WCA March 2012

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Wire & Cable ASIA – March/April 2012 42
And We Energies has also turned to it for fabrication of
large air ducts, the construction of a generating station,
and the installation of emission systems at two power
plants.
Merrill’s president Roger Hinner told the Wausau
(Wisconsin) Daily Herald (31st December): “As the
country continues to clean up the old coal-fired plants,
in terms of emissions, it generates a lot of work for us.”
❖ Another business whose expanding prospects suggest a
revitalised Midwest is Steel Plate Akron, a four-year-old
Ohio company which buys raw steel from domestic and
international mills and cuts it into plates for shipment to
customers nationwide. The distributor has 45 employees
and an annual payroll of $2.5 million.
“We are 100 per cent out of space here [in Talmadge],”
Steel Plate Akron vice president Ray Kenney told the
Massillon (Ohio) Independent, in reference to his search
for a plant with 80,000 to 120,000 square feet of floor
space – double or triple the size of the current facility.
“We run 24 hours, seven days a week, and we still don’t
have enough space. We need a much larger place.”
Automotive
General Motors takes a Japanese partner
to help advance its push for carbon fibre
components in mainstream vehicles
Aiming for greater fuel efficiency in its cars and
trucks, Detroit’s General Motors Co is teaming up with
Osaka-based Teijin Limited to co-develop advanced carbon
fibre composite technology.
Teijin has developed a proprietary process that GM
says allows mass production of carbon fibre-reinforced
thermoplastic components in less than a
Significantly faster than conventional approaches, it holds
promise for higher volumes at lower cost.
Bryce G Hoffman of the Detroit News pointed out that the
Teijin technology has already found high-end niche uses.
Rival supercar manufacturers Pagani (Italian) and Bugatti
(French) are using carbon fibre (ten times stronger than
steel but only a quarter of the weight) in sports cars built
for speeds in excess of 250 miles per hour. But, difficult to
mass-produce, it has been too expensive for mainstream
use.
Now, however, Mr Hoffman wrote: “GM is trying to change
that.” (“GM partners with Japanese Firm in Developing
Steel Alternative,” 11th December).
Officials of the US auto maker and its Japanese partner are
more than enthusiastic over the prospects for carbon fibre.
Steve Girsky, vice chairman of GM, said that the technology
has potential to be “an industry game-changer.” The senior
managing director of Teijin spelled out what this might
mean. In Norio Kamei’s view, his company’s “visionary
relationship with GM” will lead the way to increased usage
of “green” composites in the automotive industry.
General Motors has a more immediate incentive to succeed
with carbon fibre. CEO Dan Akerson has said that reducing
vehicle weight is essential if GM is to meet tough new
federal rules intended to boost mileage, cut emissions, and
hasten the next generation of fuel-conserving hybrids and
electric cars.
The standards, announced in April 2010, call for a
35.5 miles-per-gallon average within six years, up nearly
10 mpg from today’s average.
According to the Detroit News, Teijin plans to open a
technical centre “in the northern part of the United States”
early this year to support its work with GM.
Other news of General Motors . . .
❖ Sales of the GM Chevrolet Cruze – the best-selling
compact car in the US last summer – weakened in the
fall as Toyota and Honda recovered from the March
earthquake and tsunami in Japan and got back into
the market. Another factor was the typical slowdown in
compact car sales in fall and winter.
On 12th December the automotive reporter of the
Cleveland Plain Dealer, Robert Schoenberger, wrote
that GM was again shutting down its Lordstown, Ohio,
assembly plant – this time pplier had
fallen behind on orders. The open-ended shutdown was
preceded by two down weeks at the plant as GM cut
back on production to prevent a buildup in inventories of
unsold Cruze models.
Notes on automotive . . .
❖ On 6th December it was reported in the Detroit
Free Press that Toyota was to begin exporting
Kentucky-made Camrys to South Korea beginning
in January, at an annual rate of about 6,000 units.
As noted by business writer Greg Gardner, while this
is the first time Toyota will be exporting Camrys from
US, the Japanese auto maker began shipping its
Sienna minivan, assembled in Princeton, Indiana, to
South Korea in November.
The Camry, built at Toyota’s 7,000-worker assembly
plant in Georgetown and at the Subaru of Indiana plant
in LaFayette, also in Kentucky, has been the best-selling
car in the US for 13 of the last 14 years. Toyota’s
president, Akio Toyoda, has said that Toyota might
shift production from Japan to the US because the yen
has been so strong against the dollar that it costs the
company less to produce certain vehicles in the US.
With annual growth of above 30 per cent recently, the
Chinese automobile market is rapidly outpacing that of
the US as the world’s most lucrative and strategically
important. In 2010 the Chinese bought an estimated
13.8 million passenger vehicles, well above the
11.6 million units sold in the United States.
In the same year, according to the China Association
of Automobile Manufacturers, foreign-origin brands
– most of which are manufactured in China through
joint ventures – account nt of total
Chinese sales.