Hella lights up S.C. auto industry

YORK — On a production floor the size of three football fields, injection molding machines heat plastic pellets to more than 500 degrees. Minutes later, workers in another area spray deionizing air on components to remove static electricity before assembly.

Before long, something more recognizable emerges: a headlight.

At Hella Lighting Corp., about 1.9 million headlamps and fog lamps a year are produced by more than 600 employees. That's up from fewer than 200 when the plant opened eight years ago. During that time, sales have surged from $3 million to a projected $120 million this year.

Despite lagging auto sales and worries about an economic downturn, Hella's success shows that automotive manufacturing in the Carolinas is holding steady and, in some cases, even expanding. Between growing motorsports operations and strong foreign investment, automotive suppliers in the Carolinas expect to withstand potential woes from fewer people buying new cars.

More evidence of the sector's vitality came March 10, when BMW announced a $750 million expansion at its Spartanburg County plant that will add 500 jobs by 2012. The decision, the German automaker said, is driven by the U.S. dollar's weak performance against the euro.

"International companies are hedging their future on the weak dollar, and we're benefiting," said Jack Ellenberg, deputy secretary for new investment at the South Carolina Department of Commerce.

"We haven't seen any dropoff," in investment and jobs, he added, "In fact, we've seen an increase."

With no equivalent to BMW, North Carolina hasn't seen the same foreign investment among automakers. Yet the state has been somewhat insulated from downturns, such as last year's layoffs at Charlotte area Freightliner plants, by growth in the motorsports industry, officials said.

Getting an exact count of automotive industry jobs in the Carolinas is tricky.

Census data shows the two states last year had nearly 73,000 jobs in "transportation equipment manufacturing," defined as companies that make equipment for transporting people and goods. That's down slightly from two years earlier but up nearly 15 percent from 1999.

But the category includes companies that make boats, aircraft and other vehicles, as well as related parts. And the classification doesn't include companies in other industries, such as textiles and plastics, that make products used in cars or trucks, such as seat upholstery and cupholders.

Including all companies with ties to auto manufacturing brings the total number of jobs in the Carolinas to about 200,000.

BMW may be most well-known, but smaller companies closer to Charlotte, such as Getrag Corp. in Catawba County, N.C.; Sabo in Lincoln County, N.C.; and Hella in York County, all have started operations or announced expansions in the last decade.

Hella makes headlamps and fog lamps for BMW, DaimlerChrysler, Ford, General Motors vehicles, as well as heavy-duty trucks made by Kenworth, Mack and Peterbilt. The plant's biggest customer is the Mercedes-Benz plant in Alabama, Hella officials said, but the single vehicle for which Hella makes the most lamps per day is the Chrysler Town & Country minivan.

Major automakers, including GM, Ford and Chrysler, said this month that February sales sank about 10 percent compared with a year earlier, as consumers fretted about an economic downturn and high gas prices.

But so far, softer auto sales haven't translated to fewer orders at Hella, said Steve Ballenger, the plant's managing director.

While not as recognizable as BMW, operations such as Hella that keep adding customers and improving technology will help keep the automotive industry humming in the region, said McDonald, whose group works to attract companies to the area.

"Our strategy," he said, "is to try to hit singles and doubles as much as we can."