RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. – Heavy Duty Dialogue ’09, with the theme of The Commercial Vehicle Industry in Transition, announces the addition of David Andrea, vice president, industry analysis and economics for the Original Equipment Manufacturers Association (OESA) as a contributor on the event Industry/Market Forecast panel.
In his position with OESA, Andrea administers several councils, coordinates research with outside consulting firms, assists with media relations and other special projects. Prior to joining OESA, Andrea was chief financial officer and director of the forecasting group at the Center for Automotive Research.
CHENNAI: Bad news confronts commercial vehicle makers. Rating agency Crisil downgraded its ratings on Tata Motors and Ashok Leyland's debt. It follows Crisil's re-assessment of its ratings on commercial vehicle (CV) manufacturers, in light of the challenging operating environment in the CV industry.
The downgrades will affect Tata Motors' Rs 9,000 crore debt and bank facilities including Rs 3,000 crore short-term debt programme. For Ashok Leyland, the ratings downgrade affect non-convertible debentures and long-term bank facilities adding upto Rs 715 crore. However, Crisil has reaffirmed its rating on the company's commercial paper and short-term bank facilities worth Rs 800 crore to P1+. This rating indicates that the degree of safety regarding timely payment on the instrument is very strong and at a comparatively higher standing.
Ray Ashworth is being promoted from director of commercial operations to managing director of DAF Trucks Ltd, DAF's UK sales subsidiary, effective from 31 March 2009. He will succeed Stuart Hunt, who is retiring after 30 years with the company.
Ashworth studied automotive engineering and joined Leyland Trucks in 1969. Mark Oldbury, currently fleet sales director, has been appointed as his successor in charge of sales.
A mainland court has ordered three Chinese firms to pay a German bus maker more than 20 million yuan (USD 3 million) for design violations, one of the largest awards to a foreign company under intellectual property laws.
The Beijing court ordered the firms to pay MAN Group's Neoplan Bus 20 million yuan in damages plus 1.16 million yuan in costs, said mainland judicial website Chinacourt.org.
Welcome to the new HDMA’s International Diesel Download, our associations’ latest member e-news publication. HDMA, through the targeted weekly e-newsletters Diesel Download and now, International Diesel Download, provide bi-weekly industry newsletters that cut through information overload and provide the “must see” news items that specifically affect the commercial vehicle supplier industry.
As the current economic situation began to unfold late last summer, we realized, based on article hits on the weekly Diesel Download e-newsletter, our members were actively searching for more global commercial vehicle information. The solution to the demand was to develop a weekly publication based primarily on international news.