Kia Will Supply Steel to Delphi for Automotive Hub Assemblies

Kia Steel (South Korea) will be supplying C10xx steel to Delphi Automotive Co. (USA) for forgings used to produce automotive hub assemblies. First introduced to the U.S. market on the General Motors X chassis vehicles in 1980, unit hub assemblies combine bearings, seals, hub and spindle in one preassembled unit which simply bolts to the suspension. Hub assemblies have since come to be used for the front and rear wheel bearings of virtually every automobile sold in the North American and European markets. Kia Steel, already a steel supplier to most of the world's automakers, had its arrangement for forging steel come on the heels of a Delphi quality audit certificate of compliance. The company said, "The first acquisition of such a certificate in Korea has enabled us to provide a trial order amounting to 2,500 tons of steel annually to Delphi's subsidiary in China; Wanxiang Transmission Company. We can produce 100,000 tons of steel for the hub bearing annually, and we expect future sales increases to be worth at least $52 million every year through Delphi distribution channels all over the world."