Troy, MI-based ArvinMeritor is selling off two pieces of its light vehicle aftermarket (LVA) business as part of its strategy to focus efforts on its strength in the global automotive and commercial truck industries.
The company is selling its LVA Motion Control business in Marion, S.C., to AVM Industries LLC, based in Ohio, for an undisclosed sum – though ArvinMeritor is keeping the land and facilities as it plans to use them for other purposes. The Motion Control group employed 400 and built gas springs and vacuum actuators.
ArvinMeritor’s Light Vehicle Systems (LVS) business group plans to sell its 57% shareholding in Meritor Suspension Systems Company (MSSC) to joint venture partner Mitsubishi Steel Mfg. Co., Ltd. (MSM). The joint venture, formed in 1986, produces steel torsion and stabilizer bars and coil springs for the North American passenger car market.
These moves follow the divestiture of other LVA businesses, including an equity share in Purolator India; the Purolator filters business and exhaust business in North America; and last month, its Gabriel South Africa Ride Control business in Cape Town.
“With these sales, we move closer to our objective to divest the entire LVA business group, allowing us to build on our core competencies in the global automotive and commercial truck markets,” said Chip McClure, ArvinMeritor’s chairman, CEO and president.
