Toronto, Ontario — In this week’s Tuesday Ticker, an Atlantic auto group owner purchases 10 percent of outstanding AutoCanada shares, Cox Automotive Canada sees job cuts and PPG partners with the U.S Department of Energy to develop energy-efficient coatings.
Steele’s Stocks
Rob Steele, CEO of Steele Auto Group announced he has acquired 24,000 common shares of AutoCanada Inc. at a price of $17.25 per share for aggregate consideration of $414,000.
Following such acquisition, Steele, together with presumed joint actors pursuant to applicable securities legislation, controls 2,756,455 shares representing 10.04 percent of the outstanding AutoCanada shares.
From time to time, [Steele] may increase or decrease his direct or indirect ownership, control or direction over the shares in the normal course of his investment activities,”
Cuts at Cox
Cox Automotive has cut 1,500 positions across Canada and the United States.
According to an update from a Cox Automotive spokesperson, the company eliminated approximately 130 positions in Canada, all of which were previous temporary layoffs.
Approximately 1,500 positions were eliminated in the United States, with 45 percent representing part-time workers.
“While we regret the impact these moves have on our employees and their families, we’re working to create a Cox Automotive that’s prepared to meet changing client needs and lead the industry well into the future,” the company said in a statement.
Innovative agreement
PPG is partnering with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) for a research initiative aimed at developing energy-efficient coatings systems for the automotive industry.
The PPG project–“Modeling Coating Flow and Dynamics during Drying”–was selected to receive funding through the DOE’s High Performance Computing for Energy Innovation (HPC4EI) program.
PPG scientists will collaborate with LBNL experts to model the complex physics that contribute to paint flow and leveling in a two-layer coatings system. The insight gained will accelerate the introduction of new multi-layer coatings systems that can be co-cured in a single, lower-temperature bake, reducing paint line energy consumption for automotive original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) by up to 30 percent, according to the company.
The PPG initiative was one of 11 research projects selected in the latest HPC4EI award cycle. PPG has worked with the HPC4EI program over many years to advance programs that increase automotive manufacturing throughput and enable vehicle lightweighting.
In 2019, PPG also received a DOE grant to study the aging characteristics of a new generation of structural adhesives needed to join high-strength steel, aluminum, magnesium and other substrates that can help reduce vehicle mass and increase fuel economy.
