Australian car production affected...?

[MK]

I saw this on the morning news and read on msn;
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=121901

not good news for Australian car companies, especially for Holdens VE release...
i wonders why didnt the car manufacturers come to the rescue of one of their parts suppliers?

they will probably source a supplier from overseas or Ajax is already setting up production facilities abroad anyway?

[Mr T]

That's most likely a result of one or more of the aussies car manufacturers changing suppliers. Most likely Holden or Toyota as they have recently released new cars and posibly sourced their components elsewhere.

[MK]

Not good, i know couple of young families whos husbands work at the Ford and Holden factories, all are young families with babies...not good at all. :(

[stevedee3]

i wonders why didnt the car manufacturers come to the rescue of one of their parts suppliers?There was some discussion of this, but I don't think they could agree on terms. See this (http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200608/s1719544.htm) for example.

[entice]

Aussie manufacturers did come up with a 10Mill rescue package, but it wasnt accepted at the time. I think that offer is still on the table.

But, at the end of teh day, it really isnt the responsibility of the purchaser (eg FoMoCo, GMH etc) to be responsible in keeping the parts supplier afloat.

With a captive market such as the aussie manufacturers, I wonder why they couldnt keep afloat.

[imad4u]

youll find that they will crash and burn and it will goto china, this will then jack up the price of metal and copper even more for australia.

Hopefully someone like the coventry group will snap up ajax fasteners and bring it back to life...

[Don]

Aussie manufacturers did come up with a 10Mill rescue package, but it wasnt accepted at the time. I think that offer is still on the table.

But, at the end of teh day, it really isnt the responsibility of the purchaser (eg FoMoCo, GMH etc) to be responsible in keeping the parts supplier afloat.

With a captive market such as the aussie manufacturers, I wonder why they couldnt keep afloat.
All of the car manufacturers in Australia ask for cost downs as the model progresses in production.
There thinking - The tooling is amortised in the first year and that the supplier has learnt how to make the part more efficiently.
In practice the supplier has cut the price to the bone to get the contract in the first place or face going out of business to an overseas supplier. There is no room for a price cut.
It makes sense for a car manufacturer to support there supplier in terms of technical and other support as it costs a lot of money to change supplier midstream with required parts validation. Validation, depending on the component can take up to 12 months.
Where parts are sourced from overseas they are usually an existing design used by say the parent company of the car manufacturers. This denies part change in design or specification as the parts supplier will follow what is required for the biggest volume customer. However the parts may be cheaper because of the shear volume produced. In reality Australia's car production volume is low by world standards and Australia's vehicle manufacturers should be concentrating on small niche markets world wide unless the parent company declares Australia as the design/manufacturing centre for a specific world market vehicle. Only then will the local industry recover. When the VE was released 7 local component manufacturers went down the tube as the VE is only 55% Australian. The Toyota Camry is in the high 70's. Even the Magna is higher than the VE.

[MK]

when i decide to have a family this will be one of my points before i purchase my family car;

1. australian made
2. 4 cylinder
3. medium\large sedan or station wagon

so far its Toyota camry but if\when Mitsubishi decide to release 380 with a 4 cyl engine i will definietely consider...

[platypus]

I saw this on the morning news and read on msn;
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=121901

not good news for Australian car companies, especially for Holdens VE release...
i wonders why didnt the car manufacturers come to the rescue of one of their parts suppliers?

they will probably source a supplier from overseas or Ajax is already setting up production facilities abroad anyway?

you should have watched abc2 this morning - was about the same story but in depth (after all its the abc)