The fate of a prominent battery supplier rests in the hands of the president, yet another black media mogul begs General Motors to do better, and crowds may return to F1 at this summer’s British Grand Prix. All this and more in it The morning shift before Friday, April 9, 2021
1st gear: the president has to make a choice
If you haven’t followed the ongoing legal battle between battery suppliers LG Energy Solutions (formerly LG Chem) and SK Innovation, here’s the long and short term: SK Innovation is in danger of being banned from the US market for a decade. penalty for misusing LG’s trade secrets. President Biden has the power to take that away if the companies cannot settle this issue among themselves. The thing is, his last day to do that is Sunday, April 11 Reuters reports:
The Biden government will decide on Friday through the US Trade Representative’s office whether to take the rare step of reversing the US International Trade Commission (ITC) unless the Korean battery companies reach a last-minute settlement.
The White House declined to comment on Thursday.
The ITC sided with LG Chem in its trade secret allegations in February, but allowed SK to import battery components for the Ford EV F-150 program for four years and for Volkswagen’s North American EVs for two years.
If the ITC’s decision is over this weekend, automakers using SK components in vehicles sold in the US will not be able to import them for the next 10 years, with limited exceptions for certain Ford and Volkswagen models. To complicate matters, SK is building a factory in Georgia that it has threatened to give up if the ban is enforced. As you might imagine, politicians in Georgia would much rather have Biden let SK go with a slap on the wrist:
Last month, Republican Governor of Georgia Brian Kemp urged Biden to intervene, noting that SK’s factory will provide nearly 2,600 workers: “Simply put, the livelihoods of thousands of Georgians are now in your hands . “
Georgia Senator Jon Ossoff has had numerous meetings with Korean battery manufacturers and the Biden government, his office confirmed, stressing “the urgent need for both companies to come to the negotiating table and agree a settlement to save the Georgia plant”, said a spokeswoman. said.
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Last week the ITC turned out to be surprising walk back his claims against SK, who decided that the company was not infringing LG’s patents. Still, this has not cleared SK of the whole trade secret misappropriation case, and so unless Biden reverses the ITC’s ruling, LG will walk away very happy and SK could just walk away from the US altogether.
2nd gear: Sean Combs now also calls GM
Sean “Diddy” Combs has joined the group of black media leaders who are calling on General Motors to do more business with Black-owned media companies. open letter at his site, Revolt, on Thursdays.
In the company’s initial response to the criticism, GM essentially opted for the ‘I have a Black friend’ defense, listing Revolt as one of the black companies it supports while at the same time postponing the meeting it had originally arranged with the group. Combs doesn’t share the same rosy view of their relationship as the Detroit Free Press details (including an excerpt from Combs’s letter and GM’s response):
“When General Motors was confronted with the leaders of several black media companies, General Motors cited my network, REVOLT, as an example of the black media it supports,” Combs wrote in the letter. “While REVOLT receives advertising revenue from GM, our relationship is not an example of success. Instead, like other black media companies, REVOLT fights for crumbs, while GM makes billions of dollars from the black community every year. “
GM spokesman Pat Morrissey responded to Combs’s letter, saying GM has agreed to hold several meetings with Black-owned media over the next few weeks and has vowed to increase the amount of advertising dollars spent on Black-owned media.
“By 2021, for example, we will have doubled our spend at Black-owned media groups to 2%,” said Morrissey. “We will increase our spending on this important segment to 4% by 2022, and then we will continue to increase our spending with an 8% target by 2025.”
Four percent next year, bravo GM! Wow! What do you want, a medal or something?
3rd gear: Today In The Chip Shortage
For your daily update on semiconductor shortages, Hyundai will suspend production for two days at its factory in Asan, South Korea, next week. That is in addition to the downtime currently underway at the Ulsan plant until April 14. From Reuters
“We are closely monitoring the situation to take quick and necessary measures to optimize production in accordance with delivery terms,” Hyundai said in a statement.
The Asan plant produces 300,000 vehicles every year, including the Sonata and Grandeur sedans.
Hyundai announced last week that it would suspend production at Ulsan, the main South Korean factory, from April 7 to April 14 due to problems with the supply of chips and components.
[…]
Hyundai could have avoided a hit by the shortage so far, largely because it held a stock of chips unlike its global competitors, Reuters reported in February.
Hyundai, like Toyota, prevent production cuts through careful thinking. However, stocks eventually run out. With silicon’s draft as long as it is, the shortage that Hyundai is finally hitting isn’t surprising. Meanwhile, GM and Ford are further battered by the lack of chips, announcing a slew of cuts per Associated Press via ABC
GM said the cuts will take place in Spring Hill, Tennessee; Ramos Arizpe, Mexico; Ingersoll, Ontario; Fairfax, Kansas; Lansing, Michigan, Delta Township; and Lansing, Michigan, Grand River Factories.
[…]
Also Thursday, Ford said it would close its Chicago, Flat Rock, Michigan, and the Transit bus side of the Kansas City Assembly Plant in Claycomo, Missouri, the week of April 12.
4th gear: GM and Ford bounce back in China
GM supplied 69 percent more vehicles in China during the first quarter of 2020 and Ford was up 73 percent according to Automotive News. These numbers are encouraging, but for GM, they don’t yet indicate a full recovery from pre-COVID sales:
While the recovery that began in April 2020 continued, GM sales in China in the first quarter were still below the 813,973 vehicles the Detroit automaker reported for the first quarter of 2019.
As for Ford, the first quarter of 2021 marks the fourth consecutive month of year-over-year growth for the company. That’s thanks to an effective turnaround plan elaborated by The Motley Fool via Nasdaq
Chen joined Ford from Chinese carmaker Chery Automobile in October 2018, after several quarters of sales declines. Chen’s goal since he has been in control has been to rethink Ford’s products and operations to better align with the expectations of Chinese consumers. He said the growth phase is just the beginning.
[…]
Most of Ford’s product line in China would look familiar to Americans, but not all. The company focused on the sale of Lincoln luxury vehicles (especially crossover SUVs) and well-known Ford brand crossovers, with a few additional models unique to the Chinese market.
Locally produced Lincoln Corsair and Aviator SUVs contributed to a 217% year-over-year increase for the Lincoln brand, with sales of approximately 19,300. Ford brand sales were up 44.7% while SUV sales roughly doubled, led by the Explorer, Escape and Edge, and a new China-only SUV model, the Equator.
5th gear: British GP can try spectator vaccine passports
Some Formula 1 races from the dwindling rounds of the 2020 season to the Bahrain Grand Prix on March 28 have seen limited capacity utilization depending on the discretion of each host nation. The upcoming British Grand Prix, scheduled for July 18, could make it possible to attend at full capacity, as long as spectators have a vaccination passport with them. Per Motorsport
The UK government has drawn up a roadmap for easing restrictions in the coming months, including permitting large outdoor venues to admit up to 10,000 fans or 25% of total capacity from 17 May, whichever is the lower.
The restrictions could then be loosened further from June 21, so that there is enough space for all the major summer sports events in the UK.
Silverstone has now given its full support to plans for vaccine passports and COVID-19 testing before fans could attend the events so they can function safely.
The circuit joined agencies such as the FA, the EFL, the Premier League, the RFU, the ECB and Wimbledon and wrote to Prime Minister Boris Johnson and the leaders of opposing political parties about this.
Even with vaccine passports and testing, I’m still surprised that event organizers have a shot at full attendance. The British government has been a lot more careful than our leaders on the other side of the pond, who are totally cool with it sold out baseball games
Downside: Meet NASA’s first astronauts
Neutral: number plates in the front
I live in one of the 20 states that don’t require front license plates, and I recently transferred my car’s registration. Which means I now have a big, gaping hole where the plate was, which I’ll probably cover with some kind of decorative alternative. The problem is, the vast majority of the custom vanity signs you find on places like Etsy and eBay are lined with Punisher logos and red-and-black distressed American flags, so whatever I choose, it will probably look silly. look. I am a little surprised that there is no market for flavorful, enthusiast vanity plates!