Supply and Demand

Automotive Industries,  Oct, 1999  

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NORTH AMERICA

AlliedSignal Acquires JME

AlliedSignal Inc. purchases Johnson Matthey Electronics (JME) for $655 million. JME will be a part of AlliedSignal's Electronic Materials business. The combination of the two companies will offer customers a full spectrum of interconnect solutions, from wafer fabrication through semiconductor packages and system assembly.

Calsonic Eberspacher Expands

Calsonic Eberspacher, headquartered in Esslingen, Germany, establishes its new automotive exhaust division subsidiary, Eberspacher North America Inc., in Farmington Hills, Mich. The company also plans to establish a research and development center in southeastern Michigan for complete exhaust systems.

Arvin Acquires Camloc

Arvin Industries Inc. acquires Camloc Gas Springs of Leicester, England, a designer and manufacturer of custom gas springs. Camloc will be integrated into Arvin's gas spring operation, AVM Inc., which is headquartered in Marion, S.C.

Ford Licenses Altair Software

Ford Motor Co. licenses three advanced engineering software tools from Altair Engineering of Troy, Mich. The CAE software, Altair HyperMesh, MotionView and SuspensionGen, are part of the company's HyperWorks engineering and design simulation software.

Dura Acquires Metallifacture

Dura Automotive Systems Inc. of Minneapolis acquires Nottingham, England-based Metallifacture Ltd. from Bullough plc. The aggregate purchase price was about $22 million. Metallifacture manufactures jacks and fire carriers for the European automotive industry.

Volkswagen Selects Dana Corp.

Dana Corp. is selected to provide Volkswagen AG with the first hydraulic clutch actuation system that VW will use in its compact car models. Dana also will supply brake boosters, wheel cylinders and brake hoses for Volkswagen's 2000 through 2003 compact car models. The contract is worth $40 million in sales. The products and systems will be manufactured in Dana's FTE automotive plants in Germany, Mexico and Brazil.

Superior in Arkansas

Superior Industries International Inc. acquires a 142,000-square-foot building in Heber Springs, Ark., close to the company's wheel manufacturing plant and engineering center in Fayetteville, Ark. The building will house the company's dedicated aluminum automotive components manufacturing operations.

American Axle Awarded Contract

DaimlerChrysler AG awards American Axle and Manufacturing Inc. a contract to supply a new generation of rear axles for a six-ton Mercedes transporter van for model year 2001. Axle production will begin in June 2000.

Kaneka Texas to Build in Michigan

Kaneka Texas Corp. plans to construct a new production facility in Jackson, Mich., for its EPERAN brand polymer products. The new plant will mold energy absorbing foam cores for car bumper systems.

ZF Meritor Joint Venture Finalized

Meritor Automotive Inc. finalizes its joint venture with ZF Friedrichshafen AG to form ZF Meritor LLC. Meritor and ZF each own 50% of the joint venture. The new company is based at the former Meritor transmission manufacturing plant in Laurinburg, N.C., and will produce medium- and heavy-duty transmission components and systems for OEMs and the aftermarket.

ASIA

Security Plastics in Malaysia

Security Plastics plans to open a molding and secondary operations plant in Penang, Malaysia. The 50,000-square-foot plant is expected to open sometime in 2000 and will offer Security Plastics' highly automated Heter-Cavity molding service.

Hyundai Opens Wind Tunnel

Hyundai Motor Co. opens a $40 million aeroacoustic wind tunnel at its Namyang Advanced Research and Development Center in South Korea. The tunnel is capable of producing wind speeds of nearly 125 mph.

EUROPE

Arvin Expands in Eastern Europe

Arvin Industries Inc. enters a joint venture agreement establishing an Arvin Exhaust operation in the Czech Republic. Arvin Exhaust, s.r.o., owned by Arvin and KARSIT, s.r.o., will supply Volkswagen AG with exhaust systems for the Skoda models.

Johnson Controls in Germany

Johnson Controls acquires two vehicle headliner manufacturing plants from Hanover, Germany-based Benecke-Kaliko AG. The plants, located in Peine and Uberherrn, Germany, supply products for Audi, Mercedes-Benz, Opel and Volkswagen.

SOUTH AMERICA

FAG Automotive Awarded Contract

FAG Automotives Ltd., a subsidiary of FAG Automotive, is awarded a long-term contract in Brazil to produce a specialty water pump bearing to be featured in the Dodge Neon.

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