Archive

BY RICHARD HURST, in Johannesburg
More than 3,000 workers at the Nissan SA factory near Pretoria, South Africa, are on strike over the generation of a surplus of SARand 245 million (US$22.7 million) in Nissan SA’s retirement funds.

A spokesman for the National Union of Metal Workers (Numsa) Dumsa Ntuli said that the workers had downed tools quickly while the company had urgently sought a court order to stop workers from participating in industrial action.…

Keith Nuthall
AUSTRALIAN engine technology for a new 42-volt power system is being developed by two leading automotive engineering consultancies in the US and Europe.

California’s Aria-Group has signed a joint venture with Sydney firm CMC Power Systems Ltd to commercialise an Auxiliary Power Unit based on the compact, quiet CMC engine.…

From Alan Osborn
The European Commission has opened a formal State aid investigation

procedure into a decision by the German government to give financial

assistance to BMW for the construction of a new car plant in Leipzig. Total

investment in the factory is around 1.2 billion euros (about pounds 720

million) of which some 418.6 million euros (pounds 250 million) is covered

by the planned aid.…

BY MONICA DOBIE, in Montreal
CANADA’S federal government will tighten regulations on Sport Utility Vehicles by changing their classification from trucks to cars to force manufacturers to abide by their tighter emissions laws, reducing pollution from SUV’s.

The move is part of an overhaul of Canadian maximum emission levels for oxides of nitrogen, which will see the ceilings for cars reduced from 0.3 grams per mile to between 0.07 grams per mile.…

BY MARK ROWE
A ROW over dealership rights could lead to a permanent parting of the ways for Malaysia’s Oriental Holdings and Honda. Oriental was sole distributor for Honda cars until last July, when Japan’s second biggest carmaker took back those rights to form a local unit, giving it direct involvement in Malaysia’s market.…

BY MARK ROWE
TOYOTA Motor Corp plans to buy Chinese parts to make cars in its operations in China as a way to cut costs, instead of shipping them in from Japan. Toyota would procure discount door parts and materials including steel sheet from China’s leading steel-maker, Shanghai Baoshan Iron & Steel.…

Keith Nuthall
AUTOMOBILE industry products and components from the United States will be a focus of retaliatory tariffs imposed by the European Union because of Washington’s controversial ‘safeguard’ duties protecting the American steel industry.

The European Commission has asked EU ministers to approve a selected range of products, where the levying of duty will cause pain to US exporters.…

Keith Nuthall
AMERICAN retail giant Wal-Mart is to launch a pilot project where it will sell second hand cars at five of its branches in Houston, Texas. Part of the company’s one-stop-shopping policy, the aims it for it to sell vehicles without haggling and a prices that are below the going rate.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A NEW pan-European pharmaceuticals company called Consilient Health has been launched in Brussels to help pharmaceutical companies from the eastern and southern European countries seeking membership of the European Union to integrate with its market and regulatory structures.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE FINAL stage of the new EU procedure to approve orphan drugs has been completed, with the European Agency for the Evaluation of Medicinal Products, (EMEA), publishing the first summaries of positive opinions regarding these specialist medicines. Under the procedure, which promotes the development of orphan drugs by granting pharmaceutical companies special intellectual property rights, publication follows official designation of a medicine by the European Commission.…