Ontario still auto-making headquarters

TORONTO — Michigan is falling further behind its northeastern neighbor as the auto-producing capital of North America.

Although its own auto production rates have fallen this year, Ontario continues to widen its lead in vehicle production for the third straight year, according to trade publication Ward’s Automotive Reports.

Competition from Asian carmakers have
cut into Big Three market share

Vehicle production in Ontario fell 4 percent in the first 10 months of the year, but output in Michigan tumbled 10 percent in 2006 because of labor and production cuts, and restructuring efforts by Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Corp.

Competition from Asian carmakers have also cut into Big Three market share in recent years. Both Honda and Toyota have expanded production in Southern Ontario, with the latter opening up a car and Hino truck assembly plants in Woodstock, Ont. this year.

Honda and Toyota rolled out 600,000 vehicles in the first 10 months of 2006 — 30 percent of total production in the province.

From the middle of 2000 to the end of last year, 298,000 jobs evaporated in the state and another 38,000 are expected to be eliminated this year, reports the Globe & Mail. The forecast predicts another 24,000 jobs will be slashed in 2007 before another decline in 2008. That would extend the annual job losses to eight years, the longest such run in Michigan since the Depression of the 1930s, reports the Globe.

The effects on major suppliers and their service providers continue to linger on both sides of the border, however. Production cuts at major OEs have sent suppliers like Dana Corp. and Delphi Corp. into bankruptcy.

— with from the Globe & Mail