ROH Wheels boss predicts .........

[Struggo]

ROH Wheels boss predicts impact of car industry closure

12 August, 2014 Matt McDonald 0 comments


The death of Australian car making will have a massive impact on the whole manufacturing sector, according to the General Manager of Adelaide’s ROH Wheels.

News.com.au reports that ROH Wheels is the last surviving local supplier of car wheels Australia. Although the company is set to manufacture wheels for the updated Toyota Camry which is set to begin production in early 2015, it may not have a future beyond that date.

“I think we’re in for a shock, this is the tip of the iceberg,” ROH wheels General Manager Bill Davidson told News Corp Australia.

However, in saying this, Davidson was not only referring to the 147 employees from his company.

“I think we’re headed for more closures in non-automotive manufacturing, as well as automotive manufacturing,” he added.

Sad decline indeed. Our leaders (as most are aware), have no plan

[tut0r]

Yep I remember when Ford first announced closure, one of the industries hit were the blokes who make all the LPG tanks since that was a huge source of their income. Cheap parts are going to be harder and harder to come by soon, that and work is going to get worse to find.

[Polyal]

Our leaders dont have any say in corporate business might as they try. Certainly not multinationals and certainly not on the scale of portfolios. Were not talking the same R&D as Vegemite.

Its going to be a painful ride, the gov knows its coming and I have NFI what sector will pick up the slack, if any!

[GASWAGON]

Yep its going to be dire for sure.

[Silver Ghia]

Years ago ROH was a big name in aftermarket wheels. To survive, it looks like they will need to re-establish themselves in this field, competing against the cheaper but not so quality imports.

[Struggo]

Originally Posted by Polyal

Our leaders dont have any say in corporate business might as they try. Certainly not multinationals and certainly not on the scale of portfolios. Were not talking the same R&D as Vegemite.

Our leaders can however set the environment via various policies and incentives to entice multi nationals to invest in Australia (long term goals) and such provide opportunities for employment.

Unfortunately its thrown into the too hard basket under the guise of "Free Trade".

The question the electorate needs to ask Gov-Co is, how are you going to entice the right investors, what vision do you have for Australia?

[cheap]

Originally Posted by Struggo

Sad decline indeed. Our leaders (as most are aware), have no plan

There is nothing "our" leaders can do, unless of course you're advocating nationalising industries

[XR Martin]

I remember when they made wheels for the Impala SS back in the 90s

Ironically nowadays the top of the line SS Commodore Redline wheels are made in the US.

[Silver Ghia]

Originally Posted by XR6 Martin

I remember when they made wheels for the Impala SS back in the 90s

Ironically nowadays the top of the line SS Commodore Redline wheels are made in the US.

image

When I first glanced at it, I thought it was a Magna with a chevy badge!!

[nstg8a]

Originally Posted by Silver Ghia

Years ago ROH was a big name in aftermarket wheels. To survive, it looks like they will need to re-establish themselves in this field, competing against the cheaper but not so quality imports.

The problem is, many of the imports are a very good quality now, certainly on par with roh.

Cheap import doesn't always mean crap quality.

[Silver Ghia]

Originally Posted by nstg8a

The problem is, many of the imports are a very good quality now, certainly on par with roh.

Cheap import doesn't always mean crap quality.

But at least the ROH name stands out as a name to be trusted. Unless one is familiar with the different imported brands, which are the good ones?

[Franco Cozzo]

Originally Posted by XR6 Martin

I remember when they made wheels for the Impala SS back in the 90s

Ironically nowadays the top of the line SS Commodore Redline wheels are made in the US.

image

Tough looking 90s car, I like it.

[Polyal]

Originally Posted by Struggo

Our leaders can however set the environment via various policies and incentives to entice multi nationals to invest in Australia (long term goals) and such provide opportunities for employment.

Unfortunately its thrown into the too hard basket under the guise of "Free Trade".

The question the electorate needs to ask Gov-Co is, how are you going to entice the right investors, what vision do you have for Australia?

I agree the Gov's job is to hang carrots out. But honestly answer this simple question to yourself.

If you were a boss of a multinational business would you manufacture your goods in Australia? You then have to ship it out to the rest of the world, pay high labour charges, deal with the OH&S and Enviro BS etc when you can setup in Asia and make more money doing everything more efficiently?

What exactly is Australia's competitive advantage with respect to manufacturing and thus exporting?

You can throw in a high AUD for good measure too.

[Franco Cozzo]

We don't have any advantages really, except the stuff we make generally tends to be good quality.

Problem is with cost of living here you can't lower wages either, I don't think people would have a problem with taking a pay cut, as long as a house cost $200K not $400K (and thats out regional) and everything came down in price equally.

[Patty]

It's not all doom and gloom guys. Some industries are growing. I own a business as a contract manufacturer making PCB's, cables, electronics etc and we have had our best year in our 50 year history. Of course it's sad about the automotive industry, but Australian's are resilient and we will rebuild in a different way.

[zilo]

Originally Posted by Silver Ghia

But at least the ROH name stands out as a name to be trusted. Unless one is familiar with the different imported brands, which are the good ones?

The ROH wheels on my 2007 Mitsubishi 380 are made in the Phillipines.

They abandoned the aussie market a long time ago. so wouldn't give them too much sympathy.

[ebxr82nv]

I don't think a falcon has had an australian made wheel on it since the au anyway.

[Dr Smith]

Originally Posted by Polyal

I agree the Gov's job is to hang carrots out. But honestly answer this simple question to yourself.

If you were a boss of a multinational business would you manufacture your goods in Australia? You then have to ship it out to the rest of the world, pay high labour charges, deal with the OH&S and Enviro BS etc when you can setup in Asia and make more money doing everything more efficiently?

What exactly is Australia's competitive advantage with respect to manufacturing and thus exporting?

You can throw in a high AUD for good measure too.

Well the Germans manage to do it and they have expensive labour and little natural resources with one big difference, a bigger domestic market. Sadly "Made in Germany" carries far more cache then "Made in Australia". I often wonder if Ford badge engineered the E Class Merc or 5 Series BMW as a Falcon (at a slight premium to local German prices) would it have sold any better?

[Polyal]

Originally Posted by Dr Smith

Well the Germans manage to do it and they have expensive labour and little natural resources with one big difference, a bigger domestic market. Sadly "Made in Germany" carries far more cache then "Made in Australia". I often wonder if Ford badge engineered the E Class Merc or 5 Series BMW as a Falcon (at a slight premium to local German prices) would it have sold any better?

Yeah there are a few examples of it working for developed nations but still even the geographical barriers Australia has puts it into the to hard basket IMO.

The other difference here also is that the Germans and most of the other EU companies have been doing global cars from day one... Ford gives it a buzzword and tries to palm it off as some breakthrough. Agreed a global RWD car makes sense but for some reason US companies do t have the smarts to implement it.

The exception will be the mustang, will be interesting to see how that goes. Maybe it could spawn something else but whatever happens they won't build them here.

[tranquilized]

Originally Posted by cheap

There is nothing "our" leaders can do, unless of course you're advocating nationalising industries

Yeah because there are no moderate options between the corporate free market neo-con government we've got now and the similarly extreme left wing practice of nationalising industries is there...

[johnydep]

Anyone compared the weight of the Holden SS-V wheels with a comparable ROH wheel?

The first time I took the wheels off my SS-V I almost threw it over my head. For 19 inch wheels they are the lightest I have felt on a production car.

[Trump]

Originally Posted by Patty

It's not all doom and gloom guys. Some industries are growing. I own a business as a contract manufacturer making PCB's, cables, electronics etc and we have had our best year in our 50 year history. Of course it's sad about the automotive industry, but Australian's are resilient and we will rebuild in a different way.

You are lucky that you have access to a niche market. Does your company make everything here or is it purely an assembly operation?

Australians are very resilient, however niche industry and the service economy won't fill the void left by the departure of manufacturing.

[Patty]

Originally Posted by Loud_Noises

You are lucky that you have access to a niche market. Does your company make everything here or is it purely an assembly operation?

Australians are very resilient, however niche industry and the service economy won't fill the void left by the departure of manufacturing.

No not a niche market at all. We manufacture 80% of our products here and we supply to a lot of different markets/industries such as Defence, Medical, Agriculture, Mining, Domestic (heating/cooling), Security, Transport and Automotive.

Of course some people are being hit hard, but my point is that not all manufacturing is leaving. There are many great stories out there of Australian companies doing well, we just barely hear about it as bad news outweighs good news in the media. Australia has some of the best engineers in the world and we are creating/designing some fantastic ideas for the worlds future. The future is bright, just depends on how you see it

[Trump]

Originally Posted by Patty

No not a niche market at all. We manufacture 80% of our products here and we supply to a lot of different markets/industries such as Defence, Medical, Agriculture, Mining, Domestic (heating/cooling), Security, Transport and Automotive.

Of course some people are being hit hard, but my point is that not all manufacturing is leaving. There are many great stories out there of Australian companies doing well, we just barely hear about it as bad news outweighs good news in the media. Australia has some of the best engineers in the world and we are creating/designing some fantastic ideas for the worlds future. The future is bright, just depends on how you see it

So your customers are local, what happens when they find a supplier in China who can make the same PCB's and cable assemblies for less than half what you sell them for? It doesn't take much of an effort for someone to take board XYZ over to a foundry in China and have their engineers reverse engineer it within a month.

What sort of electronics does your company make?

[Patty]

Originally Posted by Loud_Noises

So your customers are local, what happens when they find a supplier in China who can make the same PCB's and cable assemblies for less than half what you sell them for? It doesn't take much of an effort for someone to take board XYZ over to a foundry in China and have their engineers reverse engineer it within a month.

What sort of electronics does your company make?

That's the beauty of it, all our customers know they can get their stuff made in China for less (If we directly compare our prices to China, China are 20%-35% less) but because our electronics are IPC class 2 and 3 (high quality and need strong reliability) our customers are happy to continue using us. We have many coming to us saying the crap they are getting from China is causing them headaches and want us to fix it for them. Plus we ourselves have our own facility in China to do the high volume work and we do the prototyping locally for those jobs (I mentioned we do 80% here).

We have been competing with China, Malaysia, Thailand for years and for bare pcb's and basic electronics we can't compete, but when you want an ECU or controller panel or a product made where it's reliability is paramount, you would pay 35% extra to ensure the product is sell-able.

We make anything from your basic power lead, all the way through to a full turn key AVM (Add Value Machine, similar to our Myki system in Melb) for the transport system for Stockholm, San Fran, Chicago. We have the metalwork, plastic injection all done in Australia and we make the PCB's, cables, software, and assemble, program and test here.

[Trump]

Originally Posted by Patty

That's the beauty of it, all our customers know they can get their stuff made in China for less (If we directly compare our prices to China, China are 20%-35% less) but because our electronics are IPC class 2 and 3 (high quality and need strong reliability) our customers are happy to continue using us. We have many coming to us saying the crap they are getting from China is causing them headaches and want us to fix it for them. Plus we ourselves have our own facility in China to do the high volume work and we do the prototyping locally for those jobs (I mentioned we do 80% here).

We have been competing with China, Malaysia, Thailand for years and for bare pcb's and basic electronics we can't compete, but when you want an ECU or controller panel or a product made where it's reliability is paramount, you would pay 35% extra to ensure the product is sell-able.

We make anything from your basic power lead, all the way through to a full turn key AVM (Add Value Machine, similar to our Myki system in Melb) for the transport system for Stockholm, San Fran, Chicago. We have the metalwork, plastic injection all done in Australia and we make the PCB's, cables, software, and assemble, program and test here.

My hat is tipped good sir. Out of curiosity, how many employees do you have?

[graham_h]

since when have ROH been a "quality" brand.......kidding right ?
Always been cheap rubbish........

[DanielXR8]

Originally Posted by cheap

There is nothing "our" leaders can do, unless of course you're advocating nationalising industries

Since they pass legislation and policy on pretty much everything and that is what companies small and large, national and international consider, yes they can do something and what's more they aren't doing anywhere near enough.

Right now our federal government is governing by ideology and not what's in the best long term interest of the country.

[SupaFly]

Originally Posted by Loud_Noises

So your customers are local, what happens when they find a supplier in China who can make the same PCB's and cable assemblies for less than half what you sell them for? It doesn't take much of an effort for someone to take board XYZ over to a foundry in China and have their engineers reverse engineer it within a month.

What sort of electronics does your company make?

China might be cheaper now but their labour prices are increasing as well, products made in China in the next 10-15 years time will be relatively dearer

[NAK302]

Originally Posted by graham_h

since when have ROH been a "quality" brand.......kidding right ?
Always been cheap rubbish........

i don't know about that, my 3 piece Modena's were a very nicely built wheel.