The parts binge.

• Position: North Carolina's automobile supplies industry - Industry Overview

Headlines hailed the coming of BMW to Spartanburg, S.C., and have speculated that Mercedes-Benz will build sport-utility vehicles somewhere in North Carolina. But if the Germans do come, they won't be the first among the auto industry to set up shop here.

About 240 companies in North Carolina make automotive parts, according to the state Commerce Department, producing a grab bag of car and truck necessities. Expect their number to multiply if Mercedes-Benz builds its $300 million plant near one of the four heavy-truck operations parent company Daimler-Benz already has in North Carolina. A site decision is likely later this year.

Mercedes would follow on the heels of mostly Midwestern companies that have migrated southward. Rather than wait their arrival, state industry hunters went after them last year with trade-magazine advertisements and marketing trips to Detroit. The state targets companies with 200 to 300 employees -- too small to demand the financial incentives sought by larger concerns, says the Commerce Department's Martyn Johnson.

What they don't get in direct financial incentives, they make up for in lower wages. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics in Atlanta, the average worker in automotive parts and accessories earns $828 a week in Michigan and $481 in North Carolina. The state also offers lower building and infrastructure costs and, of course, right-to-work laws.

The experience of Winston-Salem-based Douglas Battery Manufacturing Co. shows how proximity to new plants helps suppliers win business. Douglas recently won a contract to make batteries for the 90,000 BMWs that will be built yearly at the German company's South Carolina plant. Until BMW begins production, probably in 1995, Douglas will ship batteries to three German plants.

Look for the trend to continue. Says Johnson: "I don't know how much |the BMW plant's impact~ is going to be, but it's going to be big."

Burns flies by seats of plants

For Burns Aerospace Corp., the bad part about soaring above the airline industry's economic storm is having to come back to Earth in what could be a rough landing.

Based in Winston-Salem, Burns makes more airliner seats than anybody in the world. After winning $40 million in contracts from American Airlines and British Airways the past two years, production is tapering off. Employment peaked at 924 in 1991-92 but has slipped to slightly more than 800.

The company, once a division of Fairchild Industries, moved to North...