE
Subaru of Indiana canceled its first shift due to a supplier issue on October 1st. Its supplier NHK Seating said on its Facebook page that there was no production for its second shift the day prior. The supplier would not make any comments to Automotive News.