Phoebe Wall Howard, Nathan Bomey, Justin A. Hinkley and Eric Lacy, USA TODAY Network Published 11:51 a.m. ET May 11, 2018
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Firefighters wait for magnesium to burn out at a fire in Meridian Magnesium Products of America in Eaton Rapids, Michigan, Wednesday morning, May 2, 2018.
(Photo: Matthew Dae Smith / Lansing State Journal)
The automotive factory whose explosion has temporarily cratered production of the Ford F-150 pickup truck had a history of recent safety violations, according to public records.
The violations included separate incidents in which employees suffered burns at Meridian Magnesium Products of America in Eaton Rapids, Mich., according to Michigan safety documents.
Of the safety citations at the plant over the last decade, all occurred after the plant was acquired in December 2013 by Chinese automotive firm Wanfeng Auto Holding Group.
The non-unionized plant’s safety record is coming under scrutiny after two people were injured and more than 100 employees were evacuated when a fire and multiple explosions rocked the small mid-Michigan community on May 2.
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The plant has been cited for seven safety violations — three of them serious — since early 2014, according to public records.
Inspections conducted at the company in 2011 and 2012 resulted in no citations, according to Michigan safety records. Those inspections took place before Wanfeng bought the plant.
Last week’s explosion and disruption of supplies forced Ford to indefinitely suspend all production of the F-150, the jewel of the F-series lineup, which qualifies as the best-selling vehicle in the U.S. and is a Ford profit king. The pickup is assembled at two Ford plants.
At the same time, production at the Meridian parts plant could be offline for weeks. The plant makes support parts for the pickup’s radiators.
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Ford has temporarily stopped producing its F-150 trucks because it run out of parts after a fire at a key parts supplier for the best-selling vehicle in the U.S. Aleksandra Michalska reports. Newslook
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Ford has warned it will have “an adverse impact on the company’s near-term” profit. The incident also forced General Motors, Fiat Chrysler and Mercedes-Benz to adjust production.
Benjamin Wu, chief legal officer and public affairs director for Magnesium Products of America, said the company has one of the better safety records in the die casting industry. Meridian also operates a factory in Ontario.
“We always try to prevent accidents. In the manufacturing environment, accidents happen,” Wu said Friday. “We have high standards for our safety. Both facilities have had a long period of time without lost-time incidents. Our Canadian facility went over three years without a single lost-time incident.”
Eaton Rapids Meridian plant manager George Asher said last week that the company followed protocols during the May 2 incident.
“Safety is our primary concern,” he said in a statement. “We will provide more information as soon as we are able.”
Meridian also had a small fire at the plant about a year ago, but it was contained to one of its molding or casting machines, Abhay (Abe) Vadhavkar, director of manufacturing, engineering and technology at the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, told the Free Press earlier this week.
Asked about that incident, Wu said: “You’re injecting molten metal into die. You’re going to have minor incidents.”
In recent years, the plant has been found in violation of Michigan Occupational Safety & Health Administration standards relating to worker safety around electrical equipment, die-casting machines and industrial trucks.
The company was fined a total of $6,700 for those violations, records show.
Violations included:
• An employee “was burned on multiple body parts” on Nov. 1, 2016, because the company did not provide “metal shielding to protect employees from inadvertent metal splash during die casting,” according to Michigan OSHA records. The company was fined.
• An employee was “burned by an arc flash explosion” on Sept. 28, 2015, and the company was cited “for not requiring employees to wear appropriate protective equipment and for not requiring them to use insulated tools.”
• The company received a serious citation for lacking wheel chocks on powered industrial trucks during an inspection Jan. 13, 2014.
Eaton Rapids Fire Chief Roger McNutt said Meridian intends to rebuild and reopen its entire complex in four months. The plant’s roof was destroyed when the north end of the main structure caught fire.
Meridian has hired a crew of about 300 to remove charred debris, McNutt said. The southwest end of the plant reopened Tuesday. About 150 of the company’s regular employees were working in parts of the building where there was no damage as of Thursday.
Phoebe Wall Howard is a reporter for the Detroit Free Press; Nathan Bomey is a reporter for USA TODAY; Justin A. Hinkley and Eric Lacy are reporters for the Lansing State Journal.
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