There have been many stories recently about strategic partnerships between OEM's for the sake of helping each partner fill a technology/product gap in their offering.  While is makes perfect sense for the OEM's as they can better leverage their partners and their balance sheets, what does it do the supply base?  How does it differ from selling to a joint venture?

 For the strategic partnerships, from a credit perspective, the credit quality naturally lies with the company issuing the purchase…

There are many economic indicators out there that are showing that the North American economy is slowing down to the point of a double-dip - what does this mean?  Many publications (including the Autonews) are openly asking the question if parts suppliers can withstand another recession.  My immediate thought is that production levels are not going to decline anywhere near as far as before, but they could level off.  Why?  There is no way that people can continue to hold off indefinitely on…

There is a lot of interest from both the manufacturing committee, the OEM's, and the general population regarding is on Connected Car angle - but why?  What does it mean?

 Having attended the Consumer Electronics Show in January 2011, the mood was that a connected car was all about in car electronics/entertainment.  I find this interpretation to be too limited; the connected car should look far beyond just entertainment, but the whole electronics experience/suite.  This should include…

There has been lots of attention paid in recent months and years to the explosive growth in production and demand in India, China, and Mexico.  Russia has remained a largely untapped market that for whatever reason is not attracting much attention from Canadian suppliers.  But what about Brazil???

Brazil has a very strong production base and consumer demand, yet it seems like only now are companies waking up to the opportunities in this market.  Canadian companies should realize that working…

There have been several announcements recently that are reiterating the future importance of electric vehicles (EV's) in North America's vehicle landscape: investment in Dana for battery cooling technology, Magna/Ontario's R&D center, and Toyota's electric Rav4 assembly.  These make for a great splash to demonstrate the importance of the underlying technology.  A side benefit of EV growth is the trickle-down effect of some critical EV technologies (light weight panels, advanced composite…

What an interesting year we have seen so far in 2011...

Just look at some of the major happenings: the Japanese crisis, Chrysler is now majority owned by Fiat Auto, the D3 have regained 6%+ of North American market share, Toyota has posted an operating loss, and despite major macro-economic issues, the US government saw fit to push through regulations requiring CAFE increases through 2025 that are essentially double the current standards.  Add on to this some infrequent reports about gradually…

EDC recently completed an exploratory trip to India to meet with a number of leading automotive OEM's, as well as some major part/component suppliers.  Feedback given from many of these companies was that they are keen to find new & innovative sources of supply, but surprisingly, Canada is not really on their radar!  Companies in India are keen to have new entrants establish themselves in the market to enable low cost, just-in-time supply - the general consensus that shipping from afar will…

Given the volume rebound in North American production and the general improving credit metrics of the major OEM's and parts suppliers, lenders are gradually returning to the sector.  But how are they returning? 

In many cases, companies are working with their existing financial institutions to improve their existing facilities, helping them to gear up for future growth.  In some cases, they are working with their lenders to improve the operations of the company such that they are no longer in…

As the recovery efforts continue in Japan post earthquake/tsunami, the impacts on North American assembly operations are continuing to pile up.  Much was initially made of the shortage of electronics & paint pigments, but now shortfalls in other areas are creeping up as well.  The cumulative effect of these supply shortfalls is that production lines remain idled or at reduced capacity, largely for the Asian brands.

 So far, these shutdowns have had little material direct impact on the…