Automotive News Canada - July 2021 - 31

* JULY 2021
31
Confusion remains
for suppliers at
U.S.-Canada border
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
same problem when conducting
inspections and signoffs in
Canada.
NO ENTRY, LOST CONTRACTS
Shortly before the federal government
announced the gradual
reopening of the border,
CAMM released a survey
of member companies
in conjunction with
the Canadian Tooling &
Machining Association,
Automate Canada and
the Niagara Industrial
Association.
Eighty-seven per cent
of 91 employers surveyed
reported quarantine
orders for employees
and visitors, and denial
of entry by visitors into
Canada.
Sixty-nine per cent
said they had lost contracts
because of these
border problems.
without quarantine or a day-eight
COVID-19 test. To be eligible, they
must have a negative pre-arrival
test and submit digital proof of full
vaccination online within 72 hours
before arriving at the border.
Canadian border officials
are responsible for determining
admissibility to the country and
whether any exemptions
apply, said Anne Génier,
a spokeswoman for
Health Canada and the
Public Health Agency of
Canada.
Azzopardi:
Resolving
the border
confusion is
imperative,
given the
possibility
that COVID
could return in
another wave.
FILE PHOTO
Despite the industry's
willingness to work with
federal officials to find a
solution, they have been
unable to get a protocol
in place that would allow
U.S. executives to come to
Canada without having
to quarantine for 14 days
for a meeting that could
take a couple of hours,
Lassaline-Berglund said.
" It's causing them to
perhaps reconsider their
purchasing decisions,
which isn't going to be
helpful for us long term, "
she said. " I have a lot of
member companies saying, 'Once
these contracts are over, I'm worried
they're not going to come
back to me for the next one simply
because of the aggravation they've
faced.' "
An exemption allows
technicians or specialists
to enter Canada to maintain,
install or inspect
equipment necessary to
support critical infrastructure,
Génier said.
That includes energy and
utilities, information and
communication technologies,
finance, health, food,
water, transportation,
safety, government and
manufacturing.
Those technicians and
specialists are not exempt
from pre-arrival testing,
unless they are regular
cross-border workers, she
said.
Cattle:
" There's really
no consistency
between what
[U.S. border]
crossing you
go to. "
PHOTO: LINKEDIN
Cattle.
Jonathon Azzopardi, president
of Windsor, Ont.-based Laval
International, said he has lost
some longtime customers.
" I've had clients who I've had
relationships with for 25 years,
and I haven't been able to provide
the services that I would normally
provide to them - technicians,
face-to-face interactions, their ability
to come and sign off on the
product - so they've had to go
elsewhere. "
Losing that position as a preferred
source could mean never
getting those opportunities again,
he said.
'CAN'T AFFORD' CONFUSION
While the border is beginning
to reopen, the confusion remains,
Azzopardi said. With the possibility
of a fourth wave of COVID-19 or
another emergency, it's important
to resolve the problem.
" It's not enough to just to let it
go away because if it comes back
again, we just can't afford another
wave of this. "
As of July 5, fully vaccinated
travellers are able to enter Canada
" Consistency, that's the problem.
There's really no consistency
between what crossing you go to, "
Cattle said. " If you've done everything
you should do and still have
to quarantine, that's a problem. "
Frustration is growing, and
even with the border's reopening,
questions remain. Among
them is whether Canadians who
received the AstraZeneca vaccine
- which has not received approval
from the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration - will be eligible
to cross the border, Cattle said.
Prime Minister Justin
Trudeau, who himself received the
AstraZeneca vaccine, has said his
government is working with the
United States and other countries
to ensure that AstraZeneca vaccine
recipients face few barriers
when they travel.
The auto industry is not and
has not ever asked for the border
to be fully opened, Cattle said,
but simply needs a clear protocol
in place so essential business can
continue.
" When this all started, the government
realized they must have a
free flow of parts or transportation
of goods, " he said. " They did not
take into consideration the transportation
of people that have to go
along with those goods. " - ANC
'REALLY NO CONSISTENCY'
The Canadian Tooling
and Manufacturing
Association (CTMA) and
other industry groups
prepared a handbook for
members on the criteria
for crossing the border,
but the process has
been unpredictable, said
Executive Director Robert
Toyota's record June;
Corolla outsells Civic
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 3
provide a bank on inventory
for us. So, it didn't
really slow us down much
at all. "
Nationally, Toyota
Canada reported a record
25,303 vehicles sold in
June and overall sales of
71,845 in the second quarter.
In
a significant win for
the automaker, the Toyota
Corolla outsold the Honda
Civic - Canada's top-selling
compact car for more
than two decades
- by 371 units.
FAST TURNOVER
But even GM and
Stellantis began to make
headway on the inventory
front, particularly with
some of the high-margin
nameplates.
Jeep second-quarter
sales increased 37 per cent
to 14,287 for Stellantis.
" Despite all of the
challenges facing our
industry, Jeep recorded
double-digit sales
increases for nearly all
of its nameplates, " David
Buckingham, CEO of Fiat
Chrysler Automobiles
Canada, said
in a statement.
GM sold
66,911 vehicles
during the second
quarter,
up 34 per cent.
" We're
building every
vehicle we
can, and our
dealers are
selling virtually
every vehicle
... often the
minute they
hit the lot, "
The Toyota Corolla
outsold the Honda Civic
by 371 vehicles in June.
One Toronto dealership
credits the automaker's
handling of inventory in
the face of the microchip
shortage. PHOTO: TOYOTA
SALES ANALYSIS
Still, the pandemic
cost the store 1,400 sales
in the first six
months of the
year, prompting
it to change the
way it does business. " We
made an investment in
digital retailing, " Grant
said. " That shortened the
in-store time at the dealership
significantly. "
SALES TRADITION ADAPTS
But the biggest change
came when the store had
to end a 40-year tradition
of holding a 24-hour sale
during a weekend in May.
That event normally led to
250 to 300 sales.
Piszar: Vehicles are
being sold " often
the minute they hit
the lot. " FILE PHOTO
Sandor Piszar, vice-president
of sales, service and
marketing at GM Canada,
said in a statement.
PROVINCES REOPEN
The other driving force
behind increased sales is
the easing of government
restrictions, designed
to prevent the spread of
COVID-19.
Ontario, for example,
entered the third stage
of its reopening July 16,
nearly two weeks earlier
than planned, as cases
plummeted and vaccination
rates soared.
" I don't think a lot of
people realized that automotive
dealers ... were
deemed to be essential, "
said Grant, the Toronto
Toyota dealer. " But once
they saw what we had
done in order to keep our
associates, customers and
families safe, they gradually
started to come back
in. "
" During COVID, that
couldn't happen, " Grant
said. " So, we
switched to 24
days of May. "
Steady messaging
went out to
Don Valley's
customer database,
and people
made sales
appointments.
" We got a
lot of results
that carried
over into June
as well, " he
said.
Nissan
Canada CEO Steve Milette
said the automaker has
been coping well, having
a " decent level " of inventory
as the microchip
crisis took hold. " We're
now on the low side [of
the inventory range], but
we're comfortable. We are
expecting our production
to be back to normal in
September. "
The peak shopping season
that typically starts
in April " is going to shift
into the summer. "
Brian Kingston,
head of the Canadian
Vehicle Manufacturers'
Association, has a warning,
though.
" The global chip shortage
will continue to be a
headwind facing the auto
industry this year, creating
production and inventory
challenges. Progress
is being made on increasing
chip supply, but there
unfortunately is no quick
fix. " - ANC
MICROCHIP
ROUNDUP
By JOHN IRWIN
AUTOMOTIVE NEWS CANADA
DETROIT THREE TAKE
THE BIGGEST HIT
PRODUCTION CUTS
continued at four of Canada's
auto assembly plants between
mid-June and mid-July, driving
the total number of vehicles
lost to the microchip crisis
higher, according to U.S.-based
AutoForecast Solutions.
About 218,500 vehicles
have been knocked out of production
schedules in Canada
during 2021, AFS said on July
13. That would account for
about 15 per cent of all vehicles
built in the country during
2020 and 12 per cent of those
assembled in 2019.
All of the 16,500 vehicles
that were erased from production
schedules between June
15 and July 13 were cut from
four plants, AFS data showed.
In fact, Stellantis' Windsor,
Ont., and Brampton, Ont., factories,
General Motors' CAMI
Assembly in Ingersoll, Ont.,
and Ford Motor Co.'s Oakville
Assembly have accounted for
most of Canada's production
losses throughout the microchip
crisis.
WINDSOR LEADS THE WAY
About 69,200 vehicles
have been cut from the
Windsor Stellantis plant's
schedule since the start of the
year, the most of any Canadian
factory. That figure would
account for 37 per cent of all
vehicles its workers built in
2020 and 22 per cent of those
built in 2019.
Windsor Assembly, which
builds minivans such as the
Chrysler Pacifica, was shutdown
again starting on July
12 after already experiencing
downtime in February, April,
May and June. Stellantis'
Brampton factory was also
slated to shut down starting
that day.
But the pace of cuts appears
to have slowed, at least when
compared with other plants
heavily impacted by the shortage
globally. According to
AFS, 11 factories worldwide
have had the microchip crisis
impact production to a greater
degree. On June 15, Windsor
ranked seventh on that list.
OTHER AUTOMAKERS
The estimated volume
impact at GM's CAMI factory
rose to about 57,000 vehicles.
The plant, which assembles
Chevrolet Equinox crossovers,
was expected to be
down through the end of July,
according to Mike Van Boekel,
chairman for Unifor Local 88.
Ford Oakville, which
builds Ford Edge and Lincoln
Nautilus crossovers, is expected
to be down one or two
weeks per month through
August. The microchip shortage
has had an estimated
impact of about 52,200 units at
the plant this year, according
to AFS. - ANC
Automotive News Canada - July 2021

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