It’s nothing new that non-domestic automakers have been growing in popularity in the past decade, with Toyota last year beating out GM in global annual sales for the first time ever. As a result, the import parts market has been heating up as well, with a number of leading parts suppliers expanding their coverage for foreign nameplates. Standard Motor Products this week announced that it is bringing its popular import line – Intermotor – to the United States. A trusted international import brand, Intermotor has been positioned in the United States as a broad engine management line that includes ignition and electrical, relays, switches and sensors with a concentration on high-technology categories such as computerized engine controls, fuel injection and emission controls.
Earlier this week the names of four supplier executives aboard the missing Air France flight from Brazil to Paris were released. The Airbus 300 went missing Monday some four hours after departing Rio de Janeiro en route to Paris. All 228 passengers and crew are presumed dead. Groupe Michelin officials in Europe confirmed that three company executives were aboard the flight. On the passenger manifest were Luiz Roberto Anastacio, 50, who was recently named Michelin’s president for South America; Michelin Brazil IT director Antonio Gueiros; and Christine Pieraerts, a 29-year-old French engineer who was apparently in Brazil on vacation. Forty-one-year-old Erich Heine, a ThyssenKrupp AG executive, and member of the executive board of the ThyssenKrupp Steel subsidiary, also was on board. Heine was head of its Brazilian venture, which is building a $6.4 billion raw steel mill west of Rio de Janeiro. Adding to the tragedy, today, news reports out of the U.K. and Australia have said that Air France officials now believe that some of the debris, specifically wooden pallets and a fuel slick found earlier this week did not come from the missing Airbus jet after all. Rescuers continue to look for the plane’s black box and other evidence that may help determine what happened.
General Motors was the subject of a number of top stories this week, including one news item regarding its sale of the popular off-road brand HUMMER to a Chinese industrial firm. It was announced late Tuesday that Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery Co. Ltd. will acquire the rights to the HUMMER brand, along with its senior management and operational team. The major Chinese industrial machinery group also will assume existing dealer agreements relating to HUMMER’s dealership network. As part of the deal, it is expected that Tengzhong will enter into a long-term contract assembly and key component and material supply agreement with GM. GM said it expects the deal, if successful, to secure more than 3,000 U.S. jobs.
Today, General Motors also announced a tentative agreement to sell its Saturn brand to Penske Automotive Group, owned by race team owner and automotive entrepreneur Roger Penske. We will bring you more details of this pending agreement as they unfold.
GM made our most-viewed stories list again this week when details began to emerge about its supplier debt. According to reports, GM still owes Goodyear some $7 million, Continental AG some $15.5 million and another $4 million to Bridgestone Americas, among others.
This week, a California-based software firm called Bintelsoft introduced a new website to assist automotive dealerships that have been forced to close. The site – called Checkanumber.com — features a special link to closing dealers to help expedite the sales of their parts, accessories, shelving, tools, shop equipment, computers, phones and furniture. The closed or closing dealerships may even advertise their buildings and property on the site. Utilizing an “eBay style” marketplace, CheckaNumber features parts inventories from dealers, parts stores, warehouse distributors and others.
Incidentally, CheckaNumber.com is not the only resource out there for dealerships and others looking to unload auto parts inventory. Allworldautomotive.com, based in Minneapolis, Minn., has been around since 1994. An online trading arena strictly for wholesalers, importers, exporters and retailers, Allworldautomotive has nearly 30,000 members in nearly 200 countries, offering inventories valued at just over $10 billion. According to Founder Kirk Rocheford, all listings of offers to buy or sell products are free on the site. There is an ‘introduction fee’ involved when buyers and sellers need to communicate, however.
Correction: In last week’s edition of The Week in Review, we incorrectly referred to AutoZone as a “Virginia-based business.” AutoZone is actually based in Memphis, Tenn. We regret the error.
