Short news automotive

March 22, 2012 Category Automotive Metals & Minerals, Short news automotive

The General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (GAQSIQ) said GM (China) Investment Corp and Shanghai GM started to recall some imported cars, including 1,586 Opel Antara and 16,618 Chevrolet Captiva cars. The models were made between April 11, 2006, and November 9, 2009. The two companies reported flaws in the anti-lock braking system, resulting from impure brake fluid. The flaw might cause safety risks as drivers needed a longer braking distance.
U.S. school bus maker Blue Bird Corp said it wants to work jointly with Chinese partners, but it denied a Reuters report saying that China’s Zongshen Industrial Group Co is discussing with the company a USD250 million acquisition deal. The company is reportedly also discussing with Xiamen Winterthur International New Energy Automobile Co about local production of school buses in Xiamen. The sales of school buses may hit 70,000 units this year, Sinolink Securities Co said, adding the demand may grow explosively.
Shanghai-based SAIC Motor, China’s largest carmaker, plans to sell 4.33 million vehicles this year, up 8% from last year, President Chen Hong said. In the year’s first two months, sales grew 6.9% year on year to 747,000 units.
Chinese car parts maker Hebei Lingyun is buying German peer Kiekert for an undisclosed sum. The merger would create a company with a turnover of €1 billion, Kiekert said. Lingyun would take over 55% of Kiekert from a foreign consortium including Blue-Bay Asset Management, Silver Point Capital and Morgan Stanley. Henan North Xingguang Machinery and Electric Co will have a 25% stake, and an investment foundation from Tianjin will have the rest. In 2011, Kiekert sold more than 41 million latch systems.
BMW’s China sales rose about 30% over the same period last year after it reported record deliveries of more than 232,000 vehicles in China in 2011, according to Ivan Koh, President of BMW China Automotive Trading. A major force expected to drive production and sales this year is its newly completed plant ― BMW’s second in Shenyang ― that will increase annual output in China to 200,000 vehicles or more. An expanded product lineup is another positive factor.
About 30 million vehicles are expected to be sold in China annually by 2020, making it overwhelmingly the largest car market in the world, new forecasts reveal. The country’s current auto sales of 17 million a year, already the highest of any country, will leap 73% in the next eight years as first-time drivers take to the roads, according to data from IHS Global Insight, a European research firm. In third- and fourth-tier cities car use is still extremely low. Gansu and Hunan provinces, for example, have fewer than 40 cars per 1,000 people, compared with more than 400 cars per 1,000 in the U.S.
Volkswagen said it is not considering a recall of vehicles to fix a defective direct-shift gearbox despite the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (GAQSIQ) urging it to launch a thorough investigation into potential risks. The problem involves about 500,000 vehicles sold in China.
Illegal car factories remained widespread in Hubei province’s Shiyan city – a major source of car parts – CCTV reported. In the city’s Bailang Economic and Technical Development Zone alone, about 30 factories provide vehicles that are pieced together with car parts made on site. The illegally-made vehicles were found to have many problems. Fake certificates of authenticity could be purchased from legal vehicle manufacturers.
The price of a license plate in Shanghai reached an all-time high of CNY58,625 in March with the average cost rising CNY2,993 from a month earlier. The lowest price for a plate hit CNY58,300, also a record, up CNY2,900 from a month earlier. The municipal government put 8,000 car plates up at this month’s auction, the same as last month. The number of bidders rose to 24,897, compared to 23,391 in February.
Full-year vehicle sales may increase less than 5%, said Gu Huaxiang, Deputy Secretary General of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM). The weaker outlook was lower than CAAM’s estimate at the start of this year of an 8% rise to 20 million units. Sales of commercial vehicles will be hit the hardest, he added. In the first two months of this year, vehicle deliveries fell 6% year on year to 2.95 million units.
The State Administration for Industry and Commerce (SAIC) ordered an investigation into allegations of fraudulent sales of Chrysler jeeps. CCTV has alleged some of the jeeps contained components which did not originate from the factories where the vehicles were manufactured, leading to suspicion of fraud. Chrysler ordered distributors to apologize to customers if problems were found and to replace their faulty jeeps.
Mercedes-Benz said China sales grew 61% year on year to 20,250 units in February, including Mercedes-Benz, smart, AMG and Maybach vehicles. Total sales in the first two months reached 35,640 units. Sales of S-Class vehicles reached a monthly record in February with 7,030 units, up 213% year on year. The locally-produced E-Class and C-Class sedans posted combined sales of 7,390 units in February.
Bosch Group has agreed to invest CNY1.6 billion to build the second manufacturing plant for its diesel system in China. The new facility will be located in the Qingdao National Hi-Tech Industrial Development Zone and mainly produce advanced fuel injectors. Bosch said demand for energy-saving diesel technologies is expected to grow rapidly in China as the national IV diesel emission standard would take effect in 2013.
Renault will appoint its Executive Vice President Katsumi Nakamura to take full charge of its China business starting from April. He joined Nissan in April 1978 and was appointed President of Dongfeng Motor Co in 2003. Company officials said the move highlights the importance of the Chinese market while industry observers noted it may also help speed up the localized production of Renault cars in China.

Short news automotive

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