GMs goals for china require new plant

[Hannah Bell]

BEIJING -- General Motors Corp. would need to build another car-assembly plant in China to meet its goal of doubling its annual sales in the country to two million vehicles in five years, a senior executive said Wednesday...

GM in December opened a new passenger-vehicle plant in the northeastern Chinese city of Shenyang. That plant, the fifth one that GM runs with main Chinese joint-venture partner SAIC Motor Corp., has begun increasing production of the Chevrolet Cruze, the first compact sedan for the Chevy franchise in China. GM said the new car should arrive in dealer showrooms during the second quarter of this year.

GM also has two additional plants run by a separate, three-way venture GM jointly operates with SAIC and Wuling. That company produces and markets microminivans.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123979346116820629.html



Russia: General Motors Opens New Plant; Will Build SUVs and New Chevy Cruze

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia — Amid the gloom and doom of the economic meltdown that has seen auto sales plummet worldwide, the opening of General Motors' new $300 million plant, declared open on Friday here, is a rare bright spot.

The new plant will produce GM SUVs, the Chevrolet Captiva and Opel Antara, which have become status symbols in Russia. Starting in June 2009, the company will also start production of its new Chevrolet Cruze sedan, which was showcased at the 2008 Moscow Auto Show in September.

Buoyed by spiraling sales in this fast-growing auto market, GM started construction on the Shushary plant in June 2006. Last year, GM announced plans to nearly double its investment to $300 million and expanded production capacity to 70,000 vehicles from 40,000, citing "high demand for Chevrolet in Europe." The new plant will employ 1,700 workers who will produce 75,000 vehicles per year to start — which could balloon to 210,000 if demand is sufficient, officials said.

Chevrolet is the sales champion in Russia, with 190,553 cars sold last year alone, allowing GM to claim a 10.9 percent market share here. Likewise, Opel is in Russia's top 10 in sales, recording a whopping 238 percent sales growth in 2007, according to GM figures.

Since establishing itself in Russia in 1992, GM has grown to produce about 100,000 vehicles per year at plants across Russia....With operations in more than 50 cities, GM has been doing impressively well in the local auto market, analysts said. The company sold 259,000 vehicles in 2007, a 95 percent increase over the 132,600 it sold in 2006, increasing its market share to 9.5 percent from 6.6 percent a year earlier. Sales grew to 256,765 vehicles in the first nine months of 2008, according to figures released by the company...

http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do/News/articleId=135571


GM Argentina Says It Is Solid, Unaffected By Bankruptcy In US

GM Argentina President Edgar Lourencon told local media Monday that the company's operations in Argentina and Brazil accounted for 60% of the $1.3 billion in profit generated by the company's Latin American units last year.

"GM Argentina maintains its commitment to invest in the country, developing a new compact regional model in our Rosario industrial plant whose production will begin towards the end of 2009," the company said.

In 2007, then GM Chief Executive Rick Wagoner announced plans to invest $500 million in Latin America. The plan called for investing $400 million to develop the new product line, which would be sold in Latin America and exported to other emerging market countries.

Argentine President Cristina Fernandez is expected to announce that the government will provide around $55 million in funding to help GM develop a new small vehicle...

http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/djf500/200906021431DOWJONESDJONLINE000528_FORTUNE5.htm



GM Brazil having profitable '09, keeps investments

* Brazil, China seen as top priorities for GM

* GM Brazil unit has profitable 2009, after best ever 2008 (Recasts, adds priorities, sales forecasts)

By Guillermo Parra-Bernal and Alberto Alerigi Jr.

SAO CAETANO DO SUL, Brazil, June 2 (Reuters) - General Motors Corp (GMGMQ.PK) will push on with a massive investment plan in South America as the bankrupt automaker bets on expansion in up-and-coming emerging markets like Brazil, the top executive for the region said on Tuesday.

The $2.5 billion investment plan spanning 2007 through 2012 in the Mercosur region that includes Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay has been nearly all funded, said Jaime Ardila, GM's chief executive in the region.

The spending is focused on technology upgrades, plant expansions and developing new vehicle models.

The company still needs to secure $1 billion of the total investments, Ardila said. The Brazil and Mercosur unit has enough cash on hand to fund the plan but it may also seek loans from banks, he said.

"If we let banks participate in the financing, that's a future decision; but for the time being we have the necessary cash to fund our plans," Ardila said.

BEST-EVER PERFORMANCE

GM had its best-ever year in Brazil in 2008 and is also posting a profit so far in 2009, he said. Brazil sales in May rose 2 percent from a year earlier and surged 17 percent from April 2009, signaling GM's bankruptcy filing in the United States hasn't hindered its position in Brazil, Ardila said.

http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssConsumerGoodsAndRetailNews/idUSN0246735320090602



What don't people get about DELIBERATE DISINVESTMENT?

[Raksha]

1. I don't get ANYTHING about it!

Re What don't people get about DELIBERATE DISINVESTMENT?

I didn't even know it was happening. Why is GM building new plants all over the world and going bankrupt in the U.S.?

[Hannah Bell]

2. Same reason they moved plants from the North to the South in the US.

They want more money, & they don't want their workforce getting too uppity.


(They wanted the bankruptcy. Cause it lets them dump their contracts.)

[SpartanDem]

3. Because they're profitable there that's why

,but the U.S is their largest market and their main source of income. the success overseas though doesn't make up for the loss of their U.S market share. These plants don't have anything do with the loss U.S plants anyway since these cars aren't coming to the U.S. So why this is relevant to what is happening the U.S is beyond me.

[Hannah Bell]

4. you don't know why it's relevant that the US gov't is giving them 30 billion & they're off the hook

for the billions they owe to worker health care funds...

while they're spending billions on new plant overseas?

[SpartanDem]

5. No because IMO

investing in those plants doesn't make situation here any better in the long run. Where do you think the company would be without the overseas success? What's your solution to this dilemma?

[Hannah Bell]

6. why should i care about gm's success overseas if they're cutting jobs,

defunding pensioners, selling off assets here & making american taxpayers build them new plants overseas?

there's no "dilemna," it's a con.

[SpartanDem]

7. Because with out it

they would probably be gone by now and the point of this whole exercise with GM is to save to company and it's jobs. So there is a dilemma, given that taxpayer money is being use to save it whether it's right to let them invest overseas where they are going well or use over here for something. For what you don't exactly spell out, what should this money be use over here that will make them more profitable?

[Hannah Bell]

8. You don't seem to understand. The jobs aren't being saved.

Not in the US, anyway. In the latest round, GM is cutting 23,000 out of 62,000 UAW jobs, more than 1/3, with provisions in the bankruptcy agreement making it inevitable that more will follow.

We're paying for the divestment.

[SpartanDem]

9. Maybe you don't realize this

, but as a Michigander and someone with relatives working or have for all Big 3 companies. There are a lot jobs that depend on these plants/foreign operation engineers, designers etc. It's why I refuse to buy from foreign makers whether their cars are made here or not the profit doesn't end up in Detroit. Stopping these plants from being built isn't bringing US jobs back the only thing that'll do that is Americans stopping driving foreign crap. Like I said these cars aren't for here and quite frankly any good news even if it's foreign sales is welcome around these parts

[Hannah Bell]

10. Moving the plants & jobs to china won't either. And if you own stock,

you're busted unless you shorted it.

So I'm not sure why you're pretending this bankruptcy is going to save jobs.

on edit: i see, you think they'll repatriate their profits to the US. Why do you make that assumption? If most of their production & profits come from overseas, in what sense are they a US company, & why would they spend the money here v. somewhere else?

Least of all in michigan. They're talking about moving the HQ, btw.

[Ganja Ninja]

12. Profit statements can be manipulated to say anything you want.

Costs not directly related to domestic operations such as design and development of the vehicles and plants for overseas production can end up on the bottom line here. Creative bookkeeping is a common practice. The point is that if they can be profitable everywhere else then there's no reason for them not to be profitable here. That is of course unless they have an agenda that requires them to look unprofitable.

[jamieque]

11. Okay...

this sucks! Why don't we just invest money into building a brand new company. Hell, if I had billions of dollars I would open a new company that would revolutionize the whole damn industry. I am surprised that we don't have 100+ mile per gallon cars by now...

Wait... actually I am not suprised considering the incompetent leadership of the management at the top of 2 of the big 3. Notice that none of the upper management are being fired for making greedy stupid business decisions that led to these bankruptcies in the first place.

And before anyone says there is no way to make a 100+ mile per gallon or charge car right now let me inform you that there is.

How?

I'll tell you guys later once I get my ideas to the right people. Simply speaking the solutions I have would also eliminate the pollution problems the current gas guzzling cars have.

[blindpig]

13. k&r n/t