DETROIT — DaimlerChrysler has introduced what is believed to be the world's first fuel-cell-powered police vehicle.
The Mercedes F-Cell will be used as a supervisor's vehicle at the Wayne State University police department here and serve as a "learning laboratory" for students in the WSU College of Engineering Alternative Energy Technology, a masters-degree program in alternative energy.
The vehicle has a range of about 100 miles and a top speed of 85 mph, the company said in a statement. The electric motor develops 88 horsepower and accelerates from zero to 60 mph in 16 seconds. The F-Cell vehicle will be refueled at NextEnergy's new hydrogen-fueling station in Detroit.
The F-Cell cop car is outfitted with a police radio, lights and sirens. In a statement, the company said: "The demanding operation of a police car will produce valuable data to help develop fuel-cell technology."
What this means to you: Zero-emissions law enforcement comes to Detroit.
Ford proxy statement lists chairman's total at $13.3 million
Yeah, but some of that are options that are probably worthless in real life at the moment, and a good chunk of the stock he's going to give away to charity, so I don't think Bill Ford is part of the overpaid exec problem in corporate America...
Latest move is part of automaker's yearlong effort to cut its U.S. salaried work force of 36,000 by 7%.
General Motors Corp. chopped another 100 white-collar jobs Monday as part of the automaker's yearlong downsizing of salaried and contract employees.
GM has said it hopes to cut about 7 percent of its U.S. salaried work force of 36,000 people, plus a similar percentage of contract employees.
The moves are part of GM's sweeping cost-reduction efforts that began after the automaker posted a $10.6 billion loss last year.
A GM spokesman confirmed about 100 salaried and contract workers left the company Monday.
"This is part of our ongoing policy on the reduction of salaried staff," said Robert Herta of GM. "This is something that will continue through the remainder of 2006."
GM began the process by eliminating 500 contract-worker jobs in January. Last month, the company cut "several hundred" other white-collar jobs at facilities across the United States.
Herta declined to give a breakdown of the job losses between salaried workers and contract employees, who are on the payrolls of outside suppliers. "It's across the board," he said.
The white-collar cutbacks are in addition to GM's broad plan to downsize its U.S. manufacturing operations and hourly work force.
GM Chairman Rick Wagoner said the company wants to reduce its hourly work force of 113,000 by 30,000 people by 2008. To that end, GM is offering buyout and early retirement programs to each of its rank-and-file workers.
On Friday, a U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge in New York approved GM's plan to offer buyouts or early retirement to as many as 13,000 hourly workers at Delphi Corp., the bankrupt parts suppler that was once part of GM.
In addition to white-collar cuts, GM is taking other steps to lower costs. They include a 50 percent reduction in GM's quarterly dividend, a cut in senior management salaries and higher out-of-pocket health care costs for hourly retirees.
PR Power: Billboards Trumpet Toyota's U.S. Contributions Date posted: 04-18-2006
CINCINNATI — As Toyota gets ready to power past General Motors as the world's largest automaker, it is trying to take the edge off in the industrial heartland with a series of billboards in 24 U.S. markets where the Japanese automaker has factories or supplier operations.
The billboards have gone up from Fremont, California, where Toyota partners with GM at a plant, to Huntsville, Alabama, where the company makes engines. The messages try to quantify Toyota's contributions with the emphasis on numbers. "Donuts in a baker's dozen; Toyota's U.S. investment: in billions," reads one billboard.
"Our intent is to raise awareness of our growing U.S. presence," Patricia Pineda, Toyota Motor North America's group vice president for corporate communications, told the Associated Press.
As may be expected, the United Auto Workers union is not pleased by the new ad campaign. "We're not real happy about it," said Tony Currington, vice president of UAW Local 696, whose members face possible closure of a Dayton brake plant by Delphi, the largest parts supplier for GM.
What this means to you: "Buy American" appeals are fading as Toyota tries to make U.S. workers ask, "What's 'Buy American' Mean Anymore?"
What this means to me: Until Toyota can match GM's domestic content per unit, it's still Japanese and not American, even if they become #1 in america. It will be a sad day and will make our WWII Veterans spin in their graves with the question: "Why did I die, for a generation of backstabbers" ????? :sick:
Automaker says cost, not geography will decide where new factory will be located
Ford's Mark Fields said the location of new plants will be decided by money, not politics. See full image
Low-cost plants in Michigan
GM's Grand River Assembly Plant (Lansing): Features team-based work force, flexible manufacturing.
Chrysler's Belvidere Assembly Plant (Belvidere): Subassemblies are outsourced to suppliers, team-based work force.
Global Engine Manufacturing Alliance World Engine Plant (Dundee): Non-auto jobs are outsourced, two job classifications.
NEW YORK -- Now that Ford Motor Co. has announced its promised second round of plant closings, attention has turned to the company's plan to build a new, low-cost manufacturing facility somewhere in North America.
Just where the new factory will be has been the subject of much speculation since the plan was announced as part of the company's broader restructuring strategy in January. Initially, most bets were on Mexico.
Mark Fields, president of Ford's Americas group, told The Detroit News that the location of the new plants will be decided by money, not politics. "The criterion is low cost," Fields said. "The criterion is not geography."
Behind the scenes, other Ford officials say the company prefers to build the new factory in the United States, but only if it can be fully competitive with those operated by Asian rivals such as Toyota and Hyundai. That will require major flexibility on the part of the United Auto Workers. Otherwise, Ford will not hesitate to put the plant in Mexico or Canada.
"The union is really interested in cooperating on this," said David Cole, chairman of the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, adding that he expects the new plant to be the jewel in Ford's manufacturing crown. "This is all very doable."
In recent years, both General Motors Corp. and DaimlerChrysler AG's Chrysler Group have had some success building efficient and cost-effective manufacturing facilities in the United States.
GM's highly automated Grand River Assembly Plant in Lansing has become a model for the domestic automotive industry.
Most factories organized by the UAW divide the labor of automotive assembly into dozens of job classifications, and workers are rarely allowed to do anything not covered in their job description.
There are fewer job classifications at Grand River, and workers there are organized into teams. Each team member -- including the team leader -- knows how to perform each task that the team is responsible for. That means workers can be rotated and fill in for each other as needed. This approach allows for more flexibility on the factory floor and allows the plant to meet production targets with fewer workers. Union officials say it also translates into better quality and fewer ergonomic injuries.
GM's Lansing plant also embodies the flexible manufacturing ideal. It produces the Cadillac CTS, SRX and STS on the same line.
Chrysler's Belvidere Assembly Plant is another example of flexible manufacturing coupled with a modern operating agreement. With more automation and fewer workers, the plant produces the new Dodge Caliber and will be responsible for assembling the Jeep Compass and Patriot later this year. Much of the subassembly work at Belvidere is outsourced to suppliers, making for a more cost-effective operation.
However, Cole said the best model for modern manufacturing -- and a modern manufacturing agreement -- is the Global Engine Manufacturing Alliance World Engine Plant, which opened last year in Dundee. The plant is a part of a global joint venture between DaimlerChrysler, Hyundai Motor Co. Ltd. and Mitsubishi Motors Corp.
There are only two job classifications at the plant, which requires extensive cross-training for all workers. To make sure they are up to the challenge, all applicants are required to have at least some college education. Much of the nonmanufacturing work at the Dundee factory is outsourced, meaning the company does not have to give UAW wages and benefits to the people who mow the lawn and clean the bathrooms.
UAW officials say these success stories demonstrate the union's willingness to embrace more flexible work arrangements. "If (Ford) could get a contract like (Dundee), that would be absolutely critical," Cole said. "A modern, 21st-century plant with a 20th-century labor agreement just doesn't make sense."
Given that Ford plans to close more than a dozen plants in North America over the next six years, some may wonder why the company needs another factory. But Cole said it makes sense for Ford to start from scratch. Ford's existing factories were built before the company got the religion of lean manufacturing, and previous attempts to apply this science have involved shoe-horning new assembly lines into outdated buildings.
"If you don't lay out your new building efficiently, you are just trading one plant for another and you are not really saving anything," said Rebecca McCarter, a benchmarking expert for the Michigan Manufacturing Technology Center in Plymouth. "(And) if they are looking at a green manufacturing plants, it's way easier to start fresh than do it with an existing plant."
Moreover, building a new factory allows Ford to set up a bidding war between the states. Asian manufacturers like Toyota Motor Corp. and Hyundai have received hundreds of millions of dollars in tax incentives for their American plants, and Ford could expect similar incentives.
"I don't think there's any way this plant will be done outside of the UAW," Cole said, though he said the competing Canadian Auto Workers union also will make a big play for the plant. "It would be a real slap in the face to the union."
Besides, he expects the new plant will be a valuable bargaining chip for Ford when its contract with the UAW expires next year.
More like someone finally took a sledge to the toppled remains. Michigan never was a very prosperous state if you subtracted the auto industries. They should have spent the last 30 years diversifying and expanding into other areas, since the auto industry is all moving offshore/across the border as fast as it can.
Michigan is a very diversifyed state plekto, but yes automotive was/is a huge sector that easily isn't replaced overnight. We were one of the richest states in the union in the 90's and about yr. 2000, it was like somebody pulled the plug :surprise:
Midwest losing clout as one of world's major automaking hubs, study finds.
DETROIT -- Michigan has lost nearly 1 in 3 manufacturing jobs since 1999 and impending factory closures by automakers and suppliers could further erode the state's position as a major global automotive hub, according to a new analysis by the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor.
Michigan faces a confluence of forces that threaten its bread-and-butter industry, including overseas competition, the rise of the auto industry in the American South and the continued loss of U.S. market share by Detroit's Big Three automakers.
"So this brings up the natural question: Where the heck is the business?" said Sean McAlinden, chief economist for the Center of Automotive Research. "It's really not developing here."
McAlinden spoke Wednesday at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago's automotive conference in Detroit. His report -- "The New Geography of Auto Production" -- came the same day Michigan reported its jobless rate rose to 6.8 percent in March while the nation's unemployment remains at a healthy 4.7 percent.
McAlinden pointed to several trends that could continue to haunt Michigan and the Midwest in the coming years. Northern U.S. states have lost 200,000 transportation equipment manufacturing jobs since 1990, while Southern states have gained nearly that many jobs, largely due to new Japanese auto plants.
At the same time, North America has tumbled to the No. 3 slot globally for automotive production behind Asia and Europe. And while worldwide auto sales are growing, demand in North America is stagnant -- and the Big Three's share of the market is expected to keep declining.
"Where there's not sales growth in the market at all everything is market share, everything is price and it becomes particularly vicious," McAlinden said. "There's no rising tides to lift any boats in this market."
The analysis paints a grim picture for Michigan, which is already bracing for more job losses as two of its three major auto companies close factories and cut tens of thousands of jobs to compete with more efficient foreign rivals.
By the end of 2008, General Motors Corp.'s North American plant capacity will fall to 4.3 million units from 6.2 million in 2004; and Ford Motor Co.'s will drop to 3.3 million from 4.6 million, McAlinden said.
"GM will become the size of Ford," he said. "Ford will become the size of Chrysler and Chrysler will become the size of Chrysler -- if we're lucky."
Through 2010, GM and Ford's job cuts should amount to 50,000 hourly workers and 7,000 salary employees. Add cuts by parts maker Delphi Corp. and Automotive Holdings Co., a collection of underperforming plants Ford took over from Visteon Corp., and the worst-case scenario for the region is a loss of 106,200 jobs, McAlinden said.
Underscoring Michigan's problems, the March jobless rate marks the widest gap between the state and the national unemployment rate since 1992, said Dana Johnson, chief economist for Comerica.
Michigan has lost 20,000 manufacturing jobs since March 2005, according to the Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Growth. Beyond the layoffs at GM, Ford and the major auto suppliers, thousands of jobs in smaller businesses have shrunk or vanished because of the struggles of Detroit's automakers.
Behind the numbers are residents struggling to make ends meet. For 10 years, Jaime Kress, 38, of Ypsilanti assembled customized seats for SUVs for a supplier that abruptly shut down last year due to plummeting sales of the large vehicles.
It wasn't a union job, but the $11.50-an-hour wage was the most Kress, a high school graduate, had ever earned, she said. She has since earned a living by cobbling together part-time jobs as a sales clerk and waitress.
"Nobody really wants to hire you full time because so many people are out of work and they know they can string you along," she said.
Patrick Anderson, a Lansing economist who heads his own consulting firm, said it's tough to predict how many more Michigan workers will lose jobs. Delphi's bankruptcy is the biggest hit to Michigan's economy in decades, and will result in thousands of job losses, deep wage cuts and millions in lost tax revenues for state coffers.
But there are some pockets of hope for Michigan, which still has a deep pool of talented workers, Anderson said. If the state can continue to support advanced manufacturing and research and development, it can continue to compete in the global economy, he said.
Tim Leuliette, CEO of automotive supplier Metaldyne Corp., said Wednesday that Michigan is in a transformation stage "on a scale that we have not seen before."
But, he added, that doesn't mean there isn't hope for the region, which has been the hub of vehicle assembly for years.
"The Midwest can be competitive but it's a culture issue and it's a cost issue," he said. "I'm bullish on the northern Midwest. The skills are here but you have to have the right parameters."
That means taking the reins on research and development of alternative fuels.
Cars and trucks running on hydrogen fuel is the future, said Leuliette. States that are less dominant in automotive production such as New York and Georgia already have research projects on hydrogen fuel in progress.
Leuliette said it doesn't make sense that the Midwest, where automotive history runs deep, sits on the sidelines. The region could benefit by becoming a leader in producing engines that operate on alternative fuels and ones that are gas-electric or hybrids, turning job losses into job gains.
McAlinden said the good news for the region is that there are fragile, difficult-to-ship parts that may never leave North American factories.
"This stuff, we hope, which has relatively good labor percentage means jobs at a competitive level," he said.
SHANGHAI, China - Ten days ago, the Shanghai Auto Industry Corporation (SAIC) unveiled plans that turned many heads in Detroit, Tokyo and Wolfsburg. By 2010, the company aims to build 200,000 cars a year, of which 45,000 units will be for export. SAIC is betting $1.2 billion on the endeavor.
Is there good reason for SAIC to make its own cars? Or is the company simply out to appease patriotic officials in Beijing who clamor for more Chinese-branded cars?
At first blush, it appears that SAIC is - or should be - just going through the motions. But do not be lulled into a false sense of security. Shanghai always means business.
Let us first look at what skeptics rightly cite as the counterweights to SAIC's ambitions.
For starters, SAIC is already a 50 percent owner in China"s two most powerful joint ventures, Shanghai General Motors (SGM) and Shanghai Volkswagen (SVW). In the first quarter of 2006, SGM and SVW sold 176,000 cars, capturing 19 percent of the market. Developing a series of SAIC-branded cars to compete with SGM and SVW (and against itself) will be a tight rope walk.
Second, SAIC’s initial series of products will be made-for-China derivatives of the Rover 75 and 25 sedans. These models, to be priced between $15,000 and $35,000, will compete head-on with the newest offerings from Toyota, Honda, Hyundai, Ford and others for a share of China’s market. Global competitors trounced the Rover brand in England, its home market. To contend in China, SAIC will have to find ways to make the cars at lower cost and higher levels of quality.
Further complicating the competitive arena is an un-expected threat from Shanghai’s own backyard. The Nanjing Automotive Corporation, situated 120 miles up the Yangtze River, plans to build cars off the Rover 75 and 25 platforms too. SAIC bought the rights to produce the Rover 25 and 75 models in May 2005. But then, several weeks later, Nanjing acquired the Rover tooling and equipment.
Folks who live in China understand that Shanghai (the city owns SAIC) is never satisfied with anything less than stunning success. This City thrives on being the best in China. It expects, one day, to be the number one metropolis in the world.
But can the industrious and driven people of Shanghai design, engineer, and market their own great cars?
They may not need to. If you look at Shanghai’s pattern for achieving best in class, there is a clear tendency: Borrow from the outside whenever it makes sense. For example, the Shanghai World Financial Center, which will be the world’s tallest skyscraper, was designed and engineered Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates of America. Many call "peerless” the Tilke-engineered $100 million world-class Formula One racing circuit in the western reaches of the city. And then there is the City’s Siemens-designed 240mph magnetic levitation train that came in at a cost of just under $120 million.
Building cars, of course, is highly complex. SAIC might learn to manufacture its own cars from scratch. This would take many, long years. Or it could go shopping overseas. The $1.2 billion initial investment did not clean out the money till. Do not be surprised to see SAIC recruit highly-talented international automotive designers, engineers and marketers to build the business.
C ould Michigan's pre-eminent gasbag confab be poised for a makeover?
Yes, if former Detroit Mayor Dennis Archer, chairman of the Detroit Regional Chamber's annual Mackinac Policy Conference, has anything to say about it. He's heard the carping -- oh, has he heard it -- and he's doing something about it.
Which is more than can be said of a lot of other organizations 'round here, public and private, who've elevated to high art the practice of doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Not so, his honor, not this time.
He's after big names -- the White House declined on behalf of the president last week; President Clinton is still a possibility. He's after change agents like Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, a Republican and could-be presidential contender who helped engineer health care coverage for all.
He's after Big Labor, as in Teamsters President Jim Hoffa, who's been asked to join a panel on health care. He should, because lasting change in Michigan demands participation of labor -- unless it happens without labor, which would be real ugly.
Recap just beginning
Who cares, you say, how the chairs are metaphorically arranged on the front porch of the Grand Hotel? If the players gathering there six weeks from now weren't hip-deep in the most brutal -- and permanent -- economic transformation Michigan has seen in decades, it wouldn't mean a thing.
But we're facing transformation run amok. We're in the early stages of a recapitalization of the auto industry that is forcing stunning change on Detroit's automakers, suppliers and their biggest unions. We're in an even earlier stage of recapitalization in the public sector, which will feel more pain as Big Auto shrinks to a more realistic and sustainable size. Count on it.
What we don't need are CEOs sitting out another Mackinac because the chamber's agenda-meisters are more fixated on whether the Four Tops start on time or because the "business" side has been hijacked by politicians and nonprofit poo-bahs, their collective hands out and their particular spiels ready.
"It's important for the CEOs to come," Archer told me Tuesday. "We are discouraging people from having fund-raisers, from having other things during the time we are meeting."
Action trumps debate
Good thing. My chief complaint about Mackinac has been its descent into a boozy junket -- lots of talk, little action, the obligatory Brooks and Kwame show and a studied refusal to acknowledge the elephants in the room.
Archer deserves credit for acting on the criticism. For using the conference to kick-start a year of business forums. For recognizing our regional interdependence by adding Windsor Mayor Eddie Francis to create "the Big Five." For emphasizing local corporate heavies like Chrysler CEO Tom LaSorda, (maybe) Roger Penske and outsiders like Johnson Controls CEO John Barth over politicians.
Archer knows first-hand that change comes when pols and business work together. He's resetting the table, but they'll have to do the work.
Foreign companies could match Detroit automakers in U.S. auto sales within five years if current trends continue, industry experts said Wednesday at a conference sponsored by the Detroit branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.
General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and DaimlerChrysler AG account for about 60% of all U.S. sales. But Asian automakers, led by Toyota Motor Co. and Honda Motor Co., are gaining ground fast.
GM and Ford will get smaller as they close plants and cut jobs in the next few years, said Sean McAlinden, chief economist for the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor. GM has made a decision to move away from incentives, even if it means losing sales, he said.
"GM is going to become the size of Ford," McAlinden said. "And Ford's going to become the size of Chrysler. And Chrysler is going to become the size of Chrysler -- if they're lucky."
The bad news is that the trend means more job cuts for Michigan's auto industry. In addition to the cuts at Ford and GM, Delphi Corp. and Automotive Components Holding LLC, a spin-off from Visteon Corp., also could get smaller as they sell off plants.
The four companies combined put more than 100,000 jobs at risk, McAlinden said.
The good news for Michigan is that the domestic automakers appear to be retrenching in the Midwest as they close the plants, he said.
Ford, for example, last week announced it would be idling pickup plants in St. Paul, Minn., and Norfolk, Va., which could create more work for the company's Dearborn Truck Plant.
"They're going to be smaller companies, but our share of those companies is going to be bigger," McAlinden said.
The threat of jobs moving South also is lessening, he said. In the last two decades, auto plants have cropped up from South Carolina to Texas.
Alabama has become a central hub with plants from Toyota, Honda, DaimlerChrysler and Hyundai Motor Co.
The Southern states, though, are running out of qualified workers, McAlinden said. "I think Alabama is flat out of people."
All they are is analyst, what the hell do they know ! :mad: Rocky
Bloomfield-Hills based United Auto Group Inc., Michigan's 12th-largest publicly traded company and the second-largest chain of auto dealerships in the country, reported Tuesday that profits during the first three months of the year increased by 5% over the same period a year ago.
UAG, which is led by chairman Roger Penske, posted first-quarter net income of $24.1 million, or 51 cents a share, up from $22.9 million, or 49 cents a share, from a year ago. The global company operates 294 retail automotive franchises, representing 40 different brands, and 27 collision repair centers.
Revenues for the January-March period were $2.7 billion, up 12%, from $2.4 billion a year ago. Same-store revenues, for stores open at least a year, were up 4% compared to the same period a year ago.
During a conference call with analysts and journalists, Penske boasted that his company posted solid gains in revenues and profits.
New-vehicle sales in the United States were up just 1.1% through the first three months of the year and were off 4.6% in Britain, where most of UAG's international dealerships are.
"We believe that our strategy of aligning our brand mix with strong brands that are gaining market share helped us to perform in a tough first-quarter market," Penske said.
In all, UAG made a retail profit of $2,947 per new vehicle sold and $2,482 per used vehicle sold. While that is up from $2,901 per new vehicle and $2,373 per used vehicle a year ago, the company reports that overall profits for new and used vehicles declined slightly.
More than half of UAG's revenues come from foreign or luxury brands, such as Toyota, Lexus, BMW, Honda and Acura, which have been gaining sales and market share in the United States and globally. About 60% of the company's revenues, meanwhile, come from upscale brands.
Only 8% of UAG's global revenues in the first quarter came from domestic brands owned by General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler Group. That's down from 10% during the same period a year ago, and Penske noted that UAG recently sold a Ford dealership in Phoenix.
Tony Pordon, senior vice-president of investor relations, said that UAG remains committed to domestic automakers. In the United States, he noted, 13% of UAG's brand mix is from GM, Ford and Chrysler. What's more, when foreign brands owned by Ford and DaimlerChrysler AG are included -- such as Jaguar and Mercedes-Benz -- 28% of UAG revenues come from domestic automakers. That's the same amount as last year.
Penske also said he's in negotiations with local automakers on opportunities to expand his dealership chain.
"I'm certainly an advocate of the domestics," Penske said. "Somebody asked me the other day: 'What's going to happen to GM?' And I said, 'They're going to be here alive and well. ... They've got good products.' "
Meanwhile, UAG's strong foreign and luxury brand mix wasn't the only factor that helped lift quarterly results.
The company's increasing business in the service and parts business also helped considerably. Revenues in the service and parts business grew 16.2%, to $308.9 million, and the return in that part of the business is a robust 55 %.
Billionaire investor Wilbur L. Ross Jr. gave a grim forecast of the U.S. auto industry in a speech Tuesday and listed several problems facing auto suppliers, yet he defended his plan to purchase and consolidate divisions of struggling auto suppliers.
Of the problems with the U.S. supply industry, Ross said too many suppliers are tied to the U.S. automakers as they steadily lose market share, supplier costs are too high and though foreign automakers establish assembly plants in the United States, they typically lean toward doing business with suppliers from their home countries.
"At this point, you may be wondering why I am so eager to invest in an industry with such a bleak near-term outlook," Ross said as the room of about 100 people at the Detroit Institute of Arts erupted in laughter.
Ross listed several reasons:
• The auto-supply industry is huge, around $200 billion domestically and close to $500 billion globally.
"Individual companies may come and go, but the industry as such is here to stay," he said.
• The global supply industry is highly fragmented, meaning no one supplier dominates. Only Robert Bosch has more than a 5% global market share.
Delphi Corp. "had been close, but as it divests operations and closes factories, its share is shrinking," Ross said of the Troy-based supplier now under bankruptcy court protection.
• By outsourcing engineering to China and India, he can save money and find better talent.
Through his company, International Automotive Components Group, Ross has most recently worked to consolidate parts of Lear Corp. and Collins & Aikman Corp.
aps on coverage for former white-collar employees replace company-paid benefits
Retired white-collar workers at Chrysler are bracing for major expenses and headaches next year when their company-paid medical, dental and vision coverage is replaced by a lump-sum health savings account.
While General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co. have capped health care coverage for salaried retirees at 2006 levels, they have not dropped company-paid coverage. Chrysler, however, is taking a different tack with its 17,500 salaried retirees.
Beginning Jan. 1, DaimlerChrysler AG's Chrysler Group will provide Medicare-eligible retirees -- those 65 and older -- with $1,750 in annual supplemental benefits. Retirees with a spouse or domestic partner are eligible for an additional $1,750. This will replace the Chrysler medical, prescription drug, dental and vision coverage that retirees receive.
Retirees recently received an eight-page letter explaining the changes. "I really don't think most retirees realize what they did here," said Chris Mykrantz, 69, a Chrysler retiree who estimates his out-of-pocket expenses will grow by $5,000 a year. "Chrysler said they put us in the driver's seat where we can make decisions about our coverage. Have you seen those crash test dummies? That's the kind of driver's seat we're in."
Chrysler, which has seen its health care costs double since 2000 to $2.3 billion, says the moves were made for economic reasons. "It helps us share the costs of our plan in what we feel is an equitable way," said spokesman Dave Elshoff.
Many retirees, though, are worried their costs will skyrocket. Mykrantz, a Brighton resident who worked in Chrysler's health care and finance departments for 30 years, sits at his computer for two to three hours a day to figure out his health care situation. He calculates that he and his wife will pay $2,244 a year for Medicare premiums, $2,880 for Medigap insurance, $4,800 for the Medicare Part D drug plan and $900 for dental, vision and hearing coverage. After the $3,500 Chrysler contribution, they'll be left to pay at least $7,324 next year. By contrast, he'll pay $2,300 this year.
Retirees say finding affordable medical, dental and vision coverage will be difficult because they'll have to sift through plans that vary depending on the region of the country in which they reside.
Medicare Part D excludes and restricts certain drugs covered by Chrysler's health care group plan, they say.
Chrysler is among a growing number of companies establishing health care accounts, part of a transition from an era in which employers provided a safety net to one in which employees and retirees assume more cost and risk.
The shift parallels a similar trend away from traditional pensions toward 401(k) plans.
Elshoff said new plans such as Chrysler's put the purchasing decision for health care benefits into individuals' hands.
"Now you're going to look for the best doctor at the best price for your money in your area," Elshoff said. "It really begins to change the dynamic of the patient-doctor relationship."
With their health care retirement accounts in mind, retirees will require more information from physicians regarding care.
"You're going to force the provider to give you the service that you're demanding," Elshoff said. "No unnecessary test, no unnecessary procedures."
Chrysler's white-collar retirees who haven't reached age 65 will share a percentage of health care premium increases based on their final annual salary. For example, retirees who left the company at an income below $50,000 will pay half of future premium increases because of health care inflation, while employees who earned $171,000 or more will pay 100 percent of any premium increases.
To educate retirees about the changes, the automaker will conduct a series of seminars beginning next month in cities such as Detroit and Toledo where a large number of Chrysler retirees reside. A hot line and Web site also will be put in place, Elshoff said.
David Kudla, CEO and investment strategist of Grand Blanc-based Mainstay Capital Management LLC, said many companies -- particularly those with a large pool of retired employees such as IBM -- are offering health retirement accounts to former workers as an alternative.
Kudla said Chrysler's new plan "leaves the door open for future increases."
Chrysler retiree George Glass, 72, said from what he knows about the pending health care changes, he's not worried.
"I'm not going to lose sleep over it," said Glass, who worked in product planning and design for the automaker for 34 years.
A resident of Arizona, Glass said there are benefits he'd considered doing without such as dental and vision. Glass said he'd rather endure cuts and help Chrysler reduce its health care spending.
For retirees bracing for the change, Tom Lindquist, president of the retiree solutions division for UnitedHealth Group, a health care company, advises that they learn what their plans cover and begin researching to make "sure that you have the same type of coverage going forward."
BRUSSELS, Belgium - The European Commission said Wednesday that it has opened an investigation into a planned 5.3 million euro ($6.6 million) subsidy grant intended for training workers at a General Motors Corp. car plant in Antwerp.
The European Union head office said it has doubts the aid being given by the Belgian regional government in Flanders will be spent on training and said it could violate EU state aid rules.
Under those rules, national or regional governments are not allowed to give support or operating aid to private companies if it distorts EU competition rules. All aid proposals have to be notified for review to the Commission by EU governments.
"The Commission strongly supports training activities. However, there is a risk that this aid actually covers training costs that the company would have incurred anyway, even without aid," EU Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes said in a statement.
"We therefore have to check that the aid genuinely triggers additional training activities and not simply distorts competition." Belgium notified the EU Commission last December of its aid plan for the GM's Opel plant, which could face closure or shift cuts as part of restructuring of its European operations.
Opel announced last year that it would cut 9,500 jobs in Germany alone. The company said in February that it could cut 1,000 more jobs across Europe because of slowing demand for its cars.
STUTTGART, Germany - German prosecutors said Wednesday that they have dropped an investigation of DaimlerChrysler AG's supervisory board chairman over suspicions of possible insider-trading offenses.
The suspicions against Hilmar Kopper were not confirmed by evidence, said Tomke Beddies, a spokeswoman for prosecutors in Stuttgart.
The prosecutors had been examining allegations that Kopper may have improperly informed Deutsche Bank's chief executive last year that former DaimlerChrysler chief executive Juergen Schrempp would announce his resignation on July 28. Kopper denied any wrongdoing.
Schrempp's announcement caused DaimlerChrysler stock to rise as much as 10 percent in value.
The same day, Deutsche Bank _ where Kopper once also served as chairman of the supervisory board _ announced it was selling a stake in the German-American automaker for about 1.4 billion euros ($1.7 billion).
Germany's financial market regulator opened an investigation in mid-August after saying it found grounds to suspect illegal trades in DaimlerChrysler shares just before the Schrempp announcement.
The regulator asked banks to provide it with details of who bought and sold DaimlerChrysler shares so it could search for links to anyone who knew the company's plans.
Stuttgart prosecutors opened their probe in September.
It makes me puke that they have slit peoples throats to make an extra buck and they retire on a unlimited platinum card. :mad: This story make me so angry, and gets my blood boiling.
Gas Price Politics: White House Urges Tougher Fuel Economy Standards for Cars Date posted: 04-29-2006
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Bush administration, which had opposed calls for tougher fuel-economy standards for cars in the past, now says they might be a good idea.
The president and his Department of Transportation Chief Norman Mineta are calling on Congress to pass a law requiring higher corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) standards for cars, but no changes are likely until at least the 2009 model year.
The Senate could vote on the measure as part of its new energy bill as early as next week. The current corporate average fuel economy standard for cars is 27.5 miles per gallon, a number that hasn't been revised in two decades.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration issued new rules for light trucks earlier this year that will increase fuel efficiency to 24.1 mpg by 2011. The White House proposes that the U.S. switch to a group of size-based standards similar to the light truck standards. The administration did not offer specific details on any new fuel standards for cars, but still opposes a higher single CAFE standard for all cars, arguing that such a move would result in lighter, but less safe vehicles.
What this means to you: The powers that be are backpedaling furiously to placate angry consumers.
I believe with these new standards we are going to see a net increase of turbocharging to increase horsepower and torque without sacrificing fuel economy. Do any of you agree ?
Bridgestone/Firestone eyes Oklahoma City factory and its 1,423 workers
OKLAHOMA CITY -- Bridgestone/Firestone's Dayton Tire plant, hit by overseas competition and shrinking demand, has been racking up millions of dollars in losses and may have to be closed, company officials said Friday.
Steve Brooks, vice president of manufacturing operations for the tire company, said no final decision has been made, but union officials have been notified there is a potential for closure of the 2.6 million square-foot plant in southwest Oklahoma City, which employs 1,423 people and 158 contract employees and makes about 26,200 tires per day.
He said the factory lost $40 million last year and $17 million in the first quarter of this year alone. Projections indicate the losses for this year could be as high as $60 million. The plant has an annual payroll of about $128 million. The average worker makes $900 per week, plus $800 in weekly benefits.
"The bottom line is this plant is losing enormous amounts of money and for the overall good of our business we had to make a decision to move forward," Brooks said. "The market that this facility operates in has been shrinking.
"In addition, we've got fierce competition in that marketplace. ... Even considering substantial capital investment, we didn't feel we had a good business case to make this plant globally competitive."
He said the plant has been buffeted by rising production costs and strong competition from low-end imported tires.
Brooks said the company is talking to union representatives, but isn't looking for any particular concessions. No plant closure is expected before Dec. 31. The company is required under union agreement to negotiate with workers for a six-month period before closing the facility.
The company's contract with the United Steel Workers union expires in July, but Brooks said the announcement wasn't a negotiating tactic.
David Nichols, a divisional steward for the United Steel Workers union local in Oklahoma City, declined comment.
"It just happened this morning," Nichols said. "It's new to everyone. That's pretty much where we're at right now. We haven't thought that far ahead yet."
Nichols said the local has about 1,000 members, all employed at the Dayton Tire plant.
It's at least the second time the plant has been threatened with a shutdown. In 1987 the plant was saved after union members accepted wage and benefit cutbacks.
The plant has operated since 1969. Brooks said despite $40 million in renovations and updates during the past three years, the plant continued losing money.
The plant makes 13-, 14- and 15-inch tires for cars and light trucks at a time when 16-inch tires have become a more popular size.
In Japan and Europe, the government would be doing all it could to save the jobs. The company could surely absorb the losses through the profits it makes elsewhere, in addition.
But they close plants and move it all offshore. This is a receipe for disaster. Yet they don't care. It's all about the short-term profit.
I believe with these new standards we are going to see a net increase of turbocharging to increase horsepower and torque without sacrificing fuel economy.
That would be the sensible thing to do, but that would require hard work and a willingness to do what's already been done elsewhere in the world. The evidence to date suggests that the more likely approach is to exploit whatever loopholes allow the engineers to continue with the status quo ante. In other words, you'll be waiting a very long time for a turbocharged G8.
Comments
Lance and a Z-06
A Winning combo !!!!!
Rocky
http://www.detroitnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060406/AUTO01/604060381/- 1148
Rocky
http://www.detroitnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060406/METRO01/604060310- /1148/AUTO01
The motor city will be hurtin'
Rocky
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2006604060556
Rocky
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060406/BUSINESS01/604060554/10- 14
Rocky
Some good reads folks.........
Rocky
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12208037/
I don't buy this HAWG WASH propoganda put out by the pro-immigration lobby. :sick:
Rocky
America, meet your new autoworkers.
http://www.detroitnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060408/AUTO01/604080369/- - 1148
Rocky
DETROIT — DaimlerChrysler has introduced what is believed to be the world's first fuel-cell-powered police vehicle.
The Mercedes F-Cell will be used as a supervisor's vehicle at the Wayne State University police department here and serve as a "learning laboratory" for students in the WSU College of Engineering Alternative Energy Technology, a masters-degree program in alternative energy.
The vehicle has a range of about 100 miles and a top speed of 85 mph, the company said in a statement. The electric motor develops 88 horsepower and accelerates from zero to 60 mph in 16 seconds. The F-Cell vehicle will be refueled at NextEnergy's new hydrogen-fueling station in Detroit.
The F-Cell cop car is outfitted with a police radio, lights and sirens. In a statement, the company said: "The demanding operation of a police car will produce valuable data to help develop fuel-cell technology."
What this means to you: Zero-emissions law enforcement comes to Detroit.
Rocky
Mercedes helps out Chrysler.
Rocky
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?Category=BUSINESS01
Rocky
This is a must read.......
Rocky
http://www.detroitnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060409/AUTO01/604090315/- 1148
Yeah, but some of that are options that are probably worthless in real life at the moment, and a good chunk of the stock he's going to give away to charity, so I don't think Bill Ford is part of the overpaid exec problem in corporate America...
Rocky
Rocky
General Motors Corp. chopped another 100 white-collar jobs Monday as part of the automaker's yearlong downsizing of salaried and contract employees.
GM has said it hopes to cut about 7 percent of its U.S. salaried work force of 36,000 people, plus a similar percentage of contract employees.
The moves are part of GM's sweeping cost-reduction efforts that began after the automaker posted a $10.6 billion loss last year.
A GM spokesman confirmed about 100 salaried and contract workers left the company Monday.
"This is part of our ongoing policy on the reduction of salaried staff," said Robert Herta of GM. "This is something that will continue through the remainder of 2006."
GM began the process by eliminating 500 contract-worker jobs in January. Last month, the company cut "several hundred" other white-collar jobs at facilities across the United States.
Herta declined to give a breakdown of the job losses between salaried workers and contract employees, who are on the payrolls of outside suppliers. "It's across the board," he said.
The white-collar cutbacks are in addition to GM's broad plan to downsize its U.S. manufacturing operations and hourly work force.
GM Chairman Rick Wagoner said the company wants to reduce its hourly work force of 113,000 by 30,000 people by 2008. To that end, GM is offering buyout and early retirement programs to each of its rank-and-file workers.
On Friday, a U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge in New York approved GM's plan to offer buyouts or early retirement to as many as 13,000 hourly workers at Delphi Corp., the bankrupt parts suppler that was once part of GM.
In addition to white-collar cuts, GM is taking other steps to lower costs. They include a 50 percent reduction in GM's quarterly dividend, a cut in senior management salaries and higher out-of-pocket health care costs for hourly retirees.
Rocky
Date posted: 04-18-2006
CINCINNATI — As Toyota gets ready to power past General Motors as the world's largest automaker, it is trying to take the edge off in the industrial heartland with a series of billboards in 24 U.S. markets where the Japanese automaker has factories or supplier operations.
The billboards have gone up from Fremont, California, where Toyota partners with GM at a plant, to Huntsville, Alabama, where the company makes engines. The messages try to quantify Toyota's contributions with the emphasis on numbers. "Donuts in a baker's dozen; Toyota's U.S. investment: in billions," reads one billboard.
"Our intent is to raise awareness of our growing U.S. presence," Patricia Pineda, Toyota Motor North America's group vice president for corporate communications, told the Associated Press.
As may be expected, the United Auto Workers union is not pleased by the new ad campaign. "We're not real happy about it," said Tony Currington, vice president of UAW Local 696, whose members face possible closure of a Dayton brake plant by Delphi, the largest parts supplier for GM.
What this means to you: "Buy American" appeals are fading as Toyota tries to make U.S. workers ask, "What's 'Buy American' Mean Anymore?"
What this means to me: Until Toyota can match GM's domestic content per unit, it's still Japanese and not American, even if they become #1 in america. It will be a sad day and will make our WWII Veterans spin in their graves with the question: "Why did I die, for a generation of backstabbers" ????? :sick:
Rocky
Rocky
Ford's Mark Fields said the location of new plants will be decided by money, not politics. See full image
Low-cost plants in Michigan
GM's Grand River Assembly Plant (Lansing): Features team-based work force, flexible manufacturing.
Chrysler's Belvidere Assembly Plant (Belvidere): Subassemblies are outsourced to suppliers, team-based work force.
Global Engine Manufacturing Alliance World Engine Plant (Dundee): Non-auto jobs are outsourced, two job classifications.
NEW YORK -- Now that Ford Motor Co. has announced its promised second round of plant closings, attention has turned to the company's plan to build a new, low-cost manufacturing facility somewhere in North America.
Just where the new factory will be has been the subject of much speculation since the plan was announced as part of the company's broader restructuring strategy in January. Initially, most bets were on Mexico.
Mark Fields, president of Ford's Americas group, told The Detroit News that the location of the new plants will be decided by money, not politics. "The criterion is low cost," Fields said. "The criterion is not geography."
Behind the scenes, other Ford officials say the company prefers to build the new factory in the United States, but only if it can be fully competitive with those operated by Asian rivals such as Toyota and Hyundai. That will require major flexibility on the part of the United Auto Workers. Otherwise, Ford will not hesitate to put the plant in Mexico or Canada.
"The union is really interested in cooperating on this," said David Cole, chairman of the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, adding that he expects the new plant to be the jewel in Ford's manufacturing crown. "This is all very doable."
In recent years, both General Motors Corp. and DaimlerChrysler AG's Chrysler Group have had some success building efficient and cost-effective manufacturing facilities in the United States.
GM's highly automated Grand River Assembly Plant in Lansing has become a model for the domestic automotive industry.
Most factories organized by the UAW divide the labor of automotive assembly into dozens of job classifications, and workers are rarely allowed to do anything not covered in their job description.
There are fewer job classifications at Grand River, and workers there are organized into teams. Each team member -- including the team leader -- knows how to perform each task that the team is responsible for. That means workers can be rotated and fill in for each other as needed. This approach allows for more flexibility on the factory floor and allows the plant to meet production targets with fewer workers. Union officials say it also translates into better quality and fewer ergonomic injuries.
GM's Lansing plant also embodies the flexible manufacturing ideal. It produces the Cadillac CTS, SRX and STS on the same line.
Chrysler's Belvidere Assembly Plant is another example of flexible manufacturing coupled with a modern operating agreement. With more automation and fewer workers, the plant produces the new Dodge Caliber and will be responsible for assembling the Jeep Compass and Patriot later this year. Much of the subassembly work at Belvidere is outsourced to suppliers, making for a more cost-effective operation.
However, Cole said the best model for modern manufacturing -- and a modern manufacturing agreement -- is the Global Engine Manufacturing Alliance World Engine Plant, which opened last year in Dundee. The plant is a part of a global joint venture between DaimlerChrysler, Hyundai Motor Co. Ltd. and Mitsubishi Motors Corp.
There are only two job classifications at the plant, which requires extensive cross-training for all workers. To make sure they are up to the challenge, all applicants are required to have at least some college education. Much of the nonmanufacturing work at the Dundee factory is outsourced, meaning the company does not have to give UAW wages and benefits to the people who mow the lawn and clean the bathrooms.
UAW officials say these success stories demonstrate the union's willingness to embrace more flexible work arrangements. "If (Ford) could get a contract like (Dundee), that would be absolutely critical," Cole said. "A modern, 21st-century plant with a 20th-century labor agreement just doesn't make sense."
Given that Ford plans to close more than a dozen plants in North America over the next six years, some may wonder why the company needs another factory. But Cole said it makes sense for Ford to start from scratch. Ford's existing factories were built before the company got the religion of lean manufacturing, and previous attempts to apply this science have involved shoe-horning new assembly lines into outdated buildings.
"If you don't lay out your new building efficiently, you are just trading one plant for another and you are not really saving anything," said Rebecca McCarter, a benchmarking expert for the Michigan Manufacturing Technology Center in Plymouth. "(And) if they are looking at a green manufacturing plants, it's way easier to start fresh than do it with an existing plant."
Moreover, building a new factory allows Ford to set up a bidding war between the states. Asian manufacturers like Toyota Motor Corp. and Hyundai have received hundreds of millions of dollars in tax incentives for their American plants, and Ford could expect similar incentives.
"I don't think there's any way this plant will be done outside of the UAW," Cole said, though he said the competing Canadian Auto Workers union also will make a big play for the plant. "It would be a real slap in the face to the union."
Besides, he expects the new plant will be a valuable bargaining chip for Ford when its contract with the UAW expires next year.
Rocky
P.S.
I suppose it better than nothing, eh ?
http://www.detroitnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060416/AUTO01/604160341/- 1148/AUTO01
http://www.detroitnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060416/AUTO01/604160342/- 1148/AUTO01
Rocky
http://www.detroitnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060415/AUTO01/604150338/- 1148/AUTO01
Rocky
http://www.detroitnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060419/BIZ03/604190401
The domino has fallen in Michigan :mad:
Rocky
Rocky
Rocky
Midwest losing clout as one of world's major automaking hubs, study finds.
DETROIT -- Michigan has lost nearly 1 in 3 manufacturing jobs since 1999 and impending factory closures by automakers and suppliers could further erode the state's position as a major global automotive hub, according to a new analysis by the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor.
Michigan faces a confluence of forces that threaten its bread-and-butter industry, including overseas competition, the rise of the auto industry in the American South and the continued loss of U.S. market share by Detroit's Big Three automakers.
"So this brings up the natural question: Where the heck is the business?" said Sean McAlinden, chief economist for the Center of Automotive Research. "It's really not developing here."
McAlinden spoke Wednesday at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago's automotive conference in Detroit. His report -- "The New Geography of Auto Production" -- came the same day Michigan reported its jobless rate rose to 6.8 percent in March while the nation's unemployment remains at a healthy 4.7 percent.
McAlinden pointed to several trends that could continue to haunt Michigan and the Midwest in the coming years. Northern U.S. states have lost 200,000 transportation equipment manufacturing jobs since 1990, while Southern states have gained nearly that many jobs, largely due to new Japanese auto plants.
At the same time, North America has tumbled to the No. 3 slot globally for automotive production behind Asia and Europe. And while worldwide auto sales are growing, demand in North America is stagnant -- and the Big Three's share of the market is expected to keep declining.
"Where there's not sales growth in the market at all everything is market share, everything is price and it becomes particularly vicious," McAlinden said. "There's no rising tides to lift any boats in this market."
The analysis paints a grim picture for Michigan, which is already bracing for more job losses as two of its three major auto companies close factories and cut tens of thousands of jobs to compete with more efficient foreign rivals.
By the end of 2008, General Motors Corp.'s North American plant capacity will fall to 4.3 million units from 6.2 million in 2004; and Ford Motor Co.'s will drop to 3.3 million from 4.6 million, McAlinden said.
"GM will become the size of Ford," he said. "Ford will become the size of Chrysler and Chrysler will become the size of Chrysler -- if we're lucky."
Through 2010, GM and Ford's job cuts should amount to 50,000 hourly workers and 7,000 salary employees. Add cuts by parts maker Delphi Corp. and Automotive Holdings Co., a collection of underperforming plants Ford took over from Visteon Corp., and the worst-case scenario for the region is a loss of 106,200 jobs, McAlinden said.
Underscoring Michigan's problems, the March jobless rate marks the widest gap between the state and the national unemployment rate since 1992, said Dana Johnson, chief economist for Comerica.
Michigan has lost 20,000 manufacturing jobs since March 2005, according to the Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Growth. Beyond the layoffs at GM, Ford and the major auto suppliers, thousands of jobs in smaller businesses have shrunk or vanished because of the struggles of Detroit's automakers.
Behind the numbers are residents struggling to make ends meet. For 10 years, Jaime Kress, 38, of Ypsilanti assembled customized seats for SUVs for a supplier that abruptly shut down last year due to plummeting sales of the large vehicles.
It wasn't a union job, but the $11.50-an-hour wage was the most Kress, a high school graduate, had ever earned, she said. She has since earned a living by cobbling together part-time jobs as a sales clerk and waitress.
"Nobody really wants to hire you full time because so many people are out of work and they know they can string you along," she said.
Patrick Anderson, a Lansing economist who heads his own consulting firm, said it's tough to predict how many more Michigan workers will lose jobs. Delphi's bankruptcy is the biggest hit to Michigan's economy in decades, and will result in thousands of job losses, deep wage cuts and millions in lost tax revenues for state coffers.
But there are some pockets of hope for Michigan, which still has a deep pool of talented workers, Anderson said. If the state can continue to support advanced manufacturing and research and development, it can continue to compete in the global economy, he said.
Tim Leuliette, CEO of automotive supplier Metaldyne Corp., said Wednesday that Michigan is in a transformation stage "on a scale that we have not seen before."
But, he added, that doesn't mean there isn't hope for the region, which has been the hub of vehicle assembly for years.
"The Midwest can be competitive but it's a culture issue and it's a cost issue," he said. "I'm bullish on the northern Midwest. The skills are here but you have to have the right parameters."
That means taking the reins on research and development of alternative fuels.
Cars and trucks running on hydrogen fuel is the future, said Leuliette. States that are less dominant in automotive production such as New York and Georgia already have research projects on hydrogen fuel in progress.
Leuliette said it doesn't make sense that the Midwest, where automotive history runs deep, sits on the sidelines. The region could benefit by becoming a leader in producing engines that operate on alternative fuels and ones that are gas-electric or hybrids, turning job losses into job gains.
McAlinden said the good news for the region is that there are fragile, difficult-to-ship parts that may never leave North American factories.
"This stuff, we hope, which has relatively good labor percentage means jobs at a competitive level," he said.
http://www.detroitnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060420/AUTO01/604200397
How Shanghai will compete
SHANGHAI, China - Ten days ago, the Shanghai Auto Industry Corporation (SAIC) unveiled plans that turned many heads in Detroit, Tokyo and Wolfsburg. By 2010, the company aims to build 200,000 cars a year, of which 45,000 units will be for export. SAIC is betting $1.2 billion on the endeavor.
Is there good reason for SAIC to make its own cars? Or is the company simply out to appease patriotic officials in Beijing who clamor for more Chinese-branded cars?
At first blush, it appears that SAIC is - or should be - just going through the motions. But do not be lulled into a false sense of security. Shanghai always means business.
Let us first look at what skeptics rightly cite as the counterweights to SAIC's ambitions.
For starters, SAIC is already a 50 percent owner in China"s two most powerful joint ventures, Shanghai General Motors (SGM) and Shanghai Volkswagen (SVW). In the first quarter of 2006, SGM and SVW sold 176,000 cars, capturing 19 percent of the market. Developing a series of SAIC-branded cars to compete with SGM and SVW (and against itself) will be a tight rope walk.
Second, SAIC’s initial series of products will be made-for-China derivatives of the Rover 75 and 25 sedans. These models, to be priced between $15,000 and $35,000, will compete head-on with the newest offerings from Toyota, Honda, Hyundai, Ford and others for a share of China’s market. Global competitors trounced the Rover brand in England, its home market. To contend in China, SAIC will have to find ways to make the cars at lower cost and higher levels of quality.
Further complicating the competitive arena is an un-expected threat from Shanghai’s own backyard. The Nanjing Automotive Corporation, situated 120 miles up the Yangtze River, plans to build cars off the Rover 75 and 25 platforms too. SAIC bought the rights to produce the Rover 25 and 75 models in May 2005. But then, several weeks later, Nanjing acquired the Rover tooling and equipment.
Folks who live in China understand that Shanghai (the city owns SAIC) is never satisfied with anything less than stunning success. This City thrives on being the best in China. It expects, one day, to be the number one metropolis in the world.
But can the industrious and driven people of Shanghai design, engineer, and market their own great cars?
They may not need to. If you look at Shanghai’s pattern for achieving best in class, there is a clear tendency: Borrow from the outside whenever it makes sense. For example, the Shanghai World Financial Center, which will be the world’s tallest skyscraper, was designed and engineered Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates of America. Many call "peerless” the Tilke-engineered $100 million world-class Formula One racing circuit in the western reaches of the city. And then there is the City’s Siemens-designed 240mph magnetic levitation train that came in at a cost of just under $120 million.
Building cars, of course, is highly complex. SAIC might learn to manufacture its own cars from scratch. This would take many, long years. Or it could go shopping overseas. The $1.2 billion initial investment did not clean out the money till. Do not be surprised to see SAIC recruit highly-talented international automotive designers, engineers and marketers to build the business.
Whatever it takes to be number one. :surprise:
http://www.detroitnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060420/AUTO02/604200301/- - 1148/AUTO01
I guess it's WWIII in the auto-industry, and I'll be pulling for everyone else but them,
especially the Big 3
Rocky
Yes, if former Detroit Mayor Dennis Archer, chairman of the Detroit Regional Chamber's annual Mackinac Policy Conference, has anything to say about it. He's heard the carping -- oh, has he heard it -- and he's doing something about it.
Which is more than can be said of a lot of other organizations 'round here, public and private, who've elevated to high art the practice of doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Not so, his honor, not this time.
He's after big names -- the White House declined on behalf of the president last week; President Clinton is still a possibility. He's after change agents like Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, a Republican and could-be presidential contender who helped engineer health care coverage for all.
He's after Big Labor, as in Teamsters President Jim Hoffa, who's been asked to join a panel on health care. He should, because lasting change in Michigan demands participation of labor -- unless it happens without labor, which would be real ugly.
Recap just beginning
Who cares, you say, how the chairs are metaphorically arranged on the front porch of the Grand Hotel? If the players gathering there six weeks from now weren't hip-deep in the most brutal -- and permanent -- economic transformation Michigan has seen in decades, it wouldn't mean a thing.
But we're facing transformation run amok. We're in the early stages of a recapitalization of the auto industry that is forcing stunning change on Detroit's automakers, suppliers and their biggest unions. We're in an even earlier stage of recapitalization in the public sector, which will feel more pain as Big Auto shrinks to a more realistic and sustainable size. Count on it.
What we don't need are CEOs sitting out another Mackinac because the chamber's agenda-meisters are more fixated on whether the Four Tops start on time or because the "business" side has been hijacked by politicians and nonprofit poo-bahs, their collective hands out and their particular spiels ready.
"It's important for the CEOs to come," Archer told me Tuesday. "We are discouraging people from having fund-raisers, from having other things during the time we are meeting."
Action trumps debate
Good thing. My chief complaint about Mackinac has been its descent into a boozy junket -- lots of talk, little action, the obligatory Brooks and Kwame show and a studied refusal to acknowledge the elephants in the room.
Archer deserves credit for acting on the criticism. For using the conference to kick-start a year of business forums. For recognizing our regional interdependence by adding Windsor Mayor Eddie Francis to create "the Big Five." For emphasizing local corporate heavies like Chrysler CEO Tom LaSorda, (maybe) Roger Penske and outsiders like Johnson Controls CEO John Barth over politicians.
Archer knows first-hand that change comes when pols and business work together. He's resetting the table, but they'll have to do the work.
Rocky
Foreign companies could match Detroit automakers in U.S. auto sales within five years if current trends continue, industry experts said Wednesday at a conference sponsored by the Detroit branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.
General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and DaimlerChrysler AG account for about 60% of all U.S. sales. But Asian automakers, led by Toyota Motor Co. and Honda Motor Co., are gaining ground fast.
GM and Ford will get smaller as they close plants and cut jobs in the next few years, said Sean McAlinden, chief economist for the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor. GM has made a decision to move away from incentives, even if it means losing sales, he said.
"GM is going to become the size of Ford," McAlinden said. "And Ford's going to become the size of Chrysler. And Chrysler is going to become the size of Chrysler -- if they're lucky."
The bad news is that the trend means more job cuts for Michigan's auto industry. In addition to the cuts at Ford and GM, Delphi Corp. and Automotive Components Holding LLC, a spin-off from Visteon Corp., also could get smaller as they sell off plants.
The four companies combined put more than 100,000 jobs at risk, McAlinden said.
The good news for Michigan is that the domestic automakers appear to be retrenching in the Midwest as they close the plants, he said.
Ford, for example, last week announced it would be idling pickup plants in St. Paul, Minn., and Norfolk, Va., which could create more work for the company's Dearborn Truck Plant.
"They're going to be smaller companies, but our share of those companies is going to be bigger," McAlinden said.
The threat of jobs moving South also is lessening, he said. In the last two decades, auto plants have cropped up from South Carolina to Texas.
Alabama has become a central hub with plants from Toyota, Honda, DaimlerChrysler and Hyundai Motor Co.
The Southern states, though, are running out of qualified workers, McAlinden said. "I think Alabama is flat out of people."
All they are is analyst, what the hell do they know ! :mad:
Rocky
UAG, which is led by chairman Roger Penske, posted first-quarter net income of $24.1 million, or 51 cents a share, up from $22.9 million, or 49 cents a share, from a year ago. The global company operates 294 retail automotive franchises, representing 40 different brands, and 27 collision repair centers.
Revenues for the January-March period were $2.7 billion, up 12%, from $2.4 billion a year ago. Same-store revenues, for stores open at least a year, were up 4% compared to the same period a year ago.
During a conference call with analysts and journalists, Penske boasted that his company posted solid gains in revenues and profits.
New-vehicle sales in the United States were up just 1.1% through the first three months of the year and were off 4.6% in Britain, where most of UAG's international dealerships are.
"We believe that our strategy of aligning our brand mix with strong brands that are gaining market share helped us to perform in a tough first-quarter market," Penske said.
In all, UAG made a retail profit of $2,947 per new vehicle sold and $2,482 per used vehicle sold. While that is up from $2,901 per new vehicle and $2,373 per used vehicle a year ago, the company reports that overall profits for new and used vehicles declined slightly.
More than half of UAG's revenues come from foreign or luxury brands, such as Toyota, Lexus, BMW, Honda and Acura, which have been gaining sales and market share in the United States and globally. About 60% of the company's revenues, meanwhile, come from upscale brands.
Only 8% of UAG's global revenues in the first quarter came from domestic brands owned by General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler Group. That's down from 10% during the same period a year ago, and Penske noted that UAG recently sold a Ford dealership in Phoenix.
Tony Pordon, senior vice-president of investor relations, said that UAG remains committed to domestic automakers. In the United States, he noted, 13% of UAG's brand mix is from GM, Ford and Chrysler. What's more, when foreign brands owned by Ford and DaimlerChrysler AG are included -- such as Jaguar and Mercedes-Benz -- 28% of UAG revenues come from domestic automakers. That's the same amount as last year.
Penske also said he's in negotiations with local automakers on opportunities to expand his dealership chain.
"I'm certainly an advocate of the domestics," Penske said. "Somebody asked me the other day: 'What's going to happen to GM?' And I said, 'They're going to be here alive and well. ... They've got good products.' "
Meanwhile, UAG's strong foreign and luxury brand mix wasn't the only factor that helped lift quarterly results.
The company's increasing business in the service and parts business also helped considerably. Revenues in the service and parts business grew 16.2%, to $308.9 million, and the return in that part of the business is a robust 55 %.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060419/BUSINESS01/604190411/10- 14
Rocky
Of the problems with the U.S. supply industry, Ross said too many suppliers are tied to the U.S. automakers as they steadily lose market share, supplier costs are too high and though foreign automakers establish assembly plants in the United States, they typically lean toward doing business with suppliers from their home countries.
"At this point, you may be wondering why I am so eager to invest in an industry with such a bleak near-term outlook," Ross said as the room of about 100 people at the Detroit Institute of Arts erupted in laughter.
Ross listed several reasons:
• The auto-supply industry is huge, around $200 billion domestically and close to $500 billion globally.
"Individual companies may come and go, but the industry as such is here to stay," he said.
• The global supply industry is highly fragmented, meaning no one supplier dominates. Only Robert Bosch has more than a 5% global market share.
Delphi Corp. "had been close, but as it divests operations and closes factories, its share is shrinking," Ross said of the Troy-based supplier now under bankruptcy court protection.
• By outsourcing engineering to China and India, he can save money and find better talent.
Through his company, International Automotive Components Group, Ross has most recently worked to consolidate parts of Lear Corp. and Collins & Aikman Corp.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060419/BUSINESS01/604190477/10- 14
Rocky
Retired white-collar workers at Chrysler are bracing for major expenses and headaches next year when their company-paid medical, dental and vision coverage is replaced by a lump-sum health savings account.
While General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co. have capped health care coverage for salaried retirees at 2006 levels, they have not dropped company-paid coverage. Chrysler, however, is taking a different tack with its 17,500 salaried retirees.
Beginning Jan. 1, DaimlerChrysler AG's Chrysler Group will provide Medicare-eligible retirees -- those 65 and older -- with $1,750 in annual supplemental benefits. Retirees with a spouse or domestic partner are eligible for an additional $1,750. This will replace the Chrysler medical, prescription drug, dental and vision coverage that retirees receive.
Retirees recently received an eight-page letter explaining the changes. "I really don't think most retirees realize what they did here," said Chris Mykrantz, 69, a Chrysler retiree who estimates his out-of-pocket expenses will grow by $5,000 a year. "Chrysler said they put us in the driver's seat where we can make decisions about our coverage. Have you seen those crash test dummies? That's the kind of driver's seat we're in."
Chrysler, which has seen its health care costs double since 2000 to $2.3 billion, says the moves were made for economic reasons. "It helps us share the costs of our plan in what we feel is an equitable way," said spokesman Dave Elshoff.
Many retirees, though, are worried their costs will skyrocket. Mykrantz, a Brighton resident who worked in Chrysler's health care and finance departments for 30 years, sits at his computer for two to three hours a day to figure out his health care situation. He calculates that he and his wife will pay $2,244 a year for Medicare premiums, $2,880 for Medigap insurance, $4,800 for the Medicare Part D drug plan and $900 for dental, vision and hearing coverage. After the $3,500 Chrysler contribution, they'll be left to pay at least $7,324 next year. By contrast, he'll pay $2,300 this year.
Retirees say finding affordable medical, dental and vision coverage will be difficult because they'll have to sift through plans that vary depending on the region of the country in which they reside.
Medicare Part D excludes and restricts certain drugs covered by Chrysler's health care group plan, they say.
Chrysler is among a growing number of companies establishing health care accounts, part of a transition from an era in which employers provided a safety net to one in which employees and retirees assume more cost and risk.
The shift parallels a similar trend away from traditional pensions toward 401(k) plans.
Elshoff said new plans such as Chrysler's put the purchasing decision for health care benefits into individuals' hands.
"Now you're going to look for the best doctor at the best price for your money in your area," Elshoff said. "It really begins to change the dynamic of the patient-doctor relationship."
With their health care retirement accounts in mind, retirees will require more information from physicians regarding care.
"You're going to force the provider to give you the service that you're demanding," Elshoff said. "No unnecessary test, no unnecessary procedures."
Chrysler's white-collar retirees who haven't reached age 65 will share a percentage of health care premium increases based on their final annual salary. For example, retirees who left the company at an income below $50,000 will pay half of future premium increases because of health care inflation, while employees who earned $171,000 or more will pay 100 percent of any premium increases.
To educate retirees about the changes, the automaker will conduct a series of seminars beginning next month in cities such as Detroit and Toledo where a large number of Chrysler retirees reside. A hot line and Web site also will be put in place, Elshoff said.
David Kudla, CEO and investment strategist of Grand Blanc-based Mainstay Capital Management LLC, said many companies -- particularly those with a large pool of retired employees such as IBM -- are offering health retirement accounts to former workers as an alternative.
Kudla said Chrysler's new plan "leaves the door open for future increases."
Chrysler retiree George Glass, 72, said from what he knows about the pending health care changes, he's not worried.
"I'm not going to lose sleep over it," said Glass, who worked in product planning and design for the automaker for 34 years.
A resident of Arizona, Glass said there are benefits he'd considered doing without such as dental and vision. Glass said he'd rather endure cuts and help Chrysler reduce its health care spending.
For retirees bracing for the change, Tom Lindquist, president of the retiree solutions division for UnitedHealth Group, a health care company, advises that they learn what their plans cover and begin researching to make "sure that you have the same type of coverage going forward."
Rocky
The European Union head office said it has doubts the aid being given by the Belgian regional government in Flanders will be spent on training and said it could violate EU state aid rules.
Under those rules, national or regional governments are not allowed to give support or operating aid to private companies if it distorts EU competition rules. All aid proposals have to be notified for review to the Commission by EU governments.
"The Commission strongly supports training activities. However, there is a risk that this aid actually covers training costs that the company would have incurred anyway, even without aid," EU Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes said in a statement.
"We therefore have to check that the aid genuinely triggers additional training activities and not simply distorts competition." Belgium notified the EU Commission last December of its aid plan for the GM's Opel plant, which could face closure or shift cuts as part of restructuring of its European operations.
Opel announced last year that it would cut 9,500 jobs in Germany alone. The company said in February that it could cut 1,000 more jobs across Europe because of slowing demand for its cars.
Rocky
The suspicions against Hilmar Kopper were not confirmed by evidence, said Tomke Beddies, a spokeswoman for prosecutors in Stuttgart.
The prosecutors had been examining allegations that Kopper may have improperly informed Deutsche Bank's chief executive last year that former DaimlerChrysler chief executive Juergen Schrempp would announce his resignation on July 28. Kopper denied any wrongdoing.
Schrempp's announcement caused DaimlerChrysler stock to rise as much as 10 percent in value.
The same day, Deutsche Bank _ where Kopper once also served as chairman of the supervisory board _ announced it was selling a stake in the German-American automaker for about 1.4 billion euros ($1.7 billion).
Germany's financial market regulator opened an investigation in mid-August after saying it found grounds to suspect illegal trades in DaimlerChrysler shares just before the Schrempp announcement.
The regulator asked banks to provide it with details of who bought and sold DaimlerChrysler shares so it could search for links to anyone who knew the company's plans.
Stuttgart prosecutors opened their probe in September.
Rocky
It makes me puke that they have slit peoples throats to make an extra buck and they retire on a unlimited platinum card. :mad: This story make me so angry, and gets my blood boiling.
Rocky
Date posted: 04-29-2006
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Bush administration, which had opposed calls for tougher fuel-economy standards for cars in the past, now says they might be a good idea.
The president and his Department of Transportation Chief Norman Mineta are calling on Congress to pass a law requiring higher corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) standards for cars, but no changes are likely until at least the 2009 model year.
The Senate could vote on the measure as part of its new energy bill as early as next week. The current corporate average fuel economy standard for cars is 27.5 miles per gallon, a number that hasn't been revised in two decades.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration issued new rules for light trucks earlier this year that will increase fuel efficiency to 24.1 mpg by 2011. The White House proposes that the U.S. switch to a group of size-based standards similar to the light truck standards. The administration did not offer specific details on any new fuel standards for cars, but still opposes a higher single CAFE standard for all cars, arguing that such a move would result in lighter, but less safe vehicles.
What this means to you: The powers that be are backpedaling furiously to placate angry consumers.
http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do/News/articleId=114914
Rocky
OKLAHOMA CITY -- Bridgestone/Firestone's Dayton Tire plant, hit by overseas competition and shrinking demand, has been racking up millions of dollars in losses and may have to be closed, company officials said Friday.
Steve Brooks, vice president of manufacturing operations for the tire company, said no final decision has been made, but union officials have been notified there is a potential for closure of the 2.6 million square-foot plant in southwest Oklahoma City, which employs 1,423 people and 158 contract employees and makes about 26,200 tires per day.
He said the factory lost $40 million last year and $17 million in the first quarter of this year alone. Projections indicate the losses for this year could be as high as $60 million. The plant has an annual payroll of about $128 million. The average worker makes $900 per week, plus $800 in weekly benefits.
"The bottom line is this plant is losing enormous amounts of money and for the overall good of our business we had to make a decision to move forward," Brooks said. "The market that this facility operates in has been shrinking.
"In addition, we've got fierce competition in that marketplace. ... Even considering substantial capital investment, we didn't feel we had a good business case to make this plant globally competitive."
He said the plant has been buffeted by rising production costs and strong competition from low-end imported tires.
Brooks said the company is talking to union representatives, but isn't looking for any particular concessions. No plant closure is expected before Dec. 31. The company is required under union agreement to negotiate with workers for a six-month period before closing the facility.
The company's contract with the United Steel Workers union expires in July, but Brooks said the announcement wasn't a negotiating tactic.
David Nichols, a divisional steward for the United Steel Workers union local in Oklahoma City, declined comment.
"It just happened this morning," Nichols said. "It's new to everyone. That's pretty much where we're at right now. We haven't thought that far ahead yet."
Nichols said the local has about 1,000 members, all employed at the Dayton Tire plant.
It's at least the second time the plant has been threatened with a shutdown. In 1987 the plant was saved after union members accepted wage and benefit cutbacks.
The plant has operated since 1969. Brooks said despite $40 million in renovations and updates during the past three years, the plant continued losing money.
The plant makes 13-, 14- and 15-inch tires for cars and light trucks at a time when 16-inch tires have become a more popular size.
http://www.detroitnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060429/AUTO01/604290351/- 1148
Rocky :sick:
But they close plants and move it all offshore. This is a receipe for disaster. Yet they don't care. It's all about the short-term profit.
That would be the sensible thing to do, but that would require hard work and a willingness to do what's already been done elsewhere in the world. The evidence to date suggests that the more likely approach is to exploit whatever loopholes allow the engineers to continue with the status quo ante. In other words, you'll be waiting a very long time for a turbocharged G8.
Rocky
http://www.detroitnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060503/AUTO01/605030399/- 1148
Rocky
Rocky
:sick:
http://www.detroitnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060505/AUTO01/605050395/- 1148
Rocky
Rocky
Anyone know how the meeting went ?
Rocky