plus 3, First North American Kia Plant Opens in West Point - News/Talk 750 WSB

First North American Kia Plant Opens in West Point - News/Talk 750 WSB
Army picks ALCOA for fuel-efficient ground vehicle demonstrator ... - Daily Times
Toyota Head to Brief in China on Quality Issues - ABC News
Toyota's president to visit China on Monday - Arizona Daily Star

First North American Kia Plant Opens in West Point - News/Talk 750 WSB

Posted: 27 Feb 2010 02:45 AM PST

WEST POINT, Ga. (AP) Gov. Sonny Perdue joined Korean and American dignitaries in celebrating the opening of Kia's first North American manufacturing facility in west Georgia Friday.

``This is a momentous day for Georgia as Kia Motors has brought thousands of new jobs to this area and is truly delivering as tremendous corporate citizen,'' Perdue said at an opening event attended by Sen. Saxby Chambliss and other dignitaries who heard a keynote speech from Hyundai-Kia Automotive Group chairman and CEO Chung Mong Koo.

Perdue and Chung announced that Kia would come to Georgia four years ago.

Speaking in halted English at the West Point opening, Chung told the crowd of about 500 executives from Kia offices in the U.S. and Korea that he links the plant to an industry rebirth.

``I believe the plant will play a leading role in the revitalization of the entire American auto industry,'' he said.

Randy Jackson, the plant's vice president of human resources and administration, said the company is still accepting applicants for the second shift, which will probably start running in July.

Jackson said the company so far has received 30,000 applications for second shift jobs and is still accepting them.

``Our goal is to put 1,000 or 1,200 more (employees) in the building'' for the second shift, he said.

The Kia Motors Manufacturing Georgia Plant was touted as a $1 billion investment in the state that would create 2,500 jobs. The 2,200-acre site is the home of the new Kia Sorento CUV and at full capacity, the facility will have the ability to produce 300,000 vehicles annually.

The plant's economic impact to Georgia is estimated at about $4 billion a year and could bring 20,000 new jobs to a nine-county region by 2012.

Perdue called bringing the plant to Georgia one of his greatest accomplishments as governor.

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Army picks ALCOA for fuel-efficient ground vehicle demonstrator ... - Daily Times

Posted: 25 Feb 2010 11:55 PM PST

Army picks ALCOA for fuel-efficient ground vehicle demonstrator project

From Staff Reports
Originally published: February 26. 2010 3:01AM
Last modified: February 25. 2010 11:55PM

ALCOA will collaborate on the Army's Fuel-Efficient Ground Vehicle Demonstrator (FED) project, the company said Thursday.

The U.S. Army Tank Automotive Research, Development and Engineering Center (TARDEC) appointed ALCOA Defense to partner with Ricardo Inc. to produce a tactical wheeled vehicle structure that significantly improves fuel efficiency while also maintaining survivability, performance and payload capability.

TARDEC is embarking on the project to help achieve the Army's long-term goal of reducing fuel consumption on the battlefield, which will also reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil. ALCOA Defense will design and build the vehicle's chassis and cab structures.

In another development, ALCOA Defense announced a new aluminum alloy armor plate product, C79A, designed to better protect soldiers in combat.

Compared to conventional armor solutions, C79A delivers improved ballistic performance. It also increases strength by 30 percent, which improves vehicles' durability while reducing weight.

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Toyota Head to Brief in China on Quality Issues - ABC News

Posted: 27 Feb 2010 11:59 PM PST

TOKYO (Reuters) - Toyota Motor Corp said its president would hold a news conference in Beijing on Monday as the automaker looks to limit the damage from a massive global recall on the fast-growing Chinese market.

Akio Toyoda will brief the media at 6:00 p.m. in Beijing (5 a.m. EST) on Monday, with the aim of explaining to the public about its recent quality issues, Hitoshi Yokoyama, a spokesman for a China unit of Toyota said.

The briefing will follow Toyoda's appearance last week in Washington, where he was grilled by U.S. lawmakers for a series of recalls that have tarnished the carmaker's brand and reputation for quality.

Toyota has recalled more than 8 million cars globally for unintended acceleration and braking problems, in a widening safety crisis that broke about a month ago. The bulk of the recalls are in the United States.

Toyota said last month that it had submitted an application to recall more than 75,000 of the RAV4 sport utility vehicle in China, the world's largest auto market in 2009.

The cars were made at Toyota's joint venture plant with China's FAW in Tianjin.

(Editing by Alex Richardson)

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Toyota's president to visit China on Monday - Arizona Daily Star

Posted: 27 Feb 2010 11:59 PM PST

Fresh from a grilling by U.S. lawmakers, Toyota President Akio Toyoda will speak Monday in China about his company's quality problems, seeking to boost confidence and ease consumer worries in the world's biggest auto market.

Toyoda, who testified at a U.S. Congressional hearing last week about the spate of global recalls plaguing Toyota Motor Corp., will speak to reporters at a Beijing hotel, company spokeswoman Ririko Takeuchi said.

The number of vehicles being recalled in China is small compared with the 8.5 million vehicles recalled worldwide since October for sticky gas pedals, faulty floor mats and glitches in braking software.

But Toyota has ambitious plans for growth in China, where it and its global rivals are finding growth that was stagnating even before the recall crisis in traditional American and European markets.

The flood of recalls in the United States has shaken confidence in Toyota's reputation for top-grade quality. In China, the company announced a recall of 75,552 RAV4 sport-utility vehicles in late January due to the gas pedal problem.

Toyota has said its plans to expand in the Chinese market are unchanged, with its sales in the country expected to rise to 800,000 vehicles this year, up from 709,000 in 2009.

China's overall vehicle sales soared 45 percent last year to 13.6 million, overtaking the U.S. as the world's biggest auto market.

After answering questions by lawmakers last week, Toyoda visited with dealers and went to Toyota's largest North American assembly plant in Kentucky. He is not scheduled to appear at a Toyota hearing Tuesday by a U.S. Senate committee.

Toyoda, grandson of the company's founder, has made no public appearances in Japan since speaking in Washington, although media reports say he has returned. Toyota's policy is to never comment on the whereabouts of its top executives, saying such details are confidential.

Toyoda's haste in moving on to China, despite the limited number of recalls there, appears to reflect the company's eagerness to restore the reputation for high quality that is its key advantage there.

So far, China's state-controled media have made only muted comment on the recalls issue. The problem is mainly viewed as a precautionary example of potential pitfalls for China's nascent domestic car industry.

"It is a wake-up call (for the Chinese). This is not easy, this is a major challenge to get the product right and keep customers satisfied," said John Bonnell, a J.D. Power analyst in Bangkok.

Toyota got a relatively late start in China, after fitful efforts to break into the market early on in tie-ups between its subsidiary Daihatsu Motor Co. and a state-run automaker, Tianjin Automobile Industry Holding Co.

Only in May 2006 did Toyota roll out its first made-in-China Camry, in a partnership with Guangzhou Automobile Group, based in the affluent southern Chinese market near Hong Kong. Toyota also has a partnership with FAW Group, another state-owned automaker based in northern China.

"There is no question but that the Chinese market will overtake the Japanese market," Yoshimi Inaba, now Toyota's top North American executive, declared as the Guangzhou factory opened.

Since then, thanks partly to hard times brought on by the global financial crisis, China has overtaken both Japan and the U.S. to become the No. 1 market.

While the Camry proved a big success in China as elsewhere, both global rivals and Chinese upstarts have also been gaining ground _ maneuvering to capture the small car market that Toyota has eschewed in favor of bigger, more expensive sedans.

For all the automakers, China and other fast-growing emerging markets are providing growth and profits to offset losses in their traditional market.

"If it wasn't for China last year, a lot of the makers, Toyota, Nissan, Honda, would be staying in the red. China is probably their most profitable operation," said Christopher Richter, an auto analyst with CLSA Asia Pacific Markets in Tokyo.

In any market, though, Toyota is facing an uphill struggle to mollify both consumers and regulators.

In Japan, Toyota has recalled 223,000 vehicles for hybrid models, including the Prius, for braking problems. But the company has a major stake in its home market and as the world's biggest automaker, is viewed as a role model not just for automakers but for Japan as a whole.

Japanese Transport Minister Seiji Maehara, appearing at a nationwide broadcast news show Sunday, complained that Toyota's "corporate culture" reflected a reluctance to be forthright on recalls.

"The company is not taking the problem as seriously as it should," he said, saying the company's quality chief, Shinichi Sasaki, came to explain the problems to the ministry only after being asked to do so.

___

Associated Press writer Elaine Kurtenbach in Shanghai contributed to this report.

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