FAG Automotive North America, a division of FAG Kugelfischer Georg Schafer AG (Schweinfurt, Germany) has won a new hub assembly supply contract from Ford and renewed one with DaimlerChrysler.

Ford Motor Company, via suspension corner vendor TRW Automotive (Cleveland, Ohio), will source hub assemblies for the new generation Windstar minivan. Beginning with the 2004 model year, FAG will supply approximately $15 million in ABS-sensor-equipped front hub assemblies each year. Over the life of the contract, FAG will supply approximately 600,000 units.

TRW will reportedly buy the hubs as the suspension corner vendor. However, TRW has indicated its intention to exit that business as part of a restructuring effort to fight off a hostile takeover bid by Northrop Grumman.

FAG Automotive also won a renewal of its contract to supply DaimlerChrysler with Jeep Grand Cherokee front hub assemblies. Covering model years 2005 through 2009, the contract will involve at least 550,000 total units, worth $17 million per year.

FAG itself is in the midst of being absorbed by INA Holding in a well-documented takeover completed at the end of 2001.

The company's factory in Joplin, Missouri will produce the hub units. Built in the early 1970's, FAG Joplin employs over 400 production workers in four buildings with a total 250,000 square feet of floor space. Hub assembly production, currently involving 150 of the workers, was added in 1990 via a $60 million expansion. Joplin has the capacity to produce over two million hub units per year.

The other 250 employees at the Joplin, OH business unit, produce various bearings, including bearings for other DaimlerChrysler Jeep and Chrysler products. The plant also produces industrial and rail bearings.

The Joplin facility is reportedly located there largely via the work of Kenneth McCaleb. Mr. McCaleb, a Joplin native and U.S. Army Airman, participated in the bombing of the German bearing factories in Schweinfurt during World War II - including the FAG plant. Mr. McCaleb was shot down on October 14, 1943, during one of the most brutal air battles over Schweinfurt, and held as a prisoner of war. In the late 1960's, Mr. McCaleb was reportedly responsible for convincing FAG to build there; Georg Schafer's grandson made repeated visits to Joplin in the course of deciding to locate a new facility in the area.

Joplin is also known for its recent role in an expensive environmental cleanup. FAG reportedly paid out over $4 million, not including legal fees and fines, to clean up contamination traced to the facility. Trichloroethylene (TCE), used as a degreaser, leeched from a pit or ravine on the property and contaminated ground water supplies.

FAG Automotive North America's other facility is a massive 450,000 square foot plant in Stratford, Ontario, Canada.

FAG's other plants in the U.S. are three FAG/Barden facilities in Connecticut: Bridgeport, Winsted, and Danbury.