TPT-January-2015

Global Marketplace

The claims derive from switches installed in GM cars, most from the model years 2003-07. In an instance of death as a result of the defect, if Mr Feinberg deems the claim eligible the victim’s family receives a minimum of $1mn. But the amounts are not capped. While General Motors hired Mr Feinberg, no company officials are involved in the claims process. GM has estimated that in the end its compensation costs will total between $400mn and $600mn. › Having added capacity for building 60,000 more cars per year in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, USA, Daimler can begin making the Mercedes-Benz ML Coupe – a new crossover the German automaker plans to add to its lineup this year. The assembly plant, which commenced production in 1997, will soon be able to turn out more than 300,000 vehicles annually. Mercedes is the first German producer in the luxury car segment to produce a sedan in the US. Since 1993 the company has invested more than $4bn in Alabama, including $2.4bn for the current expansion in Tuscaloosa. Detroit Free Press business writer Brent Snavely noted that a United Auto Workers organising campaign “continues to simmer in the background” at Tuscaloosa. Alabama governor Robert Bentley has said that the establishment of a local UAW chapter would impair the state’s pro-business environment. For its part, Mercedes-Benz remains neutral on the issue of union representation at the automaker’s only car or SUV plant worldwide that is not unionised. › The next-generation Jeep Wrangler may have an aluminium body and be assembled somewhere other than Toledo, Ohio, USA, where its roots go back more than 70 years to the first Willys MB made for the US Army. Fiat Chrysler Automobiles CEO Sergio Marchionne also hinted at the Paris Motor Show in October that the Wrangler could be built on a unibody structure, rather than body-on-frame. The US government is requiring automakers to reach a fleet average of 56.5 miles per gallon of fuel by 2025. The next Wrangler, due in 2017, would benefit from an aluminium body as Chrysler works to improve the fuel economy of all its vehicles. “We need to downsize the engines and then increase the capabilities by putting turbos in,” Mr Marchionne said in Paris. “This requires a complete rethink of the architecture, and before we start committing capital to particular places we need to make sure that we don’t spend an inordinate amount of money trying to get it done.” Jeep is the oldest off-road vehicle ever made. As noted by Brent Snavely in the Detroit Free Press (2 October), removal of the Wrangler from Toledo would be a major blow to the city where Jeep, then owned by Willys-Overland, got its start. The first Jeeps were produced in 1941 for the military. The first civilian models were made in 1945.

In 2013, Mexico imposed tariffs on seamless steel tubes from China after a Mexican steel company complained about unfair pricing practices. Some of the steel exported from China to Latin America in the first half of 2014 could have gone into Chinese projects in the region, suggested Ms Myers. And some, she said, might be tied to increased infrastructure demand from the 2014 World Cup soccer tournament hosted by Brazil and the 2016 Summer Olympics, also scheduled for Brazil. When she spoke with China Daily USA , China was poised to announce an infrastructure fund targeting Latin America and especially Mexico at December’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting in Beijing. It was expected to work closely with the Mexican state-owned oil company Pemex to help build out the industry. Ms Myers was also, she said, “hearing talk” that China and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) were set to announce an initiative that would consolidate several existing lines of credit related to infrastructure development in the region. › Ms Myers told Mr Welitzkin, a New York-based correspondent for the North American version of China Daily USA , China’s English-language newspaper, “More infrastructure development [in Latin America] will likely mean an increase in demand for products from China.” Of related interest . . . › China has boosted exports to some Asian countries of steel with the minimal boron content necessary to earn a speciality or alloy steel classification and a generous tax exemption. As reported by Reuters (29 October), Chinese mills can get an export rebate that is five times greater than the cost of adding 0.0008 per cent boron to a metric ton of steel, sparking objections from Indian steelmakers, among others. In the first half of 2014, boron alloy steel exports from China reached 11.58 million metric tons, according to a government report cited by Reuters. While denying that China is subsidising its steel industry, Li Xinchuang, vice-secretary general of the China Iron and Steel Association (CISA), acknowledged the risk of problems associated with the boron alloy exports. “There are countries around the world that are very unhappy,” Mr Li told a conference in Tianjin in mid-October, as China’s overall steel exports were hitting record highs. “But the customers are very happy.” Automotive › As of 17 October, Kenneth Feinberg, who is directing the assessment of 184 death claims received by the General Motors Ignition Compensation Fund, had approved settlements for surviving families in 29 fatal accidents involving defective ignition switches. Another 27 people had received compensation payments for serious injuries, of 1,333 claims received.

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J anuary 2015