South Carolina Courting Automotive Sector

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Researched by Industrialinfo.com (Industrial Information Resources, Incorporated; Houston, Texas). The state of South Carolina is determined not to be left behind, when it comes to automotive suppliers. There has been a lot of interest in the last couple of years in the state, and Kershaw County alone can boast five major tier suppliers.

South Carolina Yutaka Technologies Incorporated (Lugoff, South Carolina) opened in 1999, as a supplier of parts (stamped aluminum wheels and catalytic converters) to Honda ATV and motorcycle plants in both South Carolina and Ohio. Its 122,000 square foot plant is home to about 255 workers. South Carolina Yutaka and its sister company, Cardington Yutaka Technologies Incorporated (Cardington, Ohio), are part of Japanese general trading company (sogo shosha), ITOCHU Corporation (OTC:ITOCY;ADR )(Tokyo, Japan), which has interests in many fields.

Dana Corporation's (NYSE:DCN ) (Toledo, Ohio) Commercial Vehicles Group has had a plant in Lugoff since 1992. The plant makes axles, transmissions, and suspension parts for heavy-duty vehicles in a 230,000 square foot plant that employs about 170. In an effort to consolidate operations, Dana plans to spend $5 million to relocate production from its Statesville, North Carolina, plant to this location. In a move to accommodate an industry-wide shift away from component parts production toward assembly of modular systems, Dana had already moved operations from its Huntsville, Alabama, to Lugoff several years ago.

In February of 2003, Kawashima Textile USA Incorporated began operations in a $15 million, 290,000 square foot facility (formerly Wateree Textiles, also in Lugoff, marking the 160th anniversary of Kawashima Japan. Kawashima USA manufactures fabric for seat covers and other automotive applications. The company, a subsidiary of Kawashima Textile Manufacturers Limited (Kyoto, Kyoto, Japan), employs about 185 workers in Lugoff.

Hengst of North America Incorporated (aka Hengst Automotive) (Camden, South Carolina) is refurbishing a 78,000 square foot building, a former Howden-Buffalo plant, to manufacture automotive filter elements for oil, air, fuel, and cabin air filtration. The building already had some of the necessary equipment in it, and the rest Hengst is shipping from Germany. Hengst is a subsidiary of Hengst GmbH & Companie KG (Muenster, Germany), a family-owned global leader in filtration technology. The company has another U.S. subsidiary in Warren, Michigan - Hengst USA Incorporated - as well as a joint venture operation in Modesto, California, with the Racor Division of Parker-Hannifin.

SPX Incorporated's (NYSE:SPW ) (Charlotte, North Carolina) SPX Filtran Division (Des Plaines, Illinois) has been making filter products at its small, but very busy, Lugoff plant since 1999. In February 2005, SPX Filtran announced that it had received a $50 million contract for its sump side and pressure side proprietary filter products for seven new automatic transmission programs for global EOMs through 2010, for several new types of transmissions, such as the continuously variable transmission (CVT), dual-clutch transmission (DCT), and automated manual transmission (AMT), so there might be an expansion story here in the near future. Stay tuned.

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