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What's Up? What's Down? In The Auto Parts Industry, According to the Motor & Equipment Manufacturers Association

16 July 1997

What's Up? What's Down? In The Auto Parts Industry, According to the Motor & Equipment Manufacturers Association

    RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C., July 16 -- It costs slightly
less for carmakers to buy vehicle parts for their assembly lines from their
vendors during the first quarter of this year, according to Philip Stafford, a
senior economist for the Motor & Equipment Manufacturers Association.  This
continues the steady decline in prices seen during the past four quarters.
    At the retail level, transportation prices generally declined in first
quarter 1997, particularly gasoline prices and the cost of a new car.
    However, used car prices rose as did the charges for automobile financing.
    Also up, the prices for personal car and truck maintenance and repairs.
    Stafford and Frank Hampshire, MEMA's director of research, track the
automotive parts industry's movements and report on them in a bi-monthly
newsletter called Market Analysis published for MEMA members.
    Founded in 1904, MEMA exclusively represents and serves more than 700 U.S.
manufacturers of motor vehicle components, tools and equipment, automotive
chemicals, and related products used in the production, repair, and
maintenance of all classes of motor vehicles.  MEMA is headquartered in
Research Triangle Park NC, and has offices in Washington, D.C.; Yokohama,
Japan; Brussels, Belgium; and Mexico City.  It will open an office in Sao
Paulo, Brazil later this year.

SOURCE  Motor & Equipment Manufacturers Association