WCA September 2015

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Wire & Cable ASIA – September/October 2015
From the Americas
More than one problem can be recorded per vehicle. This
year’s study included 215 models and 33 brand rankings.
South Korean brands led the industry in initial quality by
the widest margin ever, averaging a score of 90 problems
per 100 vehicles. For the first time in this study, European
brands, with a score of 113 per 100, surpassed Japanese
brands, with 114. American makes, with 114, equalled the
Japanese for only the second time.
The Times ’s Cheryl Jensen noted that communications
technology continues to be the biggest problem category,
with voice recognition again leading the complaints.
The majority of models equipped with voice recognition
systems had ten or more problems related to that feature
per 100 vehicles. And the number of owners reporting voice
recognition problems increased to 67 per cent in the 2015
study from 57 per cent in 2013.
The German luxury brand Porsche was ranked most reliable
for the third consecutive year. After Porsche, with a score
of 80 problems per 100, rounding out the top 10 were
Korea’s Kia, 86; Jaguar (British), 93; Hyundai (Korean),
95; Infiniti (Japanese), 97; BMW (German), 99; Chevrolet
(American), 101; Lincoln (American), 103; Lexus (Japanese),
104; and Toyota (Japanese), 104. (“Kia and Hyundai Show
Improvement in J D Power Quality Study,” 18th June)
 This year’s study is based on responses from 84,000
owners or lessees of 2015 model year vehicles. It
put 233 questions about possible problems including
mechanical defects and malfunctions as well as design
issues.
Elsewhere in automotive . . .
 At last count, the death toll from faulty ignition switches
in small cars made by General Motors had risen by two
to 111, and GM had paid $200 million to settle claims
filed with its administrator Kenneth Feinberg. By the
31st January deadline Mr Feinberg’s compensation
fund had received 4,342 claims, of which 88 per cent
were deemed deficient or ineligible. Some four per cent
remain under review.
The families of victims are being offered at least $1 million
each. In addition, GM has agreed to offer payment to 220
people who were injured in crashes caused by the switches.
GM acknowledged it knew about problems with the
switches for more than a decade, but recalled 2.6 million of
the older-model cars only last year.
 In other news of General Motors, on 25th June its chief
accounting officer told analysts that GM expected to
take a $600 million charge against second-quarter
earnings due to devaluation of Venezuela’s currency,
the bolivar. Declaring that the charge would not impact
operating income, Tom Timko said, “Despite the impact
of this, the Venezuelan market remains very important
to us.”
As noted by Greg Gardner of the Detroit Free Press,
Venezuela is not a large market for any automaker. But
the South American country’s economy has suffered from
declining oil prices and runaway inflation, and bondholders
had begun to express concern about a possible default on
debt. In a filing related to its first-quarter results, GM said
that it is changing the way it values assets and liabilities
denominated in non-US currencies. Ford Motor said in
January that it would take an $800 million charge deriving
from the difficulty of converting bolivars to dollars.
Business
Chinese-owned companies, on the rise in the
USA, could generate up to 400,000 new jobs
over the next five years
A recent report on Chinese business firms operating in the
United States found that the number of American workers
employed directly by such companies increased more than
fivefold in the past five years. The number of US employees
of Chinese-affiliated firms jumped from fewer than 15,000 in
2009 to more than 80,000 in 2014.
The analysis was conducted by the research firm Rhodium
Group and the National Committee on United States-China
Relations, both New York-based. The committee, a
non-profit that promotes sound dealings between the
two nations as serving vital US interests, has former US
secretary of state Henry A Kissinger as a vice-chairman.
Andy Szal of briefed down the report,
which said 1,583 Chinese firms were established in the
USA at the end of last year. The spending of the Chinese
employers grew along with their numbers: to nearly $46
billion between 2000 and 2014.
Although the bulk of Chinese investment in the US over
that period stemmed from acquisitions, new establishments
contributed to the total. (“Report: 80,000 US Workers Now
Employed by Chinese Companies,” 26th May)
“Fears that Chinese acquirers could systematically move
acquired assets and related jobs back to China have not
materialised,” the report asserted. “Instead, new Chinese
owners have, in most cases, sustained and expanded local
employment after they acquired US assets.”
Larger manufacturing and service industry projects were
found to have increased significantly in the 18 months
previous to publication of the report. The authors believe
that direct US investment from China is only at the
beginning stages and could generate up to $200 million
in spending and up to 400,000 new jobs over the next
five years.
The report acknowledged that “perceived trophy assets”
– such as the famed Waldorf-Astoria hotel, in New York –
dominate the headlines about Chinese acquisitions in the
USA. But it stressed that the “benefits of Chinese capital are
distributed nationwide.”
According to the report, North Carolina and Illinois lead the
states in foreign direct investment from China. As to the
distribution of the Chinese-owned firms, they operate in
more than three-quarters of congressional districts across
the USA.