News From the Auto Industry

Wescast Industries Inc. (NASDAQ:WCST) (TSE:WCS.A.) has been chosen to supply machined iron exhaust manifolds for several of GM’s new engine programs to be introduced over the next few years.

The Metal Fabricating Div. personnel are even working on what are being called “foot printed lines,” press lines that will be common from plant to plant. Standard equipment and standard practices mean, for example, that someone might go from the plant in Marion, Indiana, to the Parma, Ohio, plant and be able to operate the equipment.

“Not only have we commonized our die standards across North America,” he adds, “we are working with our European operations and our Brazilian operations that make dies so that we will have a world standard.” This means that dies will be able to be produced at various sites with the assurance that no matter where it is made, it will meet the same specifications.

Included will be manifolds for the new Electron and High Value V6 engine programs, to be shipped to the St. Catharines and Tonawanda Engine Plants respectively. These engines will be featured in various Epsilon and mid-luxury class vehicles starting in 2003. In addition these engines will be used on the GMT 235 platform for the next generation of minivans.

“We are very excited about this new business, as it demonstrates our ability to continue to successfully grow our market share in North America,” said Ray Finnie, President and CEO of Wescast Industries Inc. “The programs commence production in mid 2002, and will fully ramp up by 2005. The people at Wescast work diligently to continue to be General Motors‘ supplier of choice,” noted Finnie.

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The Pontiac plant is one of 13 facilities that comprise the Metal Fabricating Div.; there are 34,000 people who work in the division. Of his three jobs, Spielman says that it takes up most of his time. And little wonder, given that this division is responsible for producing the major sheet metal parts and the dies that produce those parts for all of GM’s North American vehicles, with “major” being defined as those components that (1) the customer sees (e.g., body side panels, hood, decklid, roof) or (2) has an effect on the performance of a major component (e.g., the door panel inner is covered with trim, but it has a close relation with the visible door outer and there are a lot of elements attached to the inner, so both inners and outers are produced). These operations consume an enormous amount of sheet metal: Spielman says that if they were to take all of the sheet that they process in one year’s time and put it in a strip 1-ft. wide, the strip would circle the equator 37 times.

Wescast Industries Inc. (NASDAQ:WCST) (TSE:WCS.A.) has been chosen to supply machined iron exhaust manifolds for several of GM’s new engine programs to be introduced over the next few years.

The Metal Fabricating Div. personnel are even working on what are being called “foot printed lines,” press lines that will be common from plant to plant. Standard equipment and standard practices mean, for example, that someone might go from the plant in Marion, Indiana, to the Parma, Ohio, plant and be able to operate the equipment.

“Not only have we commonized our die standards across North America,” he adds, “we are working with our European operations and our Brazilian operations that make dies so that we will have a world standard.” This means that dies will be able to be produced at various sites with the assurance that no matter where it is made, it will meet the same specifications.

Included will be manifolds for the new Electron and High Value V6 engine programs, to be shipped to the St. Catharines and Tonawanda Engine Plants respectively. These engines will be featured in various Epsilon and mid-luxury class vehicles starting in 2003. In addition these engines will be used on the GMT 235 platform for the next generation of minivans.

This ain’t the old General Motors anymore. It’s beginning to show more than just spots of brilliance. Still, it has a way to go and earned an overall B grade by boosting its quality, profit per unit and return on sales numbers. GM Chairman Jack Smith has said GM has rounded the comer and the 1997 results tend to prove him tight

Even Rick Wagoner, the company’s youthful and energetic CEO, has failed to stop the rot. In fact he’s contributed to the problems, having been a prime mover in the disastrous failed alliance with Fiat that cost GM $2bn earlier this year.

The company is haemorrhaging money. It reported a net cash outflow of $3bn (pounds 1.57bn) from its automotive business in the first quarter of 2005, despite earlier forecasting a positive cashflow of $2bn for the year. Now it won’t give any forecasts at all.

At least GM has made positive steps elsewhere. Wagoner swallowed his pride and paid Fiat $2bn to get out of a deal signed in 2000 that could have seen GM forced into buying Fiat’s ailing car division (and taking on $6bn of debt), but the company has gained from this potentially disasterous situation. The big bonus is that GM now has access to Fiat’s excellent diesel technology ” something that it, unforgivably, lacked. Quite how GM Europe’s product planners didn’t notice that every other car sold on the Continent was a diesel simply beggars belief, and gives an indication of how deep-rooted was the malaise within the company’s European division.

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Even Rick Wagoner, the company’s youthful and energetic CEO, has failed to stop the rot. In fact he’s contributed to the problems, having been a prime mover in the disastrous failed alliance with Fiat that cost GM $2bn earlier this year.

The company is haemorrhaging money. It reported a net cash outflow of $3bn (pounds 1.57bn) from its automotive business in the first quarter of 2005, despite earlier forecasting a positive cashflow of $2bn for the year. Now it won’t give any forecasts at all.

At least GM has made positive steps elsewhere. Wagoner swallowed his pride and paid Fiat $2bn to get out of a deal signed in 2000 that could have seen GM forced into buying Fiat’s ailing car division (and taking on $6bn of debt), but the company has gained from this potentially disasterous situation. The big bonus is that GM now has access to Fiat’s excellent diesel technology ” something that it, unforgivably, lacked. Quite how GM Europe’s product planners didn’t notice that every other car sold on the Continent was a diesel simply beggars belief, and gives an indication of how deep-rooted was the malaise within the company’s European division.

Tackling this issue is crucial for GM’s future. The company’s healthcare costs have risen by $1bn to more than $5bn this year. Negotiations with the unions are scheduled for 2007 ” but GM doesn’t have that long. The unions are reluctant to play ball, so GM might take unilateral action, removing healthcare benefits from its staff simply because it cannot afford to pay for them.

It’s difficult to pin down what has gone wrong. Like Rover, the General has been in steady decline for a long time. While Rover’s problems are a combination of weak management, underfunding and multiple changes of ownership, GM’s seem rooted in its own stifling bureaucracy.

Quality: GM is back on the right track. It boosted its J.D. Power Initial Quality score 19.4%. That placed it second of the U.S. Big Three in quality improvement, behind Ford. Even so, with a score of 94 problems per 100 cars, GM comes in 11th on the survey, which again is led by Toyota with 60 defects. (Honda is a close second, with 61.) While GM is far better than the 110 defects it posted last year, it is still far below the industry average of 81.

GM’s truck problem number of 101 defects-per-100 also lags well below the industry average of 92 defects. Toyota, Honda, Nissan and Ford, respectively, place above GM. Toyota leads with 71 defects per 100 trucks. Consequently, we gave GM an A for improvement, but remind it the fight’s far from over.

BRANTFORD, Ontario–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Jan. 30, 2001

Wescast Industries Inc. (NASDAQ:WCST) (TSE:WCS.A.) has been chosen to supply machined iron exhaust manifolds for several of GM’s new engine programs to be introduced over the next few years.