The former high-ranking Michelin manager Carlos Ghosn has been officially appointed CEO of Nissan. De facto Ghosn has already been playing this role for months. The move is seen as an attempt to bind Ghosn to Nissan.
Hayes Lemmerz International has been awarded a contract from Nissan Japan for cast aluminum wheels. The wheels are currently being produced at the Hayes Lemmerz’ Antwerp, Belgium manufacturing facility for export shipment to Nissan Motor, in Japan. The contract is valued at an estimated $11 million.
Nissan has recalled 24,000 Japanese produced four-door Almeras which may be subject to a tyre mounting fault. During the mounting of the tyres on the wheels there may have been insufficient mounting paste used, resulting in damage to the tyre bead. The cars were produced between March and December 2000. In Germany the tyres will be tested and replaced on up to 1,470 Almeras.
The market for off road vehicles is constantly changing; also the market for suitable tyres and wheels. In the 80s Japanese car makers Toyota, Nissan, Suzuki, Mitsubishi and Honda created this market with 4 wheel drive vehicles able to be used on rough terrain. Now the 4×4 cars have become more suitable for use on the streets and the term Sport Utility Vehicle (SUV), replaces the former “Off Road Vehicle”. Car manufacturers like Ford, Chrysler, BMW and Mercedes have discovered that this has become more than just a niche market. Explorer, Cherokee, X5 and M-class are closer to luxury cars than those for use off the beaten track. Some tyre manufacturers have developed their off-road programme in this direction, whilst others have directly used the platform of existing passenger car tyres for this new generation of vehicles. The 4×4 tyre market will grow within the next few years as a lucrative market segment for the tyre industry, tyre dealers and also for the light alloy wheel business. Typical consumers in the 80s, with sparsely-equipped Suzukis, were not able to invest much money in tyres and wheels, but nowadays drivers of these cars are members of a more affluent society. The trends are very similar to passenger cars, with sizes becoming larger, faster, V, W, Y and Z speed ratings and higher load indices.
Renault is negotiating with Samsung Motors, of South Korea, to buy the latter’s Pusan plant (production capacity 200,000) for Euro 400 million. Renault’s daughter company RVI, made an offer to Daewoo to buy its truck operation (production capacity 20,000) and bus operations (production capacity 6,000 units) for Euro 700 million. Renault has already bought a 37% stake in Nissan for around Euro 5 billion and the new plans will bring the company’s investment in Asia to more than Euro 6 bn.
Spokesmen of “The Big Three” expect auto sales this year to be about 16.5 to 17 million vehicles.
Nissan has chosen Bridgestone Potenza RE040 tyres for the limited edition (200 for sale in the UK only) R34 version of its Skyline GTR. The Skyline was the first production car to lap the 14-mile Nurburgring circuit in under eight minutes. Bridgestone has also been chosen as exclusive OE for the six-litre Aston Martin DB7 Vantage Coupe and Vantage Volante cars. The tyre in question is the Bridgestone S-02.
Carlos Ghosn, once top man of Michelin in the USA will become President of Nissan, effective 1st April 2000, in addition to his post as Chief Operating Officer. Ghosn is interested in speeding up the Nissan Revival Plan, implemented in October last year.
The future of Nissan’s plant at Sunderland, UK will be decided by the company in. It hinges on whether the plant is chosen to build the new Micra, but Chief Operating Officer and President Carlos Ghosn has hinted that costs may force the group to make the car in France or Spain.
Toyota, Nissan, and other Japanese motor manufacturers are reporting strong growth in global production for the first half of the year. This comes amid massive restructuring of the industry as European and American manufacturers take shares in Japanese businesses. However, the growth figures are tempered by across the board decreased in production in September, suggesting signs of a slowdown in the market.
There is unanimity amongst financial institutes that anyone with investments in automotive shares should be very careful of their investments. The coming quarter does not look too promising; BMW, Peugeot/Citroën, Porsche and Renault (particularly thanks to Nissan’s better than expected results), should hold their position, but there seems to be no end in sight to the decline at DaimlerChrysler.
Nissan has confirmed that it is currently producing 1.35 million cars, which is 10 per cent less than last year. This amounts to the company’s seventh recorded loss in the past eight years. C.O.E. Carlos Ghosn, who engineered the turnaround for Michelin in North America, is currently preparing a restructuring plan which will entail the loss of 21,000 jobs, or 14% of its worldwide workforce, by the year 2003. In the US, 1,000 jobs (10%) will go by March 2001, while in Japan, there are plans to close four factories.
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