Going South: How Mexico could threaten Alabama’s automotive sector
Ryan Phillips, Digital Producer Birmingham Business Journal
Nov 9, 2015, 1:36pm CST Updated Nov 9, 2015, 3:28pm CST
*Editor’s Note: This is the first part in the BBJ’s Cover Story web series looking at possible threats to Alabama’s growing automotive industry*
Since the first Mercedes-Benz M-Class rolled off the production line in Vance in 1997, Alabama has seen its automotive manufacturing footprint grow into one of the largest among U.S. states.
The sector employs roughly 24,000 in Alabama, which exported vehicles and parts valued at $7.3 billion in 2014 – a number state officials and economists believe will continue to grow into the next decade.
That’s good news for metro Birmingham, which is located between the Mercedes-Benz plant, Honda’s plant in Lincoln and Hyundai’s manufacturing facility.
For the rest of Part 1 visit the Birmingham Business Journal.
For Part 2 of the story, Rise of the Machines: How robotics will shape Alabama’s automaking future, visit Birmingham Business Journal.
For Part 3 of the story, Supplying demand: How Alabama’s automotive growth is generating jobs, visit the Birmingham Business Journal.
Boeing, Tata to Team Up on Apache Attack Helicopter
Agence France-Presse
Nov 9, 2015
DUBAI-US aerospace group Boeing and India’s Tata Advanced Systems announced Monday they are joining up to make airframe parts for the AH-64 Apache attack helicopter.
After initially building a manufacturing center in India for the Apache, they will expand the partnership to compete for further work on Boeing commercial and defense platforms, they said in a statement released during the Dubai Air Show.
The firms gave no financial details.
For the rest of the story visit Industry Week.
Honda offers peek of new Alabama-made pickup
By Dawn Kent Azok
on November 12, 2015 at 9:39 AM
Honda has unveiled a new race truck that also offers a preview of the redesigned 2017 Ridgeline pickup, a vehicle that will be produced at the Japanese automaker’s Alabama plant.
The Ridgeline Baja Race Truck, revealed last week at the 2015 SEMA Show in Las Vegas, marks the company’s return to off-road truck racing.
“While this race truck is unique and different from the production Ridgeline, it does a nice job of expressing not only our styling direction but also the fact that the Ridgeline, for all its unique qualities, has been and will continue to be a pickup with true truck capability,” Art St. Cyr, president of Honda Performance Development, said in a written statement.
For the rest of the story visit AL.com.