Suppy and Demand

North America

Metaldyne Wins Contract with Ford

Metaldyne announced a contract with Ford Motor Company to supply front spindle assemblies for a future-model Ford truck at Metaldyne’s New Castle, Ind., facility. The front spindle assembly is expected to launch in July and includes a machined casting, machined stem and ball joints. Metaldyne purchased the New Castle machining and forging plant from DaimlerChrysler on December 31, 2003.

---

Europe

Toyota Expands Turkish Plant

Toyota plans to expand capacity at its Turkish production facility to build a new version of the Corolla Verso. The new Corolla Verso will go on sale across Europe in May. The company expects to sell 62,000 of the new version in Europe in 2004. To accommodate the new Corolla Verso, Toyota is expanding annual capacity of its plant in Adapazari, Turkey, to 150,000 cars from 100,000. Toyota will invest €700 million in the Adapazari plant and increase employee numbers to 3,000 from 2,600. Toyota already produces the sedan and wagon versions of the Corolla in Turkey. The Corolla hatchback version is made in the U.K.

---

Asia

Tri-Way Forms Strategic Alliance with Samag

Tri-Way Manufacturing Technologies Corp., a manufacturer of special machines and machining systems and Samag, a builder of both special purpose and standard CNC machines, announced a strategic alliance encompassing technical transfers as well as cooperative product development, sales and support.

The strategic alliance is designed to allow both companies to better serve their customers on a global basis. Tri-Way is finalizing plans on pursuing business opportunities in China in conjunction with Samag’s sales facilities in China.

In turn, Samag will secure a market position in North America with Tri-Way as its exclusive partner. Tri-Way will import specific standard Samag machines, add tooling and integration and sell to automakers, automotive suppliers and appliance customers through its sales representative organization.