EoW January 2012

Transatlantic cable “It appears lighting at the battery storage facility was the culprit,” Kelly Fuller, the wind campaign coordinator at the American Bird Conservancy (Plains, Virginia), told the Herald Tribune . “It’s going to be very important as battery storage goes forward that the lesson is learned and this doesn’t happen at other facilities.” Noting that this largest bird kill at a US wind facility was the third such incident in West Virginia, the conservancy suggested that the solution was to turn o the lights. In fact, wrote Mr Wald: “That is what technicians at the site did after discovering the dead birds.”

the yen to a post-World War II high versus the American dollar. A stronger yen hurts the overseas competitiveness of Japanese manufacturers and reduces the value of earnings when overseas pro ts are translated to yen. In the six months before the Blue Springs plant was opened the yen gained more than 9% against the US dollar. According to the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association, the yen’s appreciation against the dollar and euro slashed Japanese auto makers’ pro t by $4.3 billion in the rst half of last year. The stronger yen, as well as the parts shortages that followed the 11 th March earthquake and tsunami in Japan, contributed to Toyota’s rst-half loss of its global leadership in auto sales to General Motors of the US. “If the yen continues to stay strong, Toyota will collapse,” Mr Toyoda told reporters in Mississippi. In mid-November, Toyota’s North American plants were running overtime again after brie y slowing as the months-long ooding in Thailand reduced supplies of parts. “Early on, we didn’t know how bad it could be,” Jim Lentz, president of the US unit Toyota Motor Sales, told the Bloomberg reporters. “[But] whatever impact it had is behind us.” Manufacturing New activity in the old factory towns of Northeast Ohio is contributing importantly to a regional recovery from recession According to an economic analysis released on 14 th November by Team Northeast Ohio, a private economic development

Automotive

Constrained by a rising yen, Toyota may shift ‘a signi cant amount’ of production from Japan to the US

“If demand in Japan recovers, we will continue and work to maintain production of three million units” there, said Toyota Motor Corp president Akio Toyoda on 17 th November. “If most of it becomes exports, shifting a signi cant amount of production to the US may be considered.” As reported by By Anna Mukai and Alan Ohnsman of Bloomberg News , Mr Toyoda was in Blue Springs, Mississippi, for the o cial opening of an $800 million plant where 150,000 Corolla compact cars will be assembled annually. Toyota o cials said the facility will employ some 2,000 people. The Japanese auto maker has seen its pro tability erode with the appreciation of

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EuroWire – January 2012