Author: World_Newz Mon

BMW to invest $620m in Northeast China

The investment will be used to complete the main building of the new factory of BMW Brilliance Automotive (BBA), a joint venture between BMW Group and Brilliance China Automotive Holdings Ltd.BBA rolled its 3 millionth car, a plug-in hybrid, off the production line in Shenyang on Feb 27, after it resumed production in the city’s Tiexi and Dadong plants on Feb 17.Since the launch of BBA in 2003, BMW has invested over 52 billion yuan in Shenyang and completed the building of two vehicle factories, one powertrain plant and one research and development hub.

Breakout time behind plexiglass: Renault factory restarts in France

FLINS-SUR-SEINE, France, May 6 (Reuters) – With temperature scanners on the door and tables partitioned by plexiglass shields in the breakout area, workers at one of Renault's French plants are adjusting to new routines as carmakers try to cope with the coronavirus crisis.
Like peers across Europe, Renault is gradually ramping up production after stoppages linked to the outbreak, as governments begin to ease some lockdown rules.
Inside the Flins factory northwest of Paris, where Renault makes its electric Zoe models and the Micra car for its partner Nissan, sanitary protocols now restrict even the way coffee breaks are held – in a glimpse of measures to expect in other industries as shutdowns are further lifted.
Most retailers are due to reopen in France from May 11, while factories turning out trains and luxury goods are starting up again too.
At Flins on Wednesday, workers wound their way through tents at the entrance, where thermal scanners took their temperature.
Equipped with..

Oerlikon cuts 800 jobs, withdraws 2020 outlook amid market uncertainty

May 5 (Reuters) – Swiss industrial group OC Oerlikon on Tuesday withdrew its full-year outlook and slashed 800 jobs, citing a high degree of market uncertainty triggered by the coronavirus crisis.
The group had previously expected full-year 2020 order intake and sales of between 2.5 billion and 2.6 billion Swiss francs ($2.6 billion to $2.7 billion) and earnings before interest, taxes, amortisation and depreciation (EBITDA) margin before exceptional items to improve to 15% to 15.5%.
In the first quarter, Oerlikon reported a 38% drop in EBITDA at 58 million francs, which came above estimates of a company-compiled consensus of 51 million francs.
“China has shown signs of overcoming the virus, in particular in our man-made fibers business, while we faced increasing challenges from the global impact in our surface solutions segment toward the end of the first quarter in Europe and in the U.S.,” Chief Executive Roland Fischer said.
The Swiss company's largest segment, surface solutions..

Nissan to retrench further in new plan to focus on US, Japan, China

May 4 (Reuters) – Nissan Motor Co Ltd will pull back from Europe and elsewhere to focus on the United States, China and Japan under a plan that represents a new strategic direction for the embattled carmaker, people with direct knowledge of the plan told Reuters.
The “operational performance plan” is due to be announced on May 28 and goes beyond fixing problems from ousted leader Carlos Ghosn's aggressive expansion drive, the people said.
Pursuit of market share, particularly in the United States, led to steep discounting and a cheapened brand. Under the new, three-year plan – reported here for the first time – Nissan aims to restore dealer ties and refresh lineups to regain pricing power and profitability, the people told Reuters.
“This is not just a cost-cutting plan. We're rationalising operations, reprioritising and refocusing our business to plant seeds for the future,” one of the people said.
The plan also aims to cut competition and expand cooperation with alliance par..

Russian automobile industry will be 100% used for public transport production

/Update/
MOSCOW, May 3. /TASS/. Russian automakers will be 100% loaded with public transport production in 2020, Minister of Industry and Trade Denis Manturov said on Sunday in an interview with the Rossiya-24 TV Channel.
“I can confidently state that the utilization will be 100% in 2020, particularly for the public transport, for buses of different classes,” the Minister said. “This is a helping hand and concurrently the support for the automotive industry and the upgrade of the public transport for regions,” Manturov noted.
Automobile producers will also deal with manufacturing of ambulance cars and reanimobiles, the Minister said. “Speaking about reanimobiles, there will be about 1,400 units. We already have experience of implementing such tasks in prior years. These are centralized supplies,” Manturov said.

Ford Romania to gradually resume production next week

The Romanian unit of U.S. auto maker Ford Motor Company has said on Tuesday that its plant in Craiova, southwestern Romania, will gradually resume production, starting May 4, SeeNews reports.Other non-production employees who can work from home will continue to do so for the present time, including those employees on short-time working arrangements.