TPT-January-2015

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Global Marketplace
January 2015 71
In 2013, Mexico imposed tariffs on seamless steel tubes from
China after a Mexican steel company complained about unfair
pricing practices.
Some of the steel exported from China to Latin America in
the first half of 2014 could have gone into Chinese projects in
the region, suggested Ms Myers. And some, she said, might
be tied to increased infrastructure demand from the 2014
World Cup soccer tournament hosted by Brazil and the 2016
Summer Olympics, also scheduled for Brazil.
When she spoke with China Daily USA, China was poised
to announce an infrastructure fund targeting Latin America
and especially Mexico at December’s Asia-Pacific Economic
Cooperation (APEC) meeting in Beijing. It was expected
to work closely with the Mexican state-owned oil company
Pemex to help build out the industry.
Ms Myers was also, she said, “hearing talk” that China and the
Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC)
were set to announce an initiative that would consolidate
several existing lines of credit related to infrastructure
development in the region.
› Ms Myers told Mr Welitzkin, a New York-based
correspondent for the North American version of China
Daily USA, China’s English-language newspaper, “More
infrastructure development [in Latin America] will likely mean
an increase in demand for products from China.”
Of related interest . . .
› China has boosted exports to some Asian countries of
steel with the minimal boron content necessary to earn
a speciality or alloy steel classification and a generous tax
exemption. As reported by Reuters (29 October), Chinese
mills can get an export rebate that is five times greater than the
cost of adding 0.0008 per cent boron to a metric ton of steel,
sparking objections from Indian steelmakers, among others.
In the first half of 2014, boron alloy steel exports from China
reached 11.58 million metric tons, according to a government
report cited by Reuters. While denying that China is subsidising
its steel industry, Li Xinchuang, vice-secretary general of the
China Iron and Steel Association (CISA), acknowledged the
risk of problems associated with the boron alloy exports.
“There are countries around the world that are very unhappy,”
Mr Li told a conference in Tianjin in mid-October, as China’s
overall steel exports were hitting record highs. “But the
customers are very happy.”
Automotive
› As of 17 October, Kenneth Feinberg, who is directing
the assessment of 184 death claims received by the
General Motors Ignition Compensation Fund, had approved
settlements for surviving families in 29 fatal accidents involving
defective ignition switches. Another 27 people had received
compensation payments for serious injuries, of 1,333 claims
received.
The claims derive from switches installed in GM cars, most
from the model years 2003-07. In an instance of death as a
result of the defect, if Mr Feinberg deems the claim eligible the
victim’s family receives a minimum of $1mn. But the amounts
are not capped.
While General Motors hired Mr Feinberg, no company officials
are involved in the claims process. GM has estimated that in
the end its compensation costs will total between $400mn and
$600mn.
› Having added capacity for building 60,000 more cars per
year in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, USA, Daimler can begin
making the Mercedes-Benz ML Coupe – a new crossover the
German automaker plans to add to its lineup this year. The
assembly plant, which commenced production in 1997, will
soon be able to turn out more than 300,000 vehicles annually.
Mercedes is the first German producer in the luxury car
segment to produce a sedan in the US. Since 1993 the
company has invested more than $4bn in Alabama, including
$2.4bn for the current expansion in Tuscaloosa.
Detroit Free Press business writer Brent Snavely noted that
a United Auto Workers organising campaign “continues to
simmer in the background” at Tuscaloosa.
Alabama governor Robert Bentley has said that the
establishment of a local UAW chapter would impair the state’s
pro-business environment.
For its part, Mercedes-Benz remains neutral on the issue of
union representation at the automaker’s only car or SUV plant
worldwide that is not unionised.
› The next-generation Jeep Wrangler may have an
aluminium body and be assembled somewhere other
than Toledo, Ohio, USA, where its roots go back more than
70 years to the first Willys MB made for the US Army. Fiat
Chrysler Automobiles CEO Sergio Marchionne also hinted at
the Paris Motor Show in October that the Wrangler could be
built on a unibody structure, rather than body-on-frame.
The US government is requiring automakers to reach a fleet
average of 56.5 miles per gallon of fuel by 2025. The next
Wrangler, due in 2017, would benefit from an aluminium
body as Chrysler works to improve the fuel economy of all its
vehicles.
“We need to downsize the engines and then increase the
capabilities by putting turbos in,” Mr Marchionne said in Paris.
“This requires a complete rethink of the architecture, and
before we start committing capital to particular places we
need to make sure that we don’t spend an inordinate amount
of money trying to get it done.”
Jeep is the oldest off-road vehicle ever made. As noted by
Brent Snavely in the Detroit Free Press (2 October), removal
of the Wrangler from Toledo would be a major blow to the city
where Jeep, then owned by Willys-Overland, got its start.
The first Jeeps were produced in 1941 for the military. The first
civilian models were made in 1945.