Delphi Automotive Systems Corp. (Troy, Michigan) is ending its 4-year joint venture with NSK Ltd. (Tokyo, Japan) to manufacture wheel bearing hub assembly units in Brazil.

Created in late 1997 as a joint venture between General Motors and NSK, Delco Chassis NSK do Brasil Ltda. is in Suzano City, Sao Paulo. The venture took space inside an existing NSK factory. Each company had 50% ownership.

Delphi was spun off from General Motors in 1999.

The original intent of the business was to study the potential of manufacturing and marketing third-generation "Hub III" units from a single facility in Brazil.

Hub III units integrate the spindle, bearings, hub and knuckle into a single assembled unit (Hub III does not include an integral CV joint). Both NSK and Delphi were producing similar, competing versions. Delphi supplied its Hub III units to General Motors, while NSK targeted theirs to Japanese customers and other auto manufacturers in South America, Pacific Rim, China and Central Europe. The venture would have consolidated all of the production and marketing under one roof.

Little information is available about the success or failure of the venture. Delphi's announcement, however, stated the unit is now manufacturing only wheel bearings for the Brazilian automotive aftermarket.

The hub assembly joint venture was only one of two formed in 1997 between NSK and Delphi. In April 1997, NSK joined with Delphi Saginaw Steering Systems to form Delphi Saginaw NSK Co. to design, develop and market constant velocity joints.

Delphi's announcement came at the same time it released third-quarter sales and earnings. Net dropped 82% to USD $26 million from $148 million in 3Q2000.

The company has been actively restructuring all year. In the first quarter, Delphi announced it will be closing nine plants, consolidating more than 40 global operations and eliminating 11,500 jobs worldwide by the end of 2001. Since 1992, Delphi has sold or closed 91 businesses and facilities with sales exceeding $7 billion.