“Mexican Automotive Industry - An investment analysis - PR Inside” plus 4 more |
- Mexican Automotive Industry - An investment analysis - PR Inside
- Give Dream Cruise a Mardi Gras makeover - Detroit Free Press
- Nation's jobless rate hits 9.7% - Indianapolis Star
- Region's expertise in hybrid cars goes beyond high-profile players - Ibj.com
- 'Clunker Kill' a rowdy last call for trade-ins - Modesto Bee
| Mexican Automotive Industry - An investment analysis - PR Inside Posted: 04 Sep 2009 11:20 PM PDT 2009-09-05 08:17:43 - Bharatbook.com pleased to announce a new report on "Mexican Supplier Report" covering the Leading OEMs in Mexico and Major OEM Developments in Mexica.
Mexican Supplier Report One of the largest contributors to the country's economy has been the automotive industry. The industry has gained a strong position globally over the years and is expected to continue its contribution to the national economy. According to Banamex, in 2008, nearly 4% of the national GDP came from the automotive industry, while it contributed 16% to the manufacturing GDP. In 2008, automotive industry was the only manufacturing activity in the country that saw a double-digit growth and generated 20% of the total manufacturing exports from the country. ( www.bharatbook.com/Market-Research-Reports/Mexican-Supplier-Repo .. )At the same time, the industry has created job opportunities for almost a million people in the country, accounting for 13.5% of the total industrial employment. Nearly 55,000 people are employed with the OEMs and 433,000 in the auto component production sector. The automotive industry in Mexico is spread across the country. The automotive demand in the country is strong, with one million vehicles being sold per annum. The market is flooded with close to 40 brands and more than 300 different models of cars, including domestically produced and imported from outside markets. Detroit Three have been the front runners of the industry. Nearly 54% of the total national production is from the nine plants operated by Chrysler, Ford and GM in the country. Post 1994, Detroit Three's role in Mexico increased. At the same time, other OEMs such as Nissan and Volkswagen have also created their own market in Mexico. Both Nissan and Volkswagen have shifted certain production operations to Mexico, thereby creating ample growth opportunities for the auto parts suppliers.
Mexico - The Country To know more and to buy a copy of your report feel free to visit : www.bharatbook.com/Market-Research-Reports/Mexican-Supplier-Repo .. Or
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| Give Dream Cruise a Mardi Gras makeover - Detroit Free Press Posted: 05 Sep 2009 12:32 AM PDT (2 of 2) Mardi Gras draws about the same number of visitors to New Orleans, but they stay longer and spent about $1 billion this year. "We want to make this more of a tourist event that attracts people from around the country," said Woodward Dream Cruise executive director Tony Michaels. "We want to make the Woodward Dream Cruise a massive national brand." Borrowing from the Mardi Gras tradition of daily parades, why not give out-of-towners a reason to arrive early with a one-hour parade each night the week before Dream Cruise Saturday? Make Monday's parade feature 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 for a commemorative license plate or dashboard plaque and give drivers a spot for a police-escorted lap down one lane of Woodward from Pontiac to Ferndale and back. Keep the rest of the road open for normal traffic and the other cruisers that give the week its chaotic, never-know-what-you'll-see-next charm. 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 should organize so people can come for a week and hit three or four different things," 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 share Woodward but have no organized Dream Cruise activities. "We're missing a crucial piece by not marketing the overall experience." With cruises occupying the evenings, the expanded event could fill the days with activities at other attractions. 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, 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 of an expanded Woodward Dream Cruise is enormous." Contact MARK PHELAN: 313-222-6631 or phelan@freepress.com  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Nation's jobless rate hits 9.7% - Indianapolis Star Posted: 04 Sep 2009 09:33 PM PDT Indiana lost 168,000 jobs in spring and early summer -- the worst three-month stretch in at least seven decades -- and will most likely have lost more jobs in August. The U.S. unemployment rate ticked up in August to 9.7 percent, the highest level since 1983, rising from 9.4 percent in July, federal labor analysts reported Friday. Indiana's manufacturing-heavy economy generally follows the nation, which is expected to lose jobs until employers are certain the rebound is solid and begin hiring again. While the U.S. jobless rate rose more than expected, a small bright spot appeared: The economy shed 216,000 jobs in August, fewer than July's 276,000. August's job losses were the fewest in a year, according to U.S. Labor Department data. "It's good to see the rate of job losses slow down," said Nigel Gault, chief U.S. economist at IHS Global Insight, a market researcher in Lexington, Mass. But "we're still on track here to hit 10 percent (unemployment) before we're done." Economists suggest the Indiana jobless rate, 10.6 percent in July, will top out at about 11 percent early in 2010 and then subside slowly. Much depends on consumers' mood. As long as Americans are anxious about their jobs, consumer spending is expected to stay too weak to power a brisk rebound. Instead, August's small bright spot reflects automotive and other manufacturers restocking inventories left barren during the recession. Few think the restocking will last. Analysts contend the trade deficit with China is slowing the recovery. So far this year, U.S. importers have brought in $103 billion more merchandise from China then they have sent over. These analysts suggest that until U.S. manufacturing rebounds, American consumer spending will tend to help Chinese manufacturers along with U.S. factories. Gov. Mitch Daniels' trade mission left Indianapolis today for Shanghai, looking for Chinese businesses willing to put plants in Indiana. Since the downturn began, about 182,000 jobs have vanished in Indiana, or 6.1 percent of the 3 million jobs filled in December 2007. The lost jobs are concentrated in factories, where 110,300 positions have disappeared. The ailing recreational vehicle industry has cost Elkhart 17.5 percent of the jobs in place when the recession began, while the old automotive mainstay, Kokomo, has shed 12.5 percent of its jobs. Muncie, another fading automotive city, has lost 10.6 percent of its jobs, and Bloomington, despite its reputation as a college high-tech center, 10.1 percent. Those four cities account for almost a quarter of the state's lost jobs, although they have less than 10 percent of the labor force, a review of U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports shows. During this recession, metropolitan Indianapolis has lost 6.4 percent of its jobs -- or 59,600 in total -- but is not being hammered quite as hard as other cities. Call Star reporter Ted Evanoff at (317) 444-6019.  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Region's expertise in hybrid cars goes beyond high-profile players - Ibj.com Posted: 04 Sep 2009 10:59 PM PDT If electric van upstart Bright Automotive and battery producer EnerDel can deliver product as well as they've generated publicity, central Indiana stands to gain thousands of manufacturing jobs. But drowned out by reports of potential jobs and the millions of dollars in federal funding the two have landed are other companies toiling in the emerging hybrid automotive market, albeit as quietly as the electric motors on a Toyota Prius. In fact, meld Bright and EnerDel's lineup with components made by other firms, such as Remy International, Indy Power Systems and Light Engineering, and you'd practically have all the key components for a plug-in vehicle. "Indiana, interestingly, has probably more assets related to this new energy automotive [sector] than anywhere else I know," said Scott Prince, a local partner of Philadelphia-based EnerTech Capital. Pulling out a stack of company brochures from his visits around the state, Paul Mitchell rattles off names of motor makers and electronics firms capable of entering the automotive or wind-energy sector. Few realize, for example, that North America's largest producer of electric motors for hybrid vehicles is based northeast of Indianapolis, in Pendleton. Remy International was one of those former General Motors units that shuttered its local alternator and starter manufacturing. Hybrid vehicle sales in the United States could hit 1.5 million in 2012, according to The Green Car Report issued by Santa Monica, Calif.-based MDB Capital Group. With average sales prices of about $30,000, that could amount to $52.5 billion in sales. For hybrid components manufacturers, that would represent sales of $25 billion, the MDB report said. "We think that in five years this [sector] could be one-third of our sales," said Remy CEO John Weber. With such potential in mind, Remy has worked to create a standard line of motors that essentially can be plucked off the shelf for automakers. By avoiding non-recurring tooling and development, Remy hopes to keep prices competitive. It has already produced more than 50,000 motors for hybrids. Next, it will supply hybrid motors for German automaker Daimler AG. A deal with another automaker is to be completed later this year. Last month, Remy won $60 million in federal funding to further develop its line. "We have not spent a lot of time banging pots, saying, 'Look at us, look at us," Weber said. Light Engineering Neither has Light Engineering. The electric motor company was started in 1998 in San Jose by a handful of University of California-Berkley students who built motors for GM's Sunrayce electric car competition. Nearly a decade ago, straining under the high cost of doing business in California amid the dot-com boom, Light moved operations to the relatively cheap confines of Park 100 in Indianapolis. Still funded primarily by California venture capital, including that of Silicon Valley real estate tycoon Carl Berg, Light has been creeping into the hybrid market while primarily making electric motors for industrial uses, including power generators it supplies to Marathon Electric for fire-rescue trucks. Light CEO Matthew Johnston, a Chicagoan, about a year ago struck a deal with Chinese Automaker JAC Motors to make Light the exclusive supplier of motors for its new delivery truck. Johnston's team spent last April at the Shanghai Auto Show, where JAC had a hybrid truck ready to drive. A month later, Johnston's team was in Stavanger, Norway, trying to drum up business for a Light motor unit at the International Electric Vehicle Symposium and Exhibition. "Everybody is trying to put their stake in the ground," Johnston said. Indy Power Systems Indy Power Systems has more stakes in the ground than a Boy Scout campout. It's indicative of the still-emerging hybrid power technology, which the company's CEO, Steve Tolen, embraced in 2007. By then, he thought the technology and market were ripe for an electric car, and he formed Symphony Motors. To keep costs down, he wanted the car to be able to use different types of batteries, given that technologies continue to evolve. But nobody made a power control system that could handle different battery chemistries and their wildly different characteristics. With the help of former GM engineers, Tolen's firm developed a power control system, known as the "Multi-Flex," they were happy with. But he and investors saw more potential money in the device itself than in making cars. "We manage electrons," Tolen said. "We found it doesn't matter where they come from." Newer battery technologies, such as lithium-ion, are preferred for hybrids because of their higher power and lower weight. Yet they're markedly more expensive than conventional lead-acid batteries or even the nickel metal hydride batteries used in most existing hybrid cars. Indy Power Systems' control device would allow, say a hybrid truck or school bus, to mix cheaper and more expensive battery types in the same vehicle. That way a hybrid could enjoy the advantages of lithium or nickel metal hydride. Besides weighing less, these two more expensive battery types can recapture energy generated when a hybrid's brakes are applied. Indy Power is also in talks with customers for other potential applications, such as putting its technology inside a cell phone affixed with a photovoltaic strip to allow charging by the sun. Tolen's team is also validating their electronic brain's ability to manage and blend bigger power, allowing an industrial building, for example, to balance multiple energy inputs—from the grid, from a wind turbine and from solar power. To that end, in a shack lined with concrete sheets in case things go "boom," engineers are testing the Multi-Flex's ability to manage a whopping 300 amps of power—enough to cook King Kong to the size of a hot dog. And on Sept. 3, Tolen announced that Indy Power, the Crane Naval Surface Warfare Center and Pike High School will team to equip a Humvee with an electric hybrid drive system. So far, the six-person firm has yet to sign up a commercial customer, "but we're reaching a critical mass," Tolen said. EnerDel Battery maker EnerDel, which has its second plant just a 3-wood shot east of Indy Power's Noblesville office, is already up and running. It has a letter of intent with California-based Fisker Automotive, which hopes to start manufacturing its sports car hybrid by mid-2010. EnerDel already supplies batteries to Norwegian hybrid maker Think. EnerDel also has development agreements with Volvo and Nissan that it hopes will lead to big orders some day. It already provides batteries for the Japanese postal system, for a fleet of electric delivery vehicles, "which I think proves we do have some technology that's very interesting," said Ulrik Grape, EnerDel's CEO. Interesting, indeed, given the lead Japanese companies such as Panasonic and NEC have in supplying batteries for the most popular hybrids. Ford Motor Co. even uses a Japanese battery supplier for its hybrids. So far, EnerDel is the only hybrid battery company in the United States actually in production. "We have a lead as we see it here in the United States," Grape said. Already, EnerDel envisions a third plant in central Indiana that could employ hundreds. It has applied for more than $450 million in federal funding toward expansion. Timing is everything As for other companies in Indiana that could move into the hybrid sector, time will tell, said Mitchell, of the Energy Systems Network. Mitchell, whose group announced in April the "Hoosier Heavy Hybrid," a partnership to develop a hybrid truck, noted that there's still uncertainty about the extent to which automakers will embrace hybrids. With all the uncertainty, motor maker Light Engineering isn't ready to put all its eggs into the much-ballyhooed hybrid basket. Having lived through the dot-com bubble, Johnston said he's well aware a similar scenario could play out in the hybrid realm. In addition to producing motors for hybrid vehicles, Johnston's Light Engineering sees huge potential in selling efficient electric motors to the broader industrial market. He notes that about 60 percent to 70 percent of the world's generated electricity turns motors running everything from water pumps to heating and cooling systems. Energy efficiency is expected to be a huge market, especially with the cap-and-trade plan being contemplated by Congress that could send power prices soaring. "We really work to not get too pigeonholed" into a market, he added. Energy-efficiency application "maybe gets drowned out a bit with all the hype over electric vehicles," he said.•
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| 'Clunker Kill' a rowdy last call for trade-ins - Modesto Bee Posted: 05 Sep 2009 12:10 AM PDT "We sold lots of Malibus and Cobalts and Silverados," said dealer president David Halvorson, who dreamed up the "Clunker Kill" derby as a way to entertain his staff. These have not been happy times for car dealers. The recession has put a severe crimp in sales. General Motors, the corporate base for American and hundreds of other Chevrolet dealerships, has been scaling back production and slashing distribution. So have other manufacturers. But the Cash for Clunkers program brought a few furious weeks of relief and sales last month. By the time it ended Aug. 24, the rebates had led to 690,114 sales nationwide. At lunchtime Friday, Halvorson arranged the eight turned-in vehicles in a shallow semi-circle. Mechanics had drained the oil from them and poured two quarts of silicone sulfate into the engines to make them fry once they warmed up. Dressed in a bright red sport shirt, Halvorson played "Call to Post" on a cornet and then signaled the "jockeys" in each vehicle to start their engines. Wearing numbered placards on their caps matching the numbers chalked on the vehicle windshields, the jockeys gunned the engines to 2,000 RPMs. The parked vehicles roared and belched fumes while the chemical solution kicked in. Garry Taylor, a technician in the American shop, had the shortest "ride" -- about two minutes -- in a Chevy Venture minivan. One by one, the other vehicles sputtered to a stop until only a hideous yellow Jeep Cherokee Laredo remained running. The Jeep -- an artifact from the late 1980s -- rumbled on for a few more minutes and then cut out. The dealership staff dispersed to the showroom, offices and service department. And Halvorson had a big grin on his face. "You gotta have fun," he said, "every once in a while."
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