By THOMAS HARTLEY
Business First

A new era dawned for Western New York's automotive-parts industry Wednesday.

That was Day One for the new Delphi Corp., which emerged after four years operating under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

The event ended Delphi's status as the region's largest manufacturer. That title goes now to General Motors Co.

With Delphi's emergence from Chapter 11, about 1,300 former workers at the Delphi Thermal Systems complex in Lockport were transferred to GM, the company that created Delphi from its parts unit in 1999.

Another 200 Delphi employees will remain in Lockport at the Delphi Thermal Systems tech center, a research-and-development operation that serves 13 Delphi Thermal plants worldwide, including one in Ohio. It also is one of four Delphi Thermal tech centers globally.

Delphi Corp., which is based in Troy, Mich., filed for bankruptcy protection in October 2005.

Along with the Lockport plant, three other Delphi facilities, including one in Rochester, were transferred to General Motors, which operates an engine plant in the Town of Tonawanda.

With the Lockport and Tonawanda sites combined under the GM umbrella, the automaker now has a Buffalo-area workforce of about 2,300 - 1,300 of the 1,500 formerly employed by Delphi at Lockport, and just over 1,000 currently working at the Tonawanda Powertrain plant.

Delphi was once the world's largest automotive-parts company. Its emergence from bankruptcy was finalized Tuesday when a deal was approved selling most of its assets to lenders.

The new Delphi is owned by investors and banks led by the private-equity firms Elliott Management and Silver Point Capital, which lent Delphi the money to operate in bankruptcy.