Elm Analytics - Automotive Supply Chain Risk Digest #234 - July 30 - August 5, 2021

CHANGE IN MANAGEMENT

Honda of America is appointing current risk management officer Noriya Kaihara as its new CEO. Kaihara will replace Shinji Aoyama, who is taking on a new role as a full-time global officer in charge of electrification.

Lamborghini has appointed Andrea Baldi as the new CEO of the America region.

DISASTER

A train carrying Ford F-150 pickups and Transit vans derailed near Huntington, Missouri.

EXPANDING

VW began a month of extensive construction projects at the Emden, Germany, facility to support the production of the ID.4.

Metalsa Structural Products is adding capacity to its Elizabethtown, Kentucky, plant. The company makes chassis structures.

Firestone Industrial Products is expanding its Williamsburg, Kentucky, facility. The new 68k sq ft addition will produce EV air springs.

HUMAN CAPITAL

The UAW and Detroit automakers reinstated mask mandates at all plants nationwide this week in response to the rapid spread of the delta variant of the coronavirus.

INDUSTRY DIRECTIONS

Ford is now prioritizing build-to-order vehicles to gain better demand visibility. "We're now at 70,000 units, on our way to 80,000 units," CEO Jim Farley said. Before the pandemic, the maximum order bank was 1,000 to 2,000 units a month. "That gives you the order of magnitude difference in the way we are looking at this order bank change for the company."

LITIGATION

China's State Administration for Market Regulation is launching a probe into some chip distributors in the auto industry over suspected price gouging.

MERGERS, VENTURES, ACQUISITIONS

Qualcomm offered to buy Veoneer for $4.6B "driven by" Veoneer's ADAS systems. Just last month, Magna offered to buy the Swedish company for $3.8B.

ArcelorMittal and the Canadian government are investing $1.4B into decarbonization technologies at ArcelorMittal's plant in Hamilton, Ontario. The investment aims to reduce CO2 emissions at the plant by around 3M tonnes over the next seven years.

OPENING

Nissan and Envision AESC announced a battery plant in Ibaraki prefecture Japan. The companies plan to boost its initial planned output from 6Gwh to 18Gwh within five years.

The two companies will also build a 9GWh battery plant next to Nissan's existing Sunderland, UK, factory. Nissan is expanding production at the factory to produce 100k / y of an EV crossover for the European market.

PRODUCTION DECREASE

Infineon's production outages at two of its semiconductor plants have held it back from recovery.

REGULATION

President Biden made the first step of a multistep strategy to move the US to electric vehicles. Biden aims to have EVs be 50% of all cars sold by 2030. The first move is new vehicle efficiency standards beginning in 2023, with drafts of updated emissions rules slated next.

RISK ANALYTICS

Detroit Free Press: Toyota's chip management provides lessons for GM, Ford

SHUTDOWN

Next week, GM is idling its pickup assembly plants in Flint, Michigan, Fort Wayne, Indiana, and Silao, Mexico, due to the ongoing chip shortage. The plants had already been shut down last month and only resumed production last week.

SUPPLY CHAIN

NXP Semiconductors expects that its automotive customers will move away from just-in-time manufacturing.

LG is asking its suppliers to build facilities next to its two US battery plants under construction.