Search Results for: cars

Higher education institutions are being warned they could be a target for money laundering, with fees being financed by the proceeds of crime, including corruption, which might also buy property, cars and other items for students.

The problem has been highlighted in a series of reports.…

Automotive associations and manufacturers in Mexico admit that their country’s automotive industry is registering a much slower rate of Covid-19 recovery than expected due to supplies shortages, which have especially impeded light vehicle production – cars, CUVs, SUVs and pick-ups.

In early October, the Mexican Automotive Industry Association, (Asociación Mexicana de la Industria Automotriz – AMIA) noted that light vehicle sales in September in Mexico were 76,930 units, meaning 1.1% less than the number recorded during September 2020, when the pandemic was ravaging Mexico’s economy, which lost 8.5% of its GDP last year (2020).…

Factory owners and stakeholders in Haiti’s billion-dollar apparel and textile industry fear that without serious political and security intervention, the industry could buckle under pressures imposed by the country’s powerful and violent gangs. 

That fear is growing after two garment manufacturing factories, H4H and Palm Apparel, located southwest of Haiti’s capital Port-au-Prince, in Carrefour, were forced to close their doors in early September leaving an estimated 5,000 workers on the breadline. …

WHILE the imposition of age limits on the consumption of tobacco and other nicotine products remains very much a national, and in some cases sub-national jurisdiction decision, there is no doubt that the general trend worldwide is for tighter restrictions on younger consumers, even if they are often tough to enforce.…

The Bangladesh clothing manufacturing sector is continuing to strive to improve its sustainability profile, which has remained a key focus since the collapse of the Rana Plaza manufacturing complex killed 1,134 people in 2013.

While the response has been uneven, the industry and government has been and is continuing to adopt circular economy methods, chase UN sustainable development goals (SDGs), alignment, improve working conditions and pay, decarbonisation, energy efficiency, chemical management, water resource management, waste reduction, and more.…

INTRODUCTION

In a global textile and clothing market that is increasingly integrating design with functionality, the potential of luminescent yarns is becoming ever more apparent. The focus of groundbreaking research and development, there is widening diversity in this segment from luminescent coatings on yarns to those that integrate LEDs (light-emitting diodes).…

EUROPEAN energy experts say the European Union (EU)’s green energy targets within a new climate law to cut carbon emissions at least 55% by 2030 compared to 1990 levels will be challenging but achievable. It is a significant steepening of ambition compared to the EU’s existing legislation, reducing emissions by at least 32.5% by 2030 from 1990 levels.…

THE MEXICAN automotive industry is struggling to cope with the resurgence of demand for new vehicles, as it deals with the global shortage of microchips along with the increase in steel costs – hitting manufacturers’ bottom line – a key problem for Mexico USA-oriented export model.…

AMERICAN automobile designers and marketers need to take a serious account of China’s nationalistic ‘guochao’ trend to buttress sales and protect their market share against strengthening all-Chinese marques, industry experts are warning.

Guochao, which literately translates as ‘national tide’, has seen Chinese companies conquering domestic market shares from foreign rivals in sectors from a wide range of sectors that have long been dominated by international brands, from cosmetics and fashion, yes, to cars.…

The European Commission has fined German carmakers BMW and Volkswagen (makers of the Audi, Porsche and Volkswagen marques) EUR875,189,000 for operating a cartel restricting competition in emission-cleaning technology for diesel cars for over five years. Another German carmaker, Daimler, escaped a fine for revealing the cartel existed to the Commission, under 2006 leniency notice provisions (1) that spare the first cartel member that comes clean about its existence. …

On July 3, 2021, the European Union’s (EU) groundbreaking, detailed and wide-ranging directive intended to reduce plastic litter came into force: the directive on single use plastics (SUP) (1) – as it affects a key competitor, the metal packaging sector has been keeping a close eye on the fallout.…

INTRODUCTION

Until now, the use of sensors within garments has been regarded as a specialist technical exercise, usually as a means of delivering medical information to doctors, nurses and other health-care professionals. However, production advances, especially the integration of sensors within yarns using nanotech and conductive fibre is opening up a wider range of more user-friendly functions that could bring sensor tech to the mass consumer market.…

As Canada’s auto market emerges from its Covid-19-inspired slump, new vehicle sales are competing against increased demand for used vehicles, as inventories remain tight and prices rise across the board.

Canadian used vehicle prices have tracked upwards steadily in the past 10 years, according to data from JD Power (1), inching towards 110% of 1998 levels by early last year.…

A PUBLIC inquiry in British Columbia, Canada, has increased concerns about how auto dealers maybe exploited by criminal networks to launder dirty money. Purchasers can be prepared to pay high prices for vehicles in cash, with dealers struggling to identify the source of these funds.…

Efforts to decarbonise transport and industry may be depressing global oil markets, but they are actually strengthening one key hydrocarbon niche – that of lubricants. Far from making such oils obsolete, the electric vehicles (EV) that are sold in increasing numbers (3.2 million worldwide in 2020 said the EV Volumes database) rely on transmission fluids, which can be made from fossil hydrocarbons.…

THE STRIKING of a trade agreement between the European Union (EU) and a UK to pave Britain’s final and full exit from the EU from January 1 has offered US auto exporters opportunities to boost sales to the UK, but with some significant challenges, say experts.…

In the car of the not-too-distant future, Japanese vehicle technology developer Kyocera Corp believes the dashboard, the engine bay, the front wheels and the front pillars of the vehicle will effectively have disappeared. 

At least from the perspective of the driver and/or passengers when inside the cab.…

Much expertise of anti-money laundering is developed from the experience of victims and law enforcement, fed into techniques and systems fighting this crime. But ex-criminals, including those who launder illicit money, have a different perspective and can offer fresh insight and intelligence maybe not considered by AML officers.…

THE CANADIAN automobile sector has called on the country’s provinces to better coordinate efforts to increase demand for electric vehicles. This follows the Québec government announcing a ban on local sales of new combustion-driven cars, SUVs and pick-ups from 2035.

While the ban would not apply to most commercial vehicles and used-auto sales, and hybrid sales and use might still be allowed, Brian Kingston, the new president and CEO of the Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers’ Association (CVMA), fears this policy might not achieve its goal: to promote EV sales: “You need a plan, not a ban,” he told wardsauto.…

CANADIAN automobile dealers are looking out for a potential increase in the price of vehicles that they sell on account of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), which came into force on July 1 (2020).

This is likely to be fuelled by the new deal insisting that Canadian (as well as American and Mexican) auto-manufacturers may have to increase their USMCA-bloc sourcing to ensure that 75% of a vehicle’s parts are made a signatory country.…

ORGANISERS of the Canadian International AutoShow are drawing on innovative online systems to launch a unique online 2021 event, which will be staged virtually because of Covid-19.

Canada’s largest annual consumer show attracted 330,000 visitors this February, so staging the 2021 event physically was an impossible health risk until the epidemic is over, said show general manager Jason Campbell.…

USA automotive manufacturers are facing some tough choices when implementing the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), which entered into force on July 1, to avoid its pressure on costs being reflected in showroom price increases.

The new deal, which replaces the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), requires US, Mexican and Canadian auto manufacturers to increase their USMCA-bloc sourcing to ensure that 75% of a vehicle’s parts are made in a signatory country to benefit from the free trade provisions.…

The Mexican auto industry should be able to preserve its critically important USA export sales if it implements the new labour wage and origin components of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) slowly and steadily, allowing time to invest in technological efficiencies, experts predict.…

THE CHINA Coatings Industry Association on September 14 published a draft standard for the manufacture and sale of antibacterial and anti-viral coatings – a key growth segment during the Covid-19 pandemic. The draft specifies the terms, definitions, requirements, test methods, inspection rules, labelling, marking, packaging and storage of coating products with antibacterial and antiviral properties.…

LATIN America has been hit particularly hard by the Covid-19 pandemic – with Chile, Peru, Brazil and Colombia in the top-20 of countries regarding cases per million people – and its paint and coatings market and industry has faced a similarly rough ride.…

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) continues to struggle to clamp down on fraud within its revenue collection and spending programmes – making progress, but with major scams still emerging within the EU’s complex international decision-making systems.

In its latest annual ‘fight against fraud’ report (1) (2), covering 2019, the European Commission reports that 939 discovered irregularities were reported as fraudulent (8% of the number), involving EUR461.4 million in lost money (28% of that affected by irregularities).…

EUROPEAN, Japanese and South Korean automotive manufacturers are about to follow new international guidance ensuring increasingly-networked vehicles are protected from hacking by cyber-criminals.

This follows the release of two new UN regulations, adopted June 24 by the UN Economic Commission for Europe’s (UNECE) World Forum for Harmonization of Vehicle Regulations.…

Automakers in the European Union (EU) are concerned the technologies used by their vehicles may have to comply with onerous personal data handling rules imposed by the EU. These fears have been sparked by draft guidelines released by the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) on how the EU’s general data protection regulation (GDPR – 2016/679) should apply to the industry.…

The UK’s automotive sector is sufficiently “resilient, agile and competitive”, the country’s Society of Motor Manufacturers & Traders (SMMT) said today (June 23), to ensure the double whammy of Covid-19 and Brexit do not cause permanent damage in UK motor manufacturing.…

THE NEED to actively recharge electric vehicles makes them less attractive to consumers, especially when batteries can take eight hours to charge. So, the development of ambient technologies that enable EVs to charge themselves as they operate has been a key focus of automotive R&D.…

CANADA’S Automotive Parts Manufacturers’ Association (APMA) is optimistic that the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) will deliver more sustained work to the country’s supply chain once the deal comes into force on July 1. It replaces the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), in place since 1994.…

ACCESSING the dark web once demanded some computing expertise. But dark web search engines and browsers continue being developed, guiding potential users to this encrypted corner of the web where commercial criminals ply their wares and illicit businesses avoid taxes. How should legitimate companies react?…

EAST Asia’s auto-making hubs may have been making a better fist of dealing with the Covid-19 crisis than manufacturing centres in Europe and north America, but the pandemic has been harming the industry in the region.

Government responses have varied, however, with no major scrappage packages being announced.…

USE of the so-called ‘wonder material’ graphene in the energy sector is growing fast, with its thin sheets of carbon atoms in a honeycomb shape, stronger than diamond yet flexible, offering excellent thermal and electronic conductive properties. Given it also offers an extremely high surface to material ratio, graphene energy storage and capture uses are being developed to make batteries, supercapacitors, and solar panels.…

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) and its member states are loosening their subsidy rules and reviewing environmental controls as they consider how to help Europe’s automobile sector recover from the beating delivered by the Covid-19 pandemic. With EU passenger car sales tumbling 76.3% year-on-year in April (these figures exclude Britain, with a 97% fall), EU automobile industry association ACEA, parts association CLEPA, repairers and dealers’ federation CECRA and tire makers organisation ETRMA have called on the EU to “consider temporary flexibilities in competition rules” restricting takeovers and subsidies.…

WANT to check the dark web for illicit services? Search engines accessible from the public web offer links to the dark web. One example is Finland-based Ahmia (https://ahmia.fi/), which yields interesting results from searches such as https://ahmia.fi/search/?q=hacking. A more recent variant that has attracted attention from the IT security press is Kilos – http://dnmugu4755642434.onion…

In a case that could open the floodgates to multimillion dollar cross border lawsuits against auto makers involved in Europe’s 2015 ‘Dieselgate’ scandal, a senior European Union (EU) judge has advised that car buyers should be able to sue Germany-based Volkswagen from a court in neighboring Austria.…

Innovative textile materials are proving to be a game changer in the auto industry’s drive towards sustainability, electric transmission and autonomy. Experts have noted how the amount of textiles used in the automotive sector have been growing and will continue to do so: up from 20kg in a mid-size car on average in the year 2000 to 26kg in 2020, said the chair of a ‘Textile Opportunities in a Changing Automotive Industry’ conference, held in Birmingham, England, at the Jaguar Experience centre.…

As with every business sector in every country around the world, Japan’s paint and coatings industry has been thrown into uncertainty over the full impact and longer-term implications of the coronavirus Covid-19 that has swept the globe since first emerging in China in December 2019. …

THE AIRPORT serving India’s capital, New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGI), has been under pressure from a boom in passenger traffic, and so is being expanded and revamped in a project that will cost USD1.3 billion, according to Indian aviation industry sources.…

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) is taking a hard look at hydrogen as a low carbon option to help make Europe a first climate-neutral continent by 2050, a key policy goal that is at the heart of policy-making within the new European Commission of its president Ursula von der Leyen – however he need to make H-vehicles and renewables-based H-fuel cheaper is a major challenge.  …

AS the afternoon heat ebbs in the middle of this Indian summer, a police team block a major highway outside the city of Nashik, in the western state of Maharashtra, rolling in wheeled yellow-coloured barricades. Soon a traffic jam builds up and policemen move from one car to another in search for cash, often hidden in door cavities or spare wheels.With…

Indonesia’s paint and coatings sector is expected to continue to grow, driven by an expanding middle-class population, the fast-growing construction sector and ambitious government infrastructure projects, encompassing transport networks, energy and utilities.

The south-east Asian country’s paint and coatings market has grown to almost USD2.5 billion in sales revenue in the past year and sales are expected to expand at a fair clip of between 6% and 7% annually in the next five years, according to industry analysts Frost & Sullivan. …

WITH public nervousness growing about the impact of the Coronavirus on Singapore, amidst a period of sluggish economic growth, the city state’s government’s 2020 budget, released February 18, has stuck a balance between protecting businesses, workers and elderly, while investing in training to prepare for future upturns.…

Sales of new cars in Lebanon have plunged 74% in the last two months of 2019 (compared to November and December 2018) as the country has faced financial and political chaos following the eruption of mass demonstrations in October. these prompted the resignation of the government – and while a new administration under Prime Minister Hassan Diab Took office on January 22, business transactions continue to be hampered by restricted access to US dollars.…

AUTO manufacturers in Europe are facing a countdown to new European Union (EU) type approval rules, forcing them to install new safety technology on their vehicles if they want to secure permission to sell these autos in the EU and get them registered.…

WITH Britain’s formal exit from the European Union (EU) happening tomorrow (January 31), the UK’s main automotive industry association has called on the government to make sure that it strikes an effective trade deal with the EU by the end of a transitional period that ends on December 31 (2020).…

THERE are understandably many concerns about the development of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), notably that computers might start to take autonomous decisions that might harm rather than help humans. However, energy and climate scientists are exploring how AI and ML may help governments and industry grapple with reducing carbon emissions to avoid cataclysmic climate change.…

THE DEVELOPMENT and use of hydrogen-fuelled automobiles is starting to gather pace in the European Union (EU), with the EU’s executive, the European Commission encouraging growth in this environment-friendly segment as it pursues a goal of achieving a climate-neutral Europe by 2050.…

SALES of light trucks – SUVs, CUVs, pick-ups and minivans – are rising in Canada, and the big question is how dominant this segment may become in this north American market. Sales hit 70.9% of the passenger vehicle market according to new 2018 data from Ontario-based DesRosiers Automotive Consultants Inc.…

MALAYSIA’S Pakatan Harapan government has released its 2020 budget, its second since gaining power in 2018, and one that aims to consolidate reforms undertaken by an administration headed by veteran Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad. This was not a budget bringing major change, indeed finance minister YB Tuan Lim Guan Eng stressed when delivering his budget speech to the Malaysian parliament on October 11 how the government has been tying up earlier major reforms, such as scrapping the unpopular goods and services tax (GST).…

WITH Canadian auto exports to the USA falling in 2018 and the new USMCA trade agreement between the USA, Mexico and Canada still unratified (only Mexico has done so), the Canadian auto sector has been eyeing Europe for overseas sales.

A report from the Canadian government’s chief economist released in June (2019) gave grounds for optimism as regards future EU sales.…

A sharp increase in imports of cars into Vietnam has underlined how this south-east Asian country of 96 million people, could become a major auto market, especially as Vietnamese drivers move from motorcycles to cars.

At present, the motorcycle is king in Vietnam.…

THE GERMAN government has signalled that it could encourage its luxury carmakers to establish plants in Bangladesh, especially if the south Asian country invests in its energy, power and transport infrastructure.

“We agreed it would be great if a German carmaker would invest in Bangladesh,” Peter Fahrenholtz, German ambassador to Bangladesh tweeted, after a meeting with Bangladeshi finance minister AHM Mustafa Kamal in the capital Dhaka on September 9 (2019).…

THE IMPOSITION of excise duties on automobiles sold in Pakistan from July 1 has already had a significant depressing impact on the market. Figures released by the Pakistan Automotive Manufacturers Association (PAMA) indicate that this July (2019), 10,968 cars made by the key Pakistan-based manufacturers owned by Suzuki, Toyota and Honda were sold, well down on the 18,875 sold in July 2018.…

IT’S no simple business serving Canada’s indigenous community market, even though this includes 1.67 million people. A majority have official residency in 3,100 reserves (the Canadian term for reservation), many of whom live in the far north, where average January and February highs can be minus 21C/minus 6F.…

THE DEVELOPMENT of uniform safety standards to help reduce the number of reputation-damaging accidents occurring as automated vehicles are rolled out commercially is of key importance, a CAV Canada conference (connected and autonomous vehicles) in Canada has been told.

Sasha Ostojic, a board member of California-based autonomous vehicle company Zoox, and a former senior vice president engineering at GM’s Cruise Automation, said of the current American system, where manufacturers are protecting their CAV IP and not sharing safety information: “I truly think this is a problem.…

Described by environmental campaigners as “the elephant in the COP21 negotiations room” when climate change proposals were agreed in Paris during 2015, today – the electrification of shipping is moving ahead apace.

From inland ferries to cargo barges and cruise ships, vessels are being built or retrofitted with renewable power propulsion sources, curbing the shipping industry’s major emissions.…

THE CANADIAN government has told wardsauto that it will wait for the release of a US final rule on federal automotive emissions before making any decisions on whether to follow the lead of the Trump administration on freezing emissions limits or imposing tougher tailpipe rules for Canada.…

THE AMERICAN automotive sector is today (Friday Aug 23) counting the cost of the latest round of automotive tariffs to be imposed on its vehicle and parts exports to China. It is the latest round of the increasingly punishing trade war between Washington DC and Beijing.…

REMOVING non-tariff-barriers (NTBs) impeding the trade in automobiles, parts and materials between the 10 member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is key to unlocking the regional automotive industry’s full potential, experts argue. However, they agree that such moves cannot be achieved without short-term pain.…

Europe’s transition to electric vehicle ownership is developing at two clear speeds, with richer countries headed for mass market penetration in the early to mid 2020s but poorer countries lagging. 

This is posing a regulatory challenge for manufacturers – EV sales have to increase Europe-wide for carmakers to meet tough European Union (EU) CO2 emissions limits.…

THE EUROPEAN automobile manufacturing sector will be hoping that the newly negotiated European Union (EU)-Mercosur trade deal is ratified quickly, given it scraps import duties imposed by Brazil and Argentina on EU automobile exports of 35%.

This agreement has been welcomed by the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA), which noted that the South American trade bloc, which also includes Uruguay and Paraguay, is home to around 270 million people, where 3.3 million new cars were sold during 2018.…

GLOBAL food and beverage company Nestlé’s restructure in the EMENA (Europe, Middle East and North Africa) region, which began in 2017, has delivered improved efficiencies and performance, according to Marco Settembri, Nestlé’s executive vice-president and EMENA zone CEO.

“It’s always a question of evolution,” Mr Settembri told just-food before the opening session of the July 4-5 2^nd European Entrepreneurship Education summit in Lille, northern France,* in which he was to speak.…

Slovenia’s plastic industry has made a virtue out of the nation’s geographical position, located between the markets of central and western Europe and those of the Balkan states and the former Soviet Union. 

Drawing on these geographical – and historical political ties – the sector is geared towards exports, with these accounting for 62% of the value of the plastics industry, according to the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Slovenia (CCIS).…

Industry forecasts for Italy’s paints and coatings market are expected to remain relatively stable through 2019, mainly sustained by stability in the domestic construction and automotive sectors and continuing sales growth in foreign markets. Data from market research provider Euromonitor International released last December (2018) projected production turnover in Italy to grow by 0.5% in the 2018-2019 period, with an estimated value of just over EUR6.1 billion in 2019.…

THE NEW CO2 standards approved by European Union (EU) legislators for cars, vans and trucks being driven in its territory will lead to more electric vehicles (EVs) and alternative drivetrains including hybrids and fuel cells, experts have told wardsauto.

On April 18, the European Union (EU)’s elected legislative body the European Parliament, approved the first EU regulation on emissions standards for heavy-duty vehicles.…

INDIAN authorities have seized more than USD120 million’s worth of unaccounted cash during the six-week long general election that concluded in May [2019]. Law enforcers have warned that this could be for vote buying, making a future government susceptible to corruption, promoting graft in business.…

THE US government has increased its existing 10% additional duties on imports of automotive parts, engines and chassis from China to 25% from today (May 10), citing a lack of progress on ongoing trade talks.

These duties cover a wide range of China-made engines, chassis, and parts, although not assembled vehicles.…

MOTOR vehicles and their parts were the second most common category of goods reported in safety warnings by consumer regulators in the European Union (EU) last year, according to a new annual report from the EU Safety Gate system. This involves European consumer regulators receiving safety warnings about products, including from auto manufacturers, and circulating these alerts via this central European portal.…

THE CANADIAN auto sector wants the country’s federal government to recycle payments made through its carbon tax system back to Ontario’s automotive manufacturing sector, so it can reduce emissions and related energy costs. Executives want the government to hasten an announcement on how the system will work in detail to enable the industry to plan and mitigate costs.…

German prosecutors have charged the former CEO of car giant, Volkswagen, and four other unnamed executives with fraud, unfair competition and breach of trust over their role in the dieselgate scandal that broke in September 2015. It involved European auto makers being caught out deliberately cheating polluting emissions tests.…

Coated, laminated and padded textiles play key roles in a vast range of emerging products, with experts explaining at a Berlin conference how the technical textile sector has been continuously developing cutting edge technology to make such materials.

The International Conference on Textile Coating and Laminating (TCL2019), held in mid-March in Berlin, Germany, had a special focus on bedding developments.…

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) is trying to use marketing rules to improve the safety and environmental performance of tires that are sold into Europe, with ministers approving a proposal that expands’ manufacturers and retailers’ duties regarding tire labelling.

Under a new regulation backed by the EU Council of Ministers earlier this month (March 4) stickers would have to be fixed to more types of tires and would include more information – the goal being to persuade consumers to not just use cost as a guide to buying tires.…

THE EGYPTIAN economy is still struggling to overcome the problem of low hard currency reserves, a challenge that has negatively affected the local paints and coatings industry due its high dependence on imports.

“There has been a crisis in terms of availability of US dollars to purchase raw materials and most of the raw materials are imported,” said Himanshu Vasisht, project lead for energy and chemicals at India-based market researcher Mordor Intelligence.…

WITH auto manufacturers looking for ways to light-weight electric and hybrid vehicles, to boost performance and battery life, the European Union (EU) is investing in a Spanish company that is seeking to develop recyclable thermo-plastic alternatives to rubber for auto parts.…

THE SUBMISSION to the White House by the US Department of Commerce of a report recommending whether and how the USA should impose tariffs on automotive and related parts on national security grounds has provoked significant concern worldwide.

President Donald Trump has 90 days from February 17 (to mid-May) to decide on whether to impose the tariffs under section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act.…

THE GLOBAL smart coatings sector is expected to record a year-on-year average annual gain in revenue of 31.5% over the next five years, with the market projected to reach USD11.68 billion by 2024 – compared to USD 885.5 million in 2015.…

TRADE-based money laundering (TBML) continues to be a complex typology that is tough for law enforcement to detect and ML regulators to control.

The risk is that with Iran being subject to new USA sanctions, the use of TBML is going to grow in the short term, warn experts.…

A EUROPEAN court has demonstrated the challenges faced by European Union (EU) auto-makers in following EU emissions rules. Not only are they complex, but the EU’s complicated decision-making system can open emissions rules to legal challenges if they have been agreed in ways that break the EU’s 478 page Treaty of European Union.…

EUROPEAN automobile industry associations have warned member companies and European Union (EU) governments to face potential auto sector job losses caused by a new EU emissions regulation, now approaching final approval.

This is because compliance will almost certainly require a significant expansion of the European e-vehicle market.…

There are two displays in the Moscow office of the CFO of Volvo Car Russia, Vladimir Lagutin, that catches the attention, immediately: a large elegantly-framed poster of UK electronic music band Depeche Mode and a case of tennis balls.

“Those things – music and tennis – keep me from being stressed,” says Lagutin.…

THE EUROPEAN car industry has slammed the “excessively aggressive CO2 reduction targets” for new heavy-duty vehicles – trucks and lorries – backed by the European Parliament – the European Union (EU)’s directly-elected legislative body – on November 14 in at the Strasbourg plenary session.…

WHEN deciding what new tech to integrate into automotive design, the likely opinion of regulators matters to manufacturers. A key concern for European auto companies is the extent to which the European Union (EU) and its executive the European Commission will encouraging either the use of Wi-Fi or 5G network for the development of connected cars in upcoming legislation.…

THE SEVERE depreciation of the Turkish lira (TRY) this summer has adversely affected the car sector, with domestic sales halving. While the country’s USD31 billion automotive export market has not been so badly impacted, manufacturers’ bottom lines have taken a hit due to the higher cost of importing key raw materials.  …

AMERICAN and Chinese automotive parts exporters could both suffer from the latest tit-for-tat round of protective duties imposed by their governments.

China exporters may have the most to lose if the US tariffs deter American purchases. The US Trade Representative (USTR) confirmed on September 18 that the US America will be imposing 10% tariffs on a wide range of products, also including personal care exports, from China.…

EUROPEAN Union (EU) and Mercosur negotiators went into crucial trade talks in Uruguayan capital Montevideo September 10-14, cheered on by automakers on both sides who want a deal, even though there are tough technical issues to resolve. The round is another bid to smash the deadlock over a future trade pact between the EU and the four founding Mercosur nations – Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay. …

A senior figure in the American cotton industry has told just-style of his concern that Turkey’s collapsing currency and trade disputes with the US government will cause it to import less US-made cotton.

The Turkish lira – TRY has dropped in value by 45% this year – indeed last September 12, USD1 bought TRY3.43, this September 11, it bought TRY6.43.…

The latest edition of the biannual China International Trade Fair for Technical Textiles and Nonwovens (Cinte Techtextil China), held September 4-6, in Shanghai, showed how Chinese manufacturers are more than holding their own in these technically demanding markets.

The fair, a spin-off from the Techtextil show in Germany, attracted a diverse range of some 500 exhibitors from around 20 countries, covering 12 different application areas with protech, mobiltech and geotech, spanning wovens, knits and nonwovens, arguably being most prominent. …

REGULATORY and other pressures are behind a recent international surge in construction of electric vessels.

Using battery-electric power instead of traditional fuels such as marine diesel to drive a ship’s propulsion and/or operate its equipment can reduce greenhouse gases and lessen health, safety and environmental risks, particularly when vessels are in or near port.…

They say the UK can forge its own future by negotiating bespoke trade deals that reflect British interests rather than those of Brussels. But the more comprehensive deals Britain strikes, the more its room to manoeuvre will shrink – because all its trading partners (who are also striking deals with each other) will have to agree the same or similar terms for such deals to work.…

With lower battery and auto prices boosting the battery electric vehicle (BEV) market in Europe, the race is on to ensure there are enough fast-charging stations to satisfy demand. 

The European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA) warned European Union (EU) lawmakers July 5 that plans to force a continent-wide switch to BEVs through swingeing cuts in CO2 emissions caps for manufacturers, was doomed to fail due to the lack of charging points.…

EUROPE can meet its goal of cleaning up the power sector several years earlier than by the European Union’s (EU) self-imposed deadline of 2050, according to Kristian Ruby, secretary general of the Union of the Electricity Industry – Eurelectric, the sector association representing the industry at pan-European level.…

LARGE motorway service areas have become a recent feature of the Irish landscape, with plaza-type facilities incorporating fuel, food and grocery retailers under one roof.  However, the key players in the forecourt market, which is increasingly held by Irish firms Maxol and Applegreen, along with Canadian newcomer Couche-Tard – are now racing to reposition themselves given the Irish government plans by 2030 to end sales of petrol and diesel vehicles.…

THE USA’s clothing industry has met in Washington DC to plot tactics designed to push the Trump administration away from a protectionist policy that it regards as potentially damaging for brands, retailers and their consumers.

A trade symposium staged last Thursday (July 12) by the United States Fashion Industry Association (USFIA) united clothing sector executives, compliance chiefs, customs specialists and government affairs managers.…

THE ASIA-Pacific technical textiles sector is still robust – with China’s industry continuing to grow, with bulk products still a focus. Meanwhile, more developed economies such as South Korea and Japan keep honing their output, looking for specialist niches and edges created by innovation.…

CHINA has retaliated swiftly to the USA’s imposition of 25% duties on Chinese automotive exports, announcing matching 25% retaliatory duties the following day (June 16) on a wide range of American exports of cars, SUVs and off-road vehicles, including hybrids and electric autos.…

THE EUROPEAN car industry has welcomed a commitment by the European Union’s (EU) executive body, the European Commission’ – in a policy paper (called a ‘communication’ on automated mobility) – to have all new vehicles connected to the internet by 2022.…

CHINA’S automotive manufacturing sectors will be counting the cost of new tariffs announced today (Friday, June 15) by the USA Trade Representative (USTR). They involve USD50 billion’s worth of Chinese exports being hit by 25% duties, additional to any other duties already applied.…

A BATTLE is looming at the European Parliament over amendments to a proposed European Union (EU) regulation on CO2 targets for cars and vans, with left wingers calling for tougher limits, and the centre-right seeking to ease the auto sector’s burden.…

Argentina’s auto industry had expected a near record year in 2018, but unexpected financial problems that have hit the country in the past month could push the economy into recession and dampen local demand for cars. 
These problems are a far cry from the optimism expressed on April 4, when the heads of three carmakers spoke bullishly about production and sales growth at a business conference staged in Buenos Aires by economic consultancy Invecq Consulting. …

TECHNICAL textile markets can be driven and shaped by a range of forces – from natural disasters, to technological change, economic developments and political movements. In the case of the USA, at present, the technical textile market and industry is being moved by all these influences at the same time.…

Unlike the limited range of minerals used in fossil fuel production, many minerals, metallic and nonmetallic, are used in renewable energy technologies. However, production is often low and concentrated in a limited number of countries – creating potential strategic supply problems.…

Enhancing the quality of passenger experience while maintaining maximum security was a recurring theme during the Dubai Airport Show 2018. The annual airport industry event, held from May 7 to 9, drew more than 7,500 visitors.

Covering 15,000 square metres of space across three halls of the iconic Dubai International Convention and Exhibition Centre, its 18^th edition hosted more than 350 exhibitors from 60 countries.…

SWEEPING tax reforms introduced by The Philippines’ President Rodrigo Duterte designed to raise funds for infrastructure improvements, may cool a protracted vehicle sales boom in the country, experts warn.

The first stage of changes under a Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion Law (TRAIN) came into force in January and the resulting higher excise taxes saw sales of passenger cars and commercial vehicles drop by 9.5% and 8% respectively in the first quarter of the year compared to January-March 2017.…

AFTER years of sluggish growth and even contraction, the UK paint and coatings sector is set to rebound this year thanks to a booming domestic automotive manufacturing sector. However, this optimism has yet to be felt across the sector due to uncertainly the industry is facing ahead of Brexit.…

BRAZIL’S automotive industry is awaiting the final details and presidential sanction of a 14-year incentives program called Rota 2030, that will offer up to Brazilian Reals BRL1.5 billion (USD467.4 million) in annual tax credits sector-wide to auto and auto parts manufacturers selling cars in Brazil.…

THE EUROPEAN Union’s (EU) current Bulgarian presidency (January-July 2018) will probably face a tough challenge, when tripartite talks between the European Parliament, member states and the European Commission on electricity market reform begin this spring.

“Since early March, we have been preparing for the ‘trilogues’ [EU jargon for talks between its three main bodies], comparing the [EU] member states’ general approach reached in December with Parliament’s position, so we have documents to work on when trilogues start,” a Council spokesperson told Modern Power Systems, adding “no dates have yet been fixed” for the negotiations.…

THE GROWTH in global renewable energy and electric car markets is already changing the face of the industrial minerals sector and it will continue to shape demand for years to come, a senior Toronto-based industry conference has been told.

Vancouver-based Gianni Kovacevic, CEO of CopperBank Resources, told this year’s Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) convention that mineral resource companies needed to analyse the likely impact of climate change, and how it feeds into energy and transport infrastructure spending and related environmental regulation.…

BRITISH automakers who may be eying lucrative American markets as an alternative to sales that could be lost if the UK quits the European Union (EU) as planned next March (2019) could be disappointed, say experts.

This is despite data released by the UK’s Society of Motor Manufacturers & Traders (SMMT) at the end of January indicating exports of UK-made cars to the US rose by 7% year-on-year in 2017 to almost 210,000 units.…

AUTOMATIC driver assistance systems (ADAS) for vehicles should only be obligatory if they aid road safety, automobile experts told wardsauto this week, as the issue is considered during an ongoing review of European Union (EU) automobile safety rules.

The EU’s executive body, the European Commission, is currently revising the 28 country bloc’s regulation on type-approval requirements for the general safety of motor vehicles (EC No 661/2009).…

THE CIVIL aviation industry – for very good safety reasons – is one of the most regulated industries in the world. And suppliers of aviation textiles have to take note. Regulations spring from the Convention on International Civil Aviation, whose annex 8 covers the airworthiness of aircraft.…

IF evidence was needed to show that consistent government support for sales of electric cars can create a sustainable market, look no further than Norway, the world’s number one country for sales of e-vehicles in 2016. With a market share of 29% for new cars, the Scandinavian country is a leading light in its transition to zero emission cars, noted the Norwegian Electric Vehicles Association (Norsk elbilforening).…

THE GLOBAL speciality chemical market has been showing steady gains over the past few years and is set to continue in its growth trajectory, according to latest data. According to data from Pune, India-based global research company Allied Market Research, the global industry was worth USD175.4 billion in 2014 and has since shown promising growth to USD184 billion in 2015, USD193 billion in 2016 and USD202.5 billion in 2017.…

IMPORTS of paints and coatings into the relatively developed Middle East market of Israel are significant and have been growing, according to data sent to Polymers Paint Colour Journal by European Union statistical agency Eurostat.

In 2015, Israel imported EUR42.12 million worth of paints and varnishes (including enamels and lacquers) based on synthetic polymers or chemically modified natural polymers, dispersed or dissolved in a non-aqueous medium, from the EU compared to EUR38.75 million worth of imports in 2014.…

THE AUTOMOTIVE sector is a hotbed of growth for industrial performance materials like nonwovens. And the global market for such materials have the potential to cross the EUR2 billion mark soon, according to Germany-based Freudenberg Performance Materials Holding SE & Co KG.…

GOVERNMENTS are starting to develop anti-methane emission policies that could impact the meat and livestock industry as part of their response to the 2015 Paris agreement on climate change. World leaders who participated at November’s COP23 (conference of parties) climate summit in Bonn, Germany, were advised by a key investor group to reduce livestock methane if greenhouse gas emissions are to be tackled effectively.…

THE EUROPEAN car industry has welcomed a deal struck over future European Union (EU) automobile type approval rules between the European Parliament and the EU Council of Ministers. The agreement reached on Thursday (December 7) on a reformed system for approving vehicles before they are placed on the EU market should see the new rules applying from September 1, 2020.…

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) auto sector, including – for now – the British industry, has criticised new tough targets proposed by the European Commission for lowering average CO2 emissions from new passenger cars and vans in the 28-country bloc. Under Brussels’ new low emission mobility strategy, cars and vans registered in the EU in 2025 will have to emit 15% and in 2030, 30%, less CO2, compared to 2021’s 95g CO2/km for passenger cars and 147g CO2/km for vans.…

CONSIDER for a moment the long list of items hacked in spectacular fashion for the edification of those who descended on Las Vegas this summer for the annual BlackHat and DEFCON security events: voting machines, ‘smart’ safes, cars, guns, car washes, infusion pumps and radioactivity sensors.…

NON-governmental organisations (NGO), aid agencies and charities are under increased pressure to abide by international and domestic anti-money laundering and terrorist finance regulations, such as those imposed by the UK, US and European Union (EU), including international sanctions. But it can be tough for NGOs to comply with such rules when operating in countries where there is civil conflict or civil war.…

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) planned trade deal with Japan – its sixth most important trading partner – struck in principle at the July 6 EU-Japan Summit in Brussels and set to be operational in 2019, will benefit the EU dairy industry greatly, experts say.…

THE INDIAN automobile manufacturing industry, which already has an annual output of 25 million vehicles, is bracing itself for a comprehensive switchover to electric vehicles, with the government developing clear policy that it wants combustion engines off the country’s roads. 

This push has been grounded in a report from the government’s key think tank NITI Aayog (National Institution for Transforming India), which is headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and hence very influential.…

In a socially-reserved country such as Saudi Arabia where entertainment options are mostly limited to shopping and cafes – the opening of spas and beauty salons offer another avenue for leisure and recreation.

According to market research company Euromonitor International, Saudi Arabia’s spa market was valued at Saudi Arabian Riyals SAR275 million (USD73.3 million) in 2017, growing by 7% over 2016.…

THE EUROPEAN Commission has proposed a new revamped European Union (EU) directive on combating fraud and counterfeiting of non-cash means of payment, with a key aim of criminalising scams associated with virtual currencies.

This legislation, which updates now obsolete 2001 rules, would insist EU member states treat as crimes possessing, selling, procuring, importing and distributing a stolen or unlawfully appropriated counterfeited or falsified non-cash payment instruments.…

STANDARDS are being drawn up to ensure international best practice is consistently applied in durability testing of coatings for use in space projects.

The European Cooperation for Space Standardization (ECSS) is an initiative established to develop a coherent, single set of user-friendly standards for all European space activities – and its experts are now drafting technical rules for coatings used on satellites, rockets, probes and other space equipment.…

JAPAN’S spa and beauty salon markets are well developed and established, undoubtedly a reflection of the country’s well-known traditions of cleanliness and looking good. Being well-established has arguably made further expansion and growth in the sectors more challenging, while Japan’s shrinking birth rate and population do not bode well for longer-term expansion.…

CHINESE customers bought 28 million vehicles in 2016, up 7.3% from 2015, which saw a year-on-year growth of 4.7%, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers. However, such sales were largely stimulated by tax incentives released by the Chinese government in 2015 to encourage the sales of low-emission cars.…

THE EGYPTIAN government has said it will use German consultants to fine tune a planned subsidy system benefiting Egypt-based assemblers who source parts domestically. The goal of the ministry of industry is to smooth concerns about the incentives at the European Commission, the European Union (EU) executive, which wants freer trade between the EU and Egypt and views Egyptian government plans to favour local parts sourcing as a trade barrier.…

International politics and trade relations are set to influence the medium-term future of the US paint and coatings industry, analysts have predicted, highlighting a generally positive outlook with certain caveats.

USA PAINT AND COATINGS SECTOR EXPECTED TO GROW, IF TRUMP DOES NOT TORPEDO TRADE POLICY

The state of the economy and its knock-on effect to the construction and manufacturing sectors (the World Bank is forecasting 2.2% GDP growth for the USA in 2017), is encouraging for paint and coatings producers.…

THE TRADE deal announced by the European Union (EU) and Japanese on July 6 that would cut tariffs and harmonise technical regulations has been welcomed by Japan and EU auto-makers – although the Europeans are expressing caution.

Brussels and Tokyo said they had stuck a “political agreement in principle” for an economic partnership agreement, that would phase out vehicle tariffs over seven years and bring regulatory convergence through a special auto annex. …

EUROPEAN Union (EU) lawmakers are calling for a seismic shift towards low carbon mobility in the auto sector, including requiring manufacturers to meet a 25% minimum fleet quota for electric vehicles by 2025 and a sales ban on cars emitting carbon dioxide (CO2) by 2035. …

PAKISTAN’S ministry of industries and production has granted Category-A Greenfield investment status to four automobile manufacturing investors to set up manufacturing plants – effectively greenlighting their projects to establish auto-making plants in the country.

Shah Jahan Shah, spokesperson for Pakistan’s ministry of industries and production said he ministry had signed an agreement with these July 17 (2017).…

THE BURGEONING automotive manufacturing sector of central Europe’s Slovakia is paying close attention to an inquiry by the European Union (EU) executive, the European Commission, into how its government supports the sector. The upcoming decision by the Commission, which has powers to ensure national governments do not distort the EU’s single market by subsidising local industrial champions, could have significant implication for the future of Slovakia’s auto sector.…

A Taiwan-listed, Hong Kong-based electric vehicle startup – Thunder Power – today (Friday) proclaimed an ambitious goal for the future – to make the most desirable EV in China.

“An obvious difference between us and Tesla is we have the key technologies before actually investing in manufacturing,” Wellen Sham, Thunder Power CEO, told wardsauto at a launch event in Shanghai.…

EUROPE’S nonwovens producers again served up a solid performance in 2016 against the background of (uneven and) uncertain trading conditions for the industry.

As usual, the just-published returns from EDANA, the representative organisation for the USD30 billion nonwovens industry in Europe, show some important national variations.…

While South Korea has not yet ratified the UN’s Paris Agreement dealing with greenhouse gas emissions, its important automobile industry has been making serious commitments to green practices, including the transition from solvent-based to waterborne coatings.

According to New Jersey, US-based coatings consulting firm Kusumgar, Nerlfi & Growney, the South Korean passenger car and light vehicle coating market involved supplies of 60,000 tonnes in 2016, and these are becoming increasingly environment-friendly: about one-quarter of basecoats sold are now waterborne.…

VIETNAM is working hard to develop an upstream parts manufacturing base, but this goal is proving hard to achieve and meanwhile, regional liberalization through the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is threatening the country’s auto assembly segment.

In many ways, it is crunch time for Vietnam’s auto sector.…

European Union (EU) member states have pushed back against more centralised control of type approvals by the bloc’s executive European Commission in a vote yesterday (Monday, May 29) in Brussels. The EU Council of Ministers, which represents EU governments, instead approved a “general approach” of principles, which would beef up cooperation between national authorities – but not give the Commission more power.…

THE SYRIAN car sector has been hit hard by the country’s ongoing civil conflict, now into its sixth year. From nearly 90,000 cars being imported into Syria annually before the rebellion against the rule of President Bashar al-Assad started in 2011, imports have now plunged to around 1,000 cars a year.…

TECHNOLOGY per se is not enough to roll out connected cars in Europe, experts from the auto sector and the European Union (EU)’s executive body the European Commission agreed at last week’s ‘Connected Cars Europe 2017’ conference in Brussels. The key, speakers told the May 11 event, is connecting automobiles to their commercial and social environment and getting all actors on board.…

Argentina’s electric car market is poised to take off this year as tax cuts and the installation of charging points spur consumer demand. This month (May), the government slashed import taxes on electric vehicles (EVs), and it’s “working on plans so that the infrastructure for these cars is in place,” Guillermo Dietrich, the national minister of transportation, told wardsauto.…

Italian state-controlled oil and gas producer ENI has cemented its role as a major gas player in Mozambique, after further defining in 2017 the scope of its Coral FLNG (floating liquified natural gas) project in this southern African country. However, doubts are emerging that ENI will actually deliver significant volumes of Mozambique’s huge gas reserves to Italy, and consequentially the rest of Europe, as an alternative and more secure source of natural gas.…

German carmaker Volkswagen and one of its brands Audi both have downplayed allegations from two European consumer organisations that they still are cheating on nitrogen oxides (NOx) tailpipe emissions. Italy’s Altroconsumo and sister organisation Belgium’s Test-Achats, on April 11 published the same tests results, which both Volkswagen and Audi have rejected, claiming the organisations should release more test data to prove their cases.…

EUROPEAN Union (EU) automotive suppliers are accelerating innovation in connected and automated driving (CAD), industry experts told the April 25 policy debate on ‘Safe, Sustainable, Smart Mobility’, organised by the European Association of Automotive Suppliers (CLEPA) in Brussels.

“Digitalisation is the most important transformation in the car industry,” said Violeta Bulc, the Commissioner for transport and mobility on the EU executive body, the European Commission.…

European Union (EU) lawmakers have voted for emission compliance checks on 20% of all new models already on EU roads to beat test cheats in type approval assessments. The European Parliament voted through the requirement on Tuesday (April 4) at its Strasbourg, France, plenary, in an amendment to proposals drafted by British Conservative MEP Daniel Dalton on a proposed law revamping the EU’s type approval system.…

THE PAINT and coatings sector in Egypt is growing, but its progress has been unsteady, reflecting its bumpy political progress since its 2011 revolution that brought down long-standing President Hosni Mubarak. While a construction boom dominated by huge public private partnerships (PPPs) is driving up sales of decorative paint, according to industry analysts, a weak automotive sector is holding back overall growth with slow sales of refinishing paint.…

THE EUROPEAN wipes market is a complex affair. This is a varied segment, in itself, but wipe use varies between countries with contrasting consumer cultures – meaning that in some states, wipes sales are increasing; in others decreasing; and in others, the kinds of wipes being sold is changing.…

Europe’s nonwovens producers again served up a solid performance in 2016 against the background of (uneven and) uncertain trading conditions for the industry. As usual, the just-published returns from EDANA, the representative organisation for the USD30 billion nonwovens industry in Europe, show some important national variations.…

ANTI-CORRUPTION organisation Transparency International (TI) has called for a comprehensive tightening of regulatory and commercial action to restrict how luxury goods are abused as money laundering vehicles and to promote graft.

A new TI report ‘Tainted Treasures: Money laundering risks in luxury markets’ concludes that too little due diligence focuses on luxury goods buyers and where there are luxury goods laws, enforcement is weak.…

THE CHIEF executive of a major Pakistan government economic development agency has told wardsauto that Volkswagen has made significant progress in talks to establish new manufacturing production in this key south Asian market’s port city of Karachi. The latest fruit of the business-friendly policies pursued by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, “Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles is in final talks with Premier Systems Private Limited – the authorised importer of Audi vehicles in the country – to set up a manufacturing/assembly plant for its Amarok and T6 (transporter range) models and Volkswagen,” Tariq Ejaz Chaudhary, CEO of Pakistan’s Engineering Development Board told wardsauto.…

TURKEY’S automotive manufacturing sector is thriving, despite the political turmoil suffered by its home country political instability and war in neighboring countries, with the industry predicting an increase in exports this year.

According to data from the country’s Automotive Industry Association (OSD – Otomotiv Sanayii Derneği), of the USD142.6 billion dollars’ worth of goods and services exported by Turkey in 2016, around USD24.25 billion’s worth of these were manufactured by the Turkish automotive sector.…

AUTOMOTIVE parts and vehicles have become the second most dangerous category of goods in the European Union (EU) in 2016, according to the most recent annual report of the EU’s ‘Rapid Alert System for non-food dangerous products’, or RAPEX.

The system routes safety alerts about consumer products within the 28 member states of the EU.…

THE ROBUST growth of the Mexican automotive coatings market over the past six years looks is likely to end in 2017, according to the Mexican Association of Paint and Ink Producers (ANAFAPYT).

Mexican production of automotive coatings almost doubled from 2010 to 2015, going from 57.3 million liters to 106.2 million liters, say figures from ANAFAPYT (Asociación Nacional de Fabricantes de Pinturas y Tintas).…

THE MARKET for nonwovens for the automotive industry is forecast to continue to grow with China being the driving force, but clever producers will diversify their product lines to include filters, experts at a Nonwovens for High-performance Applications conference in Prague, have heard.…

DECARBONISING air travel is increasingly becoming a priority for the aviation sector. Indeed, the world’s first, fully hydrogen fuel cell-powered four-passenger aircraft with zero-emissions launched last October could be a game changer – as researchers now look to apply the technology to bigger planes.…

JAPAN’S flair in developing effective cutting edge technology is of course well-known, and with an ageing population and still restricted immigration, the potential domestic market for medical and health-focused technical textiles is significant. Amidst shortages of construction, manufacturing and other manual workers, many Japanese industries are purchasing and even developing wearable products that companies can use to monitor or maintain the health of their increasingly stretched and ageing staff, as well as those working from remote locations.…

BIOMETRIC identification, use of blockchain technology to protect the Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence and better surveillance of the deep and dark web will continue to influence intruder detection and prevention developments this year.

Accounting and auditing network Deloitte Global estimates that 40% of smartphones in the developed world will be using fingerprints as a personal security mechanism by the end of 2017.…

India’s complex Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime is set for a launch on July 1 with complicating features such as multiple tax rates and a separate law to guarantee minimum revenues to the country’s states. The central government is moving ahead with the plans, even as the country’s USD2 trillion economy recovers from the shock of November’s withdrawal of high value banknotes.…

The technology is known as ‘dynamic inductive charging’ and has been trialled in a range of scenarios across different continents. And one system, in South Korea, is now in operation on a live transport route, on roads in the towns of Gumi, in the country’s southeast, and Sejong, in central South Korea.…

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) executive, the European Commission, has issued guidance for the bloc’s 28 member states on how to enforce controls on so-called ‘defeat devices’ that have been abused, notably by Volkswagen to bypass EU emissions rules.  

This advice also tells EU regulators on how to restrict other emission abatement strategies used during laboratory tests for type approval purposes, as well as when to allow such methods, under a waiver.…

EUROPEAN Union (EU) lawmakers are pushing for national regulators to put 20% of new car models released for driving through laboratory tests to check compliance with emissions standards, a demand that has spooked Europe’s automakers.

Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) backed this 20% rule in a vote yesterday (Feb 9) in its key internal market and consumer protection committee on proposals to overhaul the EU’s type approval system.…

As the drive to encourage electric vehicle (EV) ownership gathers momentum, so does the desire to install automated recharging systems, such as devices built into roads that top up batteries as autos motor on.

The technology is known as ‘dynamic inductive charging’ and has been trialled in a range of scenarios across different continents.…

THE AUTOMOTIVE industries of the European Union (EU) and Canada are both optimistic that they will export more vehicles as a result of the newly approved Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) between the two jurisdictions. The European Parliament gave CETA its support last Wednesday (February 15), meaning it will come into force provisionally once the Canadian House of Commons does the same (considered a formality).…

A collaboration forged between Australia and New Zealand in January this year could demonstrate how countries can pool resources to develop autonomous vehicles (AV). The antipodean neighbors are to launch an Australian and New Zealand Driverless Vehicle Initiative (ANZDVI), according to Peter Damen, chair of executive steering committee, of an existing partner the Australian Driverless Vehicle Initiative (ADVI).…

South Korea’s Deputy Prime Minister Yoo Il-ho has confirmed that his government has begun drafting a talent-based immigration system to serve as a key driver of economic competitiveness in the future. According to Yoo, the Office for Government Policy Coordination (OPC) has created a task force to counter the country’s demographic changes and plans to produce mid and long-term immigration policies in the first half of the year.…

THE FEDERAL Aviation Administration’s (FAA) Voluntary Airport Low Emission (VALE) Program, in the USA, has managed to escape the cull of environmental programmes ordered by the new administration of President Donald Trump.

His executive orders shortly after taking office in January led to more than USD4 billion’s worth of grants and contracts administered by the USA Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) being scrapped.…

THE GERMAN paint and coatings industry is predicting that its sales will grow steadily in the coming year, as Europe’s largest economy continues its steady economic good fortunes.

The World Bank forecasts that 2017 gross domestic product (GDP) growth will be 1.6% and in 2018 it will be 1.5%.…

Researchers believe designers will expand the use of graphene in textiles for bio-medical, sportswear, fashion, furnishings, military and security equipment.

Isolated by scientists from graphite in 2004, a layer of pure carbon, graphene is the thinnest known compound. It is just one atom thick (a million times thinner than a human hair), the strongest compound ever discovered (between 100-300 times stronger than steel), the lightest material (with one square metre weighing only 0.77 milligrams) and very flexible.…

MOVES to curb dangerous levels of pollution from vehicle emissions are set to boost demand for new cars in Chile, just as the country’s auto market is emerging from a slump, officials predict.

The ongoing issue of poor air quality in the capital, Santiago, has prompted lawmakers to take dramatic action to limit the use of older cars on the city’s streets as part of a package of measures designed to highlight the commitment to beat the smog.…

PAKISTAN has launched its first public charging station for electric and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, paving the way for an anticipated increase in such eco-friendly cars on the country’s often crowded and polluted roads. The station, the first of its kind in south Asia, was inaugurated by Karachi-based auto importer and manufacturer Dewan Farooque Motors Ltd, (which also makes standard transmission Hyundai and Kia models), in conjunction with German auto maker BMW, which supplied the recharging technology.…

The German paint and coatings industry is predicting that its sales will grow steadily in the coming year, as Europe’s largest economy continues its steady economic good fortunes. The World Bank forecasts that 2017 gross domestic product (GDP) growth will be 1.6% and in 2018 it will be 1.5%.…

SMART e-textiles are set to revolutionise the industry in the coming years as the wonder material of the 21st century is introduced into an array of innovative applications.

Researchers believe designers will expand the use of graphene in textiles for bio-medical, sportswear, fashion, furnishings, military and security equipment.…

Volkswagen will plead guilty to three criminal charges in the USA, and pay a USD2.8 billion fine for selling around 590,000 diesel vehicles in America using a device to cheat emissions tests, while lying and obstructing justice to further the scheme.…

HONG Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) and the Hong Kong Stock Exchange have put listed companies on notice that they will closely monitor rights issues and open offers that substantially dilute the interests of non-subscribing minority shareholders.

In a joint statement, the SFC and the exchange have said they fear in some cases deals have been conducted without complying with requirements to give fair and equal treatment to all shareholders. …

EUROPEAN Union (EU) governments have agreed proposed regulations that will introduce, from September 2018, new real-world emissions (RWE) tests to measure the number of particles emitted from modern petrol engines under actual road driving conditions. The decision is the third in a series of technical test models approved by the EU, as it mandates how auto manufacturers move away from relying on laboratory tests of emissions, which sometimes do not reflect what pollution is emitted from tailpipes on roads.…

THE EUROPEAN Commission’s new ‘energy package’ of proposed European Union (EU) laws and policies will promote low-emission and renewable energy for transport, such as advanced biofuels and electricity, the EU executive body has claimed.

The ‘Clean Energy for All Europeans’ legislative proposals, aim to “drive the transition to clean energy”, cover energy efficiency, renewable energy, the design of the electricity market, security of electricity supply and governance rules for what the EU calls its ‘Energy Union’ – essentially a zone of common energy laws uniting all 28 member states.…

FINLAND’S independent contract car maker Valmet Automotive (VA) is experiencing a remarkable renaissance thanks to orders from Germany’s Mercedes-Benz, growth that is expected to continue with support from the European Investment Bank (EIB).

VA’s breakthrough came when it signed a deal with Daimler in July 2012 to make more than 100,000 Mercedes Series A models between 2013 and 2017.…

A FIRST pilot test of automated vehicles is now underway within the Canadian province of Ontario, using a groundbreaking regulatory system designed to encourage tech and auto firms to undertake such research and development.

The pilot, which began November 28, takes advantage of a provincial law, in place since January 1 (2016), which allows companies to test self-driving vehicles on Ontario roads.…

Vehicle registration in the landlocked southern African diamond-rich Botswana has surged over the past decade, with vehicle numbers increasing at an average annual 9.4% rate since 2006, according to statistics from the country’s department of road transport and safety.

The sudden ballooning sales for a country of just over 2 million people, which recently celebrated its golden jubilee independence, has ignited other auto industry support businesses – parts sales shops, car breakers and insurance companies selling motor vehicle insurance – and is fuelled by transactions made for both new and used cars sales.…

THE PROMISE from US President-elect Donald Trump to withdraw the USA from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement on his first day of office has prompted widespread nervousness in auto-sectors around the world.

His rejection of the deal could scupper an agreement negotiated over five years by the United States; Australia; Brunei; Canada; Chile; Japan; Malaysia; Mexico; New Zealand; Peru; Singapore and Vietnam.…

LEADING French automaker Renault could soon start producing vehicles in Pakistan, the chairman of the south Asian country’s Board of Investment (BOI) has predicted to wardsauto. Miftah Ismail said that the manufacturer had submitted an application to the government of Pakistan seeking permission to produce cars locally, initially in a joint venture with Ghandhara Nissan, which is Renault’s global partner.…

A LEAKED draft of proposals for a new European Union (EU) regulation on real-driving emissions (RDE) from light passenger and commercial vehicles would allow new cars to emit 50% more potentially lung-cancer causing particulates than under current air quality legislation, an environmental group is claiming.…

The year-long European Parliament investigation into the ‘dieselgate’ emissions fixing scandal, plus the shockwaves from the revelations themselves, are driving a sea-change in Europe’s type approval system.  The European Union’s democratic assembly set up a Committee of Inquiry into Emission Measurements in the Automotive Sector (EMIS) last December (2015) to probe EU compliance with emissions and type approval laws after it emerged that Volkswagen and probably other carmakers had used illegal defeat devices to cheat tests.…

PAINT and coatings companies and their suppliers can now benefit from pre-declared data during the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) May 2018 REACH registration deadline, for chemicals made or imported in volumes between 1-100 tonnes per year. ECHA has published a list of 7,000 substances for which a ‘lead registrant’ company has been declared in the REACH-IT computer system, which collates data needed for a REACH registration.…

EUROPEAN Union (EU) and United States negotiators have made as much progress as they can in their comprehensive trade talks ahead of the November 8 US presidential and congressional elections, with EU officials highlighting textiles, including knitwear, as a key area of agreement.…

An assembly line for French automotive company Peugeot (Groupe PSA) has opened in Ethiopia (July 1) in partnership with local firm, Mesfin Industrial Engineering (MIE). The new USD1.2 million facility is expected to assemble 1,200 vehicles-a-year for sale to Ethiopia’s growing car market and to neighboring countries Djibouti and Somalia.…

European Union (EU) lawmakers in a key European Parliament committee are split over how to amend proposed reforms to the 28 country bloc’s automotive type approval controls. These members of the parliament’s internal market and consumer protection committee discussed on Thursday (September 29) changes suggested by British Conservative MEP Dan Dalton on proposals from the EU executive, the European Commission, to overhaul EU type approval rules – its key goal is making them sufficiently tight to prevent a repeat of the Dieselgate scandal where emissions controls were circumvented.…

The European Union’s (EU) executive, the European Commission, will next month file suit against EU member state governments over their failure to act on their response to the ‘dieselgate’ emissions cheating scandal. The EU internal market, industry, entrepreneurship and SMEs Commissioner Elzbieta Bienkowska told the European Parliament’s Committee of Inquiry into Emission Measurements in the Automotive Sector (EMIS) on Monday (September 12): “You will definitely see some infringement procedures next month.”…

A top Volkswagen official refused to acknowledge to a European consumer organization (BEUC) conference in Brussels yesterday (September 28) that the company had acted illegally in Europe in fitting defeat devices to its cars, despite apologizing for doing so. Imelda Wander-Lamé, Volkswagen’s director of group after sales, told the ‘Fitness check on the car sector in Europe’ conference on the dieselgate scandal and its aftermath: “We are truly sorry for this inconvenience and loss of trust that we caused to our customers.”…

BIG marketing stunts can boost sales of technical textiles and maybe one of the biggest examples in Europe this year was created by world renowned artists Christo. He created ‘The Floating Piers’ on Lake Iseo, near Brescia, in northern Italy.…

THE PARIS conference of the parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) last December, of COP21, made a commitment to create a carbon-neutral world between 2050 and 2100. This means that governments and international organisations must devise policies to ensure the amount of greenhouse gases emitted by human activity equals the amount that that trees, soil and oceans can absorb naturally preventing the build-up of CO2 in the atmosphere.…

JUDGING by the initial responses to the final guidance on net neutrality released on August 30 by European regulators group BEREC, these new rules are too restrictive for the taste of telecoms companies, and will hinder commercial progress. Free internet campaigners, however, are happy – regarding the new system as an effective protection against the privatisation and Balkanisation of the web.…

Autoparts researchers are developing the use of grasses, such as hemp or flax, to make tough bioplastics that are lightweight and also help reduce a vehicle’s carbon footprint by using a renewable resource as an input.

A key innovator is Bruce Dietzen, president of Renew Design, a Florida, USA-based company that produces custom-ordered cars whose body components are made from processing the outer stalk of hemp plants through combining it with a synthetic resin and placed in a mold.…

Vigorous expansion of export-oriented manufacturing and construction in 2015 spurred the fastest GDP growth in Vietnam in seven years, at 6.7% year-on-year, according to the Asian Development Bank. And although coatings consumption correlates generally well with economic growth, in Vietnam the 2015 year-on-year coatings production increase outpaced general economic expansion – it rose 11.1% year-on -year in 2015, to Vietnamese dong VND13 trillion (USD587 million), according to market researcher Euromonitor International.…

Paint and varnish manufacturers in Japan experienced a disappointing 2015, with sluggish purchasing from the construction and automotive sectors translating into meagre 0.3% growth over the fiscal year. Analysts predict that growth will pick up in the short term, in part as a result of a spike in demand from the construction sector ahead of Tokyo hosting the 2020 Olympic Games – although industry players are concerned about the longer-term outlook for the sector.…

Thailand-based automotive original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) are set to benefit from the expansion of an existing auto tariff-free zone to Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) members Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam in 2018. These would then join this ASEAN-linked trading zone’s member countries Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand to forge an ASEAN-wide automotive market bloc.…

GESTAMP, a Spanish multinational specializing in metal vehicle components, is researching ways to make lighter and safer cars after acquiring funding from the European Investment Bank (EIB).

“The project activities aim at further reducing vehicle weight (contributing to lower fuel consumption and emissions) [and] improving vehicle safety, while enhancing manufacturing productivity and reducing average production cost,” a Gestamp spokesperson told wardsauto.…

The European Union’s automotive manufacturing and telecommunications industry trade bodies July 7 unveiled plans for a joint test project in connected and automated driving, due to launch 2017. The European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA), the European Association of Automotive Suppliers (CLEPA), the European Telecommunications Network Operators’ Association (ETNO), the European Competitive Telecommunications Association (ECTA) and the global association for the mobile telecoms industry (GSMA) will operate the research scheme.…

Automobile manufacturers based in Britain face a risk that their exports to the European Union (EU) will attract duties now the UK government has confirmed it will push ahead with leaving the EU following the June 23 Brexit referendum result. These could be imposed after the two years of mandated talks on a future relationship with the EU following a UK decision to trigger Article 50 under the Treaty on European Union.…

Europe’s automakers have lashed out at new European Union (EU) proposals designed to decarbonize the economy and encourage a shift to low- or no-emission options as being too focused on technology. They have also claimed it is and discriminatory because it only deals with road transport. …

THE EUROPEAN Commission has released a new policy paper (communication) on reducing carbon emissions from transport, but automotive manufacturers have complained it focuses too tightly on road vehicles.

This ‘European Strategy for Low-Emission Mobility’ attempts to explain how the EU should try to hit its carbon emissions reduction targets through focusing on transport.…

Non-executive board members will may be well advised to acquaint themselves with new European Union (EU) legislation that may force their companies to yield up data if law enforcement authorities think it may help prevent crime.

New legislation has been passed by the EU amidst continuing debate over the issue of mandatory ‘backdoors’ access to encrypted data – highlighted by the USA Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) request for information from Apple over the San Bernardino shootings.…

Asian paint and coatings manufacturers are set to benefit from the expansion of an existing automotive tariff-free zone spanning Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) member countries Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand to Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam.…

Liberalising Myanmar’s potential market for new cars is significant, but growth is currently hampered by regulatory uncertainty. Although it has a population of 51 million, only 5,000 new passenger cars were sold in the country during the last financial year.

“The future is very good, potentially.…

THE EUROPEAN nonwovens industry has been pushing ahead, maintaining consistent growth above increases in GDP for the whole economy, increasing its international collaboration, and the successfully exploring new markets. And while it is rarely prudent to make anything more than short-term predictions about cost and tariff problems, such difficulties faced by the European nonwovens sector seem have been pushed into the background. …

Argentina’s automotive industry is poised for a rebound in 2017 after production slumped by 38% over the past four years, say experts encouraged by the performance of the country’s new government.

“We see Argentina’s car market turning the corner now,” said Neil King, the London-based head of automotive research at Euromonitor International, a research firm.…

Plans to establish standardized European Union (EU) type approval fees, paid to national funds not individual test houses, could face a challenge from the European Parliament, the EU’s democratically elected co-legislature, wardsauto has learned. The proposals were made back in January by the EU executive, the European Commission, in a bid to revamp Europe’s type approval system, which were discredited after the ‘dieselgate’ scandal of crooked emissions measurement systems.…

Russian automotive consumers suffering in their country’s current economic recession are delaying vehicle purchases and investing in single, more expensive family cars rather than buy several small cars for individual use, experts have told wardsauto.

They are commenting on data that has confounded predictions that the country’s volatile financial situation would mean a return to purchasing cheaper and smaller car models, such as the Ladas driven during the Communist years.…

INNOVATIVE ways of powering trains are poised for mainstream use in the global transport industry. Today, the most common trains are still those powered by diesel engines, but there is a continuing shift towards electricity and alternative power sources.

“With rail expected to play an increasingly important role in future transport systems…there is a lot of focus on how it should be more energy efficient,” said Andrew Foulkes, a communications manager at Ricardo Rail, a UK-based railway engineering and consultancy firm.…

Czech automobile manufacturer Škoda Auto, the subsidiary of Germany’s Volkswagen, plans to strengthen its position in the Chinese market, through a planned EUR2 billion investment over five years in the Shanghai-based SAIC Volkswagen Automotive Company Ltd.

The manufacturer is betting on the Chinese market in the future, Škoda China president Andreas Hafemann told wardsauto, saying the company wanted to double its China sales following the deal.…

Lighter-weight, tough and durable glass for automotive windows could be sold to auto-makers within the next 12 months, thanks to a joint venture between two international specialist materials companies. Saint-Gobain Sekurit (SBS), part of the France-based Saint-Gobain Group, and New York-state’s Corning Incorporated plan to develop, manufacture and sell lightweight automotive glass glazing solutions that offer “significantly improved lightness, toughness and optical quality over traditional solutions”, according to a joint communiqué.…

THE STABLE north African kingdom of Morocco is pushing ahead with plans to grow its automotive manufacturing industry, creating a lower-cost hub for supplying nearby wealthy European markets. Indeed, with the Strait of Gibraltar crossing between Morocco and Spain being just over eight miles wide, the Morocco government’s 2014-2020 industrial acceleration policy is clear – it wants to grow its auto sector fast.…

Rising affluence, together with growth across feeder industries are translating into solid results for the Indonesian coatings sector. The paints and varnishes market in the country generated sales of Indonesian Rupiah IDR24,733 billion (USD1.9 billion) in 2014 according to the latest data available from market researcher Euromonitor International.…

Almost certainly the vast majority of UK-based Japanese-owned businesses want Britain to stay in the European Union (EU) after the in-out EU membership referendum planned for June 23.

However, few companies have stated this publicly and no Japanese company has yet said it would move elsewhere if there was a vote to leave.…

Considering the ongoing doldrums within the global economy, 2015 was not a bad year for South Korea’s coatings manufacturers. The sector’s cautiously positive sentiment mainly survived because Korean coatings consumption has been boosted by a domestic construction boom that made up for lacklustre demand from the east Asian export powerhouse’s carmakers and shipbuilders.…

Automotive industry experts seem to agree – past concerns that tough environmental laws could force auto-manufacturing from a green jurisdiction to a country or region with laxer controls, no longer see to apply.

In doing so, industry specialists are backing the conclusions of a new report from the world’s largest think-tank, the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Co-operation & Development (OECD), which said following tighter environmental rules can be good business.…

A European Parliament probe into the dieselgate scandal kicked off yesterday (March 2) with a row over how far the year-long probe should go in finger-pointing at the car industry. For the centre-right European People’s Party (EPP), the European Parliament’s largest political group, Latvian MEP Krišjānis Kariņš warned the new Committee of Inquiry into Emission Measurements in the Automotive Sector (EMIS): “The EPP will do its utmost to prevent this committee from becoming what could be termed as a witch hunt either against industry or against diesel technologies where Europe has a competitive advantage in the world.”…

THE PAKISTAN government has unveiled a new five-year industrial plan aimed at growing the country’s automotive manufacturing sector. The government says it will waive import duties on materials and technology needed to establish new auto plants in Pakistan and also reduce import duties charged on auto parts once these factories are operational.…

THE AUTOMOTIVE industry globally is facing ever-higher demands to improve performance and quality at lower cost and high tech coatings may enable the industry to deliver. The need for energy efficiency and energy reduction were two key messages that emerged from the United Nations (UN) climate change agreement in Paris, December (2015), and the auto industry may well face legal obligations under rules emerging from the agreement struck by the 21st Conference of the Parties (COP 21) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).…

VIETNAM’S free trade deal with the European Union (EU) includes a commitment that cars sold in its country should follow international vehicle regulations. These technical rules are set by the UN Economic Commission for Europe’s World Forum for Harmonization of Vehicle Regulations and are generally written into EU type approval legislation.…

The European Union (EU) is considering adopting methods used by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) through staging secret tests to check in service cars for type approval compliance. A hearing today (February 23) at the European Parliament’s (EP) key environment, public health and food safety committee learned that with test contents kept secret, automakers cannot design and fit cheat devices to subvert controls.…

THE EUROPEAN Commission is incorporating the latest guidance from the European auto industry into its plan for rolling-out connected cars across the European Union (EU), drawing on advice from manufacturers favouring swift, coordinated deployment. A key, stressed a report published in January by the Commission, the EU’s executive, is for the installation of ‘cooperative intelligent transport systems’ (C-ITS) allowing vehicles to communicate with other vehicles, other road users, traffic signals and roadside infrastructure.…

Experts have called at the European Parliament for updated regulations and a harmonisation of policies in each of the 28 European Union (EU) member states to address road safety concerns – notably new rules on cutting vehicle speed. They were speaking at a hearing entitled ‘Towards a European Road Safety Area’, held on Tuesday (Feb 16) by the parliament’s committee on transport and tourism.…

THE REFINED fuel sector and its automotive industry customers have dodged having to sharply reduce pollution emissions after the European Parliament accepted new real driving emissions (RDE) tests. These will allow auto-makers to sell cars that temporarily breach European Union (EU) exhaust limits, giving the fuel and auto sectors time to make necessary technical changes to ensure compliance.…

Thanks to the introduction of a tax incentive scheme launched by the government of Trinidad & Tobago, auto converters and dealers in the country are increasingly talking up Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) as a clean auto fuel for vehicles on the twin island Caribbean state.…

THE EUROPEAN Union’s (EU) executive, the European Commission could fine automakers up to EUR30,000 per vehicle if found cheating on emissions or other tests under reformed type approval rules proposed on Wednesday (January 27). The proposals to revamp the EU’s type approval system aim to prevent a repeat of the Volkswagen ‘dieselgate’ scandal that have revealed major holes in EU regulatory oversight on vehicle performance, which is largely based on national government agencies among the EU’s 28 member states.…

European Union (EU) lawmakers could veto a new real driving emissions (RDE) test, using on-vehicle portable emission measurement systems (PEMS) devices rather than laboratories to measure tailpipe output, in a February 2 vote. To be taken by the European Parliament – the EU’s democratic assembly – the vote likely will be knife-edge close since three political groups – including the largest centre-right European People’s Party (EPP) – oppose the proposed veto but not the five others.…

THE OIL and gas industry is preparing itself for regulatory challenges following the agreement on limiting climate change struck in Paris on December 12. In comments following the deal, industry organisations stressed the key role the oil and gas industry will continue to play as a key energy and product ingredient source, even as the world moves towards a lower carbon economy.…

A two-year joint-operation between Europol and the Spanish Civil Guard (Guardia Civil) has shut down a EUR300 million money laundering and counterfeit goods network focused on Spain. ‘Operation Snake’ closed in on the gang on May 11, with more than 200 officers searching 65 residences and making 35 arrests.…

While solar power-generating roads may sound like a futuristic idea, the technology could soon become reality. SolaRoad, a 70-metre-long concrete bicycle path embedded with solar panels located in Krommenie, the Netherlands, has delivered promising results as a prototype. And the project’s developers are hopeful a commercially-viable product with widespread application is just around the corner.…

EUROPEAN automakers and influential supporters in the European Parliament are advising European Union (EU) politicians not to rush into imposing new tailpipe pollution limits in a proposal currently going through the EU legislative process.
The EU executive, the European Commission, has proposed an EU regulation ‘amending Regulations (EC) No 715/2007 and (EC) No 595/2009 as regards the reduction of pollutant emissions from road vehicles’.…

NORWAY’S position as a leading market for electric vehicles (EV) has almost certainly been solidified by the European regulatory approval given to its government for removing 25% sales tax from sales of EVs.
This green light has come from the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) Surveillance Authority – which acts as a watchdog ensuring some EFTA countries, such as Norway, comply with European Union (EU) law.…

Sustainability improvements in the Asian outsourced clothing and textile sector are far from being the sole preserve of China. In Cambodia, Tonlé, a sustainable garment-making firm based in Phnom Penh, obtains 90% of its fabric from factory cut-out and 10% through sustainable suppliers to make a zero-waste clothing line.…

Manufacturing powerhouse South Korea began its cap-and-trade system on January 1, 2015 as a part of an overarching goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 4% reduction below 2005 emissions levels. If achieved, that would leave emissions at 30% lower in 2020 than they would be if current increases are maintained.…

GOVERNMENT help in encouraging struggling auto markets can be very effective, but assistance needs to be phased out carefully so that sales booms do not turn into slump, the leader global automotive manufacturer federation OICA has told wardsauto.
In an exclusive interview, OICA (Organisation Internationale des Constructeurs d’Automobiles) secretary general Yves van der Straaten pointed to the phenomenal growth in the Spanish car market as an example.…

A dispute over the amount of Bangladesh-made jute being exported to India is increasing tensions between the two countries who are accusing each other of unfair trade practices, while at the same time subsidising their industries.
“The import [of jute from Bangladesh] is rising every year and it is a matter of concern,” Santosh Gangwar, India’s minister for textiles told the Lok Sabha, the lower house of the Indian parliament in March.…

DESPITE a recent report from the European Commission claiming the European Union (EU) 2011 Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with South Korea was behind a 90% hike in car exports to the Asian nation by July 1, 2014, South Korean manufacturers consider the agreement beneficial to both parties.…

A flexible charging system using off peak capacity and battery storage could prevent grid overload and disruptions to power supply as the electric vehicle (EV) market grows, especially in the UK, Europe’s electricity industry association Eurelectric argues.
In a new report, ‘Smart Charging: Steering the charge, driving the change’, it warns that even at low market shares, EVs could easily congest local transformers and disrupt voltage levels.…

TOWNS of the future – efficient, energy-neutral, safe and truly communal – may look a lot like the Fujisawa Sustainable Smart Town (SST), in Japan. Energy World had the opportunity to tour this pioneering project, located 30 miles (48 kilometres) south of central Tokyo.…

EUROPEAN Union (EU) member states are now developing national policies that the EU has required to ensure that they have an adequate number of alternative transport re-charging and re-fuelling stations by 2020. This is deemed necessary to boost demand for vehicles running on alternative fuels in Europe.…

This year there will not be much to write home about for the German paint and coatings industries, with demand from the decorating and DIY sectors stuck in a bit of a rut and not a noticeably better outlook in the motor industry.…

THE VOLATILITY of the global energy market is presenting several challenges to the European Union’s (EU) biofuel sector. Low oil prices, recession, slumps in demand and political uncertainty in key oil producing areas are all raising questions of an industry that was meant to mitigate or provide solutions to many of these issues.…

User-friendly, energy-neutral, efficient and truly communal with innovative transport systems, towns of the future may look a lot like the Fujisawa Sustainable Smart Town (SST).
The pioneering project, located 30 miles south of central Tokyo, next to the established town of Fujisawa is the brainchild of the Panasonic Corporation and 17 companies keen to test their cutting-edge technologies in transportation, energy, construction, security and utilities.…

The European Union’s (EU) executive, the European Commission has used its competition law powers to open up a multi-billion dollar race for the huge global market for intelligent chassis systems and advanced collision-avoidance technology. Its regulatory starter pistol has been the terms it has imposed on German firm ZF, of Friedrichshafen, for its planned acquisition of TRW, based in Detroit.…

GERMAN-made automobiles were the largest source of reports regarding potentially dangerous motor vehicles made to the European Union’s (EU) RAPEX consumer alert network in 2014, analysis of its data shows.
There were 194 notifications to the system relating to automobiles and parts last year, the fourth largest category following toys (650), clothing and textiles (530) and electrical appliances (217).…

Volkswagen Brazil’s new EUR200 million from the European Investment Bank (EIB) may not be enough to help the German automaker recover its long-standing position in Latin America’s largest market, a senior auto expert has warned. VW’s Brazil market share dropped from 22% in 2004 to 17% last year, which puts them behind leaders Fiat and in a struggle with Chevrolet to keep the second position in South America’s key market, according to Brazil’s automotive industry association – Associação Nacional dos Fabricantes de Veículos Automotores (ANFAVEA).…

THE EXPANSION of Renault’s manufacturing operations in Algeria looks set to continue, providing new jobs in the north African nation, fuelling speculation about its strategic significance. The company has already created 250 direct jobs and 500 indirect jobs according to Guillaume Josselin, chief executive officer of Renault Algeria, through the opening last November 10 (2014) of a car manufacturing plant, based in the coastal city of Oran.…

A long-running dispute between the European Union and Brazil over taxes on cars imported into Brazil has entered a critical final stage with a decision by the World Trade Organization (WTO) to set up a panel to consider the dispute. The row is not as straightforward, however, as an argument about allegedly punitive and illegal taxes.…

The recent moves towards loosening trade and diplomatic relations between the US and Cuba has provided a source of cautious optimism within the American auto industry.
President Barack Obama has been loosening the 54-year trade restrictions after announcing a policy u-turn on December 17 last year, but only Congress, controlled by Republicans, can actually lift the economic embargo entirely.…

REPRESENTATIVES of the European and American automobile industries hope that the negotiations for a large-scale trade agreement between the European Union (EU) and the United States (US) will pick up pace after the publication of a new round of official documents by the European Commission.…

A long-running dispute between the European Union and Brazil over taxes on cars imported into Brazil has entered a critical final stage with a decision by the World Trade Organization (WTO) to set up a panel to consider the dispute. The row is not as straightforward, however, as an argument about allegedly punitive and illegal taxes.…

The Chinese government is tightening its controls on the movement of money abroad as the liberalisation of the Chinese Yuan Renminbi is expected to trigger a rush of money from the country, especially from China’s wealthy.

Some of China’s big spenders are reverting to big ticket purchases to get money out of the country.…

Roaming fees, net neutrality and radio spectrum are set to be the main regulatory issues related to M2M (machine-to-machine) and IoT (Internet of Things) discussed by European Union (EU) member states in 2015, say Brussels sources.

The new European Commission, which took office on November 1, inherited a full in-tray from its predecessor, notably having to pilot the ‘connected continent’ package through the EU Council of Ministers and the European Parliament.…

The French motor trade is celebrating victory in a multi-year campaign to persuade the government to tighten up the procedures for payment of value-added-tax (VAT) on second-hand vehicles imported into France.  The French ministry of finance has proposed reforms to the government’s national budget for 2014 that would end a cross-border fraud estimated to have cost the country a billion euros through the sale of about 160,000  used autos in the past 10 years, depressing the market for new France-made and imported cars.…

THE EUROPEAN automotive industry has declared that it is satisfied with the new greenhouse gas emissions policy agreed by the European Union (EU), which covers carbon controls up to the year 2030. Under the agreement set by heads of government within the European Council – the EU’s highest policy making body – industries such as auto-makers who are not included within the EU emissions trading system (ETS) must by 2030 reduce emissions by 30% compared to 2005 levels.…

A FREE trade deal struck between the European Union (EU) and Ecuador should benefit European auto manufacturers with increased market access in Ecuador, the European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA) has told wardsauto. In a statement, ACEA welcomed the inclusion of Ecuador into the Andean free trade agreement previously concluded by the EU with Peru and Colombia.…

AUTOMOTIVE dealers in east Africa have welcomed a comprehensive trade deal, finalised earlier this month (Thursday Oct 16), between the European Union (EU) and the East African Community (EAC) as demand in EAC countries grows for European vehicles.

The deal is designed to boost trade, including automobiles and parts, between the two regions.…

Auto manufacturers’ gas mileage and emissions claims are a key part of marketing, but if these claims are shown to be false or skewered, it might be better if they had not been made in the first place. According to Transport and Environment (T&E), a Brussels-based organization that promotes transport policies based on sustainable development, the current system of testing cars to measure fuel economy and CO2 emissions in Europe “is not fit for purpose”.…

The Venezuelan government’s economic policies have created a boom in smuggling contraband meat and livestock to neighbouring Colombia. The trade is pushing down Colombian prices, putting consumers at risk and threatening the country’s hopes of becoming an export nation.

Between January and September this year, Colombia’s tax and customs police (Policia Fiscal y Aduanera – POLFA) made over USD1 million worth of seizures of meat and livestock in the form of 106 tonnes of beef, 4 tonnes of pork, 11 tonnes of chicken, 1,024 live cows, 243 pigs and 23,100 chickens.…

European Union (EU) prime-ministers and presidents meeting last night in Brussels agreed a new emissions policy and tried to reassure high energy European industries that the free allocation of emission certificates will not expire after 2020.

The EU’s European Council, its leading policy-making body, agreed that “existing measures will continue after 2020 to prevent the risk of carbon leakage due to climate policy, as long as no comparable efforts are undertaken in other major economies, with the objective of providing appropriate levels of support for sectors at risk of losing international competitiveness.”…

IT is often said that the UK and USA are separated by a common language, but there are real and clear differences between the two countries’ approaches to developing combined head and power (CHP). This is today firmly entrenched as part of the UK energy mix but many in the industry would argue that this is in spite of rather than because of the approach taken by ministers.…

Thailand’s paint and coating industry is facing a challenging time as its country grapples with economic and political difficulties. Thailand’s economic growth has slowed significantly over the last two years. GDP expanded by 6.6% in 2012, as the country recovered from the devastating floods of 2011, which hit northern, north-eastern and central Thailand, as well as parts of Bangkok.…

Russia may ban imports of cars from the European Union (EU), the United States and maybe Japan if Brussels and Washington impose additional sanctions because of Moscow’s role in the Ukraine crisis.

An aide to Russia’s President Vladimir Putin told wardsauto that the Russian government would be especially monitoring a meeting of the EU Council of Ministers for foreign affairs on October 20.…

THE EUROPEAN Union’s executive, the European Commission has threatened Germany with legal action unless it orders its automakers to comply with EU legislation covering mobile air conditioning systems in motor vehicles. If Berlin refuses and the case goes against it in the European Court of Justice (ECJ), Germany could end up paying massive recurring fines of thousands of Euros a day, until it complies.…

THE EUROPEAN Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA) has called on the European Union (EU) to take broad action to make cleaner fuels more available across Europe, now the final details of the EU’s fuel quality directive have been revealed. The European Commission has proposed a complex formula for measuring the amount of emissions involved in making and using liquid fuels, which is tied to commitments by member states to reduce carbon emissions linked to transport.…

Trade–based money laundering (TBML) must be one of the oldest – and in some respects the simplest – forms of money laundering. You simply fake the invoice of a shipment so that the receiver of the goods gets something far more valuable (or possibly far less valuable, so that the ‘profit’ is made by the sender) than the price reported to the authorities.…

AN ITALIAN-Chinese company is attempting to emulate IKEA in the automobile market, by offering a modular home and small-workshop production system for putting together a part-made car.
Based in Hong-Kong with a research and development centre in Busto Arsizio, Italy, OSVehicle is currently developing a homologated, modular car platform, called the Urban TABBY, with the key components for making a finished car that is legal to drive on roads across the European Union (EU).…

THE CANADIAN auto industry has welcomed the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) now negotiated between the European Union (EU) and Canada, but it may become more significant, if a trade deal is struck between the EU and the USA.

“The biggest issues with CETA, and what we’re excited about, is the removal of the EU 10% tariff,” said Jeffrey Pierce, policy analyst at Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters, an industry association, whose members include Canada-based automotive manufacturers.…

Until recently, the automotive sector relied more heavily on liquid spray coatings and resins than other industries, but this trend is changing, with powder coatings becoming more popular. One stumbling block regarding efficiency improvements centred on the type of conveyor belts used to move the parts, which are dictated by load weight.…

THE MARKET distorting economic policies of Venezuela’s government were supposed to help the country’s poor, but instead have created a boom in contraband smuggling into neighbouring Colombia, generating massive profits for organized crime, James Bargent reports.

CONTRABAND and smuggling permeate every aspect of economic life in the windswept Colombian border city of Cúcuta.…

THE ETHICAL traits of Sharia-compliant, or Islamic, financing, such as not allowing interest or investments in gambling and tobacco, have made sustainable and responsible investment (SRI) and green funds an obvious extension for the sector. But with Islamic finance already being a niche market, compared to conventional financing, initiatives to diversify into SRIs have struggled over the past several years.…

CHINA’S technical textile sector – producing everything from protective gear for steel workers to materials used in artificial kidneys – has enjoyed strong growth in recent years, and 2013 was no exception. According to the annual report of the Beijing-based China Nonwovens & Industrial Textiles Association (CNITA), the value of the technical textile sector and the fixed asset investments within it grew in 2013 by 12.9% and 28.7% respectively year-on-year.…

European and American automotive manufacturers are working together in pressing US and European Union (EU) negotiators to be ambitious as they try to forge a Transatlantic Trade & Investment Partnership (TTIP) agreement.

Erik Bergelin, director of trade and economics at the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA) and Matthew Blunt, president of the American Automotive Policy Council (AAPC), have together called for the agreement to recognise the equivalence of engine emission standards and safety regulations.…

AFTER in November 2013 Typhoon Haiyan (local name: Yolanda) smashed into the Philippines’ Visayas island chain, killing 6,000 people and destroying or damaging about 1 million homes, plus schools and other infrastructure, a lot of repainting and recoating was required.

However, while the country’s government spoke of committing some USD8 billion for reconstructing and rehabilitating the devastated areas, nine months on, few replacement housing units have been built, indeed some May local press reports suggest none at all have been constructed.…

Ethiopia’s booming textile industry is set to benefit from a new partnership between Chinese textile company Zhejiang Jinda Flax Llc and the Ethiopian ministry of industry.

A memorandum of understanding signed mid-May outlined how Zhejiang Jinda Flax and the ministry would form a joint company, the Kingdom Linen Textile Industrial Zone, which will be responsible for the construction and development of the textile industrial zone project.…

Nonwovens are taking on an increasingly important role in creating more sustainable vehicles, particularly in interiors, offering lightweight materials reducing fuel usage, recyclability, and the use of green feedstocks such as plant and waste food material.

The US-based global Association of the Nonwoven Fabrics Industry (INDA) estimates there was about 560,000 tonnes of nonwovens in global automotive usage in 2013, said Dave Rousse, INDA’s president.…

HELPING AND ADVISING EUROPEAN CONSUMERS SHOPPING AND TRAVELLING ABROAD

WHEN CAN ECC-NET OFFICES HELP YOU?

• Air travel

So much can go wrong: flights can be delayed or cancelled; luggage can be lost or damaged; and hidden fees can be charged.…

WHEN it comes to subsidies in the European Union (EU), the representatives of the fossil fuels industries and those of the renewable energy sources have long pointed the finger at each other about who receives more support from the public purse.…

THE COUNTRIES of Latin America may have strong cultural links, but their politics and economies have always varied and this is still the case with the paint and coatings sector. Whilst the whole region has experienced rising incomes over the past decade, this growth has been far from even and is currently under threat – for instance in Venezuela and Argentina, where interventionist governments have impeded trade.…

Final statistics to be published by the European Environment Agency (EEA) in the fall are expected to confirm that the average CO2 emissions of new cars sold in the European Union (EU) in 2013 were already below the European Union’s (EU) 2015 required target.…

Japan has been delivering sufficient concessions in negotiations for a free trade agreement (FTA) with the European Union (EU) to ensure the talks continue, EU trade Commissioner Karel de Gucht has signalled to wardsauto.

Since the launch of talks last March (2013), he said Japan had agreed to adopt “the large majority of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) regulations as such.”…

Investment in the Indonesian textiles industry is set to remain stable this year, but with expansion in technical textiles, according to Ade Sudrajat Usman, chairman of the Indonesian Textiles Association (API).  Technical textiles – including medical textiles, geotextiles and agri-textiles – are a growing market and industry within Indonesia, with USD150 million worth of investment anticipated for 2014, according to Ade.…

Despite losing USD2 billion in sales during industrial action last year, and wage-related strikes being an annual specter, the lure of the sub-Saharan Africa market should ensure in South Africa car manufacturers do not divest from the country, according to industry experts.…

WITH more than three in four residents of the European Union (EU) residing in cities and traffic volumes rising, the number of complaints linked to environmental noise in Europe has been increasing. That is why earlier this month, members of the European Parliament backed proposals from the EU executive, the European Commission, to reduce vehicle noise by 25% in cities by the year 2024.…

THE EUROPEAN Parliament, which represents the citizens of the European Union (EU) voted today (April 15) to introduce a mandatory system to handle emergency calls (eCalls) sent automatically by cars in case of a crash by 2017.

This decision was agreed in negotiations with the national governments back in March and endorsed today by MEPs (members of the European Parliament) in their last plenary meeting ahead of elections on May 22-25.…

AUSTRIA

The location of ECC Austria in central Vienna means many consumers drop by to receive advice or lodge complaints in person with the ECC’s five staff members. A top priority in 2013 was increasing public awareness about e-commerce fraud; a brochure aimed at combatting the problem was published and more than 600,000 were distributed throughout Austria.…

An official at the Korea Automobile Manufacturers Association (KAMA) has predicted to Steel First that the trade agreement struck between Canada and South Korea on Tuesday could increase demand for Korean-made steel.

The official, who had worked on the trade deal talks, explained that there were currently “no fixed plans” to create Korean car plants in Canada and also that any increased demand for Korean cars in Canada arising from the deal would probably not be met by the two Korean-owned plants in the USA (in Georgia and Alabama.)…

A NEW tax in Argentina is wreaking havoc for dealerships and consumers, and adding to the woes of manufacturers already grappling with onerous trade restrictions, including a new proposal to limit auto parts imports, part of the Peronist government’s protectionist economic policy.…

A TRADE agreement struck between Canada and South Korea this week (Tuesday March 11) has raised fears in the Canadian automobile about a potential increase in South Korean automotive exports.

Upon the agreement’s ratification (which may happen within a year), South Korea will remove all existing tariffs, including on all passenger cars and light trucks (8%) and all automotive parts (3% to 8%) exported from Canada.…

WHEN a company issues a motor vehicle recall, there are a number of short term and long term implications. The company must consider the costs of repairing the vehicles, any legal costs that might arise, and, of course, its reputation.

But Paul Nieuwenhuis, co-director of the Centre for Automotive Industry Research at Cardiff Business School in the UK, said companies often decide to cut costs when manufacturing a vehicle, calculating that the costs associated with issuing a recall as a result would be worth it.…

Turkey’s automotive market grew strongly in 2013, driven by strong economic growth and a government incentive scheme designed to boost investments in the sector. However, high taxes are limiting growth and imports still dominate the market.

According to data from Turkey’s Automotive Manufacturers Association (OSD – Otomotiv Sanayii Dernegi), the passenger car and light commercial vehicle market grew 9.7% in 2013, with total sales reaching 853,378, compared with 777,761 in 2012.…

DETAILED work is under way to create a plan to further diversify the European Union’s (EU) energy supplies routes, after EU heads of government agreed to “address the issue of external energy dependency.” The urgency follows concern sparked by Russia’s annexation of the Crimea from Ukraine.…

THE EUROPEAN Parliament has approved a new target for CO2 emissions from cars in the European Union (EU) of 95g CO2/km in 2021, but the European Commission is already plotting tighter controls. Welcoming MEP’s vote, European Union (EU) climate action Commissioner Connie Hedegaard said: “It is clear that long-term clarity is important for the car industry.…

WHATEVER happens in Europe, an automobile manufacturing base will always be needed on the continent, Erik Jonnaert, the new secretary general of the European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA) told wardsauto in his first interview since taking office in October 2013. (THAT’S WHAT WE WERE TOLD – BUT WE’RE DOUBLE CHECKING THIS AND WILL ADVICE MONDAY)

“I don’t think there should be any fear that we will evolve towards a situation where all manufacturing would move out of Europe,” he said, convinced that vehicle manufacturing still had a role to play on the continent despite historically low sales and increased competition from Asia.…

A FIRST set of technical standards saying how European manufacturers should build technologies that enable vehicles to communicate with each other and with roadside communications infrastructure has been released. The European Committee for Standardization (CEN) and the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) have issued an initial set of standards for cooperative intelligence transport systems (C-ITS) – called Release 1 – following a request from the European Commission in 2009.…

THE EUROPEAN Commission has called for significant globalisation of Internet governance. It has released a detailed policy paper that suggests a clear timetable over the next two years for globalising the currently US-based ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) and its associated IANA (Internet Assigned Numbers Authority).…

BRAZIL’S taxes on imported products, meant to encourage domestic production, has curbed imports of motor vehicles from the European Union (EU) and in some cases even moved research and engineering jobs from Europe to Brazil, an EU official has told wardsauto.com.  …

EUROPEAN carmakers, represented by the European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA) in Brussels, want the standard of fuels available for sale in Europe to be maintained beyond 2020, when a European Union (EU) law on fuel quality may be weakened or scrapped.…

With their combined population of just under 9 million, the south Pacific island territories, excluding New Zealand, are a set of small and hard to reach markets – so it is maybe no surprise that only a handful of companies tap their paint and coatings demand.…

BY JENS KASTNER

With their combined population of just under 9 million, the south Pacific island territories, excluding New Zealand, are a set of small and hard to reach markets – so it is maybe no surprise that only a handful of companies tap their paint and coatings demand.…

THE AGREEMENT by the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to reduce import-export red tape may lead to a seismic shift in the global automotive sector, an industry expert has told wardsauto.

Peter Cooke, the emeritus professor of automotive management at Britain’s University of Buckingham, said that major emerging markets without a substantial auto sector may create capacity because of the deal.…

THE GOVERNMENT of South Korea is expected to announce a new corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) standard this coming year, which could increase target performance to 20km/liter, wardsauto has learnt. A senior official at the transportation energy team of the Korea Energy Management Corporation (KEMCO) expects the change to have a positive impact on the industry by encouraging manufacturers to develop more fuel efficient vehicles, including hybrids, electrics, and clean diesels.…

HIGHWAY and transport officials in charge of network management need to deepen the knowledge of their local highways and rail systems to develop an efficient strategy to manage it, according to Daniel Van Motman, senior traffic management advisor at the City of Amsterdam.…

BRAZIL, Russia, India, and China are eager to boost biofuels production, with their governments laying out energy targets and detailed plans to achieve them. And while each country has made progress, manufacturers in all the BRICs countries can still struggle with irregular feedstock supplies and spotty regulation.…

MALAWI’S government is working furiously to win back international donor support suspended over a multi-million euro corruption scandal involving dozens of officials and ministers close to the country’s leader, Joyce Banda, southern Africa’s first female president. Bill Corcoran reports from Lilongwe.…

THE AGREEMENT by the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to reduce import-export red tape may lead to a seismic shift in the global automotive sector, an industry expert has told wardsauto.

Peter Cooke, the emeritus professor of automotive management at Britain’s University of Buckingham, said that major emerging markets without a substantial auto sector may create capacity because of the deal.…

THE GOVERNMENT of South Korea is expected to announce a new corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) standard this coming year, which could increase target performance to 20km/liter, wardsauto has learnt. A senior official at the transportation energy team of the Korea Energy Management Corporation (KEMCO) expects the change to have a positive impact on the industry by encouraging manufacturers to develop more fuel efficient vehicles, including hybrids, electrics, and clean diesels.…

Lump new car sales with the larger used car market, which accounts for around 60 percent of total sales, and overall sales are down 7 percent on last year, according to the Automobile Importers Association.

Yet while a drop in second-hand car sales is a boon to dealerships – and an environmental plus when it comes to the country’s carbon emissions, with fewer fuel-inefficient clunkers on the roads – the market has gone through a radical change in recent years that can be summed up in one word: downsizing.…

FORD is pressing United States and European Union (EU) negotiators involved in the world’s largest ever bilateral trade talks to write promises not to manipulate currency exchange rates into the resulting agreement, its executives have told wardsauto.

In a private briefing, executives from the US car giant said they wanted to create a global precedent by writing these commitments into the planned EU-US Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP).…

The European Commission is assessing a law passed by Russia’s parliament, the Duma, which might head off a global trade dispute over scrapping second hand vehicles. Brussels wants to see if the Duma has truly abolished a contested recycling fee on imports of second-hand vehicles that is supposed to push promote good environmental practice when they are scrapped.…

OIL, gas and petrochemical companies can bid for an increased pot of European Union (EU) funding for research projects under the new Horizon 2020 programme, which was approved in November. It has an overall budget exceeding Euro EUR78.6 billion and will run from January to 2020.…

STATE support for the development of the Internet of Things (IOT) sector in China has the potential to drive demand for premium protective coatings across the Asia Pacific region, according to IOT and coatings industry experts.

During China’s recent change of government leadership, the State Council this February promised to launch tax breaks for companies using these technologies, vowing to achieve widespread “application of the IOT in key areas by 2015, as well as breakthroughs in core technologies.” …

A PUBLIC-private partnership that is preparing to start its second phase in 2014 wants to make fuel cells and hydrogen a market reality in Europe in the years to come, according to Bert De Colvenaer, its executive director.

“The fuel cells and hydrogen technology is ready for demonstration, but it will take another couple of years before it is ready for market,” De Colvenaer said, speaking during an European Parliament event held in Brussels.…

In the 1950s, Japanese companies’ technical and industrial expertise put them at the forefront of the textile innovation, leading the move from the ‘rayon era’ to the polyester, nylon and acrylic of the ‘synthetic fibre era’. While the industry is a lot smaller than it was, it is now focused on specialist products and quality over quantity.…

Telecommunications companies are at a fork in the road. With so many third party services and innovations available – either as competitors or partners – they have essentially two choices: either they focus on delivering these services as efficient infrastructure companies, or they team up with the burgeoning array of data and comms-based applications and content systems, becoming a diversified retailer of electronic services.…

POLAND, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia will collectively receive EUR2.5 million from the European Commission to prevent spread of African Swine Fever (ASF) from Russia and Belarus.

The Commission said the money is for “preventive measures which include cleansing and disinfection of vehicles, surveillance and laboratory testing, awareness campaigns and even the use of wild boar repellents and preventive early slaughter of pigs in risk backyard farms”.…

SEPTEMBER 12, 2013: MULTINATIONAL companies are less worried about the risk of having to pay bribes to ‘buy business’ than they are about lower level corruption affecting their routine operations. Despite concern, only half of them have safeguards in place.

These findings in a new survey from global risk consultancy Control Risks and the Economist Intelligence Unit are at odds with international enforcement efforts focused on “classic” corruption, i.e.…

Scientists are developing new nano-gas storage systems that may allow automotive engineers to build more cars that can operate more efficiently on gas-based fuels. The storage systems are built out of metal organic frameworks (MOFs) that can store more gas (such as methane, hydrogen or CO2) than empty cylinders.…

THE DEMAND for lithium from large batteries designed to store and redistribute electricity from the grid could surge if a British pilot project proves a success. It involves building Europe’s largest lithium battery, at southern England’s Leighton Buzzard at a cost of British Pounds GBP13.2 million (USD20.4 million).…

THE WESTERN Balkans has long been considered as having weak money laundering controls. But, Croatia’s accession to the European Union (EU) on July 1 and tighter legislation in Serbia has focused criminals’ attention on a smaller number of looser jurisdictions – Montenegro is one of those.…

BRAZIL is an innovative technical textile producer, declares a report from a senior São Paulo’s business school the Getúlio Vargas Foundation (FGV), despite the sector experiencing teething problems as it expands. Looking at the Brazilian textile sector as a whole, the study estimates that 77% of investment into the sector during 2012 was used to buy innovative machinery – and the technical textile sector especially has a lot of demand to meet.…

The 9.5MW J920 FleXtra gas engine formally installed in May this year by the municipal utility Stadtwerke Rosenheim, in Bavaria, Germany, ticks off a number of important innovations. The largest gas engine yet developed by the Austrian company GE Jenbacher, the unit is seen by the company as an illustration of the role distributed energy is now playing in Germany’s ‘Energiewende’ – the country’s policy to halt all nuclear power by 2022 and replace it with natural gas, renewable energy, and greater use of energy efficient technologies.…

THE NEGOTIATIONS for a free trade agreement (FTA) between the European Union (EU) and the United States, which started this month in Washington DC (July 8), could push the world towards a truly global vehicle regulatory system for the first time, according to EU sources close to the negotiations.…

WHILE the European Union’s (EU) auto sector is happy to see its trade imbalance with South Korea decreasing two years into the controversial free trade agreement (FTA) linking these two vehicle-making powerhouses, European car makers complain that they are still struggling to access the South Korean market.…

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) and the industry will invest an additional Euro EUR1.4 billion (USD1.8 billion) in the second phase of a public-private partnership meant to expand the use of clean and efficient technologies in transport and energy, according to an announcement made this week by the European Commission, the EU’s executive body.…

Chinese government plans to extend license plate purchase restrictions from major to smaller cities may have fallen at the first hurdle amid public anger and indignation amongst Chinese automakers, who fear the measures may significantly impact their sales.

Speaking at an industry forum in Beijing earlier in July (July 10), Shi Jianhua, deputy secretary general of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM), said the plans to extend restrictions to Chengdu, Chongqing, Hangzhou, Qingdao, Shenzhen, Shijiazhuang, Tianjin and Wuhan, could result in his members losing 400,000 units of sales each year.…

THE CITY government in the Russian capital Moscow is planning to introduce a comprehensive traffic control system, with the aim of reducing stifling congestion. Government statistics say the number of private cars in the city is growing by 300,000 each year and is currently estimated at 4.5 million, out of an 11.9 million population.…

Several years ago Mexico City (population 21 million in the metropolitan area) was at a traffic control crisis point, with a road network unable to accommodate the 6 million cars in the city (not to mention the 600 new vehicles hitting the streets daily), according to EMBARQ, the centre for sustainable transport of the World Research Institute.…

In Paris, traffic is managed jointly by the city’s administration and its police prefecture, (part of the interior ministry). The city of Paris’ directorate for roads and travel (the direction de la voirie et des déplacements) is in charge of the traffic management infrastructure such as road signs, traffic lights and other traffic markings, according to the directorate’s spokeswoman, Marie-Emmanuelle Leblan.…

As befits a country as connected online as South Korea traffic controls in its capital Seoul are organised centrally and in an integrated way. As one of the world’s largest cities, with a population exceeding 10 million, Seoul has notoriously heavy traffic.…

THE ACRONYM ‘PIGS’ to mean Portugal, Ireland, Greece and Spain, was never very kind. It was abusive European Union (EU) jargon claiming that these countries were poor and their governments, profligate. Sadly, the international financial crisis showed that there was some truth in this and the four countries have since 2008 had to slash public spending to stave off national bankruptcy, and their collective road and public transport sectors have suffered.…

The Steel Action Plan launched by the European Commission last month (on June 11) has promise, but its success really depends on  follow up steps mentioned in its text, Ian Rodgers, director of industry association UK Steel, has told Steel First.…

POPULAR models in the Brazilian car market are likely to vanish from the streets in Latin America’s largest nation as new safety standards come into play. Brazilian automotive experts have said that the upcoming car safety law, which will be enforced from the start of 2014, will make popular models such as the Volkswagen Kombi, still commonly driven in Brazil, unfit for driving and too costly to upgrade.…

AN AGREEMENT was struck last night in Brussels over plans to introduce a 95 grams of CO2 emissions per kilometer target for new automobiles sold in the European Union (EU) by 2020. Representatives from the European Parliament and the EU Council of Ministers thrashed out solutions to remaining disagreements about how these emissions are assessed, long term targets and special exemptions for auto-makers making ultra-low emission vehicles.…

THE EXECUTIVE body of the European Union (EU), the European Commission proposed today (Wednesday) a new regulation that would make it mandatory for car makers to ensure that all new cars put on the EU market after October 2015 are fitted with automatic emergency services call systems.…

THE ELECTION of tobacco magnate Horacio Cartes as Paraguay’s President cy was mired by scandalous accusations of corruption, and now experts say he will do little to confront the country’s flourishing contraband cigarette trade.
Mr Cartes, 56, is a business tycoon and newcomer to politics who owns more than 20 companies, including Paraguay’s largest cigarette manufacturer Tabacalera del Este (Tabesa).…

The vice-chancellor of Cameroon’s English-speaking University of Buea (UB) has declared she is determined to soothe tensions on her campus which have led to a series of violent strikes by students. Buea is one of two public English-speaking universities in majority-Francophone Cameroon.…

The Argentine government’s economic protectionism is thwarting the growth of e-book sales, experts at the International Book Fair in Buenos Aires said this week.
The country’s 39th book fair, which ended on Monday, was attended by a total of 1.1 million people, said fair organisers.…

THE EUROPEAN car manufacturing industry has overcapacity stretching to 30% to 35% and this may lead to further layoffs, Ivan Hodac, secretary general of the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA) has warned. Speaking in an exclusive interview with wardsauto from his office in Brussels, the European car industry boss said: “We cannot continue running this industry with 15 to 20 factories [operating at] below 50% of their capacities.”…

As transportation technology in the United States continues to become more intelligent and efficient, traffic managers are turning to innovative software to organise increasingly complex networks of infrastructure and communications. 

For example, the world-ranking higher education institution the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has been researching enabling traffic simulators to not only show potential impact on traffics flows of new roads, bridges and traffic lights, but also to suggest the best infrastructure changes from a range of options, said Carolina Osorio, assistant professor at MIT’s department of civil and environmental engineering.…

THERE are many ways to maintain and repair a road, so it always makes sense to look widely at good practice examples. Here The Surveyor has used its foreign correspondent team to assess techniques in some diverse pars of continental Europe.…

A EUROPEAN Commission green paper on the EU’s medium-term energy strategy looking ahead to 2030, suggests that renewable energy might not need to be protected by growth targets in future. These have been a key plank of EU energy policy to 2020, but Brussels’ paper on ‘A 2030 framework for climate and energy policies’ noted renewables would be more mature in the next decade and “competing increasingly with other low-carbon technologies,” such as carbon capture and storage.…

THE FORMER Soviet, Central Asian republic of Uzbekistan is being wooed by the West for its oil and gas reserves, but attention is increasingly turning to its solid mineral wealth. According to the country’s State Committee on Statistics, explored mineral reserves are put at USD3.27 trillion and from a key plank of the country’s economy: in 2012, according to the committee, metals processing accounted for 17% of all the country’s industrial output and was valued at Uzbekistani Som UZS8.6 trillion (USD4.2 billion), a rise of 12.4% on 2011.…

BRAZIL’S growing economy has given many Brazilian motorists purchasing power they have never had before. This – plus effective social welfare policies and an end to past hyper-inflation – has grown Brazil’s middle class, which is now about 54% of the 196 million population, according to the country’s presidential office for strategic affairs.…

WITH the Brazilian government actively deterring automotive imports and working to encourage the construction of auto plants on Brazilian soil, domestic and international car companies are setting up new plants in Brazil at a steady clip.

The country is already the world’s seventh largest automotive producer.…

THE QUESTION of whether publicly-supported refuelling and recharging stations are needed to jump-start demand for electric, hydrogen and other alternatively-powered vehicles seems almost as old as the conundrum about the chicken and the egg. Yet, a clear answer has yet to be supplied – and with green vehicle sales still generally weak – the European Commission has decided that for Europe, it might as well push ahead with proactively creating refuelling/charging networks anyway.…

COLOMBIA industry associations and politicians have warned the country’s automotive industry is at risk following the signing of a free trade agreement with South Korea in February.

The free trade agreement, which is expected to come into force at the end of this year, will eventually allow South Korea-made vehicles to enter the South American country free of the current 35% tariff.…

With the dust now settled from last month’s handover of power in Beijing, policymakers responsible for China’s auto sector seem to be plumping for backing hybrids as a stepping-stone strategy to encourage green vehicle use.

The initial stage of the much-heralded push to promote so-called new energy vehicles (NEVs), and with them a differentiated technology standard that China can export, is now widely acknowledged to have failed, at least regarding promoting China sales of pure electric vehicles. …

BRAZIL’S government is betting its domestic automotive manufacturing sector will recover its production after output declined 1.9% for all vehicles (barring agricultural vehicles) in 2012 compared to 2011, according to Brazil’s National Association of Automotive Vehicle Manufacturers (ANFAVEA).

With overall industrial production in Brazil falling 2.7% last year (2012), the Brazilian Institute for Geography and Statistics (IBGE) said “vehicles exerted the highest negative influence on the overall index, pressed by the decrease in the production of approximately 80% of the products surveyed in this sector, highlighted by the smaller production of trucks, tractor trucks for trailers and semi-trailers, chassis with motor for trucks and buses, diesel motors for trucks and buses, car pieces and vehicles for transportation of goods.”…

As Nicolás Maduro takes the helm as interim President of Venezuela, following the death of his strongman predecessor Hugo Chávez on Tuesday, auto dealers and manufacturers are asking whether the government will continue with policies that produced vehicles shortages and raised prices to exorbitant levels.…

China’s automobile industry analysts are assessing the impact of the country’s State Council (cabinet) last month deciding to swiftly impose the new China V emissions standard for vehicles in the capital Beijing.

It already applies to new diesel vehicles sold or registered in the city (from February 1), with gas counterparts set to follow suit as of March 1. …

A report highlighting the benefits in reduced pollution and job creation through developing more low-carbon emission vehicles has been welcomed by the European Aluminium Association (EAA) for stressing how important aluminium can be in this process.

The report, written by consultants Cambridge Econometrics and Ricardo-AEA, and supported by the EAA and other industry groups, says research into using aluminium as a lightweight automotive material is delivering results.…

A DEAL has been struck on the shape of a European Union (EU) directive aimed at preventing major oil and gas offshore drilling accidents happening in EU waters. Under the text agreed by European Parliament and EU Council of Ministers representatives, oil and gas firms seeking a drilling licence must submit major hazard reports and emergency response plans proving they can deal with potential accidents.…

THE ASIAN oleochemicals industry is introducing an increasingly diverse range of product innovations, and looking at different ways to utilise feedstock, as it looks to combat key industry challenges such as high stocks, low utilisation rates, market volatility and environmental issues.…

OVERSEAS car makers are gaining an increasing share of Malaysia’s domestically-dominated automotive market, as strong economic growth drives demand for higher value cars.

Total sales of new motor vehicles in 2012 grew by 27,630 units, a jump of 4.6% on 2011, with total industry volume (TIV) reaching 627,753 units, according to figures from the Malaysian Automotive Association (MAA).…

The European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA) has welcomed new European Union (EU) guidelines on how EU countries can best subsidize the production and sale of low-CO2 vehicles cars, buses, vans, and trucks.

Ivan Hodac, ACEA’s secretary general, was speaking to wardsauto after the EU executive, the European Commission, yesterday (Thursday) released new controls on how this public money should be spent.…

EUROPEAN and American car manufacturers and parts makers have welcomed the launch of negotiations to forge a comprehensive free trade agreement between the US and the European Union (EU). Responding to an announcement on Tuesday – underlined by President Barack Obama in his State of the Union address on Tuesday – Ivan Hodac, secretary general of the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA), believes that “an eventual EU-US trade deal will promote production in both economies.…

BESIDES information on fuel efficiency, tire noise and CO2 emissions, European car makers will also be required to provide details on the noise levels of their cars in the future, according to a draft piece of European Union (EU) legislation on motor vehicle noise.…

PURCHASING cosmetics through business-to-consumer (B2C) group-buying websites offering national and local discount deals from third party vendors is catching on in key markets worldwide and positively blossoming in China, but with different nuances according to location. Cosmetics deals are popular on these sites throughout Asia, according to Shanghai, China based Dataotuan.com…

IT seems unusual for European car manufacturers to welcome a new dollop of European Union (EU) legislation – but automakers say they are happy to see proposed tougher minimum mandatory requirements for technical checks on cars and commercial vehicles across the 27 country bloc.…

THE EUROPEAN Commission has asked oil and gas companies to participate in a major public consultation designed to help it draft reforms promoting the development of new energy technologies. Brussels is planning to release a new policy paper on the subject in the middle of this year.…

A POTENTIAL free trade agreement (FTA) between the European Union (EU) and Japan, for which negotiations will start in earnest this year, could give an advantage to EU exporters of nonwovens roll goods compared to rivals in China and others Asian countries.…

AS the New Year turned, economists have focused on how China’s economic growth is steadier pace than in the last decade and the auto sector following suit. Speaking exclusively to wardsauto, Dong Yang, secretary general and executive vice chairman of the China Association of Automotive Manufacturers (CAAM), said China sales and output of autos in 2012 should maintain the previous year’s year-on-year (YoY) increase of 5%.…

BY ALAN OSBORN, IN LONDON, AND JULIAN RYALL, IN TOKYO

EUROPE’S automakers have reacted with ill-disguised dismay to the European Union’s (EU) decision (announced last Thursday) to begin negotiations with Japan for a free trade agreement (FTA). The motor industry’s trade association ACEA said "independent studies have shown that this deal is a one-way street as far as the automobile industry is concerned."…

BY JONATHAN GILBERT, IN BUENOS AIRES; AND CARMEN PAUN, IN BRUSSELS

The World Trade Organization’s (WTO) dispute settlement body discussed today in Geneva a complaint lodged by the European Union (EU) against Argentine import restrictions which is harming EU auto and auto-part exports.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A REPORT released by the European Union’s (EU) umbrella groups for gas and electricity regulators has claimed wholesale energy prices within the EU are beginning to converge, as cross-border sales develop. Consumer prices still varied significantly between the EU’s 27 member states, however.…

BY CARMEN PAUN, IN BRUSSELS

THE EUROPEAN Commission is drafting legislative European Union (EU) proposals looking at using road pricing to encourage more efficient driving, optimising the use of Europe’s transport infrastructure. Keir Fitch, advisor to EU transport Commissioner Siim Kallas told a conference in Brussels last week that the Commission wanted more harmony between national policies on this subject: "We will produce legislation which seeks more commonality on how to do it".…

BY CARMEN PAUN, IN BRUSSELS; AND HEATHER TAN, IN SINGAPORE

THE WEALTHY southeast Asian market of Singapore should welcome imports of European manufactured cars based on European Union (EU) technical and safety standards and approvals under a new trade deal finalised this week.…

BY MARK ROWE

For decades the car industry in the developed world has expanded remorselessly. But a recent flurry of academic papers has come to the conclusion that the West (and other rich countries such as Japan and Australia) may have hit a plateau known as ‘peak car’.…

BY CARMEN PAUN, IN BRUSSELS

EUROPEAN car producers may claim that meeting the European Commission’s planned 2020 95 g CO2/km emission targets is tough, but a report published by the Brussels-based NGO Transport & Environment (T&E) claims that the automakers are actually on track.…

BY JONATHAN DYSON, IN BANGKOK

THAILAND’S first-car purchase subsidy scheme, in which tax rebates are paid to first-car owners, has provided a major boost to Thailand’s paint and coatings sector as the country’s economy continues to recover from the devastating floods of 2011.…

BY JONATHAN DYSON, IN ADDIS ABABA

IN the latest sign that Ethiopia has a robustly expanding auto manufacturing sector, China’s Lifan has said that it is to double its assembly capacity in the country. The manufacturer revealed to wardsauto that it is to open a new plant with a capacity of 1,500 to 2,000 cars per year in Ethiopia in the middle of next year.…

BY CARMEN PAUN, IN BRUSSELS; ANDREW KURETH, IN WARSAW; LEE ADENDORFF, IN ITALY; DAVID HAYHURST, IN PARIS; AND ALAN OSBORN

STANDARDIZATION remains the main hurdle European Union (EU) countries will have to pass to see an increased uptake of electric vehicles, auto industry specialists at a recent conference in Brussels organized by the Public Policy Exchange has determined.…

BY CARMEN PAUN, IN BRUSSELS

THE EUROPEAN automotive industry has welcomed a ground-breaking initiative announced today by the European Union’s (EU) executive that future planned EU free trade agreements would be assessed for their potential damage to Europe’s auto sector, before negotiations begin in earnest.…

BY BLAKE BERRY, IN WARSAW; JOHN PAGNI, IN HELSINKI; DAVID HAYHURST, IN PARIS; LEE ADENDOORF, IN LUCCA, ITALY; CARMEN PAUN, IN BRUSSELS; MJ DESCHAMPS; AND ALAN OSBORN

IF you are a biofuel manufacturer, you could be forgiven for being frustrated with the complexity of the market in Europe.…

BY ROBERT STOKES, IN MALAGA

SPAIN is agog at a wave of high-profile arrests in the busting of a Chinese-run money laundering ring estimated to have involved Euro EUR1.2 billion of dirty money. A key aim of the investigation was to stop the economy being distorted by the sale of cheap, fake designer goods through Chinese bazaars.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL, LEAH GERMAIN AND MARK GAO, IN BEIJING

Prof Cooke said: "We see the Americans trying to protect their home employment and look to build that up.

The Chinese economy is slowing down at present and I really think they will make a hard case of this."…

BY CARMEN PAUN, IN BRUSSELS

THE EUROPEAN Union’s (EU) auto sector risks experiencing the meltdown that hit the American industry in 2008-9 if EU political institutions keep imposing detailed new regulations and free trade deals, Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne told a Brussels conference yesterday.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL, LEAH GERMAIN AND MARK GAO, IN BEIJING

A NEW trade dispute at the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Geneva between the USA and China over protective duties could actually be a battle in a long war for supremacy in world automobile markets, an auto industry expert has told wardsauto.com.…

BY MARK GODFREY, IN BEIJING

FOR sellers of eco-friendly automotive coatings in China, the future is looking bright: sales of 10 million cars a year are predicted to 2030, the Chinese government’s current 12th Five-Year Plan has not only given auto coatings special attention, it marks new materials and green cars as two of seven emerging industries that are garnering government favourtism.…

BY MARK GODFREY

FOR sellers of eco-friendly automotive coatings in China, the future is looking bright: sales of 10 million cars a year are predicted to 2030, the Chinese government’s current 12th Five-Year Plan has not only given auto coatings special attention, it marks new materials and green cars as two of seven emerging industries that are garnering government favourtism.…

COGENERATION, or rather trigeneration, units that cooled, heated and powered the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic games won plaudits if no gold medals for the manufacturer – America’s GE – but neatly symbolised the spread of CHP into mainstream and niche applications.…

BY ROBERT STOKES

Finally, the potential of small and packaged (as well as micro) CHP schemes to contribute to demand-supply balancing or to ‘virtual power plant’ networks of smaller units interconnected by electronic communications opens up the prospect of exciting new markets for seasoned technologies with added features that fit them for this emerging world.…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS

SLATED to be one of the fastest growing connectivity sectors over the next decade, the space for machine-to-machine (M2M) systems is evolving rapidly. The increasing ability to exchange key information and data between devices communicating end-to-end without human intervention is making it possible for operators to reduce costs, and improve efficiency and services to customers.…

BY CARMEN PAUN, IN BRUSSELS

THE EUROPEAN Commission, the European Union’s (EU) executive body, is handicapping Europe’s automotive sector with unrealistic carbon reduction demands, while risking more mid-market import competition with free trade deals, the chief of Europe’s auto industry has warned.…

BY LEAH GERMAIN, CARMEN PAUN AND KEITH NUTHALL

PART I: Air Quality and Congestion

SWITZERLAND has always been a land of contrasts – Europe’s mountain hub has always combined an international outlook with intensely local democratic structures based on the country’s 26 cantons – and road transport policy is no different.…

BY JULIAN RYALL, IN KATO CITY, HYOGO PREFECTURE, JAPAN

JAPAN this week engaged with China at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) over its restrictions on Chinese rare earth exports, but a Japanese electronics giant is taking matters into its own hands, with a major urban mining project.…

BY ALAN OSBORN, IN LONDON; AND KHRISTINA NARIZHNAYA, IN MOSCOW

A DEAL agreed between the 27 member countries of the European Union (EU) and Russia to help safeguard European sales of auto parts to that country is set to underpin the assault by the European motor industry on one of its biggest export markets targets.…

BY JONATHAN DYSON, IN BOLIVIA

THE INDUSTRIAL production of lithium carbonate and lithium-ion batteries in Bolivia has moved a step closer following the formation of a joint venture between Bolivia’s state-owned mining corporation Comibol and a South Korea consortium led by the country’s state-run mineral development corporation Korea Resources Corp.…

BY ALAN OSBORN, IN LONDON; AND JONATHAN DYSON, IN LIMA

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) executive the European Commission is hoping that the negotiation of new free trade agreements (FTAs) between the EU and Colombia and Peru will be the springboard for penetration by European auto-manufacturers into markets that have been pretty well off limits to them in the past.…

BY MARK GODFREY, IN BEIJING

A major China food safety conference has been told that weaknesses in the country’s cold chain are undermining its already weak food safety standards.

Joaquin Pelaez, VP with responsibility for supply chain management at Yum China, was speaking at a first Focus Day for China conference, hosted by the Global Food Safety Initiative, in Beijing.…

BY CARMEN PAUN, IN BRUSSELS; DAVID HAYHURST, IN PARIS; MICHAEL KOSMIDES; AND KEITH NUTHALL

THE DEBATE about whether compulsion or voluntarism best aids energy efficiency is one of the oldest in the electricity sectors: do we save more energy by being ordered to switch off the lights; or by being advised our bills will fall if we do?…

BY POORNA RODRIGO, IN LONDON

THE London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games have helped to raise hopes of more joint venture deals between UK plastics recyclers and a range of food-grade plastics users keen to reduce their carbon footprints.

Management at ECO Plastics Ltd, has expanded its large and sophisticated plastics sorting facility in Lincolnshire, eastern England, through the May launch of its 10-year Continuum Recycling joint venture with Coca-Cola Enterprises Ltd (CCE), making what it claims is the world’s largest recycled plastics processing plant.…

BY CARMEN PAUN, IN BRUSSELS

THE EUROPEAN automotive industry denounced the CO2 emissions targets for 2020 announced by Brussels yesterday as being too ambitious to be realistic. "These are tough targets – the toughest in the world", said Ivan Hodac, the secretary general of the European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA), reacting to the announcement of the European Commission, European Union’s (EU) executive body, that it would require new cars to emit on average 95g CO2 for each kilometer by 2020.…

BY NICK HOLDSWORTH, IN KALUGA, RUSSIA

CARMAKERS were celebrating on July 4 when the first of four new models rolled off a state-of-the-art production line in a 145 hectare plant in Kaluga, western Russia. The latest in an ongoing expansion of Russia’s auto sector, a bright, clean, airy and surprisingly quiet car assembly plant is surrounded by fields and forests: Peugeot Citroen’s Russian joint venture with Mitsubishi, PCMA Rus has pressed the button to start full scale production that will deliver 125,000 a year vehicles specially designed for the Russian market.…

BY JONATHAN GILBERT, IN BUENOS AIRES

ARGENTINA’S protectionist economic policy and controls on imports are causing difficulties for car manufacturers across South America. Auto production is falling in the country – to a certain extent, because parts are being held up at customs – and overseas producers have taken action by cancelling exports.…

BY ALAN OSBORN, IN LONDON, AND JULIAN RYALL, IN TOKYO

EUROPE’S carmakers are setting out tough pre-conditions to anticipated negotiations between the European Union (EU) and Japan over a free trade agreement (FTA). The two sides have just finalised a "scoping exercise" setting out goals for an FTA and the EU auto sector is laying down some red lines, worried about unfair competition if European tariffs on Japanese autos are lowered or scrapped in a free trade deal.…

BY CARMEN PAUN, IN BRUSSELS

THE MOMENTUM behind forging a single standard for the public charging of electric vehicles in the European Union (EU) seems to be becoming unstoppable, with the auto and electricity industries and the EU executive all backing the idea.…

BY E BLAKE BERRY, IN POLAND; MIKE STEIN, IN PRAGUE; MONIKA HANLEY, IN RIGA; AND MJ DESCHAMPS,

WHILE southern and western Europe’s economies falter, being mired in debt, eastern Europe’s coatings market is now growing solidly amidst economic performances that are recovering from a recession that hit the region hard.…

BY KITTY SO

FORD, Fiat, Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Toyota, Mazda, and Hyundai: the list of car manufacturers switching to bioplastics for internal components is full of heavyweights and growing.

Attracted initially by environmental benefits, car makers and their suppliers now ask what added functionality they can get from non-compostable, bio-based materials.…

BY MICHAEL KOSMIDES AND POORNA RODRIGO

NEW technologies in transport are offering delivery and wholesale managers potential fuel savings on their transport budgets, especially when the customer base is in a limited range from a wholesale hub. Some companies are looking at buying a fleet of electric cars and vans and assessing how much money can be saved – so depot managers used to operating standard combustion engine vehicles beware: green change could be looming.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL, MJ DESCHAMPS, PACIFICA GODDARD AND KARRYN MILLER

GOVERNMENTS can get things wrong – badly wrong – and alter the planet’s human and natural geography in ways that were never intended. And one of those embarrassing events is now unfolding: over the promotion of biofuels.…

BY HANA KAMARUDDIN IN SELANGOR, MALAYSIA

ASIAN universities are engaged in ground-breaking projects to counter waste, boost the use of alternative fuels, and reduce emission of greenhouse gases. Researchers at the Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia (UTHM) have collaborated with Azhar Food Industries, both being in the Malaysian state of Johor – to install a mini biodiesel plant in the latter’s factory

Azhar Food Industries makes potato chips and crisps for the local market.…

BY CARMEN PAUN, IN BRUSSELS

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) auto industry is awaiting the announcement by the EU executive, the European Commission, of a moratorium on new technical regulations, which could come in June. If it happens, it will be announced by EU industry Commissioner Antonio Tajani, who is responsible for technical rules on vehicles across the EU, and is worried that a European auto sector, already having a tough time, is being hamstrung by a conveyor belt of new rules.…

BY CARMEN PAUN, IN BRUSSELS

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) auto industry is awaiting the announcement by the EU executive, the European Commission, of a moratorium on new technical regulations, which could come in June. If it happens, it will be announced by EU industry Commissioner Antonio Tajani, who is responsible for technical rules on vehicles across the EU, and is worried that a European auto sector, already having a tough time, is being hamstrung by a conveyor belt of new rules.…

BY LEAH GERMAIN

THE STEADY decline in the price of lithium-ion battery packs is firming up the market for electric cars, making it likely that this new use of lithium will continue to grow.

Recent data shows that the installed cost of lithium-ion batteries will fall more than one-third by the end of 2017.…

BY CARMEN PAUN, IN BRUSSELS

IVAN Hodac, the secretary general of the European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA) has attacked proposals from the European Commission to reduce vehicle noise from European Union (EU) autos, saying the implementation costs would be exorbitant. Speaking yesterday at a European Parliament workshop on the issue in Brussels, he said reaching the noise limit levels currently proposed by the EU executive would add manufacturing costs of between Euro EUR1,500 (USD1,143) to EUR3,000 (USD2,288) per truck and anywhere between EUR300 (USD228) and EUR600 (USD457) per car for automakers.…

BY KARRYN MILLER

THAILAND has not had the easiest time over the last few years. Political unrest first deterred people from visiting the country in 2010. And last year, floods from the north spilled into greater Bangkok and its environs. Citizens and businesses have suffered.…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS

WITH liquid fuels expected to remain the main energy source for transport for the foreseeable future, despite the continuing bad press about their carbon footprint, biofuels – especially second generation fuels based on waste – are still recognised as a useful means of lowering greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.…

BY DAVID HAWORTH, IN BRUSSELS

‘CELEBRITY’ fragrances have become such a huge industry that even the Pope now has his own eau de cologne – according to Italian perfumer Silvana Casoli, (whose clients include Madonna and the King of Spain), this unique blend reflects the German pontiff’s love of Bavarian forests and their flora and fauna, creating an aura of "peace and tranquility".…

BY KARRYN MILLER

IF any two countries could be deemed vulnerable to Chinese dominance of rare earth supplies, it surely has to be east Asia’s high tech exporters par excellence Japan and South Korea. From smart phones to electric cars, these two Asian nations continue to drive technology forward, but with rare earths an essential component of many electronic goods, these Tokyo and Seoul are scanning the region for new sources of these key minerals.…

BY KACI RACELMA, IN TIZI OUZOU, ALGERIA

A TERRORIST attack on March 3 targeted the local headquarters of Algeria’s national rural police force ‘El Dark El Watani’ (in the southern Algerian border town of Tamanrasset with a booby-trapped car, leaving 23 people wounded.…

BY JAMES FULLER

AUTOMOBILE manufacturers are preparing to make the most of an increasing supply of lithium-based batteries, as they look to ramp up their production of electric cars.

They have commented following the December launch of the USD430 million joint Russo-Chinese plant, Liotech, outside Russia’s third-largest city Novosibirsk, in Siberia.…

BY DAVID HAYHURST

WITH a wide range of electric vehicles (EVs) slated to roll out across Europe throughout 2012, utilities have to seriously consider how this new transport sector will impact on their business. Because power producers will be the fuel companies of the future, once electric cars take hold of the consumer imagination, utilities will need to consider how they best serve this new consumer business.…

BY MARK ROWE

WHILE the Philippines remains a small player in the wider Asia-Pacific paint and coatings market (at least compared to regional giants China and India), the country appears to be punching above its weight in terms of growth and innovation.…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS

BRAND loyalty in the telecommunications industry does not have the same pull as in more personal sectors such as cars, perfume and toothpaste. Consumers looking for mobile and broadband network services do not usually care about who is providing their service, just as long as it is fast and reliable; making relationships between service providers and customers somewhat fickle.…

BY MARK ROWE

IN the global push to make transport greener, the aviation industry is just beginning to take a serious look at how to ease the sector into using less fossil fuel. Scandinavian Airlines (SAS), like many other airlines, is currently looking into projects that scrutinise kerosene biofuel blends in the quest to make transportation more environmentally friendly.…

BY MARK GODFREY, IN BEIJING

MANY eyes are focused on how the fraud by Chinese companies listed on domestic and overseas bourses will be tackled in 2012 given that company involved in a notorious 2011 case, Sino Forest, is facing potential bankruptcy, after a research house Muddy Waters claimed it listed in Toronto on false data.…

BY MARK ROWE and KEITH NUTHALL

WITH the European Commission’s recent flurry of recalibrated environmental targets aiming to cut emissions in the European Union (EU) transport system by 50% by 2050 (34% in the aviation industry) – airports along with air navigation services will have a significant role to play.…

BY MARK ROWE and ZLATKO CONKAS

THE AMBITION of Serbia to join the European Union (EU) is proving problematic on a number of fronts, with the country’s control of money laundering a major hurdle. In February 2010, 50 people were arrested, suspected of using money laundering and tax evasion involving up to USD2.7 million.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE LEADING powers of the automotive industry worldwide have agreed to attempt forging common technical standards for the still evolving electric car sector. An agreement struck today (Thursday) in Geneva, Switzerland, will see the United States working with the European Union (EU) and Japan within two working parties: their goal is to write a formal global technical regulation (or regulations) on electric cars by 2014 and debate informal standardization.…

BY PACIFICA GODDARD

Venezuela’s so-called ‘autonomous’ public universities are claiming they will receive only a fraction of the state funding they require in 2012 under a new government budget, currently being finalised in the country’s national assembly. The universities claim they are being singled out because of their independence – they are public, but not under the control of President Hugo Chavez’ leftist government.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE RUSSIAN government has agreed to scrap trade rules insisting that foreign auto manufacturers must make 350,000 vehicles annually in Russia to secure duty reductions on imported component inputs. Moscow made the concession to secure European Union (EU) backing for its accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) which was formally approved yesterday (Thursday) at a special WTO working party.…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS and LEAH GERMAIN

A NEW metal structure 100 times lighter than Styrofoam and poised to revolutionise the aerospace and automotive industries has been developed in the US by a team of researchers from the California Institute of Technology, HRL Laboratories and the University of California Irvine.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

DOUBTS are growing about the wisdom of encouraging biofuel use in the European Union (EU) as a cornerstone of environmental policy aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

The EU has painted itself into a corner with its renewable energy directive.…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS

EUROPEAN manufacturers are increasingly turning to developing countries for the precious metals and minerals needed to make mobile phones, computers, electric cars and more. However, a European Parliament vote backing a raw materials strategy that highlights the potentials of ‘urban mining’ might help create a more self-sufficient European mining industry.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A EUROPEAN Union (EU)-funded research project has been using donated dead bodies, elaborately constructed dummies and complex computer research to create a digital model of the thorax (the upper body between the head and abdomen) to help build safer cars.…

BY ELENA SMIRNOVA and KEITH NUTHALL

Russia’s automobile manufacturing sector could by the end of this year face tougher competition from abroad, if the current plans to agree the country’s membership of the World Trade Organization (WTO) come to pass. The chair of the WTO working party charged with negotiating a complex agreement allowing Russia into the global trade body announced a timetable this summer that would see trade ministers approve Russian membership between December 15 and 17.…

BY MARK GODFREY

AS CHINA continues to consolidate its position as the world’s top exporter and leading market for electronics and cars, demand is also growing for cutting-edge technology to coat to these products: one significant example being nanotechnology-based coatings, which offer evolutionary functionalities such as increased scratch-resistance and thermal insulation.…

BY MINDY RAN

ROTTERDAM is already Europe’s largest port and hence of importance for the import and export of waste materials from and to the European Union (EU) and this role is to strengthen.

For Rotterdam, the world’s fourth largest industrial port, behind China’s Shanghai and Ningbo, then Singapore, already utilises 26,000 acres, of which 12,500 acres are commercial sites and 13,500 acres water docks, rail lines, roads and pipeline zones.…

BY WANG FANGQING

NOW Four months after the earthquake and tsunami that hit Northeast Japan this past March, Japanese companies have now finally begun the enormous task of debris clean-up, recycling salvageable metals, beginning with one of the worst-hit areas: Kamaishi City, in Iwate prefecture.…

BY MARK GODFREY

A NEW breed of modern recycling operations are helping China improve its domestic supply of recyclables. Among them is Tianjin Dowa Green Angel Summit Recycling Co., Ltd, a new Chinese Yuan Renminbi CNY100 million (USD15.52 million) joint venture between Japanese metal recycling equipment maker Dowa Eco-System, local waste collector Tianjin Green-Angel Renewable Resource Recovery Co.,…

BY JULIAN RYALL

MOUNTAINS of waste are growing atop the paddy fields on the outskirts of the city of Sendai, Japan, which was devastated by this year’s earthquake and tsunami. From the elevated highway that runs north from the capital of Miyagi Prefecture, a steady stream of trucks can be seen depositing loads of twisted metal; flat-beds piled with home appliances that are so mangled they are almost unrecognisable, to be dumped along with the wrecked cars already stacked four-high on the former farmland.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has taken another step towards focusing the European Union’s (EU) support for biofuel production on those fuels that create at least 35% less carbon emissions than fossil fuels. A key part of this process is using certification schemes to ensure that biofuels are green, taking account of the environmental impact of their production as well as use, and the Commission has now recognised seven of these systems.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A EUROPEAN Union (EU)-funded research project will this month start developing a prototype polymer-zinc car battery, significantly lighter, safer and more environment-friendly than existing batteries. Their lead acid, lithium and nickel bases have waste disposal, weight and chemical stability problems.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE NUMBER of road deaths in Britain fell 47% from 2001 to 2010, making its roads the second safest in the European Union (EU) after Sweden, according to the latest comparative European Commission figures. There was a marked recent improvement too, with UK road deaths falling 18% between 2009 and 2010.…

BY MARK ROWE

SUPERFICIALLY at least, it sounds like an unlikely scenario: Russia, the 21st century’s face of fossil fuel sources, now wants to go green. The Russian Energy Agency last spring signed an agreement committing itself to help the country improve energy efficiency in industry and housing; develop a renewable energy market; and – the end goal – reduce greenhouse gas emissions.…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS

AFTER a production line shutdown on June 8 and the need for three funding injections of Euro EUR61 million within a week, Saab Automobile’s recent cash crisis has the UK automotive industry on edge, according to the Retail Motor Industry (RMI).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

LITTLE more excites the international auto industry more than the search for an alternative to fossil fuels, and an American company is now looking seriously into the idea of using a heavy element thorium to generate locomotive power.…

BY DEIRDRE MASON

RECYCLING products as large as motor vehicles; or encouraging public authorities to buy environment-friendly autos seem such good ideas, laws insisting this happens is surely just commonsense? Not so in Europe, it would appear, where a string of countries are in trouble for not implementing the European Union’s recent (EU) green procurement directive; and one – Italy – is facing potential legal action for flouting the EU’s end-of-life vehicles (ELV) directive, even though these was approved in the year 2000.…

BY MARK ROWE

IN the global push to make transport greener, the aviation industry is just beginning to take a serious look at how to ease the sector into using less fossil fuel. Scandinavian Airlines (SAS), like many other airlines, is currently looking into projects that scrutinise kerosene biofuel blends in the quest to make transportation more environmentally friendly.…

BY MATTHEW BRACE

DUBAI International Airport (DXB), in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is planning to launch a large-scale passenger flow measurement project to track the movement and activity of passengers from the second they enter the airport complex.

From the airport’s growth statistics, it appears the trial has not come a moment too soon; DXB is one of the fastest growing airports in the world and could become the busiest in the near future.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A EUROPEAN Union (EU)-funded research project is about to start developing a prototype zinc-polymer car battery, which its scientists hope will be significantly lighter, safer and more environment-friendly than existing batteries. These are of course based on lead acid, lithium and nickel – all carrying problems associated with waste disposal, weight and chemical stability.…

BY DEIRDRE MASON

A new car-sharing model is being tried out in Germany, which links quality manufacturer BMW with an existing car club to attempt to offer business customers a new concept in fleet hire. Time will tell whether the idea catches on and moves to the UK.…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS

A NEW European Commission proposal on energy efficiency and saving may have the basic ingredients of a new, potential approach for helping the European Union (EU) to achieve its 2020 emission-reduction objectives – getting utilities to share the pain with consumers, who have been the focus of earlier EU efforts in this regard.…

BY LEE ADENDORFF

EARLIER this year the search of the house of a notorious octogenarian loan shark in Naples made headlines in Italy. The news was given particular attention not because of the elderly gentleman’s reputation as one of the city’s most prominent usurers, but because of the amount of money investigators found hidden in his home: over Euro EUR5 million (US dollars USD7.15 million) in cash stashed behind tiles and false walls together with hundreds of thousands of Euros in debtor cheques.…

BY KATHERINE DUNN

A THREE hour ferry ride from Copenhagen, sitting south of Sweden in the Baltic Sea, is a small 227 square mile Danish island called Bornholm – it is an unlikely place to be a crucible for testing electric vehicle refuelling systems.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

CONCERNS within the European auto industry about the trade deal initialed last October by the European Union (EU) and South Korea have been addressed today (Wednesday) at the European Parliament. Meeting in Brussels, its international trade committee gave its approval to draft legislation, allowing the swift reintroduction of trade barriers, should the deal create a surge in Korean car exports to Europe.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL, DEIRDRE MASON and MJ DESCHAMPS

Car dealers like a good deal – that’s a given. And they hate a bad deal. But when they are getting a bad deal, and the wool is being pulled over their eyes – well, that takes the biscuit.…

BY ZLATKO ?ONKA?

GENERAL Motors (GM) Europe unit Opel/Vauxhall is constructing a new engine plant in the western Hungarian city of Szentgotthárd, aiming to boost the company’s growing share of the south-east Europe market. Opel managers have said they want this Euro EUR500 million investment (US dollar USD713.780 million) to help the company grow its 5.5% market share (in 2010 – 35,456 cars) of the regional market, making it the sixth most popular marque (up from eighth in 2009).…

BY JULIAN RYALL

NEARLY two months after northern Japan was shaken by a magnitude-9 earthquake and then inundated by a tsunami that in places reached a height of 38 metres and devastated the Fukushima nuclear power plant, the final toll has not been calculated.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has laid down the gauntlet to the fossil fuel sector, releasing a comprehensive long-term strategy that would halve the use of ‘conventionally-fuelled’ cars in urban transport by 2030, phasing them out in cities by 2050.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE

EARLIER this year, the Lebanese-Canadian Bank (LCB) was designated by the United States as a prime money laundering concern, for alleged connections to drug traffickers and acting as a financial conduit for Lebanese political party Hezbollah, which Washington considers a terrorist organisation.…

BY PACIFICA GODDARD

FRANCE is far ahead of the curve in terms of weaning itself off fossil fuels and sports the closest thing to energy independence of any country in Europe. Ever since 1974 when the government decided to rapidly expand the country’s nuclear power capacity, France has not felt the intense stress of energy insecurity nor been particularly impacted by the rising and falling prices of fuel.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

IT almost seems like yesterday when European policymakers were hailing biofuels as the practical green alternative to fossil fuels, so clean – cars, vans and trucks might as well have been running on water. However, with the growing and widespread acceptance that producing many biofuels (and burning them of course) produces substantial carbon emissions, those days are well and truly over.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has unveiled the cost of its ambitious plan for cutting European Union (EU) greenhouse gas emissions by 80-95% of 1990 levels by 2050. Brussels says that an additional targeted annual investment over the next 40 years is needed – equalling 1.5% of the EU’s GDP – or Euro EUR270 billion.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

TRANSPORT has always been a key policy area for the European Union (EU), given its cross-border nature is somewhat self-evident – and fleets have long grappled with EU rules on car safety, licences, transfer of ownership, insurance and other matters.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE AGREEMENT by the European Parliament last week of CO2 emissions limits for vans sold in the European Union (EU) could increase prices for new models, the European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA) has warned. Communications director Sigrid de Vries told Fleet News the targets were "extremely challenging" in the long term.…

BY PACIFICA GODDARD

THE USA Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) hope of regulating greenhouse gas emissions is putting a damper on investment in new coal plants in the United States. However there is some hope that coal could become clean enough to cohabit with future American emissions rules through carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) technology and tests are now underway in America to demonstrate its effectiveness.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE DISTANCE that can be travelled using an electric car battery in Europe could be boosted by a French automotive technology company receiving Euro EUR130 million from the European Investment Bank (EIB). The Bolloré Group will use this financing to support its battery and electric vehicle research and development.…

BY CHARLES WALLIN

ALTERNATIVE fuels could gradually replace fossil energy sources and make transport sustainable by 2050, according to a report just presented to the European Commission by the European Union’s (EU) expert group on future transport fuels. It says the EU needs a fossil fuel-free and largely CO2-free energy supply to reduce road transport’s impact on the environment and boost the security of energy supplies – and its experts say this is possible.…

BY WANG FANGQING

THE CHINESE government this January gave a clear message to automobile manufacturers with plants in the country – it wants the industry to become more efficient, but also greener. Beijing showed it was prepared to use the power of the market to force manufacturers to compete on price rather than relying on consumer subsidies – scrapping a national auto replacement program and a special subsidy for vehicle sales for consumers.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE

EGYPT’S auto industry could be preparing to get back to work after the government protests beginning on January 25 led to its major assembly plant industry closing down. This morning, BMW confirmed to wardsauto that it had restarted production on Sunday (Feb 6) of CDK models – made by a local subsidiary BAMC (Bavarian Auto Manufacturing Company), itself owned by the BMW Importership BAG (Bavarian Auto Group).…

BY MARIYA PETKOVA, BY PAUL COCHRANE, AND BY KEITH NUTHALL

AFTER the economic crisis hit Egypt’s demand for vegetable oil imports in 2009/2010, industry experts from the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) foreign agricultural servicepredicted a relative recovery for this sub-sector in 2010/2011.…

BY MARK GODFREY

IN 2011, foreign brands seem set to extend their dominance of the cosmetics and hair products market in China, one of the few sectors of the economy controlled by multinationals. Procter & Gamble (P&G), Unilever and L’Oréal dominate sales revenues here, and to extend their dominance global brands continue to acquire local brands.…

BY MARK ROWE

NANOTECHNOLOGY is playing an increasing part in the European Union’s (EU) ambitious binding EU-wide target to source 20% of energy needs from renewables, including biomass, hydro, wind and solar power, by 2020. The principle applied in other industries – that materials, elements and components exhibit different, often highly energy-efficient properties at the nanoscale – has sparked widespread interest within the energy field.…

BY RAGHAVENDRA VERMA

ATTEMPTING to symbolize the Indian essence of Toyota’s latest sedan made for India’s burgeoning auto market, a Japanese dancer performed classical Indian dance at a special launch concert in the IT hub of Bangalore. The Japanese auto giant will be hoping that the ‘Etios’ will marry high tech and Indian consumer preferences, as a culmination of a four-year-long development process that cost US dollars USD700 million and involved more than 2,000 engineers.…

BY ZLATKO CONKAS, KEITH NUTHALL

SERBIA is the latest European country to start formal accession negotiations with the European Union (EU) and as it prepares to joins the EU, its auto sector will have increasingly unfettered access to the EU’s 500 million consumer market.…

BY JULIAN RYALL

JAPAN is being accused of trying to write its own official asbestos testing system into an international standard, because it knows it does not work and so will get its government off the hook for asbestos exposure cases.…

BY MAKKI MARSEILLES

Greek smoking ban prompts smokers and tavern owners to claim human rights violations

Already reeling from financial crisis, the September smoking ban in Greece has created financial losses to bar and pub owners. They claim the laws are not clear and create confusion.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL, DEIRDRE MASON

IF there is a philosophy driving the European Union (EU), it surely is that everyone must rub along together and cooperate for the general good. For a continent as diverse and as previously fractious as Europe, that is neither unsurprising nor unworthy.…

BY DEIRDRE MASON

As governments wake up to the need of establishing an infrastructure of charging points for electric vehicles (EVs), commercial players are offering anything from the expertise to set up the network down to the individual chargers. Some innovations will clearly make life a lot easier for those with the job of making the EV marketable.…

BY DEIRDRE MASON

AS the market for electric vehicles (EVs) picks up, the infrastructure for recharging them will inevitably have to keep pace – so, according to US-based consultants in global clean technology markets Pike Research (NOTE: CORRECT), there will be around 4.7 million EV charging units operating worldwide by 2015.…

BY HELENA FLUSFELDER, GERARD O’DWYER

A PLAN to install an electric car network has been approved by Israel’s government, making this small Middle East country a global leader in electric vehicle (EV) technology.

The project is a joint venture between Renault-Nissan, which will provide the electric vehicles, and a Silicon Valley, USA-based start-up project Better Place, which will operate the re-charging grid.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission is writing a white paper on transport that would harmonise European transport systems to such an extent, it could call the European Union (EU) "a single transport area".

A draft (the final version may come in December), read by the Surveyor shows Brussels considering toughening its CO2 reduction targets for transport by switching from relative targets (emissions per kilometre of travel) to absolute targets – making sure levels of greenhouse gas fall, period: "It may be asked whether relative improvements of transport are still ambitious enough."…

BY MARK GODFREY

THE CEO of a Hyundai-Beijing Auto joint venture has told wardsauto that while three out of 10 cars sold globally will be sold in China by 2015, sales will be dominated by car-markers who get key emerging trends in the country’s provincial markets right.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL, WANG FANGQING

AUTO dealers in Britain will certainly see the affect of the European Union’s (EU) recent signature of a free trade deal with South Korea. Once ratification procedures have been cleared, the EU’s import duties on cars made in South Korea (mostly 10%) will disappear within 60 days.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE ASSOCIATION of European Wheel Manufacturers (EUWA) has welcomed the decision of the European Commission to propose a stiff anti-dumping duty on Chinese-made aluminum wheels imported into the European Union (EU). However, carmakers, represented by the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA) are unhappy.…

BY NADJA DROST

THE SURGING price of gold has unleashed a gold rush in Colombia, and international criminal networks are using the burgeoning trade in the precious metal to clean the proceeds of crime. In a country with as intimate a connection with the illicit drugs trade and terrorism as Colombia, the risks posed to anti-money laundering authorities are significant.…

BY DAVID HAYHURST

THE NEW president of OICA (the International Association of Vehicle Manufacturers) has warned American auto-manufacturers that they risk being left behind in the global race for new technologies. Speaking at his Paris office with wardsauto, Patrick Blain, now six months into his new job, and after this month’s OICA general assembly in Bucharest (October 20 and 21), said it was European and Asian automakers who are setting the pace and working together with their governments to effectively tackle issues of emissions and rising fuel costs.…

BY EMMA JACKSON, MAGGIE DESCHAMPS

THERE are many good reasons for fleets to use natural gas powered vans running on compressed or liquefied natural gas (CNG/LNG). However, so far, British fleets have yet to be convinced and the market is tiny.…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS

ALTHOUGH the regulatory push towards the use of biofuels has largely been inspired by environmental motives – primarily aimed towards delivering carbon savings – many concerns have been raised around the idea that these eco-friendly fuels might be damaging engines and vehicle performance.…

BY DEIRDRE MASON

SALES of new cars are still holding up surprisingly well despite the global downturn, but within a few years of their purchase, how many of them will be running on retread tyres?

The signs are that the market for retread and recycled tyres will grow, as world demand for rubber grows, particularly in China.…

BY RAGHAVENDRA VERMA

A NEW study from the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) has highlighted the fact that while India has become the seventh largest producer of vehicles in the world, it still holds only 1% of the global export market.…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS and KARRYN MILLER

WHILE plant-based materials have long been the go-to ingredients for biofuel production, the industry is finding that taking crops away from the agricultural industry can cause unintended environmentally problems, including the indirect generation of carbon emissions.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL, MJ DESCHAMPS

SPORTY auto brands such as Italy’s Ferrari or Britain’s Aston Martin do not exactly go hand-in-hand with the image of environment-loving eco-cars such as Toyota’s Prius hybrid. And maybe it is to enable such iconic manufacturers to keep turning out sleek, sexy cars that underpins Europe’s reputation for automobile quality that the European Union (EU) is giving them an exemption from its CO2 emissions cap.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL, EMMA JACKSON, MJ DESCHAMPS

IT is the classic chicken and egg scenario. To what extent do widespread networks of fuel filling stations need to be established offering compressed and liquefied natural gas (CNG/LNG) for a mass market of autos using these fuels to develop?…

BY KEITH NUTHALL, MJ DESCHAMPS

EUROPEAN car makers will push for additional changes to the controversial European Union (EU)-South Korea free trade agreement when it is placed before the European Parliament for ratification. The spokesperson for the European automobile manufacturers association ACEA Sigrid de Vries told wardsauto it wanted the deal’s text revised to help Europe’s auto sector.…

BY LAWRENCE J SPEER

FRENCH carmaker Renault and recycling giant SITA France are increasing joint efforts to boost the recycling of materials from the country’s end-of-life vehicle (ELV) sector. The two companies aim to radically improve teardown, recycling and used-part recovery at 350 state-certified dismantlers nationwide.…

BY MARK ROWE

SELLING a second-hand car to a customer has always required reassurance that the vehicle remains in fine shape. Selling a new car is always easier if a dealer can ensure long-life and durability. In future, such assurances will be eased by the introduction of longer-lasting, robust components based on nanomaterials.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THREE of the world’s major public financing institutions have started due diligence on the Nabucco gas pipeline project, work that could release billions of Euros into the troubled project. If they are happy, the European Investment Bank (EIB) could invest Euro EUR2 billion, the European Bank for Reconstruction & Development (EBRD) EUR1.2 billion and the International Finance Corporation (IFC), of the World Bank, EUR800 million.…

BY EMMA JACKSON

WILLIAM Chase, founder of Chase Vodka and an empire of potato products in the UK, has launched a plan to convert waste potatoes from his UK distillery into a high grade biofuel for vehicles.

"We have known for a long time that potato starch is an excellent source of bio fuel, but this new scheme will tap the resources left behind in distillery waste," said Mr Chase, who heads the Herefordshire, UK distillery.…

BY MONIKA HANLEY, ZLATKO ?ONKA?, CRISTINA MUNTEAN, KEITH NUTHALL

CAR prices in eastern and central Europe tumbled during the recession, significantly faster than in western Europe according to the latest data, impeding attempts to create a unified auto market that spans Europe.…

BY WANG FANGQING

CHINA’S Geely has told Automotive Management it will press ahead with the acquisition of Sweden’s Volvo by September having secured competition approval for the deal from the European Commission.

It green-lighted the purchase of Volvo Cars by Geely Holding Group and publicly owned investment firm Daqing, owned by the Daqing city government in north-east China’s Heilongjiang Province.…

BY MARK ROWE

THE PHILIPPINES paint market may be small, but it has punched above its weight during the global recession, retaining its distinctive feature of a manufacturing base dominated by local players. According to the Philippine Association of Paint Manufacturers (PAPM), the country has just five major paint manufacturers, with a 70% market share being enjoyed by Pacific Paints (Boysen), followed by other local players Charter Chemical & Coating Corporation and Asian Coatings Philippines, Inc.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL and MARK ROWE

AS auto manufacturers start to realise the utility of incorporating parts and components using nanotechnology to improve their performance, the European Union (EU) is looking hard at special regulations to protect the public and the environment from nanoparticles.…

BY DINAH GARDNER

EVERY time a US trade delegation comes to Beijing or the city holds a major international event, it is noticeable how many of the city’s pirated DVDs get whisked away by shopkeepers to a back cupboard, leaving only black and white movies from the 1940s and local TV show box sets on suddenly bare selves.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

IMAGINATION and guile continue to help fraudsters milk hundreds of millions of Euros from the European Union’s (EU) well-stocked budgets, explains the latest report from EU anti-fraud agency OLAF, writes Keith Nuthall.

OLAF spends a lot of money sniffing out fraud in the institutions and programmes of the EU and the payment of duties earmarked to fund this spending.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EUROPEAN Union (EU) auto dealers importing South Korea-made cars in future beware – if they sell too many, punishing import duties may make them too expensive for average consumers. The European Parliament has to ratify a trade deal struck last year lowering tariffs for commerce between the EU and South Korea and is worried an influx of cheap South Korean car imports could harm European manufacturers.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THERE maybe lies, damned lies and statistics, but it’s hard to ignore MoT failure figures, especially if they get worse year-after-year. But that is what has been happening for class seven vehicle MoTs – goods vehicles between 3,000 and 3,500 kg gross weight.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE

CORRUPTION, bribery and cronyism have long been a part of business in the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, with media reports of such malpractice few and far between yet alone prosecutions. But this taboo topic has started to hit headlines in the Gulf over the past year as prominent businessmen have been arrested for fraud, bribery cases investigated and governmental units set up to tackle the problem.…

BY DAVID HAWORTH,PAUL RIGG,LEE ADENDOORF,MAKKI MARSEILLES,E BLAKE BERRY,FLORENCE LABEDAYS,SYMON ROSS and KEITH NUTHALL

WATER utilities are maybe used to getting bad press. After all, we all need water, and we need and want it to be clean. When a water supplier fails, it is easy to make complaints and see them amplified in newspapers, television, radio and the Internet.…

BY DAVID HAWORTH,PAUL RIGG,LEE ADENDOORF,MAKKI MARSEILLES,E BLAKE BERRY,FLORENCE LABEDAYS,SYMON ROSS and KEITH NUTHALL

WATER utilities are maybe used to getting bad press. After all, we all need water, and we need and want it to be clean. When a water supplier fails, it is easy to make complaints and see them amplified in newspapers, television, radio and the Internet.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has formally proposed that the European Union (EU) adopts the global technical standard for electric vehicles – as agreed in 1997 by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE). Assuming the EU Council of Ministers and European Parliament agree, then EU countries will have the same rules for manufacturing electric cars – preventing national rules impeding the sale of cars from different member states.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A EUROPEAN Court of Justice (ECJ) case involving Volvo looks likely to reduce the protection of sacked auto dealers recovering indemnity payments from their former auto maker suppliers. Court advocate general Yves Bot has formally advised that under EU directive 86/653/EEC on self-employed commercial agents, that auto manufacturers can withhold indemnities, even when the grounds for refusing repayment was a different contract infringement than the problem that sparked a dealer’s initial dismissal.…

BY WANG FANGQING

THE RASH of strikes that have hit China’s auto sector are certainly insufficient to persuade manufacturers to scale back their expansion plans, but the long term lessons are clear: China is no longer a bargain basement labor market of placid easily-pleased workers.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission is funding a Euro EUR9.88 million research project to boost the performance of hybrid cars made in Europe and lower the cost of their manufacture. This ‘Hi-CEPS’ study involves Fiat, Ford Europe and Peugeot-Citroën. One of its tasks is preventing the common hybrid bug of air conditioning shutdowns once the engine stops.…

BY EMMA JACKSON

PAINT companies looking for an edge may very well find themselves turning to robots, as the industry in the Asia-Pacific region increasingly embraces automation. Cost effective, efficient and consistent, robots are indeed replacing employees in paint manufacturing processes and applications of coatings to products such as cars and machinery.…

BY RAGHAVENDRA VERMA

WITH a vivid metallic facade of mirror-like copper plates and Hindi ‘Mudr?’ hand sculptures at the arrival lounge of the brand new terminal building, the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGI) in New Delhi is acclaimed by its developers as "the gateway to modern India."…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

FOR growing markets such as electric cars, keeping regulatory standards simple can make or break a new technology. It can also give manufacturers a head start in the race to dominate a new market, if they are located in countries where rules are relatively straightforward and similar to those in other jurisdictions.…

BY LAWRENCE J SPEER

RECYCLING initiatives at Renault have boosted the use of recycled plastics in new cars and cut purchasing costs on some parts, but have yet to bring major cost savings for the French carmaker.

"If we order a piece in recycled plastic, we systematically insist on paying less than if it was made from virgin plastic," Fabrice Abraham, Renault’s recycling engineering manager, said during a recent environmental seminar in Paris.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission – the executive body of the European Union (EU) today formally launched its bid to develop common technical standards for electric vehicle rechargers. It told the continent’s standards bodies, the European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization (CEN) and the European Electrotechnical Standardization Committee (CENELEC), and the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) to develop a common charging system for electric cars, as well as scooters and bicycles.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE FLEET and vehicle leasing sector can be happy about the release last week (May 27) by the European Commission of new rules on how the various elements of the European Union (EU) auto sector should compete.

This regulation granting a ‘block exemption’ from general EU laws on competition, which usually ban formal collusion between manufacturers, retailers, repairers and customers, should reduce prices of purchases and repairs, while protecting leasing companies from having to yield their customer databases.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE RELEASE today (May 27) by the European Commission of new binding rules on how the various elements of the European Union (EU) auto sector should compete has been welcomed by the industry. Why? Because – largely – automakers, sellers and repairers got what they wanted.…

BY EMMA JACKSON

PUBLIC research funding is a key component of the auto sector’s drive to reduce CO2 emissions. On the public side, the European Union’s (EU) seventh framework programme (FP7) funds innovation in a wide range of industries, and automotive research figures prominently.…

BY PACIFICA GODDARD, ALAN OSBORN and KEITH NUTHALL

EUROPEAN automakers will be looking to boost exports to the Mercosur countries of South America, if they strike a trade deal with the European Union (EU). A resumption of negotiations on slashing tariffs for goods traded between the EU’s 27 member countries and the four-country Mercosur block, (Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay), has been announced by the European Commission, the EU’s executive.…

BY ALYSHAH HASHAM and KEITH NUTHALL

A NEW report from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has underlined the enormous disparities in stocks of metals used in rich and poor countries.

The report ‘Metals in Society’ examines the amount of individual metals present in society, and the potential for using the in-use stock to offset demand from virgin metal stocks.…

BY JULIAN RYALL, FLORENCE LABEDAYS, KARRYN MILLER and KEITH NUTHALL

DESPITE the slow progress to replace the Kyoto Protocol, auto manufacturers are well aware that they will come under increasing pressure to reduce the CO2 emissions of their models and their manufacturing process.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has signalled its support for electric and hybrid cars as the technology that will green Europe’s transport systems, with a detailed policy statement that says little about biofuels.

This ‘Communication’ released by new EU industry Commissioner Antonio Tajani includes a shopping list of measures Brussels intends to take to promote electric and hybrid vehicles.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

OFFICIALS from the European Union’s (EU) anti-fraud unit OLAF have revealed to just-drinks how an international EU customs operation seized 6,400 litres of counterfeit and smuggled alcohol. OLAF said the Matthew II operation was organised by the Czech Republic, working closely with Poland and OLAF: all EU countries were invited to participate.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has signalled it is unlikely to intervene to prevent the proposed takeover of Ukraine’s gas pipeline network by Russia’s Gazprom. Displaying his relatively relaxed attitude to closer energy links with Moscow, new German EU energy Commissioner Günter Oettinger told a press conference: "The decision has to come between Kiev and Moscow and not in Brussels."…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE PROBLEM with hybrid and electric cars is that they have to drag their clunky batteries along with them, wasting energy as they go – limiting their range and power. But what if the roof, doors, floor and spare-wheel well of the car could store energy safely and feed it to the engine?…

BY DEIRDRE MASON

STANDARDIZATION for electric vehicles and, crucially, the batteries that power them has taken a key step forward with the official topping out ceremony [NOTE: US STYLE MIGHT USE ‘GROUNDBREAKING CEREMONY’ – IT’S THE CEREMONY WHERE SOMEONE TURNS THE FIRST SPADEFUL AT THE VERY START OF CONSTRUCTION.]…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

AUTO manufacturers have long worried about the growth of counterfeiting in their industry, especially of vehicle part copies that might not perform. They have also complained about their designs being copied by rival car makers, especially in emerging markets.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EUROPEAN Union (EU) rules preventing auto retailers hoodwinking clients into thinking their cars are green, when they are dirty carbon belchers, are to be developed by the European Commission. It has promised to "develop rules to avoid misleading environmental claims", when selling supposedly green vehicles.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE NON-FERROUS metal industry of Bosnia & Herzegovina has been highlighted in a World Bank report as a bedrock of the country’s economic recovery after the 1990s war that shattered its society. Released by the trade and integration team of the World Bank development research group, the report declared the country’s "industrial restructuring, as seen through the lenses of foreign trade performance and its sustainability, has taken off.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

DAIMLER is lining up Euro 400 million in backing from the European Investment Bank (EIB) for a major research and development programme to develop new electric and hybrid vehicles. The German carmaker is planning to spend Euro 1.7 billion on creating new battery and fuel cell cars, and new electric power engine trains, including batteries for hybrids (and plug-in hybrids) with an extended driving range.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

AFTER-SALES services maintaining electric and hybrid cars should in future receive better protection from shocks from the 500 volts coursing through their circuits. The UN’s World Forum for Harmonisation of Vehicle Regulations has adopted the first technical standard on electric/hybrid car safety.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE ROADWORTHINESS tests that all vehicles must undertake to drive on European Union (EU) roads just got tougher. The EU Council of Ministers – the 27 country union’s senior legislative body – has agreed changes to the relevant legislation – directive 2009/40/EC, which lays down minimum standards for such examinations.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE UN World Forum for Harmonization of Vehicle Regulations has adopted a technical standard guaranteeing electric and hybrid car safety. This will enter European Union law, and probably regulations in Japan, South Korea and other European countries. The standard details protection from high voltage parts; mandates indication displays showing electric engines are on; and brakes preventing movement during recharging.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

MAJOR European Union (EU) research projects have last week (March 24) been trialling ‘talking’ cars communicating with each other and road infrastructure, such as traffic signs, lights and congestion management centres. These vehicles can receive information from nearby cars on hazards ahead, such as accidents, oil spills, debris and potholes.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

FREE trade agreements struck between the European Union (EU), Peru and Colombia offering significant benefits to the clothing and textile sector, the European Commission has said. Once ratified, the deal will remove duties for finished textile products traded between the EU and these two medium-sized Latin American markets – populations 28 and 43 million respectively.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

AN IMPORTANT step has been made towards guaranteeing the safety of electric and hybrid cars, with the adoption by the UN’s World Forum for Harmonization of Vehicle Regulations of a new technical standard on this subject – a global first.…

BY DEIRDRE MASON

THE ACCEPTANCE by European Union (EU) politicians of a common standard for hydrogen vehicles should make it considerably easier for manufacturers to sell vehicles to a continental rather than a national market.

It has now been more than two years since the EU executive – the European Commission – proposed a technical standard for manufacturers.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE SWEDISH and Austrian governments have been given an additional year to spend the Euro 15.6 million in earmarked European Union (EU) subsidies for the auto sector previously announced by the European Commission.

These payments – Euro 9.8 million for Sweden and Euro 5.7 million for Austria – come from the EU’s Globalisation Adjustment Fund, which is designed to help industries hit by unavoidable international competition.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE NEW European Union (EU) energy Commissioner Günther Oettinger has been installed for five years, along with his environment Commissioner Janez Poto?nik and climate action Commissioner Connie Hedegaard. And so utilities executives might be forgiven for thinking that the key political changes in Brussels have now been made regarding the appointment of a new European Commission.…

BY EMMA JACKSON

PAINT companies looking for an edge as they recover from the global financial crisis may find a solution in the form of robotics. Cost effective, efficient and consistent, robots are increasingly pushing out the humans who have traditionally helped manufacture paint and coatings or applied it to products such as cars and machinery.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A MAJOR effort of public intervention to pump-prime European demand for electric vehicles has been proposed by the Spanish government, which currently holds the European Union’s (EU) six month rotating presidency.

Despite the appointment of a permanent president of the EU Council of Ministers (which represents the 27 member states), national governments will still take turns in being the lead country for the EU every six months.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A MAJOR effort of public intervention to pump-prime European demand for electric vehicles has been given broad approval by an informal meeting of the European Union (EU) Council of Ministers. It backed a paper tabled by the Spanish government, which currently holds the European Union’s (EU) six month rotating presidency.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE

PIRACY has increased exponentially off the coast of Somalia in recent years, with ships hijacked deep into international waters despite the presence of a multi-national naval task force, and pirates demanding ever higher ransoms from shipping companies. But while the spoils of piracy are evident in coastal Somali towns, tracking down where the remaining millions of dollars disappear to is hard to pin down, with allegations circulating of ransom money entering the real estate markets of Kenya, to money laundering in Yemen and Dubai.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

THE SMARTER the authorities become at tackling money laundering via wire transfers and other electronic methodologies, the greater the attraction of physical cash as a means of secretly moving illicit money – or so one would suppose. Commonsense dictates that such a money laundering trend is ongoing at the moment, but nobody can be quite sure about the extent or the cause of it, not even those at the very top of the AML sector.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

AS a new European Union (EU) energy Commissioner takes office for the next five years, EU member states are stalling over a plan to inject Euro 50 billion into European energy research budgets over the next decade. The Strategic Energy Technology (SET) plan released by the previous European Commission last October would involve a massive expansion of such spending from 2013 to 2019, but national governments have signalled nervousness.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A MAJOR effort of public intervention to pump-prime European demand for electric vehicles has been given broad approval by an informal meeting of the European Union (EU) Council of Ministers. It backed a paper tabled by the Spanish government, which currently holds the European Union’s (EU) six month rotating presidency.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN automobile industry will face two major policy reviews once a new European Commission (the European Union’s executive) takes office for the next five years on February 1. The key players on this new Commission for the auto sector will be the Commissioners for transport and industry.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE CO2 emitted by European Union (EU) cars is falling fast, according to the latest data from the European Commission. Looking at 2008, a report out this week said that the average specific CO2 emissions from passenger cars were 153.5g CO2/km.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

CO2 emissions statistics released by the European Commission show that while British motorists are ignoring government calls to buy smaller cars, their vehicles are at least getting greener. Across the European Union (EU) the CO2 emitted by passenger cars is falling fast: looking at 2008, a report said the average specific CO2 emissions from passenger cars were 153.5g CO2/km.…

BY DEIRDRE MASON, PACIFICA GODDARD, GAVIN BLAIR and KEITH NUTHALL

NEW technologies devour new resources and the move towards hybrid and electric vehicles could make some currently impoverished countries rich. As the world moves away from fossil fuels, the soft metal lithium will become increasingly in demand as a critical component of auto batteries for green cars.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

AFTER the disappointment of the Copenhagen summit on climate change, it is perhaps encouraging to note that the auto industry – so often painted as the bad boy of the climate change issue – really is reducing its vehicles’ carbon dioxide emissions.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE ITALIAN politician nominated to become the European Union’s (EU) new industry commissioner Antonio Tajani has said he is ready to fight cheap Chinese auto exports by promoting quality and investment, especially on pollution and safety.

Speaking at a European Parliament confirmation hearing last night (Jan 18) in Strasbourg, France, he said: "We cannot compete if the Chinese are able to, really, take the bottom out of the market.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

AD Rutten, chief operating officer (COO) of the Netherlands’ Schiphol Group running Amsterdam airport had a busy Christmas and New Year. With Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the 23-year old Nigerian ‘underpants’ bomber, trying to blow up a A330-300 Airbus en route to Detroit from Schiphol airport on Christmas Day, Rutten has been working hard.…

BY DEIRDRE MASON, PACIFICA GODDARD, GAVIN BLAIR and KEITH NUTHALL

NEW technologies devour new resources and the move towards hybrid and electric vehicles could make some currently impoverished countries rich. As the world moves away from fossil fuels, the soft metal lithium will become increasingly in demand as a critical component of auto batteries for green cars.…

BY PHILIPPA JONES

WITH so much competition in design and price within the apparel and textile sector, manufacturers are always looking for an edge. One way in which they can steal a march on competitors is with fibre innovation. And with new technology allowing the incorporation of increasingly complex arrays of chemicals and particles, even on the nano-scale, the opportunities to develop a revolutionary new fibre or mix of fibres are maybe greater today than ever before.…

By Wang Fangqing, in Shanghai 

China's rapid, aggressive rise as a communist-ruled giant developing country has been a topic in the world in recent years. During US President Barack Obama's first week long trip to Asia in November, he spent three days in China to show its importance as the biggest financial backer of the U.S.

In a speech to Chinese youths in Shanghai, he spoke highly of China’s great achievements, including lifting hundreds of millions of people out of poverty, as “an accomplishment unparalleled in human history.”  And he highlighted the growing important role China plays in the international community. …

BY KEITH NUTHALL

FINAL approval has been given by the European Parliament for the European Union (EU) to spend Euro 15.6 million on helping Swedish and Austria auto industry workers who have lost their jobs through the global recession. The money will come from the EU’s Globalisation Adjustment Fund.…

BY PACIFICA GODDARD, ANCA GURZU, GAVIN BLAIR and KEITH NUTHALL

NEW technologies devour new resources and the move towards hybrid and electric vehicles could make some currently impoverished countries rich. As the world moves away from fossil fuels, the soft metal lithium will become increasingly in demand as a critical component of auto batteries for green cars.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL, EMMA JACKSON and ERIC LYMAN

THE COPENHAGEN climate change conference ended on December 18 with an accord where key world economies promised to make binding agreements to cut carbon emissions. But detail on exactly how much will be settled at a later date, meaning its long term effects on the oil and gas industry are unclear.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE MOST detailed study into the environmental, energy and social costs generated by auto manufacturers when making cars has dubbed Germany’s Daimler the world’s cleanest and greenest automobile painter regarding volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions. The study coordinated by Queen’s University, Belfast, gave major manufacturers comparable sustainability ratings over VOCs, giving Daimler top score (on 2007 data) of plus 5,905.…

By Paul Cochrane, in Beirut

In Syria, a quarter of the country's population, some 5.3 million people, are enrolled in schools, while 38% of Saudis, 46% of Yemenis, 31% of Jordanians and 31% of Egyptians are below 14 years of age. Altogether, including Iran, half of the MENA's 300 million-plus people are under 24 years old.

While all these kids are in school, there is no pressing socio-economic problem. But over the next decade as students graduate and want to enter the workplace, finding employment for them all will be difficult. Already the Middle East and North Africa have among the highest unemployment rates in the world at 9.4% and 10.3% respectively, according to an International Labour Organisation report.…

BY MARK ROWE

SHOWROOMS full of Bentleys and Ferraris continue to grace Moscow’s most salubrious boulevards, in a display of purchasing power that suggests global recession is a world away. The reality is somewhat different: the mainstream Russian car market has taken a swinging blow from economic collapse, its fortunes plummeting almost overnight.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A MAJOR European research project is to spend Euro 44 million on developing tiny components to help electric vehicles improve their performance, so that they can better compete with models powered with liquid fuels. The Fiat and Audi-backed E3CAR (Energy efficient electrical car) project will especially focus on emerging nanotechnologies as its researchers aim to boost electric cars’ often less than stellar driving abilities.…

BY DEIRDRE MASON GAVIN BLAIR ANCA GURZU and KEITH NUTHALL

AS the Copenhagen conference charged with forging a new international climate change treaty gets under way this month, the auto industry worldwide will be looking closely at how the deliberations will affect its business.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A MAJOR European research project will spend Euro 44 million developing tiny components to help electric vehicles improve their performance and compete with liquid fuel models. The Fiat and Audi-backed E3CAR (Energy efficient electrical car) project will especially focus on emerging nanotechnologies to improve "semiconductor technologies, devices, circuits and sub-systems" increasing energy efficiency by 35%, boosting power and battery life.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE

MOROCCO’S 150,000 tonnes per year decorative paint market, worth Moroccan Dirham (MAD) 2 billion (GBPounds 157.4 million), grew by an estimated 5 to 8% in 2008, but plunged by 30% in December in the wake of the financial crisis, according to paint manufacturer Hempel Morocco (NOTE – SPELLING IS CORRECT).…

BY KENCHO WANGDI

NESTLED against the Himalayas, Bhutan was one of the last oases of isolation, untouched by commercialism and capitalism. But in the last decade, things have changed, and Bhutan has embraced all the joys of the modern world – and the crime.…

BY RAGHAVENDRA VERMA and KEITH NUTHALL

COUNTRIES that start exporting cars to Britain usually have a tough time convincing consumers about the quality of their vehicles. Remember the Skoda and skip jokes? Well, no one makes those anymore. Korean cars used to have a reputation for being cheap rubbish.…

By Paul Cochrane

With the end of the summer holidays, children and young people across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) once again donned uniforms, packed satchels and headed to school, amounting to more than a quarter of the region returning to class.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL and KARRYN MILLER

THE AMERICAN and South Korean auto sectors are closely watching the outcome of informal talks between their governments over removing trade barriers within the 2007 US-South Korea Free Trade Agreement, which still requires ratification. The deal was negotiated by the old Bush administration, and is now being reviewed by Obama team, ahead of any renewed ratification push in the US Congress – with the auto sector being a key focus.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

DESPITE the uncertainty that has surrounded the future of Vauxhall/Opel in the past few months, there is every indication that the company will ride out the storm and should prosper in Britain’s looming economic recovery.

In October’s relatively bullish market (by 2009 standards), Vauxhall shifted 19,364 units, compared to 19,422 the same month last year.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

CONCERNS are being provoked amongst auto traders over the latest implementation of the harmonised and modernised European Union (EU) customs code. Detailed reforms will be introduced step-by-step by the European Commission until June 2013, and two recent linked proposals have sparked fears at the Retail Motor Industry Federation (RMI) that they could increase the customs valuation of some vehicles when imported into the EU from non-EU countries.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

WHAT a difference a year makes. The changed face of European Union (EU) controls over public subsidies to its automakers has been illustrated clearly by Friday’s (13-11) decision by the European Commission to allow government guarantees backing a Euro 400 million loan to Ford Romania SA.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) auto manufacturing industry has a good chance to grab more market share in Syria following a newly signed wide-ranging association agreement, slashing steep duties imposed on EU-made auto exports. Syria already imports a significant number of EU-made cars: according to the ACEA (European Automobile Manufacturers Association) in 2008, 7,241 (Euro 106 million’s worth) cars and SUVs were exported from the EU to Syria and this year, 3,427 (worth Euro 52 million) were sold from January to June.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE MOST detailed study into the environmental, energy and social costs generated by auto manufacturers when making cars has dubbed General Motors the world’s most profligate and Toyota cleanest and greenest. The study coordinated by Queen’s University, Belfast, concluded GM wasted Euro 9.8 billion’s worth of environmental and social costs compared to a notional industry average in 2007 (the most recent available data); while Toyota saved Euro 5.2 billion’s worth of impact compared to an industry mean.…

BY PHILIPPA JONES

NANOTECHNOLOGY scientists remain excited by the advantages various industries can glean from the addition of nanosilver to textiles, but there is increasing opposition to its use in non-medical fields and growing concern that not enough is known about its health and environmental effects.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

MODERNISED Lada models are expected to become available from 2012, with the Russian mark being bankrolled by its Renault and Nissan partners. The French car maker’s Christian Esteve told Russian state news agency Itar-Tass that his company’s US$1 billion investment in 2008 would lead to new "modern and appealing" Ladas, benefiting from Renault technology.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Automobile Manufacturers Association (EMEA) estimates the cost of importing cars from South Korea could fall by as much as Euro 1,000 per vehicle – maybe more – following a European Union (EU)-South Korea free trade agreement, initialled on Thursday (15-10).…

BY ALAN OSBORN

STRICT regulation of chemicals is coming to the US and although there is concern within the American auto industry, there is certainly no panic – at least not so far. Legislation is expected to be introduced before Thanksgiving by Senator Frank Lautenberg (New Jersey) and others in Congress for a long overdue updating of the 1976 Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), and it could be tough.…

BY DEIRDRE MASON

THE AUTOMOTIVE industry has a new potential market opportunity now that the European Union (EU) has finally agreed the technical specifications for its long-awaited European Electronic Toll Service (EETS). Future vehicles could offer a single pre-installed on-board unit that would work for all road-tolling points across the EU.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

NEW options for UK auto-dealers will come on stream as Europe’s economy recovers thanks to Euro 600 being sunk into production in Sweden and Morocco by the European Investment Bank (EIB).

It has been channelling money towards automakers this year to help them stay afloat in the recession.…

BY MONICA DOBIE

WE all know heavy metal particles are pumped into the air by industry, but American scientists have developed a way of measuring this pollution by detecting magnetism in tree leaves coated by these emissions. This could be a cheap and effective way of pin pointing pollution hotspots claims Bernie Housen, a geophysicist at Western Washington University.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A DETAILED European Commission report has listed trade barriers impeding European Union (EU) automobile, parts and components sales imposed to protect export market industries from the recession. Brussels fears that while these restrictions were designed to help vulnerable businesses survive the recession, they could cause long-term damage to Europe’s auto manufacturers.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has welcomed its receipt tonight (27-10) in Brussels of a declaration from 50 representatives of European electricity generators, power distributors and energy industry associations to create a standardised re-charging system for electric vehicles. European Union (EU) transport Commissioner Antonio Tajani, whose organisation is charged with removing barriers to business between the 27 EU member countries, declared satisfaction with the commitment, made without the urging of European legislation.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Automobile Manufacturers Association (EMEA) has condemned a European Union (EU)-South Korea free trade agreement, initialed today (15-10), for giving Korean automakers an unfair advantage in EU markets.

At the heart of ACEA’s concern is a "duty drawback" provision allowing South Korean manufacturers to reclaim duties paid on imported car parts and components from low-cost neighbouring countries such as China, while benefiting from the scrapping of EU customs duties for assmbled vehicles.…

BY ANCA GURZU

A NEW Canadian law banning the sales of cigarettes and cigarillos containing any flavourings and additives is the most recent in a series of restrictions imposed by Canadian public authorities on tobacco companies. This latest rule – an amendment to the federal Canadian Tobacco Act, received royal assent on October 8, 2009, after approval of a Bill C-32.…

BY ANDREW SALMON

AFTER passing the fortress-like medieval gate of Namdaemun, visitors enter central Seoul’s traditional shopping quarter: a jumbled maze of stalls and alleyways. A 15-minute walk through the raucous bustle of this 600-year old market, leads to its modern equivalent: The neon-lit, pedestrianised square mile of Myeong Dong.…

BY EMMA JACKSON and KEITH NUTHALL

THE RELATIONSHIP the automotive sales and aftermarket sector have with car makers is clearly a key issue, if not the key issue, that concerns Automotive Management readers. As a result, the current review of the European Union’s (EU) block exemption from EU competition law for the auto sector is being scrutinised carefully.…

BY SHABTAI GOLD

THE CREW over at Top Gear, the BBC petrol-lovers show, recently declared that the Switzerland part of the Alpine mountain range has some of the best roads in the world for driving. But they were in top sports cars, costing a fortune and hardly designed for bringing farmers’ produce to the supermarkets.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A DEAL has been struck by MEPs and European Union (EU) ministers imposing mandatory tyre labelling across the EU, promoting fuel-efficient, wet gripping and low noise tyres. It will force the public classification and labelling of tyres from a top-ranking green ‘A’ class to the worst red ‘G’ class.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

AN ENVIRONMENTAL report is suggesting that auto manufacturers only make reductions to the greenhouse gas emissions from their models when ordered to by compulsory legislation. Europe’s Transport and Environment (T&E) group has released statistics showing that auto manufacturers who have done well in moving towards European Union (EU) emission standards slackened their anti-pollution technical innovation last year.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Investment Bank (EIB) has announced it is lending Euro 100 million to Volkswagen India Private Ltd, a subsidiary of Germany’s Volkswagen Group, to part-finance expansion of its new car manufacturing facility in the western India state of Maharashtra.…

BY RAGHAVENDRA VERMA

A CENTURY-OLD, India’s first steel plant set up by the industrial group of Tata in the eastern town of Jamshedpur (Jharkhand) is not only the leading supplier of high quality steel to the country’s auto industry, it is expanding.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

BRITISH dealers of Vauxhall and Opel cars can draw comfort from a European Commission pledge to prevent the planned Magna International and Sberbank takeover of Opel/Vauxhall being framed to close UK plants ahead of those in Germany. Speaking to the European Parliament, European Union (EU) competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes said that the German government’s offer of Euro 4.5 billion to the planned New Opel company owned by Magna/Sberbank must not have strings.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

AN ENVIRONMENTAL report has shown which Europe-based auto-manufacturers must make the most extensive changes to their models and ranges to comply with oncoming 2015 European Union (EU) CO2 emissions standards. Europe’s Transport and Environment (T&E) group has released statistics showing Mazda faces a significant investment bill – maybe forcing up prices: it needs to improve its the emissions of its models by 21% to reach the 2015 mandatory target of an 130 g/km average for all cars made by a manufacturer in Europe.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

CARS driven in the European Union (EU) will from November 1, 2012, have to start following new compulsory standards on wet grip, rolling resistance and noise requirements. Following the publication of the new rules in the EU’s official journal in July, manufacturers have been preparing to comply with a minimum rolling resistance for car tyres of a maximum value of 12 kg/tonne, for instance.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

MATERIALS recycling companies can tap a major Euro 3.2 billion programme of European Union (EU) environmental research spending that was been launched last week (13-7).

At a ceremony in Brussels involving more than 800 senior researchers and industrialists, the European Commission unveiled three private-public partnerships funding R&D projects across Europe.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THERE is much work required by the United States government and the European Union (EU) to disarm trade barriers impeding EU auto exports, a new European Commission report has claimed.

The EU executive highlights three particular grumbles with existing US legislation, it claims gives American (and Canadian) automakers unfair advantages over European rivals.…

BY JULIAN RYALL

TOYOTA Motor Corp is to release an ultra-efficient and reasonably priced hybrid car worldwide in 2011, with the British market a top target for sales.

The compact hybrid will have a fuel-efficiency of 40 kilometres per litre – making it the best-performing mass-produced hybrid in the world – with a price tag of Yen 1.5 million (GBPounds 9,622) in Japan.…

BY RAGHAVENDRA VERMA and KARRYN MILLER

AUTOMOBILE executives in South Korea and India are busy analysing the detail of a freshly inked Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) between the South Korean and Indian governments. The initial impact remains unclear but it is likely that early beneficiaries will be South Korean-owned auto plants in India who will be able to import some key parts more cheaply, because of some handy duty cuts.…

By Keith Nuthall

A major Euro 3.2 billion programme of research spending that will try to pull Europe out of recession and into a sustainable economic recovery has been launched by the European Commission.

At a ceremony in Brussels witnessed by more than 800 senior researchers and industrialists, the Commission put scientists on notice that millions of research Euros would soon start to pour out of three private-public partnerships funding R&D projects across Europe.…

BY KENCHO WANGDI

THE IMPLEMENTATION of the much vaunted sales and public place smoking ban in Bhutan, the tiny Himalayan kingdom, has not been easy. And now the country’s newly minted parliament is considering lifting the sales ban, while providing for tougher enforcement of the public place ban and fighting tobacco smuggling.…

BY ALAN OSBORN, in London; RUSSELL BERMAN, in Washington DC; JULIAN RYALL, in Tokyo; RAGHAVENDRA VERMA, in New Delhi; BY WANG FANGQING, in Shanghai; EMMA JACKSON, in Ottawa; KARRYN MILLER; and KEITH NUTHALL

THE AUTOMOBILE sector maybe one of the most globally integrated manufacturing industries on the planet, but national governments (or continental bodies in Europe) still hold sway regarding regulation.…

BY DEIRDRE MASON

IT was to be the booster rocket for the European hydrogen and fuel cell industry – a Euro 1 billion package to support development of the technology and putting it on the market. Launched on last October in Brussels, the Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Joint Technology Initiative (JTI) linked the European Commission, European industrialists and the research community to a common goal of mass-marketing these promising technologies before 2020.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A COMPREHENSIVE report from a European Union (EU) think-tank has indicated that Britain’s new Pounds 2,000 old car scrappage scheme may not work, because of high levels of UK personal indebtedness.

The paper ‘Recent restructuring trends and policies in the automotive sector’ by the Dublin-based European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions has shown how Germany’s scrappage scheme has been markedly successful – in contrast to those in other EU member states, such as France and Italy.…

BY JAMES FULLER

SMALL island states are always vulnerable in energy sustainability terms, but the growth in renewable energy technologies is giving them a better shot at security of supply. The Caribbean is a case in point, where green energy technologies are being explored across the region.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A CONSORTIUM of major European auto manufacturers, engineers and researchers have developed prototype technology sensing whether pedestrians and cyclists may collide with a car, van, or lorry, alerting drivers in real time. However, the members of the WATCH-OVER group still have work before the resulting system can be marketed.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A COMPREHENSIVE report from a European Union (EU) think-tank has indicated that Britain’s new Pounds 2,000 scrappage scheme may not work, because of high levels of UK personal indebtedness.

The paper ‘Recent restructuring trends and policies in the automotive sector’ by the Dublin-based European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions has shown how Germany’s scrappage scheme has been markedly successful – in contrast to those in other EU member states, such as France and Italy.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

AUTO makers have been put on notice for the release of around Euro 80 million in European Union (EU) research funding to develop green cars and associated road and roadside technologies. The money, the European Commission has announced, will come from its Seventh Framework Programme for research, with final details being released on July 30.…

BY MARK GODFREY

ONE might wonder why Chinese car makers would want to go abroad: China’s auto sales are up by as much as 40% in the first half of 2009 according to the National Bureau of Statistics here. Yet Chinese car firms have been gunning hard for sales in the UK and western Europe, both deemed as vital to global expansion plans developed by automakers BYD and Chery, explained Yale Zhang, a Beijing-based auto analyst at CLSA, an investment bank.…

BY MARK GODFREY

COMMUNIST Party cadres from around China are being bussed out to Asuwei landfill in Beijing’s Changping suburb to view a showcase for how China wants to manage waste in the future. As China urbanises, its solid waste output has been climbing by 9% a year, said Rasmus Reinvag, co-author of a recent China environmental sector report by the WWF conservation group and Norwegian-government owned development group Innovation Norway.…

By Leah Germain

Two American universities are trying to recuperate tens of millions of dollars they invested with an investment firm accused of defrauding investors, according to legal documents obtained by University World News. The University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University, also in Pittsburgh, both invested money with Westridge Capital Management Inc.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE LIKELIHOOD of a soft landing for Volvo – should Ford divest the Sweden-based car maker – has improved. The European Commission has approved Swedish government loan guarantees covering 90% of Euro 500 million that Volvo plans to borrow from the European Investment Bank (EIB) to help develop new green models.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

CORRUPTION begets fraud and fraud begets corruption, and there are few harder crimes to tackle than complex frauds rooted in institutionalised and culturally tolerated corruption. As a result, the work of international organisation Transparency International has been key in fighting fraud worldwide, especially that linked to corruption.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EUROPEAN Union (EU) automakers will have to abide by a fresh set of technical standards for tires, safety features and other new technology. This follows a meeting yesterday (Monday 22-6) of the EU Council of Ministers which voted through new technical rules.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

VOLVO has secured permission to secure Swedish government loan guarantees covering 90% of the Euro 500 million it plans to borrow from the European Investment Bank to finance for developing new green models. The European Commission announced today (June 5) that it was authorising the guarantee from Stockholm, under its temporary liberal state aid controls, eased to help European industry cope with the recession.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A COMPREHENSIVE report from a European Union (EU) think-tank has highlighted the success of Germany in fighting recession within its domestic car market and preventing full-time lay-offs. The paper ‘Recent restructuring trends and policies in the automotive sector’, has been released by the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions, a Dublin-based EU agency.…

BY MARK ROWE, in London; KARRYN CARTELLE, in TOKYO; RUSSELL BERMAN, in Washington DC; and MONICA DOBIE, in Ottawa

INNOVATION in drinks packaging is more intense today than it has been for decades, with cutting edge innovation in intelligent materials, microchip integration and nanomaterials allowing designers to create boxes, bottles, cans and sacks that they could not dream of before.…

BY MARK GODFREY

AUTOMOBILE sales are down slightly this year in Bangladesh, after a decade of dramatic growth in vehicle ownership. Fluctuating orders for the country’s export-dependent garments industry is depressing sales of vehicles, commented Shah Khaled Pavel, assistant manager for sales at Navana Ltd, Bangladesh’s largest dealership for new Toyota cars.…

BY MARK GODFREY

BUSINESS remains slow in Jinghai, a slice of industrial land a couple of hours east of Beijing designated as one of China’s key recycling belts. Business was brisk here up to October 2008, the date given locally as the beginning of a savage dip in demand for recyclables.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A KEY advisory body within the European Union (EU) has called for special efforts to prevent recession-prompted rationalisation within the European auto sector going leading to long-term under-capacity in the sector.

The European Economic and Social Committee (a long established expert group that must be consulted on a range of issues by other EU institutions) has warned in a formal opinion that "care must be taken not to equate structural problems with overcapacity alone."…

BY PAUL COCHRANE

TURKEY is ramping up car safety inspections as part of its bid to join the European Union (EU). Last year, Turkey hired a consortium made up of a German inspection firm TUV-Sud; Turkish car importer and distributor Dogus Automotive; and Akfen, a Turkish construction company, to independently inspect motor vehicles.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A KEY advisory body within the European Union (EU) has warned that UK and other European dealers may have to import more cars in future from Asia, north America and elsewhere, because it fears the recession may cause structural under-capacity amongst EU manufacturers.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A NEW German-Italian joint venture making carbon-ceramic brake discs and systems has been launched, following the granting of competition approval by the European Commission. The deal will involve a 50-50 merger of SGL Carbon SE, of Germany, and Brembo SpA, of Italy.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

IF there is one marketing certainty for the next few decades, it is that virtual reality systems will increasingly be used to sell products and services, and that ultimately, traditional posters, radio, television and even Internet ads will take second place or be wiped out.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL, LEAH GERMAIN and MONICA DOBIE

MAYBE the best sign that renewable energies have hit the mainstream is that they now have their very own international organisation: the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA). Launched in Bonn, Germany, this January, with the support of 76 countries, including its host nation, Spain, Italy, France and Sweden, the roster of signatory nations has since been swollen by India and Belarus.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A ’50 by 50′ Global Fuel Economy Initiative launched by the UN Environment Programme, the International Energy Agency, the International Transport Forum and the FIA Foundation aims to promote hybrids and electric cars.

It details blueprints on establishing a global car fleet consuming 50% less fuel by 2050 than today, stabilising its greenhouse gas emissions.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE BRITISH tyre industry is pushing for a planned European tyre labelling system to be amended so that useful point-of-sale information about safety and noise is made available in showrooms. The problem with the current proposals approved by the European Parliament last week (22-04) is it focuses on labelling, said John Dorken, the chief executive of the British Tyre Manufacturers Association.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE RETAIL Motor Industry Federation (RMIF) has welcomed the approval of a new European Union (EU) directive that will promote the sale of clean and energy-efficient road transport vehicles to public authorities and utilities.

The new law says these key auto sector customers must choose from two options for greening their fleets when buying new vehicles through compulsory competitive tenders:

*They can set minimum technical specifications for energy and environmental performance; and

*They can include energy and environmental impacts in the actual purchasing decision by writing these considerations into criteria for bids by suppliers, alongside sticker price costs.…

BY RUSSELL BERMAN

WITH the auto industry in the United States and Europe in the midst of an unprecedented downturn, the international paints and coatings sector has taken a deep hit as well and has been forced to turn to painful strategies in the hopes of riding out the recession.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EUROPE’S auto sector has today been promised another cash injection from the European Investment Bank (EIB), which has emerged as the European Union’s (EU) key weapon to help the sector stave off the recession.

The EU-run financing institution’s board of directors today (Tuesday) approved loans to Europe-based car makers worth Euro 866 million to help them design and build cleaner cars with lower CO2 emissions.…

BY RUSSELL BERMAN

THE SWEEPING energy reforms being undertaken by the new administration of US President Barack Obama include billions of dollars in funding for biofuels and other clean energy sources.

America’s biofuels industry is applauding Mr Obama’s early moves, although advocates are still awaiting regulatory directives on renewable fuel standards.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE DEPENDENCE of the European Union (EU) on imports to meet oil supply needs will rise to 95% by 2030, a European Parliament report has claimed. This will expose the EU to strategic dangers through buying oil from unstable or potentially hostile countries in the Middle East and from Russia, it warned.…

BY DAVID HAWORTH

FRESH from the gloomy prognostications of the Geneva Auto Show, European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA) president Carlos Ghosn had some of his own on Wednesday saying European car output will fall by 25% this year.

Speaking after talks in Brussels with European Commission president José Manuel Barroso and European Union (EU) industry Commissioner Günter Verheugen, he told a press conference: "This forecast is not the same as the one I gave last week.…

BY TONY MALLETT

GIVEN that they work in a country renowned for its knee-deep bureaucracy and fervent industrial action, Belgian truckers seem a surprisingly contented bunch. At least when taken individually.

Despite recent protests about the price of fuel – which resulted in their blockade of the Brussels inner ring road and demonstrations outside the headquarters of both the European Commission and the European Parliament – the pros riding way up high in the cabs of HGVs on Belgian roads seem generally happy with their lot.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL, EMMA JACKSON and ALAN OSBORN

THE NUCLEAR energy industry has always been a global business, and since the fall of communism, it has become more, not less international. As a result, the need for common standards and practices, relevant to the industry, its suppliers and its customers is becoming increasingly important.…

By Alan Osborn

If the European Union (EU) wants to become the world leader in information and communication technologies (ICT), as it frequently asserts, it should not expect to do it for nothing. As a start, the 27 EU member states should at least double their investment in ICT – both public and private – over the next 10 years, says the European Commission, the EU’s executive, in launching a new ICT Research and Innovation Strategy.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

LARGE sums of money have started rolling out of the European Investment Bank (EIB) to help keep European auto makers afloat, although its impact will not necessarily prevent dealers from losing suppliers.

The EIB last week (Thursday March 12) announced that its board had approved Euro 3 billion in loans to BMW, Daimler, Fiat, PSA Peugeot-Citroën, Renault, Volvo Cars, Scania and Volvo Trucks.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A GROUNDBREAKING starter motor-alternator, enabling cars to automatically and smoothly stop and start in congestion, has been developed by the Eureka research network. The i-StARS (NOTE – SPELLING IS CORRECT) project developed second-generation technology whose battery can power high numbers of charge/discharge cycles; and can inhibit the stop-start function or restart an engine if a charge level is too low.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

GIVEN the preoccupation of the auto industry these trying days to merely survive past the next quarter, it is refreshing to learn of an international project dealing with the environmental effects of a road transport sector actually projected to grow and grow in the long term, as the developing world gets richer and more mobile.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

FLEET managers could have a lot more hybrids and electric cars on offer if a new global initiative involving four international agencies, including two transport bodies, is successful. A ’50 by 50′ Global Fuel Economy Initiative has been launched by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), the International Energy Agency (IEA), the International Transport Forum (ITF) and the FIA [Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile] Foundation.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE

VEHICLE sales in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) plunged by up to 45% in the first two months of the year compared to 2008, according to Ford, a remarkable change in fortunes from the years of double-digit growth when the US$3.6 billion sector was one of the fastest growing in the world.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) is a complex set of institutions and so it will not surprise European auto executives that the EU response to the financial threat they face has been anything but simple. It is so much simpler in the US of course: there the federal government can actually talk about bail-outs, without looking over its shoulder at critics from abroad.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

BRITISH dealers of France-made cars can breath a sigh of relief in the knowledge that their suppliers are not going to become a swift victim of the credit crunch, with the European Commission approving a Euro 6.5 billion bail-out package drafted by the French government.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A DANISH island will be a test bed showing how a sustainable mass market in electric vehicles could be built across Europe. Computer giant IBM, Denmark utility DONG Energy, Siemens, the Danish government and others are teaming up in the EDISON project to install and test recharging infrastructure on the island of Bornholm.…

BY MARK GODFREY

BARRY Lee is probably typical of Chinese wine drinkers. The auto-sales accountant started off drinking a local Great Wall red at an office lunch, then got curious and went to a Beijing branch of the French Carrefour supermarket chain where he spent RMB78 (US$11.40) on a bottle of Chilean red.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EUROPEAN Union (EU) competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes has laid down policy for the review of the European Union’s (EU) auto sector block exemption from standard European competition rules. Importantly, she has given a "cast-iron guarantee" that a new system would guarantee the rights of independent repairers to "access to technical information and alternative brands of spare parts."…

BY MARK ROWE

AUTO manufacturers and industry associations point to a significant dip in sales and production in Russia this year. JAMA, the Japanese Automobile Manufacturer’s Association, predicts auto sales will fall by 18%, while PricewaterhouseCoopers Russia forecasts a 25%-50% drop in Russia’s overall car sales this year, with Russian domestic car production dipping to 1.6 million vehicles from 3.2 million in 2008.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A GROUNDBREAKING starter motor-alternator, enabling cars to automatically and smoothly stop and start when in congested traffic, has been developed by European companies involved in the Eureka research network. The i-StARS (NOTE – SPELLING IS CORRECT) project, coordinated by France’s Valeo Electrical Systems, spent Euro 9.85 million on developing this second-generation technology, whose aim is to create significant environmental improvements to auto performance without forcing car makers to make radical changes to engine design.…

BY DEIRDRE MASON

FORTHCOMING European Union (EU) guidance covering embedded microchips and consumer privacy could have serious implications for the automotive industry unless new technology is developed swiftly and the European Commission allows special rules for chips used in vehicles.

The concerns focus on a draft Commission ‘recommendation’ (which is formal guidance for EU citizens and companies, short of a binding law), circulating since April 2008.…

BY KARRYN MILLER

JAPAN’S 98th airport, Mt Fuji Shizuoka Airport, is set to open on June 4, 2009: despite the launch being delayed twice. The initial March opening was moved back because the owner of 150 nearby trees refused to chop them down or even shorten them.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A COMPREHENSIVE package of design rules new cars aimed at making vehicles less dangerous to pedestrians has been approved by European Union (EU) ministers. The rules will come into force from January 2011, and immediately for heavier vehicles (of 2,500 kg and more).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE CZECH presidency of the European Union (EU) has revealed a plan to offer subsidies to automobile consumers who want to replace their old models and buy new cars. It is the latest strand to emerge of the EU’s strategy to help the European auto industry through its current tough trading conditions.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A NEW European Union (EU) law will clear the way for fleets to fit digital tacographs in cars, SUVs and light vans if they choose. Until now, this technology was only authorised under EU technical legislation for use in lorries and buses, but now the European Commission has extended its scope to smaller vehicles.…

BY PACIFICA GODDARD, in Caracas; MARVIN HOKSTAM, in Paramaribo, JAMES FULLER, in Port of Spain

IT may seem like a good thing for fuel retailers to be based in country that is sitting on a bounty of fuel reserves. But that is not necessarily the case, as many Latin American and Caribbean retailers can testify.…

BY BILL CORCORAN

SALES of new vehicles made in South Africa, one of the better performing automobile markets worldwide in recent times, fell by more than 20% last year due to the global economic downturn, and the country’s automakers are trying to crafting a positive response.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

RENAULT’S ambitious plans to develop and roll out electric vehicles worldwide are likely to be bankrolled by a Euro 400 million loan from the European Investment Bank (EIB). The money, said a bank memorandum, would fund around 40% of current Euro 1 billion Renault spending plans on develop electric vehicles and improving the environmental performance of conventional Renault vehicles.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Parliament has approved a law banning dichloromethane in paint strippers used by consumers and many professionals across the European Union (EU). Under its terms, paint-strippers containing dichloromethane in concentrations exceeding 0.1% shall not be sold new within 18 months nor supplied as old stock two-and-a-half years from now.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

AN EXTRAORDINARY European Union (EU) Council of Ministers energy meeting has agreed medium and long-term measures to prevent a recurrence of a future gas supply crisis resembling this month’s row between Russia and the Ukraine. Ministers said the EU would fund improved metering, promote administrative transparency in gas supply systems feeding into member states’ networks, improved gas interconnection infrastructure and creating a better early warning system.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

IT appears the long debate over strictness of a planned carbon emission cap for cars in the European Union (EU) may at last be ending, with a compromise being framed for agreement ahead of Christmas.

An informal deal has been struck between representatives of the EU’s representative assembly the European Parliament and the EU Council of Ministers, which is made up of the union’s 27 member states.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

AGREEMENT has been struck over future European Union (EU) targets for CO2 emissions from cars, with an informal deal being forged by the European Parliament and the EU Council of Ministers. The agreement is a compromise, with energy and automobile companies securing a phase-in between 2012 and 2015 of an agreed 120g/km target.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE UNITED States is claiming victory in a trade dispute with China, after Beijing announced it would scrap subsidies for products including automotive parts and vehicles. Washington had launched formal disputes proceedings at the World Trade Organisation (WTO), where it argued these China-christened ‘famous brands’ handouts were export subsidies banned under WTO rules.…

BY DEIRDRE MASON, JAMES BURNS, and JULIAN RYALL

With technological change being forced upon the auto manufacturing industry by high oil prices, plants are being retooled faster than in living memory. At such a time, companies are always looking for new ideas and technology.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EUROPEAN Union (EU) heads of government will meet this week (Dec 11-12) to debate an expensive economic stimulus plan that aims to keep Europe’s automobile industry afloat, while retooling to create new low emission models.

The auto sector is a key plank of a Euro 200 billion public spending injection proposed by the European Commission, aimed at reversing the effects of the credit crunch.…

BY KARRYN MILLER

ABOUT a decade ago we first heard whispers of compressed air cars: an eco-friendly driving option that kept travel costs low. Now, with mineral oil fuelled cars under pressure on price and pollution, air-powered vehicles are finally becoming a concrete product.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

The report said the Commission had installed 17 videoconferencing systems.

It had also enabled 900 officials to undertake tele-working through improved flexi-time arrangements.

As regards the Commission’s own fleet of vehicles, it had replaced old petrol cars with newer diesel models with particulate matter filters.…

BY MARK ROWE

THE CREDIT crunch may be about to apply the handbrake to the Russian economy, but its paint industry continued to flourish in 2008, mirroring the expansion of wealth in the country, and suggesting the sector may buck the expected downturn in the coming 12 months.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Court of Justice (ECJ) has cleared the way for national governments in the European Union (EU) to insist that diesel-powered vehicles registered in that country be fitted with special filters reducing particulate matter emissions. Judges struck down a European Commission decision blocking a Netherlands law effectively insisting that such a filter be used on all Dutch-registered diesel cars, lorries and vans.…

BY RUSSELL BERMAN

THE US president-elect, Barack Obama, will take office later this month (Jan 20) having promised sweeping changes to America’s energy policy. This includes aggressive regulations on carbon emissions to combat climate change and substantially increased government funding for alternative energy with the aim of creating a new "green" sector of the American economy devoted to the development of renewable energy, energy efficiency, clean coal and other sources.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A DRAMATIC fall in the proportion of the European Commission’s 35,000 officials who use private cars to travel from home to work has been noted in an environmental assessment.

The Commission’s eco-management and audit scheme (EMAS) concluded by this June, the proportion of staff commuting by private car had fallen to 29% (from 43% in 2004), while those using public transport ?…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A KEY source of biofuels within the European Union (EU) – sugar beet – looks likely to meet EU sustainability criteria after new research concluded the fuel had fewer CO2 emissions than previously thought.

Earlier assessments from the European Commission had concluded that greenhouse gas savings compared to fossil fuels of sugar beet biofuels was just 35%.…

BY SAEED AKHTAR BALOCH

PAKISTAN’s automobile industry, contributing 2.8 % to the country’s GDP by financial year (FY) 2006-7, has grown impressively this decade. But the sector’s growth may turn negative this year because of high inflation, especially rising steel prices, political uncertainty and overall economic recession in Pakistan and elsewhere.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE DIPLOMATIC fallout over Russia’s attack on Georgia has continued to impact on European Union (EU) energy policies, although signs of an early thaw in relations are evident. At an EU-Ukraine summit in Paris, the EU promised to sign an Association Agreement with Ukraine mid-2009, bringing Kiev closer to becoming a member state, although no timetable for membership negotiations was set.…

BY RAGHAVENDRA VERMA

AN INDIAN contract auto manufacturing firm has confirmed to just-auto that it is in negotiations with Chrysler about an outsourced manufacturing deal, and says it is busy retooling its plant to assemble larger vehicles.

Head of corporate communications for Argentum Motors Colonel Bhagwati Prasad Suman said talks were ongoing and that his firm was still in competition with other auto makers to seal the deal.…

BY ANDREW CAVE and KARRYN MILLER

FACING a looming energy crisis, the battle to produce lithium ion batteries to power hybrid and battery cars is heating up. Germany’s Robert Bosch and Samsung of South Korea recently formed a joint venture SB LiMotive Co to compete with the likes of BorgWarner, Johnson Controls, TRW and Continental.…

BY CHRIS JONES

FOLLOWING US government action to assist the American auto industry, European leaders are now considering measures to support their continent’s automobile manufacturers amid the ever-worsening global economy.

French president Nicolas Sarkozy, whose government is the current holder of the European Union’s (EU) six-month rotating presidency, has told journalists that the European Commission has been asked to develop a plan by December 11 about how national governments and EU institutions could support their heavy industry, including the automobile sector.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EUROPEAN Union (EU) ministers have discussed potential EU legislation ensuring Internet-linked tags integrated into products – such as navigation and digital tacograph devices in cars and vans – can be switched off. The development of these technologies has raised concerns amongst privacy activists and such a law is being seriously considered in France, where the ministerial meeting was staged.…

BY MARK ROWE

THE PSYCHOLOGY of colour has fascinated philosophers and scientists down the ages, so it is perhaps unsurprising that the world’s paint companies devote much of their time to working out why consumers prefer certain colours for certain everyday items – and why these tastes vary so much across the world.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EUROPEAN Union (EU) heads of government have told the European Commission to draft by December 11 major funding plan to help the EU’s automobile manufacturing industry cope with the current recession and re-tool for low emissions models. French president Nicolas Sarkozy said later: "Can we ask the European car industry to produce clean cars…without giving them a helping hand?"…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE SHAPE of a European Commission rescue package for the European Union (EU) automobile industry now being drafted has become much clearer: a Euro 40 billion soft loan pushed through the European Investment Bank (EIB).

This was revealed by EU industry Commissioner Günter Verheugen after a meeting with European auto sector executives, including France’s Peugeot-Citroën and Germany’s Daimler, under the umbrella of the EU’s CARS 21 reform initiative.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE CO2 cap on new cars within the European Union (EU) that has been proposed by the European Commission looks set to be watered down, with the French government pushing a compromise deal that would delay full implementation to 2015.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE SHAPE of the European Commission’s rescue package for the European Union (EU) automobile industry has become much clearer: a Euro 40 billion soft loan pushed through the European Investment Bank (EIB).

This was revealed by EU industry Commissioner Günter Verheugen after a meeting with European auto sector executives, including France’s Peugeot-Citroën and Germany’s Daimler, under the umbrella of the EU’s CARS 21 reform initiative.…

By Keith Nuthall

Windscreens are not such something to look through, say European university scientists: they also act as loud speakers, attracting and magnifying noise created by a car or lorry, reflecting the racket back at drivers and passengers alike. This fact has made researchers in the European Union (EU)-funded and University of Twente, Netherlands-coordinated InMAR (‘Intelligent Materials for Active Noise Reduction’) project consider how to change the materials making windshields, so that they absorb noise rather than amplify it.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

WINDSHIELDS are not such something to look through, say European scientists: they also act as loud speakers, attracting and magnifying noise created by an auto, reflecting the racket back at drivers and passengers alike. This fact has made researchers in the European Union (EU)-funded InMAR (‘Intelligent Materials for Active Noise Reduction’) project consider how to change the materials making windshields, so that they absorb noise rather than amplify it.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

OVERWHELMING support for a European Union (EU)-wide technical standard for hydrogen vehicles has been secured at the European Parliament. MEPs voted yesterday (2/9) by 644 votes-to-two approving a European Commission proposed set of rules for building these next generation vehicles.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EFFORTS are being made at the European Parliament to delay for three years the introduction of the proposed European Union (EU)-wide cap on CO2 emissions for new cars of 120kg/km. If successful, these manoeuvres would allow fleets to continue buying existing models, which could become more expensive if improved with new emissions reduction technology.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE KEY European Parliament committees drafting the fine-print of the proposed European Union (EU) cap on carbon dioxide emissions for passenger cars are clashing over the obligations that should be imposed on the EU auto industry.

Members of the EP’s environment committee have now voted to make the cap’s rules tougher that that proposed by the European Commission.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has effectively ordered that day time running lights be fitted to all new makes of motor vehicles from 2011. In a move that could spark opposition from the UK government on energy conservation grounds, the Commission has used its authority to write UN vehicle regulations into European Union (EU) law to make the change.…

By Alan Osborn

The European Commission has launched a major consultation about the development of information and communications technology (ICT) in the EU following indications that Europe is slipping further behind in the global technology race.

The consultation runs until 7th November (see http://ec.europa.eu/yourvoice/ipm/forms/dispatch?form=ICTRDI)…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A POTENTIAL obstacle holding up the commercial release of hydrogen-fuelled cars onto the European Union (EU) market has been cleared with the European Parliament approving an EU-wide technical standard for hydrogen vehicles. MEPs were concerned that without such rules, each 27 EU member government might approve contrasting standards, preventing hydrogen models from being sold across Europe.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) has frozen its partnership and cooperation negotiations with Russia over the Georgia conflict, just three months after the talks were launched following long delays. An emergency meeting of the EU Council of Ministers has ordered no meetings will take place with Moscow on the agreement until its "troops have withdrawn to the positions held prior to 7 August", prior to its short war with Georgia.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

AN INNOVATIVE combined transport road-rail service helping keep key Alpine passes free of congestion will receive an additional Euro 44 million in subsidies from the Italian and French governments to keep operating. The European Commission approved the handout for the Autoroute Ferroviaire Alpine roll-on-roll-off motorway service taking lorries and trailers by rail between Aiton, France and Orbassano, Italy.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

CONTINENTAL European countries have started making major pushes to increase the amount of electric cars in operation. The initiatives mirror efforts by the UK government, with prime minister Gordon Brown recently promising GBPounds 90 million to support the development of electric, hybrid and other alternative fuel vehicles.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Parliament’s industry committee is pushing for auto manufacturers to be given an additional three years to hit the proposed European Union (EU)-wide 120g/km ceiling for carbon dioxide emissions (CO2). The European Commission has proposed the industry should comply with this maximum by 2012, albeit with some built in flexibilities to accommodate concerns amongst manufacturers of larger cars.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

WINDSCREENS are not such something to look through, say European Union (EU) scientists: they also act as loud speakers, attracting and magnifying noise created by a car, reflecting the racket back at drivers and passengers alike. This has made researchers in the EU-funded InMAR (‘Intelligent Materials for Active Noise Reduction’) project consider how make windscreens absorb noise rather than amplify it.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE CHINESE government launched unprecedented traffic restrictions in Beijing to tame the city’s notorious air pollution ahead of August’s Olympic Games. It has banned half of the city’s 3.3 million cars from its streets for two months from July 20.…

BY KARRYN MILLER

JULY’S mid-winter political season in Australia’s New South Wales (NSW) has been marked by the approval of tougher smoking laws by the state’s parliament in Sydney. They impose new smoking restrictions and penalties, part of the NSW government’s attempt to reduce children’s exposure to cigarettes, both lit and unlit.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A PROPOSED revamping of the European Union (EU) system for awarding EU ecolabels would establish the legal authority for creating ecolabelling for cars within Europe. A proposed new ecolabelling regulation lays down the procedure for drafting and approving technical rules for complex manufactured goods.…

BY DOMINIQUE PATTON

CHINESE government authorities are taking extreme measures to reduce the city’s infamous air pollution ahead of the summer Olympic Games.

A World Bank report in 2004 ranked Beijing the 13th most polluted city in the world, with an average air quality reading of 89 PM10, well above the guideline level of 50 PM10 (micrograms of inhalable particulate matter per cubic metre).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

MERCEDES-BENZ can now push ahead with building a new manufacturing plant in Hungary, having secured permission from the European Commission to receive Euro 111.5 million in cash and tax breaks from the Hungarian government. The money will help Mercedes-Benz Hungary meet the Euro 800 million cost of building a plant in Kecskemét, the Dél-Alföld region.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A DETAILED report from the European Parliament has called on municipal governments to produce ‘sustainable urban mobility plans’ that involve services linking transport modes, such as private and company cars, with buses, light rail, ferry and even bicycle transport.…

BY PACIFICA GODDARD

AS the price of petroleum climbs increasingly makes alternative energy sources such as biofuels sound increasingly attractive to many countries that had dismissed them in the past, Brazil, the largest consumer of ethanol in the world with over 30 years of experience developing their biofuels industry, has many lessons to offer.…

BY MARK ROWE

EUROPEAN car manufacturers could face new requirements in future to subscribe to a continent-wide eco-labeling scheme. Across the European Union (EU), several products are already subject to ratings on their environmental sustainability and are required to meet benchmarks for good environmental performance, the sustainable production and consumption of products, and the sustainable provision and use of services.…

BY BILL CORCORAN

WITH a crippled economy, inflation running at over 2.2 million per cent and a government partial to confiscating the assets and local operations of foreign companies when it sees fit, doing business in Zimbabwe is undoubtedly a risky undertaking.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

ANGLO-Dutch oil giant Shell is not in much doubt that hydrogen is one of the fuels of the future, if not the fuel of the future. Barely a month ago, in June, Duncan Macleod, (NOTE: SPELLING IS CORRECT) global vice president of Shell Hydrogen, told an clean technology conference in the US that Shell had restructured its organisation "to prepare for hydrogen’s transition into the mainstream, bringing it into our downstream fuels portfolio, alongside gasoline, diesel, LPG, CNG – as well as biofuels and GTL."…

BY DEIRDRE MASON

OIL-REFINING and transport industries operating within the European Union (EU) will be under further pressure to produce cleaner fuels and less polluting vehicles through a new air quality directive setting strict limits for ultra-fine PM 2.5 particulate matter in air.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE FLEET management industry has been asked by the European Commission whether car advertisements should include clear information about models’ CO2 emissions. Brussels thinks existing directive 1999/94/EC mandating car CO2 pollution information "is not working as well as it could" in influencing consumer behaviour.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) Council of Ministers has underlined potential agreement over the European Commission’s planned 120g/km CO2 emissions target by formally calling on Brussels to table formal legislative proposals by Christmas. In a communiqué, ministers gave "support to the EU objective of 120g CO2/km on average for new cars sold in the EU by 2012".…

BY DEIRDRE MASON in London

PROPOSED new European Union (EU) legislation making a range of safety systems in new cars, trucks and other heavy vehicles mandatory from 2012 has had a largely positive response from the automotive industry, but proposals about cutting down tire noise have been less welcome.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

THE EUROPEAN Commission has gone for broke over the fitting of new safety technology in lorries and has formally proposed a law insisting on its use. The transport industry has broadly welcomed the move, but fears it will increase costs, and is concerned that the technology is still in its infancy.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE FRENCH and German governments have struck agreement over the proposed compulsory 120g/km target for automobiles within the European Union, (EU), with Paris giving ground to Berlin in some key areas.

Germany has opposed the European Commission-proposed average emissions cap saying the burden on technological changes would fall unfairly on its own iconic auto industry, producing – as it does – high quality, powerful cars with comparatively intense CO2 emissions.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE UN World Tourism Organisation wants the global tourism sector to use CO2 efficient cars to serve growing demand for international leisure motoring. It warns road transport tourism already accounts for 2% of global CO2 emissions, and this proportion is expected to rise, especially with the growing middle classes of China, India and Brazil taking more holidays.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A DEAL has been struck at the European Union (EU) Council of Ministers over unbundling of gas (and electricity) networks, which will allow formal ownership of production and distribution operations.

However, this compromise option will insist on transmission systems being managed by an independent operator.…

BY HELENA FLUSFEDER, in Jerusalem

FOR the fledgling state of Israel in 1951, being dependent on two foreign companies for its supply of petrol was hardly ideal, especially at a time of war when the companies had reduced their activities in the country.…

BY DEIRDRE MASON in London

AUTO manufacturers in the European Union (EU) will be under further pressure to produce cleaner vehicles now that the EU Council of Ministers has approved a new air quality directive setting strict limits for PM 2.5 particulate matter in air.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE COMPULSORY fitting of electronic stability control systems to new cars from 2012 has been proposed by the European Commission, to boost motoring safety across the European Union (EU). Brussels has also proposed the mandatory fitting of low resistance rolling tyres, and tyre pressure monitoring systems in 2012, which the Commission says will boost fuel economy (and hence reduce emissions), while also boosting safety.…

By Keith Nuthall

Imagine an intelligent transport system so clever, that it could tell a motorist how fast to drive in a city to avoid all red lights in a given journey. And then also imagine a system that could also advise a driver how to motor at the most constant speed possible, avoiding unnecessary accelerations and braking, saving gallons of fuel and engine wear-and-tear to boot.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE GERMAN newspaper Handelsblatt has quoted European Union (EU) environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas accepting large car model manufacturers may enjoy lower CO2 reduction targets than companies making smaller cars. Dimas had resisted this idea – looking for more equal contributions to the EU target of 120 grammes per kilometre by 2012.…

By Monica Dobie

University researchers helped develop the air bag – a vehicle safety device that has saved hundreds of thousands of lives – but now they have created a prototype that protects drivers and passengers, just before a collision occurs.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EUROPEAN Union (EU) institutions and national governments must take a proactive role to publicise the usefulness and availability of intelligent transport systems, to boost demand and ultimately lower costs, members of the European Parliament say.

Its transport committee has backed a detailed report warning that despite the sophistication and proven worth in safety terms of in-vehicle intelligent systems, European "penetration rates remain very low in relation to their potential."…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EUROPEAN Union (EU) ministers have been asked to swiftly approve a comprehensive trade agreement between the EU and Bosnia & Herzegovina which will phase out duties on EU-made cars, automotive components and fuel exported to Bosnia. The move follows approval of long awaited Bosnian policing reforms which had blocked the deal.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

PORTUGUESE auto workers who recently lost their jobs in layoffs are to receive Euro 2.42 million from the European Union (EU) in social assistance and retraining packages. The money will come from the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund, designed to help Europe cope with economic change brought by worldwide economic change.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Union’s (EU) passenger road transport sector is set for constant expansion until 2030, according to a new detailed report written for the European Commission. It predicts that 2005’s EU passenger numbers by private (and fleet) cars and motorcycles of 4,714 gpkm (one billion passengers carried over one kilometre) will rise to 5,115 by 2010; 5,498 in 2015; 5,849 in 2020; 6,171 in 2025; and 6,441 by 2030.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission is formally threatening Malta with legal action at the European Court of Justice alleging its registration tax system illegally overcharges secondhand vehicles. A minimum tax rate applies for used cars, and not new cars. Because many secondhand vehicles are imported from other European Union member states, Brussels considers this an illegal trade barrier.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) is pushing ahead with the approval of a new compulsory regulation that will insist cars and vans sold in Europe have new ‘brake assist’ systems and also meet detailed and tough requirements on frontal protection systems.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A EUROPEAN Union (EU) research project involving major automobile manufacturers is about to commercialise an intelligent transport system automatically boosting the side-protection strength of cars threatened with collisions with other vehicles. The EU Euro 29 million Advanced Protection Systems (APROSYS) project system, said the European Commission "will soon find its way to showrooms".…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A WORLD WILDLIFE FUND (WWF) study has called for an end to subsidies to the oil industry to help promote alternative fuels and green technology such as electric cars.

http://assets.panda.org/downloads/plugged_in_summary.pdf

ENDS…

BY KEITH NUTHALL