The fate of a leading battery supplier rests in the president’s hands, and another black media mogul is urging General Motors to do better, and the crowd is likely to return to F1 during this summer’s British Grand Prix. All this and more in The Morning Shift for Friday, April 9, 2021
1st gear: the president has to make a choice
If you have not followed the ongoing legal battle between the battery suppliers LG Energy Solutions (formerly LG Chem) and SK Innovation, this is the short and short point of it: SK Innovation is in danger of being banned from the US market for a decade if punishment for misappropriation of LG’s trade secrets. President Biden has the power to take it away if the companies cannot resolve this matter among themselves. Thing is, his last day to do so is Sunday, April 11 as Reuters reports:
The Biden administration will decide by the U.S. Trade Representative’s office as early as Friday to take the rare step of overturning the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC), unless the Korean battery companies reach a last-minute settlement.
The White House declined to comment Thursday.
The ITC sided with LG Chem in February in its trade secret claims, but allowed SK to import battery components for the Ford EV F-150 program for four years, and the North American EVs from Volkswagen for two years.
If the ITC decision is over this weekend, carmakers using SK components in vehicles sold in the US will not be able to import it for the next ten years, with limited exceptions on certain Ford and Volkswagen models. To further complicate matters, SK is building a factory in Georgia which he has threatened to abandon if the ban is upheld. As you might think, the politicians of Georgia would much rather let Biden go for SK with a slap on the wrist:
Last month, Republican Georgian Governor Brian Kemp urged Biden to intervene, noting that SK’s plant will employ nearly 2,600: “Simply put, the livelihoods of thousands of Georgians are now in your hands. ”
Georgia Senator Jon Ossoff has held several meetings with Korean battery manufacturers and the Biden administration, confirming his office and stressing “the urgent need for both companies to come to the negotiating table and agree to a settlement around the plant in Georgia” to save, “a spokesman said. said.
G / O Media can get a commission
Last week, the ITC appeared surprising runs back his claims against SK, decides that the company does not infringe LG patents. That still hasn’t removed SK from all the trade secret misappropriation, and unless Biden reverses ITC’s ruling, LG will happily walk away, and SK may walk away from the US altogether.
2nd gear: Sean Combs now also calls out GM
Sean “Diddy” Combs has joined the group of black media leaders calling on General Motors to do more business with black-owned media companies, and publishes a open letter on his website, Revolt, Thursday.
In the company’s initial response to the criticism, GM essentially chose the defense “I have a black friend” and referred to Revolt as one of the black-owned companies supports while the meeting was adjourned at the same time, it originally agreed to stick with the group. Combs do not share quite the same rosy picture of their relationship as the Detroit Free Press details (including an excerpt from Combs’ letter and GM’s reply):
“When General Motors is confronted by the leaders of several black-owned media companies, I cite my network, REVOLT, as an example of black-owned media,” Combs wrote in the letter. “REVOLT does receive advertising revenue from GM, but our relationship is not an example of success. Instead, REVOLT, like other black-owned media companies, fights for crumbs, while GM earns billions of dollars annually from the Black community. ”
GM spokesman Pat Morrissey responded to Combs’ letter, saying that GM had agreed to hold several black media meetings in the next few weeks and promised to increase the amount of advertising dollars he gave to the black media. possession spent, to increase.
“By 2021, for example, we have doubled spending on black-owned media groups to 2%,” Morrissey said. “We will increase our spending with this important segment to 4% in 2022 and our spending thereafter by 20% target by 2025.”
Bravo GM! By next year a whole four percent! Wow! What do you want, a medal or something?
3rd gear: today in the chip shortage
For your daily semiconductor shortage update, Hyundai is halting production next week at its Asan plant in South Korea. This is in addition to the shutdown that is currently underway at its Ulsan plant until April 14. Of Reuters:
“We are closely monitoring the situation to take immediate and necessary measures to optimize production in line with supply conditions,” Hyundai said in a statement.
The Asan factory shows 300,000 vehicles annually, including the Sonata and Grandeur sedans.
Hyundai announced last week that it would suspend production at Ulsan, its main South Korean factory, from April 7 to April 14 due to problems with the supply of chips and components.
[…]
Hyundai has so far been able to avoid a hit from the shortage, mainly because it has maintained a stockpile of chips, unlike its global counterparts, Reuters reported in February.
Hyundai, like Toyota, repelled production cuts thanks to prudent thinking. However, the stock eventually runs out. Since the silicone pressure has been going on for so long, the shortfall that Hyundai is ultimately hitting is not surprising. Meanwhile, GM and Ford are further plagued by the lack of chips, and they are announcing a series of cuts via the 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.
[…]
On Thursday, Ford also said it would close its Chicago, Flat Rock, Michigan and Transit of the Kansas City Assembly Plant in Claycomo, Missouri, during the week of April 12th.
4th gear: GM and Ford jump back in China
GM delivered 69 percent more vehicles in China during the first quarter of 2020 and Ford up 73 percent according to Automotive News, at the same time. These numbers are encouraging, but for GM it does not yet indicate a full recovery before COVID sales:
While a recovery that began in April 2020 expanded, GM’s first-quarter sales in China were still lower than the 813,973 vehicles the Detroit automaker reported for the first quarter of 2019.
As far as Ford is concerned, Q1 2021 is the fourth consecutive month of year-on-year growth for the company. This is due to an effective turnaround plan set out by The Motley Fool via Nasdaq:
Chen joined Chinese carmaker Chery Automobile at Ford in October 2018, after a few quarters of sales fell. Chen’s goal since taking the reins has been to revamp Ford’s products and business to better align with Chinese consumer expectations. He said the growth strip is just a beginning.
[…]
Most of Ford’s products in China would be known to Americans, but not all. The company has focused on sales of Lincoln luxury vehicles (especially crossover sports utility vehicles) and well-known Ford brands, with a few additional models unique to the Chinese market.
The locally manufactured sports utility vehicles Lincoln Corsair and Aviator helped to achieve a 217% year-on-year profit for the Lincoln brand, with sales of approximately 19,300. Sales of Ford brands increased by 44.7% as its SUV sales nearly doubled, led by the Explorer, Escape and Edge, and a new SUV model, China only, called the Equator.
5th equipment: British GP may try vaccine passports for spectators
Some Formula 1 races from the dwindling round of the 2020 season to the Bahrain Grand Prix on March 28 had a limited number of people, depending on the discretion of each host country. The upcoming British Grand Prix, scheduled for July 18, could allow full-capacity attendance as long as spectators carry vaccination passports. Per Motorsport:
The UK government has set out a roadmap for easing restrictions in the coming months, including permission for large outdoor seats that will carry up to 17,000 fans or 25% of the total capacity – whichever is lower – from 17 May allow.
There could then be a further weakening of the restrictions from 21 June to enable capacity at all the major summer sporting events in the UK.
Silverstone has now given its full support to plans for vaccine passports and COVID-19 tests before fans attended the events to ensure they could function safely.
The circle included bodies including the FA, the EFL, the Premier League, the RFU, the ECB and Wimbledon, in writing to Prime Minister Boris Johnson and the leaders of the opposing political parties on the matter.
Even with the vaccination of passports and tests, I am still amazed that the organizers of the event will have the full chance. The British government was much more careful than our leaders on the other side of the dam which is completely cool sold out baseball games.
Reverse: Meet NASA’s first astronauts
Neutral: Front license plates
I live in one of the 20 states that do not require license plates, and I recently transferred my car’s registration. Which means I now have a big, gaping hole where the plate used to be, which I’ll probably cover with some sort of decorative alternative. The problem is that the vast majority of the appropriate signs you find on places like Etsy and eBay are dressed in Punisher logos and American black flags with red-and-black problems, and whatever I choose will probably look dumb . I am amazed that there is no market for tasty enthusiastic plates!