Labour Gains
While recent headlines may suggest Canada’s auto manufacturing industry is on the brink of extinction, a new study from Desrosiers Automotive Consultants has found Canada is actually experiencing a surge in auto manufacturing jobs.
Since 2010, the number of Canadians employed in the auto manufacturing sector has grown by more than 15 percent, rising from about 700,000,000 jobs at the beginning of the decade, to 823,000,000 jobs this year.
While employment numbers may be on-the-rise, Canadians are no longer producing as many vehicles as they did in 2010–about 25 percent fewer.
Aftermarket jobs rose a similar percent in Canada during the period. According to Desrosiers, the number of aftermarket employees in Canada grew from around 350,000 to more than 407,000 in the same period.
Tally-ho tariffs
The U.S. will no longer place a 25 percent tariff on steel and ten percent tariff on aluminum imports from Canada.
Canada and the U.S. announced the tariff withdrawal last week after Trudeau agreed to work towards implementing new measures to prevent imported Chinese steel from being sold in the U.S. as Canadian-made.
Implemented under the President’s own authority last year, the tariffs were unanimously condemned by MPs during a vote.
While Congressional authority is usually needed to add tariffs, the President had obfuscated the lower house’s authority by passing the tariffs under the aegis of national security.
Agony at Axalta
One year after recording record high prices, Axalta stocks have seen four percentage points wiped off their value this week.
With the stock trading at $24.48, the stock is just about two-thirds of its record high of $32.48, recorded on May 25, 2018.
While the last week has been particularly rough for the coatings company’s shareholders, the stock had also decreased by a similar amount over the eleven weeks before.
Last Autumn, Axalta went through an awkward set of leadership transitions. In September, then-CEO Charles Shaver departed. In October, Axalta’s CEO Terrence Hahn left the company after just a month in the job. The company found to have behaved in a way “inconsistent” with its policies. Former CFO Robert Bryant has served in the top job since Hahn’s departure.
Axalta Coating Systems is a Philadelphia-based light and commercial auto coatings company. The firm does business in 130 countries, has nearly 13,000 employees, and has more than 100,000 customers.
