Porsche and Schuler have chosen Halle an der Saale, Germany, as the location for their new joint press shop. The 13-hectare site is in the vicinity of Porsche’s Leipzig plant. The sports-car manufacturer and the forming specialist from Göppingen want to drive the flexibility and digitalization of body-part manufacturing. Their joint venture, Smart Press Shop GmbH & Co. KG, will invest approximately $112 million in this project, which is expected to create 100 permanent jobs. Construction is due to commence in the second half of 2019, and production at the new press shop is scheduled to begin in 2021. 

OSR Inc., a manufacturer of automotive fasteners, plans to increase its manufacturing production in Columbus, Ind. The company, a joint venture between Japan’s Owari Precise Products Co. and Columbus-based Rightway Fasteners Inc., will invest $7 million to construct and equip a new 82,395-square-foot manufacturing facility. OSR plans to add up to 12 new positions and is hiring immediately for positions in heat treatment and IT. Production is scheduled to increase at the beginning of 2020. OSR, which currently has 29 employees, specializes in M4 to M9 cold-forged fasteners, primarily for Toyota.

SMS group received an order from Dongfeng Forging Co., part of commercial vehicle manufacturer Dongfeng Motor Group, for the supply of an eccentric forging press with a forging force of 5,000 tons for its plant in Shiyan, Hubei Province, China. Dongfeng Forging, which operates a total of 26 forging lines at this site, intends to use the new forging press to manufacture light-truck crankshafts with a maximum finished part weight of 47 pounds (21.5 kg). The closed-die press will forge parts fully automatically with a nominal forging force of 50 MN.

Miyake Forging, a Japan-based supplier of hot- and cold-forged bearings and a provider of heat-treating and machining services, opened a new 48,000-square-foot plant in Surgoinsville, Tenn. The facility will produce bearing components for the automotive industry. Miyake Forging already operates two plants in Japan and one in Thailand. The Tennessee venture, the company’s first in the U.S., currently has 14 employees, but employment is expected to increase in the future.

Bharat Forge Ltd. (India) made a strategic investment of approximately $12.9 million in Tevva Motors Ltd. (Chelmsford, U.K.), a supplier of electric powertrain solutions for commercial vehicles and buses. These vehicles actively and autonomously manage the use of the range extender by utilizing Tevva’s patented software, Predictive Range Extender Management System (PREMS), to ensure only electric drive is used in low carbon zones and other city centers. By virtue of this investment, Bharat Forge has also acquired a license for commercialization of the Tevva technology within India and for strengthening its R&D activities in the e-mobility market.

It wasn’t too long ago that hybrid electric vehicles were a novelty on North American roads. Now they are common.

In an effort to support growth with new and existing European customers, American Axle & Manufacturing (AAM) will open a new 15,000-square-meter facility in the industrial area of Viladecans, Spain. Set to open in January 2019, the plant will produce powertrain components for Europe’s leading automakers, including Renault, BMW, Daimler, Porsche, Audi and Ford. The new facility consolidates two smaller facilities in nearby Gavà and will employ 170 associates at full capacity.

American Axle & Manufacturing (AAM) will supply power transfer units (PTUs) for Ford Motor Co. crossover vehicles with all-wheel drive (AWD) starting with the 2019 Ford Edge and Lincoln Nautilus. The new contract expands AAM and Ford’s relationship while supporting global growth in the crossover segment. The PTU is part of AAM’s family of EcoTrac Disconnecting AWD solutions, which include disconnecting PTUs, multi-piece driveshafts, rear drive modules with electronic control units and torque transfer devices. AAM will manufacture EcoTrac in several facilities, including Three Rivers, Mich.; Guanajuato, Mexico; Changshu, China; and Świdnica, Poland. 

American Axle & Manufacturing (AAM) and Liuzhou Wuling Automobile Industry Co. Ltd., a subsidiary of Guangxi Automobile Group Co. Ltd., entered into a joint venture to manufacture driveline systems. The new venture, Liuzhou AAM Automotive Driveline System Co. Ltd., will begin production later this year in a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility located in East Liuzhou in China’s Guangxi Province. Once production begins, the company will manufacture independent rear axles and driveheads to meet the needs of the fast-growing segments of multi-purpose vehicles and crossovers, including vans, minivans and SUVs.

American Axle & Manufacturing Inc. (AAM) and Drexler Automotive GmbH entered into an agreement to expand their relationship and bring high-performance differentials and differential technologies from the premium market to the general market of passenger cars, light trucks, crossovers and SUVS. The expanded relationship immediately integrates electromechanical limited slip differentials (eLSDs) into the AAM TracRite family of differential products. These systems greatly improve vehicle handling and traction for all-wheel drive or rear-wheel drive vehicles.