Elm Analytics - Automotive Supply Chain Risk Digest #266 - March 11 - 17, 2022
CHANGE IN MANAGEMENT
Rivian has named former Magna exec Frank Klein as its new COO.
DISASTER
Renesas Semiconductor has halted production at two of its Japanese plants following a magnitude 7.4 earthquake off Japan's northeast coast late Wednesday. Due to the quake, Murata Manufacturing and Sony also shut down production at affected plants.
Toyota supplier Denso was hit by a ransomware attack late last week. The attack reportedly did not affect Toyota's production.
EXPANDING
ArcelorMittal will invest around $332M towards a new unit at their Mardyck, France plant to produce electrical steel for use in EV motors.
ZF Chassis Technology is expanding capacity at its Toluca, Mexico, plant. The $48M investment to increase steering and suspension production will complete in 2023.
Toyota will invest in new equipment to produce steel and aluminum blanks on the same line at its Long Beach, California plant. The move will increase production by 5.6M blanks per year.
HUMAN CAPITAL
It's even harder to hire auto workers lately. The number of people employed by US motor vehicle and parts manufacturers was the only sector that declined in January (-3.5k) and February (-18k) 2022.
MERGERS, VENTURES, ACQUISITIONS
Honda Canada is investing $1.1B to retool its plant in Alliston, Ontario, Canada, to build hybrid vehicles. The automaker plans to start building the hybrid version of the CR-V there by the summer.
OPENING
Hyundai opened its first plant in Southeast Asia this week in Cikarang, Indonesia. The plant has an initial production capacity of 150k units and is building EVs.
Marelli opened its new 18k sq m powertrain plant this past week in Ramos Arizpe, Mexico.
Mercedes says that its battery supplier Envision AESC plans to build a new EV battery factory near its assembly plant in Vance, Alabama. The plant will employ up to 600 workers and is part of Mercedes' $1B investment.
Ford is teaming with Turkish conglomerate Koc Holding and South Korean battery maker SK Innovation to build an EV battery plant in Turkey. The plant is part of Ford's push to produce 2M EVs a year by 2026.
Panasonic is reportedly in talks to build a new US battery plant that would supply Tesla and potentially other EV makers. Anonymous sources say they are looking at sites in Oklahoma and Kansas and are aiming to start production by 2024.
PRODUCTION DECREASE
S&P Global Mobility (IHS Markit) dropped its estimates by 2.6M vehicles to 81.6M cars produced worldwide in 2022. Russia's invasion of Ukraine skyrocketed the price of energy and raw materials and exacerbated the chip shortage. This week, rising Covid-19 cases in China have forced plant closures in Changchun and Shenzhen.
Despite reports of a Covid-19 shutdown this week, Tesla is attempting to maintain some level of production at its Shanghai Gigafactory.
Toyota is cutting domestic production by another 20% from a previous plan for April-June. The automaker will cut output by nearly 20% in April, 10% in May, and 5% in June.
RECALLS
Stellantis recalled 370K Ram and Dodge vehicles in the US over an issue with a warning light. Ford also recalled 157K F-150 trucks due to inoperative windshield wiper motors.
REGULATION
Germany declared this week that they will back an EU target to only sell zero-emission vehicles by 2035. They had previously planned to lobby for exemptions for specific vehicle types.
SHUTDOWN
China placed the entire city of Shenzhen on lockdown for at least one week due to rising COVID cases. It's the first time the government has sealed off a whole province since sealing off the Hubei province in early 2020.
SUPPLY CHAIN
Ford will ship and sell vehicles without some non-critical chips due to the ongoing chip shortage. They plan to install the missing chips in the already-sold cars within a year.