Tagged: auto suppliers

Japanese auto supplier Denso has announced a four-year, $1 billion expansion in North America, including a $150 million investment in Michigan.

According to plans revealed at the North American International Auto Show on Tuesday, the auto supplier could hire a combined 400 new workers at its technical center in Southfield and manufacturing plant in Battle Creek.

Nathan Borney of the Detroit Free Press has more:

The leader of another Michigan business is suing the federal government over provisions of the Affordable Care Act.

John Kennedy, CEO of Kentwood-based Autocam Automotive, filed a complaint in a federal court in Grand Rapids Monday. In it, he says his company shouldn’t have to provide employees with health insurance that includes contraception coverage he considers “intrinsically wrong and gravely sinful”.

Michigan lost 45,000 auto supply jobs from 2008 to 2009, according to the Center for Automotive Research. 

By the end of this year, it will have gained most of those jobs back.  

Suppliers say they are hiring, but the recovery is not without its bumps.  

No one knows exactly how many auto supply companies in the state went under in 2008 and 2009.  That’s because some owners didn’t bother to file for bankruptcy; they just sent their workers home and locked up the shop.  

Zeeland-based Gentex Corporation is the world’s largest supplier of auto-dimming review mirrors. The company has hired 1,200 people in the last two years. Now it’s looking to hire another 1,100 people in the next five years. That’s a 65 percent increase in its workforce since 2008.