Manufacturing

Bristol Cars, the British manufacturer of iconic hand-built luxury cars, has been bought out of administration by Kamkorp Autokraft, part of the Frazer-Nash group.

The company, which makes only a handful of specialist cars every week at its factory in Filton, Bristol, UK, went into administration on 4 March 2011. The acquisition re-establishes the connection with Frazer-Nash which was influential in the foundation of Bristol Cars 65 years ago.

The Turkish Government has chosen US manufacturer Sikorsky to supply 109 Turkish Utility Helicopters, derived from the BLACK HAWK helicopter, for multi-mission use.

The aircraft will be assembled in Turkey by Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI) as the prime contractor and will include components supplied by Sikorsky and other American and Turkish companies.  

The Defense Industry Executive Committee (DIEC) has estimated the total program value to TAI at $3.5 billion, inclusive of work to be performed by Sikorsky and other program partners.

Jeff Daniels looks at one of Zimbabwe’s most successful companies operating in one of the country’s most important sectors.

With the global drive towards self-sufficiency picking up pace, Jeff Daniels looks at the efforts being made in Abu Dhabi to become self-reliant in reinforcing steel production.

For years now, Abu Dhabi has been the sand-pit for the world’s biggest names in architecture. There can’t be many other places on earth that can boast the variety and quantity of groundbreaking buildings as this Middle Eastern city. Look at the architectural magazines and it could be that even more wild and wonderful designs are yet to come.

US friction management and power transmission company Timken plans to increase its annual steelmaking capacity by 120,000 tons across its steel manufacturing facilities in Canton, Ohio.

This has been made possible by a series of improvements at its Harrison Steel Plant following the $60 million rolling-mill investment completed there in 2008.

Over the last two years, continuous improvement efforts at the Harrison plant have allowed Timken to achieve record output well beyond the new mill's original design.

Tellumat Electronic Manufacturing is drawing on its distinguished heritage to offer a full turnkey solution to high end industrial and consumer equipment developers.

General Motors today announced a $100 million investment in tooling and equipment to make automotive components at its GM Components Holdings Rochester Operations plant in New York state.

"This investment in our manufacturing operations will enable us to produce a new generation of fuel-efficient small block car and truck engines," said Cathy Clegg, GM vice president of Labor Relations.

Toyota has announced plans to reduce production in its North American plants as a result of part shortages from Japan, where production has been hit by the aftermath of the earthquake and tsunami.

The company said production would be suspended at its North American vehicle plants on April 15, 18, 21 and 25 (although the Georgetown, Kentucky plant will continue to assemble vehicles on April 21st). Most of the company’s North American engine and component plants will follow the same schedule.

Microsoft and Toyota have announced a $12 million investment in Toyota Media Services, a strategic partnership to make the automobile the ultimate mobile device.

The partnership intends to use Microsoft’s “cloud computing” Windows Azure platform to develop next-generation telematics services, fusing telecommunications and information technologies in vehicles for GPS systems, energy management and other multimedia technologies.

Toyota’s electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles will be equipped with the new services in 2012, with worldwide roll-out by 2015.

South Africa is planning to invest R15 billion in a new rare metals processing facility, according to a report in the newspaper Business Report.

The project, which is expected to take four years to complete, would create 43,000 direct and 86,000 indirect jobs. Staff needed to work at the facility would number around 7,000, the report said.