News

Denso Corp., Southfield, Michigan, has invested in Seurat Technologies, Wilmington, Massachusetts, to speed up its manufacturing production rates. Seurat’s area printing technology focuses 2 million points of laser light on a bed on metal powder, each point individually adjustable for power and duration, to create net-shape metal components.

Headlines:

San Diego Attendance Tops 1,000
QMP Vacation and Maintenance Shutdown
White Sees Promising Future
Kobelco Opens for Business
Windfall Buys Metal Powder Plant
Japanese P/M Parts Production Increases
Korean P/M Parts Industry Set for Rapid Growth
1990 P/M Conference Call for Papers
Section Meeting Dates
Join APMl's Speakers List
Distinguished Service Awards
P/M Design Competition Winners
People in the News
 

Headlines

World Congress Reflects Optimistic Mood
Auto Developments Drive Metal Powder Growth
Global Trends – Japan/Europe
Roll Receives Pioneer Award
Metallography ad P/M Parts Awards
APMI Student Program
GE Sells Tungsten Powder Business
Fine Carbonyl Iron Powder from ISP
New Patent for Dynamet Technology
Valimet Expands Into Fine Powders
SECO/Warwick Receives Export Award
Penn Press to Take Over APM
Imperial Metals Assets for Sale
DCT Moves
Call-For-Papers – 1993 P/M Conference
Call-for-Papers – PM ’93 Kyoto
P/M World Congress Seminar Preprints
New APMI Services
Speakers List
Who’s Who Changes
Section News
People in the News

We’ve beaten COVID-19 as over 60% of the country has been vaccinated and consumers go on a spending rampage. Cars are flying off dealer lots with April’s 1.5 million sales (18.5 million SAAR) more than double a year ago and a solid 14% above 2019. Ah, but with the good also comes the bad news. The stubborn computer chip shortage is hindering production at all the automakers leading to the lowest inventory levels in decades.  Ford’s lack of semi-conductors will force it to slash second quarter production by half, even canceling several weeks output of its highly desired, highly profitable F-150 pickups. They expect improvement by July, but who knows? An industry veteran with reliable inside sources claims the problem will persist into 2022 as strong consumer sales and rebuilding of fleet inventories fuel high demand.

U.S. Vehicle Sales Surge Past Expectations Once Again

U.S. vehicle sales rose 3.1% month-on-month (m/m) in April, increasing to 18.5 million (SAAR) units, defying consensus expectations for a modest pull-back to 17.6 million.

Unadjusted volumes totaled 1.51 million in April, 111.4% above year ago levels, which would have represented the peak shutdown period due to COVID-19 restrictions. Relative to April 2019, sales were up a healthy 13.9%.

Passenger cars (+5.1% m/m) saw stronger growth than light trucks, which still posted a +2.4% gain on the month. Light trucks accounted for 77.6% of sales in April, down 0.2 percentage points from its share a year ago but still 6.8 percentage points higher than April 2019.