“1,200-worker plant closing in Huntsville, Ala. - CBS42.com” plus 4 more

1,200-worker plant closing in Huntsville, Ala. - CBS42.com
6th Gear Automotive the New Agent for SANYCO - Earthtimes
Clunkers plan impact could have been spread, analyst says - Detroit Free Press
Separate financing arm for auto components manufacturers: Minister - New Kerala
Woodward Dream Cruise casts perfect spotlight on Detroit - Detroit Free Press

1,200-worker plant closing in Huntsville, Ala. - CBS42.com

Posted: 02 Sep 2009 08:06 AM PDT

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (AP) - Continental Automotive Systems U.S. says it will close its automotive parts plant in Huntsville by Dec. 31 next year, laying off more than 1,000 workers.

Monday's announcement comes a month after Continental warned that cutting costs in product development and manufacturing were necessary to save the company. It asked the United Auto Workers to agree to several concessions, which the union rejected.

"The Huntsville facility has the highest manufacturing costs of any Continental automotive electronics plant in North America and we were unsuccessful in reducing these costs through labor negotiations with United Automobile Workers union and other cost reductions in capital, equipment, overhead and expenses," company spokeswoman Kathryn Blackwell said.

Product lines made in the Huntsville will be shifted to facilities in Seguin, Texas and Nogales and Cuautla, Mexico.

Product development operations will be moved to plants in Auburn Hills, Mich.; Deer Park, Ill.; and Guadalajara, Mexico.

Employees were notified Monday in three meetings at the plant, which is in Jetplex Industrial Park near Huntsville International Airport. Continental says the plant's closure will be implemented in several phases.

Joe Fadool, the vice president of operations for the plant, said certain product lines will begin to transfer by the end of this year. Fadool said all product lines will be transferred by the fourth quarter of 2010.

The Huntsville plant has about 1,280 salaried and hourly employees, which includes about 300 who were laid off with recall rights.

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Information from: The Huntsville Times, http://www.al.com/huntsville

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6th Gear Automotive the New Agent for SANYCO - Earthtimes

Posted: 03 Sep 2009 12:13 AM PDT

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Clunkers plan impact could have been spread, analyst says - Detroit Free Press

Posted: 03 Sep 2009 12:13 AM PDT

The government's cash-for-clunkers program, which boosted U.S. auto sales in August, could have had a longer-term impact on automotive sales if the program had been managed so the deals were spread out over time instead of lasting for just one month, an automotive analyst said.

"Had it been handled a little bit less panicky, we could have spread out the recovery a little bit," said Rebecca Lindland, IHS Global Insight's director of auto industry research, during a conference of the Society of Automotive Analysts on Wednesday in Troy.

Instead, auto sales are expected to drop off in September.

IHS Global Insight expects that two-thirds of the 690,000 cash-for-clunkers vehicle purchases were pulled ahead from future months. The rest were cases in which buyers would have bought used vehicles.

But Lindland and other analysts at Wednesday's conference say a recovery is still ahead for the automotive industry, although it may take time.

"We have to see a recovery in employment growth before people are going to start buying ... big-ticket items again," she said.

People tend to buy vehicles when they feel like they have a certain amount of wealth and defer purchases when they've lost jobs or even fear losing them, said JPMorgan automotive analyst Himanshu Patel.

As the industry recovers, consumers will have more options to buy smaller, more affordable cars, said Mike Jackson, director of North American vehicle forecasts at CSM Worldwide in Northville.

Subcompact cars, such as the Chevrolet Aveo, make up only 2% of the sales volume in North America today, but Jackson estimates they will surge to 10% of the market in the next decade.

Contact JEWEL GOPWANI: 313-223-4550 or jgopwani@freepress.com

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Separate financing arm for auto components manufacturers: Minister - New Kerala

Posted: 02 Sep 2009 10:40 PM PDT

Mumbai, Sep 3 : Union Heavy Industries Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh Thursday said the government is examining setting up of a separate financing arm for auto components manufacturers.

"We are looking to set up a separate financing arm for auto components manufacturers," Deshmukh told reporters at the sidelines of the annual conference of Automotive Components Manufacturers Association (ACMA).

The minister asked manufacturers to use the measures announced in the foreign trade policy to attain objectives of the Automotive Mission Plan 2006-15.

The Automotive Mission Plan 2006 aims at doubling the contribution of the automotive sector in GDP (gross domestic product) by taking the turnover to $145 billion in 2016, with a special emphasis on the export of small cars, multiple utility vehicles (MUVs), two wheelers and auto components.

Deshmukh also said that while the Indian automobile industry was affected to a lesser extent than its global peers, auto components exports remained a concern. The sector was also facing stiff competition from cheap imports.

--IANS

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Woodward Dream Cruise casts perfect spotlight on Detroit - Detroit Free Press

Posted: 03 Sep 2009 12:34 AM PDT

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Picture Kid Rock kicking back in the bed of a '49 Ford pickup, wearing a crown and sipping a drink while "Son of Detroit" blasts from the sound system and the annual parade of vintage police cars and emergency vehicles follows him from the Cruise ribbon-cutting ceremony in Ferndale up the Avenue to Pontiac and back.

Precede that with other events earlier in the week to so visitors can plan an extended stay.

Schedule a one-hour themed parade each night the week before Saturday's Dream Cruise. New Orleans' social clubs plan the Mardi Gras parades. We could turn the job over to car clubs, but I'd like to see each night focus on cars from a specific era. Make Monday cars from the 1960s, Tuesday the '70s and '80s, Wednesday the '50s and Thursday 1990 to the present, including electric and alternative-fuel vehicles.

Charge each car $10 or $20 for a commemorative license plate or dashboard plaque and a spot in a police-escorted parade down one lane of Woodward from the Pontiac to Ferndale and back. Keep the rest of the road free each night for normal traffic and other cruisers. Use the registration fee -- cruisers will pay for a plaque that says their car participated in the "2010 Woodward Avenue '60s Classic Car Drive" -- to pay for the police escort.

Finally, make the Dream Cruise the centerpiece of a coordinated regional festival that draws visitors to other auto-related attractions dotting Woodward Avenue and the Metro area.

"We're missing a critical piece by not marketing the overall experience," said Heather Carmona, executive director of the Woodward Avenue Action Association, which represents the Oakland County communities the cruise runs through and the Wayne County cities that have Woodward but no organized Dream Cruise activities. "We should organize so people can come for a week and hit three or four different things. The Dream Cruise needs to reinvent itself."

With cruises occupying the evenings, the expanded event could fill the days with special events. Sites could include the Ford Piquette Street plant in Detroit -- birthplace of the Model T -- the Walter P. Chrysler Museum in Auburn Hills; Diego Rivera's murals at the Detroit Institute of Art; the Henry Ford Museum, Greenfield Village and the Automotive Hall of Fame in Dearborn; the General Motors Heritage Center in Sterling Heights; the Ypsilanti Automotive Heritage Museum; and races at Milan Dragway and the Waterford Hills Raceway road course.

"There are probably 50 auto-related sites within an hour of Woodward that could host events," said Bill Chapin, one of the founders of the Motor Cities National Heritage Area and president of Chapin and Co., an automotive tourism and heritage marketing firm. "The potential positive economic impact an expanded Woodward Dream Cruise is enormous."

Contact MARK PHELAN at phelan@freepress.com or 313-222-6631.