Hot Off the Press
Toyota Dissolving Interior-Supplier JVs
to Spur Competition
Tuesday, December 09, 2008
According an
Automotive News report, three of Toyota’s largest automotive-interior suppliers are dissolving or restructuring their U.S.-Japanese joint ventures that date back to the 1980s. Toyota has until now relied on joint ventures with American suppliers Johnson Controls and Lear Corp. for automotive-interior components. Its affiliated company Toyota Boshoku, which had partnered with Lear Cop. in 1980 to create Total Interior Systems-America (TISA), in Princeton, IN, has bought out Lear’s share of the company. And similarly, Boshoku is phasing out its relationship with Johnson Controls, with whom it partnered in 1987 to create Trim Masters, based in Harrodsburg, KY. Boshoku now owns outright five of the 11 Trim Masters’ plants in the United States and Canada, while Johnson Controls has taken over a Trim Masters plant in Texas.
A Lear spokesperson is quoted in the article as saying that,” Lear will continue to supply components to Toyota, but under a new arrangement.” Lear and Boshoku will form a working group to jointly identify and pursue sourcing opportunities for certain seating components, as well as purchasing opportunities for key commodities such as steel.
Portland Welcomes New Steel-Service Center
Friday, December 05, 2008
Macsteel Service Centers USA, Newport Beach, CA, has opened a new 100,000-sq.-ft. service center in Portland, OR, to serve the Pacific Northwest region including Oregon, Washington and Idaho. The service center will process and stock carbon, stainless and aluminum flat-rolled product and wide-flange beams. Future plans call for the product line to include channels, angles, tubes and plates. The service center offers inhouse saw cutting and cambering with an Amada HK1000 structural band saw with capacity to cut 40-in. beams, and a cambering machine that will camber 30-in.-wide beams.
Macsteel operates a network of 32 locations to serve customers throughout North America. It also supplies a full range of steel building products, and coated and prepainted materials. For more information, visit
www.macsteelusa.com.
Portland Welcomes New Steel-Service Center
Friday, December 05, 2008
Macsteel Service Centers USA, Newport Beach, CA, has opened a new 100,000-sq.-ft. service center in Portland, OR, to serve the Pacific Northwest region including Oregon, Washington and Idaho. The service center will process and stock carbon, stainless and aluminum flat-rolled product and wide-flange beams. Future plans call for the product line to include channels, angles, tubes and plates. The service center offers inhouse saw cutting and cambering with an Amada HK1000 structural band saw with capacity to cut 40-in. beams, and a cambering machine that will camber 30-in.-wide beams.
Macsteel operates a network of 32 locations to serve customers throughout North America. It also supplies a full range of steel building products, and coated and prepainted materials. For more information, visit
www.macsteelusa.com.
