Posted on 07/04/2003 3:41:10 PM PDT by Willie Green
For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use.
General Motors is expecting final approval in the next few days from the Chinese government to commence an expansion plan for its Shanghai-GM joint venture, which already produces Buicks for domestic consumption and will soon start making engines for export to North America.
Once approval is forthcoming - a formality for GM's partner, Shanghai Auto Industry Corp. (SAIC) - work is expected to start in August on a new line to be constructed on land adjacent to the existing plant, which started production in 1999. Pending the rubber-stamp, GM has declined to name the amount of investment required, but it is estimated to be the region of USD200 million.
The Shanghai GM plant is currently operating at its two-shift maximum, selling 59,000 cars in the first five months of 2003, up 62 percent year on year. Last year, GM's Chinese joint ventures posted combined sales of 264,000 units.
In order to increase its market share as TIV grows apace, it requires additional capacity and more models. No official word yet on the specific model or models to be built at the new facility what it will build at the new plant but it may well be a variant of the next generation Holden Commodore, tailored for Chinese consumers by the Pacific-Asia Technology Centre (PATAC).
PATAC is a local joint venture between GM and Shanghai Auto, which has just moved to a much larger building and is taking on staff to take its workforce up to 300.
If ONE American job is lost because of this I will never buy GM again... NOT EVER!
Happy 4th of July to you!!
Come, come!
It's just ( untrammeled ) Capitalism!
After all, "What's good for GM, is good for America"!
Sarcasm
Tia
Sometimes I think nobody in government is even thinking about American jobs anymore and that includes 95% of all politicians.
Darn!!
Of course I'm supposed to fix it.
BLEAAAH!
I'm not opposed to foreign cars, but I draw the line when "American" manufactures use >ENEMY< labor and equipment and then try to sell the crap here.
prisoner6 '56 Plymouth Savoy wagon
'58 Buick Invicta wagon
'67 Ford Mustamg convertible
'69 VW camper bus
'69 Renault R16
'64 Mercedes 220SE
'71 Jaguar XJ6
'73 Mazda RX2
'75 Ford Econoline
'78 Buick Riverera
'73 Chevy Nova
'76 AMC Pacer wagon
several various year R5 Renault LeCars...sigh
'88 AMC/Renault Medallion/R21
'89 Dodge Grand Caravan
'86 Chevy Caprice
'94 Plymouth Voyager
Latest project - '84 Pontiac Fiero 2M4 with blown engine...Wife HATES me
Well, now you have a bit of a dilemma. Posted earlier today was a statement that GM sold $17B in bonds to shore up its pension funds. Somehow I don't believe that the Chinese labor unions are demanding cradle to grave care from GM the way US labor unions have managed to swindle GM stockholders. GM may not have the option to build in the US anymore. Those $17B are going to be spent on the perpetual care and feeding of American factory rats until even their spouses have moved on to the next world. So, here is the problem. Does GM just tell its hammock lounging retirees that they will be cut off, so that the money GM has raised could be used profitably in this country? Or does GM exploit the cheaper resources in China to cut is labor costs enough where GM can still find enough cash in their profit margins to make sure the guy who spent twenty years of his 40hr/week life bolting seats to the floorboard, a nice pension to power that Winnebago across the country? What is more important? That some young punk with a tongue stud and tattoos pushes buttons on a robot in Detroit, or two people in China fully employed and one fat and happy GM retiree having the time of his life at Six Flags? True, the young punk needs a gig, and the US Leviathon needs the tax revenue. But in today's political climate who cares about the youth when it is the retirees who vote?
Wanna start a riot? (grin)
I will!
Hey!
PEROT!
( stand back, PL)
Tia
That is a BIG BUMP!!
Now, about all those cars.... WOW!! I can tell you like to work on cars just from the list!!
An AMC pacer... oh, my gosh!! A friend had one of those things and I remember him telling my husband... that he was thinking of leaving it on the railraod tracks and letting a train KILL IT! I laughed till I cried. Course that was WAY back in the 80's.
Sorry about the wife... tell her, at least it "ain't another woman"!! That might work.... : ^ ]
As it stands China's sales equate to 5% of the unit volume sold by GM in the United States. We are 20 times larger, and that is only considering GM's numbers.
From GM's website (referring to US sales): For the calendar year, GM dealers delivered 4,858,705 new vehicles, down a modest 1 percent from 2001.
GM has a total of 28% of the US market, and approximately 10% of the China market. (VW has about 50% of the China market)
That puts the US market at about 17 million cars in 2002, and the entire China market at 2.6 million units.
Grand total they are about 15% of our size.
That was back before WWII and during WWII. He retired right after the war. Now, I don't recall him getting much of a pension back then... he had saved a lot money himself and owned his own home. He was not a "move to Florida" sort of man.
They'll know what to 'do' with them!
A New Hindu Bagdad on the horizon?
/sarcasm
The same idiot GM customers that bought the
-Vega with aluminum cylinder walls
-Oldsmobile with a 350 gas engine converted to disel and blew up at 35,000 miles
-Chevy Caprice with a nylon reverse gear
-Z28 Camero with a V8 and an electric fan (gave it 10 more horsepower when it was not overheated at the side of the road).
GM does not stand for Good Merchandise and Chinese engines are not going to make it any better.
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