Gearing Up and Getting Out: Manufacturers Leaving the Auto Parts Trade
from The Ann Arbor News
 Transition for Protomatic meant a shift from making products like alternators or instrument panels for cars to making chambers to grow nerve cells for the medical industry or landing-gear sensors for F-16 and F-18 military jet planes. The company is one of several in the Ann Arbor area that have made a shift from the automotive market they traditionally served to alternative energy, medical, defense and aerospace industries in recent years. More
Tooling Firms Criticize GM Over Foreign Sourcing
from The Detroit Free Press
Tool-and-die makers in the United States and Canada asked Friday to meet with General Motors Corp. executives over comments by a GM official that the company was prepared to buy more tooling from foreign suppliers. In a letter Friday, three tool-and-die associations said a GM official told an industry gathering last week that GM bought 43 percent of its tooling for vehicles and parts from "low-cost countries" such as China, Mexico and India. They estimate that the automaker buys between $3 billion and $5 billion in tooling annually. More
Doubts and Hopes as India's Ultracheap Car Arrives
from The International Herald Tribune
As the global economy withers and automakers bleed cash and cut employees, and with concerns about global warming continuing and oil prices creeping back up, even competitors say that tiny, wallet-friendly, fuel-efficient rides like the Nano might just be where demand grows around the world. More
DOD Cancellation Decisions Imminent
from Aviation Weekly
Word on upcoming U.S. defense program terminations is expected soon in the form of program budget decisions or program decision memorandums, according to an official with insight into major U.S. Air Force programs. "The final budget goes to [Defense Secretary Robert Gates’ office] on April 2nd and then it’s released on the 21st," the official said. More
U.S. Auto Taskforce Digs In For Long Term Role
from CNN Money
The Obama administration is digging in for a longer period of oversight of the auto industry than previously thought, recent actions indicate, reflecting the complexity of its task as well as the enormous political risks involved. And though the department's auto task force has said to possibly expect an announcement next week on bailout requests by General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC, it has cautioned that any such announcement wouldn't be its final word on the sector. More
GM Bondholders Say Debt Swap Plan Risks Bankruptcy
from Bloomberg
Bondholder representatives said General Motors Corp.’s formula to swap debt for equity is likely to lead to “a bankruptcy that would have dire consequences,” and the advisers urged agreement on an alternative. “We believe that, unless the framework we suggested is utilized, the restructuring currently contemplated will not achieve the required level of acceptance to succeed on an out- of-court basis,” the advisers wrote in a letter yesterday to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and representatives of President Barack Obama’s auto task force. More
Fiat Contradicts Chrysler, Says It Won't Assume Debt
from USA Today
The Italian automaker Fiat said Friday that it won't assume Chrysler debt - current or future - in deal for a 35 percent stake, contradicting statements from Chrysler's chief executive that it would. The statement said that Fiat "intends to make absolutely clear that the proposed alliance will not entail the assumption of any current or future indebtedness to Chrysler." More
Abu Dhabi Oils Daimler’s Wheels
from Forbes
What do a soccer team, Barclays and now Daimler have in common? They are all financially backed by billionaire sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al-Nahyan. The German carmaker announced over the weekend that an investment fund controlled by the sheikh, a member of Abu Dhabi's royal family, was paying $2.7 billion to become its biggest shareholder, with a 9.1 percent stake. More
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