Continental: Kick-start India trade talks

To cash in on India's booming car market, Continental Automotive Thailand has urged the new government to press ahead with expanded free-trade negotiations with India to conclude a pact by the end of this year.

The local affiliate of the global automotive parts supplier Continental AG currently exports commonrail injectors produced at its powertrain plant in Rayong to customers in India, but the normal tax rate is still applied.

Concerned that negotiations will be prolonged, Continental wants the deal finalised by the end of the year so it can export injectors and high-pressure pumps to India with zero tariffs under the free-trade agreement.

Thomas Chambers, the managing director of Continental's Thai unit, said Thai auto parts would be more competitive with no tariffs, which would be mutually beneficial: It would help India gain access to high-tech powertrain parts while giving Thai suppliers wider access to India's rapidly growing market, a component of the emerging BRIC economies, along with Brazil, Russia and China.

Continental is also targeting exports of powertrain parts to China, where production of commonrail diesel engines is growing.

Continental's Thailand plant was built in 2009, and powertrain parts were first exported in 2010 to India and Europe. In the local market, output was first delivered to AutoAlliance Thailand, the manufacturer of Ford and Mazda vehicles, in May this year.

More carmakers have chosen Continental diesel injectors for their pickup projects in 2015, and more makers will use Continental safety technology such as the tyre pressure monitoring system (TPMS) by 2012-14. Continental says the new excise tax regime under consideration should take into account safety in cars.

According to Mr Chambers, Continental will invest an additional 450 million baht next year to buy new machines to increase the production of powertrain parts for domestic and export sales.

In 2012, production of commonrail injectors will rise to 180,000 units and high-pressure pumps to 250,000 units.

Under the powertrain parts project, Continental has committed with the Board of Investment to produce 2.5 million injectors and 500,000 pumps at full capacity over the next three years.

The upshot is that Continental is required to invest a total of 5 billion baht in the project.

So far, Continental has invested 80% of the total investment required in Thailand, excluding the 450 million baht to be invested next year.

Continental entered Thailand in 2008 and employs more than 400 workers.

Honda sees 63% drop in earnings

Just days after its rival, Toyota, projected it would see a huge plunge in profits as the result of the March 11 Japanese earthquake, Honda Motor Co. says it also will take a devastating hit to its bottom line, with earnings for the current fiscal year likely to plunge by 63.5%.
Honda – like Toyota – delayed its forecast for the fiscal year running through March 2012 while it assessed the impact of the earthquake and subsequent tsunami, which shut down most of its home market production for a month.
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Honda now expects to have most of its factories back up to speed sooner than initially anticipated, but several key operations, including the plants producing the critical new 2012 Civic, will be operating below capacity until autumn.
Honda anticipates the current fiscal year will see profits of 195 billion yen ($2.4 billion), down by nearly two-thirds from the 534 billion yen recorded during the fiscal year that ended last March 31.
The maker puts most of the blame on the March 11 natural disaster, which not only impacted production but also ran up billions of yen in unanticipated repairs to Honda plants and other facilities. The company was the only Japanese automaker to report an on-site fatality during the earthquake, a worker at the Tochigi technical center killed when a wall collapsed upon him.
“Honda was deeply hurt” because it operates so lean it couldn’t make up for losses suffered during the disaster, analyst Koji Endo, Tokyo’s Advanced Research Japan, told the Associated Press. “This is going to take awhile.”
Other factors that will negatively impact Honda’s projected earnings include rising raw materials costs as well as the weak U.S. dollar – though the maker’s large production base in the States helps minimize the effects of lopsided exchange rates.

(Toyota, with a larger home market production base, is being especially hard hit by the weak dollar. Click Here for more.)
But the March disaster has curtailed Honda’s production at both home and foreign-based plants, Honda predicting it will see global sales slip to 3.3 million for the fiscal year as a result – a 6% decline from the prior year’s 3.51 million. Revenues, meanwhile, are projected to dip 7.1%, to 8.3 trillion yen, or $104 billion.
Like Toyota, Honda plans to begin making up some of its lost production in the months ahead. But the timing of the disaster will make it difficult to recover completely. Ongoing product shortages have meant that Honda could not take full advantage of shifting consumer sentiments – especially in the U.S. – triggered by soaring fuel prices.
The maker was short of a number of its smaller, more energy-efficient models, including the Fit and its various hybrid-electric vehicles. It also lost momentum with the critical launch of the next-generation Civic, traditionally one of the best-selling models in the compact segment.
Toyota last week projected its fiscal year profits would fall by a third, to 280 billion yen, or $3.5 billion. Nissan has also delayed its earnings forecast but is expected to release that report prior to the company’s annual shareholders meeting on June 29.
Honda Forecasts 63% Drop in Profits

New Public Hydrogen Station Adds Convenience for FCX Clarity Customers

AMERICAN HONDA FCX In an opening ceremony, customer Jon Spallino became the first retail fuel-cell electric vehicle customer to fill at the station. (PRNewsFoto/American Honda) TORRANCE, CA UNITED STATES


TORRANCE, Calif.– Southern California’s network of hydrogen refueling stations continues to grow in Southern California with the opening today of the world’s first station supplied by an existing hydrogen pipeline. The new Shell hydrogen station, which is conveniently located in Torrance, California, next to several major freeway corridors and near the Los Angeles International Airport, taps into an existing industrial hydrogen pipeline serving a nearby refinery. The station is also outfitted with multiple fuel dispensers, which allow for the simultaneous refueling of four vehicles in less than five minutes.

In an opening ceremony, Honda FCX Clarity customer Jon Spallino became the first retail fuel-cell electric vehicle customer to fill at the station. With this new station operational, FCX Clarity customers will have access to seven hydrogen refueling stations across Southern California. The FCX Clarity is available on a limited retail basis in Southern California with more than two dozen currently on the road and in the hands of individual customers.

“This new Torrance hydrogen station will give FCX Clarity customers another option for quick, convenient fueling,” said Elmer Hardy, senior manager, Alternative Fuel Vehicle Sales & Marketing at American Honda Motor Co., Inc. “This is a positive step for our FCX Clarity customers and the industry as we continue to put vehicles on the road and demonstrate the real-world capabilities of Honda fuel-cell electric vehicle technology.”

Propelled by an electric motor that runs on electricity generated in an on-board fuel cell, the FCX Clarity delivers quiet, clean power with a small amount of water as its only emissions. The FCX Clarity’s fuel efficiency is three times that of a comparably sized modern gasoline-powered automobile, and two times that of a gasoline-powered hybrid vehicle. With a 240-mile EPA-certified driving range and 5 minute refueling time, the zero-emissions FCX Clarity provides customers with a very convenient and anxiety-free driving experience.

The compact and powerful Honda V Flow Fuel Cell Stack allows for unprecedented interior spaciousness and a futuristically stylish, low-slung design previously unattainable in fuel-cell electric vehicles and marks the significant progress that Honda continues to make in advancing the real-world performance and appeal of a fuel-cell electric car.

Honda Fuel-Cell Electric Vehicle Firsts:

The first generation Honda FCX became the first EPA- and CARB-certified fuel-cell electric vehicle in July 2002. The FCX was also the world’s first production fuel-cell electric vehicle, introduced to the U.S. and Japan in October 2002. Additional highlights include:

Honda FCX was the first fuel-cell electric vehicle to start and operate in sub-freezing temperatures (2003).
Honda FCX was the first fuel-cell electric vehicle placed in the hands of an individual retail customer (July 2005).
Honda was the first manufacturer of a dedicated fuel-cell electric vehicle on a production line specifically for hydrogen-powered fuel-cell electric vehicles (2008).
Honda was the first manufacturer to create a fuel-cell electric vehicle dealer network (2008).
FCX Clarity was the first fuel-cell electric vehicle to pace a U.S. Indy Car Race (2011).

Auto industry insists Thai jobs safe after Japan crisis

Employers in the automobile industry say they will not lay off workers and are trying to ensure they survive the repercussions from the situation in Japan. Yongyuth Mentaphao, president of the Federation of Automotive Labour Unions, said the disaster has affected the auto industry in Thailand, a major base for car parts production, as certain parts have to be imported from Japan. Plants in Japan could not produce car parts because of limitations imposed on electricity usage in Japan after last month's earthquake and tsunami and the continuing nuclear crisis. This has affected the assembly line and workers in the car industry in Thailand, Mr Yongyuth said. There are about 500,000 workers in the Thai auto industry. He said these employees are not being offered overtime, but there are no plans to lay them off. He believed Japan will recover from the situation soon, and when the situation picks up, production capacity is expected to increase two to three-fold because a lot of orders have been placed. The orders have not been cancelled despite the crisis, Mr Yongyuth said. Chalee Loysoong, president of the Confederation of Thai Electrical Appliance, Electronics, Automobile and Metal Workers, said the confederation has asked employers in the car parts industry not to dismiss workers. Once the situation returns to normal, the industry will be hit by staff shortages and it will be difficult to find skilled and experienced workers, he said. Amporn Nitisiri, director-general of the Labour Protection and Welfare Department, said about 300 factories in the car parts and car assembly industry and more than 100,000 workers have felt the effects of the crisis in Japan. Some have been laid off temporarily and received only 75% of their compensation payments, Ms Amporn said.