Canadian parts maker Magna International is not considering buying any plants being offered for sale by other suppliers in North America, the company’s president said on Thursday.
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“We’re not anxious to increase capacity in North America through the acquisition of another facility,” Magna President Mark Hogan said in a speech at a trade show in Detroit, according to Reuters.
Hogan reportedly said the sector’s turmoil had created opportunities for large, still-solvent suppliers with the financing to take on bigger and more integrated jobs for the auto manufacturers.
“The financial instability of the supply base is opening doors for Tier I suppliers with strong balance sheets,” he said, according to the report. But rising commodity prices present a challenge to the whole industry in terms of costs, given the pressure to keep component prices down by automakers.
“We see an increase in specialty metals like zinc and copper…and we have to offset that through efficiency,” Hogan said.
According to Reuters, he said he expected that more automakers would turn to suppliers to integrate all of the components in their vehicle interiors, an element of car design that he said ranked only behind dependability in importance to consumers.
The fast growth of the population of people over 65 years old in North America and around the world also makes it more important for automakers to design interiors that are more forgiving ergonomically and that offer visual aids and enhanced safety features, he said, according to the report.
