Automotive 
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DETROIT (July 1, 5:10 p.m. ET) -- Lear Corp. said today it will soon file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy as the seat maker, reliant on the Detroit 3 for nearly 40 percent of sales, succumbed to the worst vehicle sales environment in nearly 30 years.
July 1, 2009
MENDON, MICH. (June 30, 2:30 p.m. ET) -- Michigan injection molder TH Plastics Inc. plans to open a new plant by the first quarter in 2010 in Findlay, Ohio. The company estimates 85 employees will be needed to operate the $3.2 million project, which received a $1.3 million low-interest, 10-year state loan.
June 30, 2009
WARREN, MICH. (June 30, 11:20 a.m. ET) -- Warren-based Sur-Flo Plastics and Engineering Inc. is beginning to call workers back after temporary layoffs at its Warren and Fraser, Mich., plants. The layoffs were due to shutdowns at Chrysler and General Motors plants.
June 30, 2009
AUBURN, ALA. (June 30, 11:15 a.m. ET) -- Injection molder Cumberland Plastic Solutions LLC will boost production and add 51 employees over the next two years. The company is growing in part to take on business from a Kia Motors Corp. plant in Georgia.
June 30, 2009
FAIRLAWN, OHIO (June 29, 4:15 p.m. ET) -- A. Schulman Inc. will end production of Invision-brand plastic sheet later this year. Ending production at a plant in Sharon Center, Ohio, will eliminate four jobs and save the firm $2 million to $3 million per year. Schulman will continue to make Invision-brand resin for sheet and thermoforming markets, but Chairman, President and CEO Joseph Gingo said in a news release that “much of Invision’s potential falls outside of A. Schulman’s manufacturing expertise in custom compounding.”
June 29, 2009
GUANGZHOU, CHINA (June 19, 1 p.m. ET) -- Despite the general market slowdown, BASF SE sees potential in the growing Chinese automotive sector, and believes it can help Chinese car makers upgrade quality and save cost with innovative engineering resin products.
June 19, 2009
YORK, S.C. (June 19, 10:05 a.m. ET) -- German auto lighting company Hella KGaA Hueck & Co. is closing its U.S. manufacturing operation and moving production to lower cost facilities in Mexico and Eastern Europe.
June 19, 2009
PARIS (June 18, 12:45 p.m. ET) -- Inergy Automotive Systems is building two new fuel systems plants in Asia, including its first plant in India for the growing auto business there. The plant near Chennai, India, will make fuel systems for a Japanese automaker’s plant in Bangalore, the Paris-based company announced in a June 18 news release. A plant near Beijing will make parts for a Hyundai Motor Co. vehicle beginning in 2010. It will be Inergy’s second facility in China. Inergy launched production in Wuhan last year.
June 18, 2009
DETROIT (June 18, 11:15 a.m. ET) -- The health of the supply base is now the auto industry's top concern, Ford Motor Co. CEO Alan Mulally said yesterday. "The most important thing that we do now is help them consolidate because we have this overcapacity," Mulally said.
June 18, 2009
TROY, MICH. (June 16, 1:15 p.m. ET) -- The U.S. auto task force has shot down suppliers’ request for $8 billion to $10 billion in additional federal aid, said Neil De Koker, president of parts trade group Original Equipment Manufacturers Association in Troy.
June 16, 2009
DETROIT (June 16, 8:40 a.m. ET) -- General Motors on June 15 named longtime purchasing executive Robert Socia, 55, to replace Bo Andersson as group vice president for purchasing and supply chain. Socia currently serves as executive vice president of Shanghai General Motors.
June 16, 2009
LANGEAIS, FRANCE (June 15, 4:30 p.m. ET) -- Langeais-based plastics firm Plastiques du Val de Loire (Plastivaloire) is poised to become France’s largest supplier of plastics to the auto industry with its €6m ($8.27 million) acquisition of Key Plastics’ operations in France and Slovakia.
June 15, 2009
DETROIT (June 15, 4:15 p.m. ET) -- Investor Wilbur Ross sees trouble for suppliers who will need to restart parts production after Chrysler llc and General Motors exit bankruptcy.
June 15, 2009
DETROIT (June 12, 10 a.m. ET) -- The face of General Motors Corp. for suppliers has left the company. Bo Andersson, who has led the Detroit-automaker’s global purchasing and supply chain operations since 2001, left GM on June 12. He established a reputation as a tough driver of prices during the 1990s when, as purchaser of chemical commodities, his unit fought back against price increases from GE Plastics.
June 12, 2009
BIRMINGHAM, ALA. (June 10, 4 p.m. ET) -- U.S. auto parts makers need at least $8 billion to $10 billion in additional federal aid to preserve the supply base and stave off more than 100 company insolvencies by 2010, a trade group told U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.
June 10, 2009
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