New Tech Center Builds Canadian Firm’s Michigan Presence

AUBURN HILLS, MI – Growing its ability to provide lightweight aluminum and steel solutions for automakers looking to trim curb weight is a driving factor behind global automotive parts supplier Martinrea’s decision to build a technical center here.

At a groundbreaking ceremony here on the site of a former multiplex cinema, Pat D’Eramo, CEO of the Toronto-based company, tells WardsAuto the center will allow Martinrea to expand its R&D activities, including development of bonded-aluminum and high-strength steel products for its automotive clients.

D’Eramo also notes the 108,200-sq.-ft. (10,052-sq.-m) facility will bring together its testing lab with the company’s sales and marketing staff currently located in Troy, MI. Combining those employees pays off when they can draw on each other’s expertise when presenting product ideas to potential customers, he says.

“We believe that sustainable competitive advantage for our company and our people comes from operational excellence in serving our customers and in technology that supports solutions for them,” D’Eramo says. “Our new technical center, emphasizing expanded research and development, engineering and testing capabilities, will help both.”

The building is expected to be completed by July 2017, housing 160 employees initially and creating another 60 jobs down the road. Martinrea is investing $1.7 million in the facility; the project is supported by a $420,000 performance-based grant from the state of Michigan and an 8-year tax abatement valued at $852,000 from the city of Auburn Hills.

D’Eramo expects revenue from the company’s aluminum business to double in the next five years as automakers seek ways to meet fuel-efficiency and emissions targets by reducing vehicle mass. The company is a market leader in aluminum parts through its Martinrea Honsel division.

“Lightweighting is happening,” D’Eramo says. “Aluminum hybrid parts, aluminum parts combined with high-strength steel – there’s a lot of opportunity out there.”

While aluminum will play a large role, customers also need more affordable steel options to meet lightweighting goals in less-expensive cars and trucks, D’Eramo says.

Good Timing, Good Location

The investment comes at a good time for Martinrea, following recent news the company is shutting down its Martinrea Hot Stampings plant in Detroit, laying off more than 100 workers. The move is necessitated by FCA’s mid-cycle decision to pull the plug by year-end on its Chrysler 200 and Dodge Dart small sedans, for which Martinrea provided hot stampings and assembly work.

D’Eramo says without the FCA work, keeping a plant open in that location didn’t make economic sense.

However, opening the technical center in this Detroit suburb makes perfect sense considering 75 of the world’s top 100 automotive firms have a presence here, says Matthew Gibb, deputy county executive-Oakland County.

Martinrea employs 15,000 people in 44 facilities in North and South America, Europe and Asia. The company opened three new plants in China, Mexico and Spain in the past year, D’Eramo says.

[email protected] @bobgritzinger