Is GM Looking for $$$ To Finance Australia Plant ?

[ksimons]

GM HOLDEN is planning to build its first four-cylinder car since the the 1980s at its Elizabeth plant under a deal worth up to $500 million to secure the company's future in Australia.

"I am not in a position to confirm or deny any of that," the chairman of GM Holden, Mark Reuss, told The Advertiser yesterday. While refusing to discuss any specifics, Mr Reuss stressed that GM Holden was well positioned despite the troubles in the U.S. He was emphatic in his belief that General Motors would not be forced into bankruptcy or liquidation.

The small-car move follows a similar plan from Ford Australia, which will begin making the four-cylinder Focus at Broadmeadows in 2011 for sales locally and exports to the Asia-Pacific region.


Link:
http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/story/0,22606,24718072-5006301,00.html

[hoplophile]

1. No wonder GM is asking for so much more than Ford.

[ksimons]

2. fave part: adding the small car would protect the jobs of its 3000 workers ...nt

[depakid]

3. Funny- some Aussies thought the same thing about Americans when they provided billions

for their own auto industry- which, as you mention actually IS making an effort to produce better, more efficient cars:

US car giants'laugh at Aussie suckers'

* $6.2bn will be pumped into car industry
* Insiders say money will end up in US
* Hundreds of carmaking jobs already lost

THE American owners of local Ford and Holden plants will be laughing at the Australian "suckers" who have handed them a $6.2 billion industry assistance package, former car company executives say.

Expressing disappointment yesterday at the latest industry handout, industry veterans said the money would ultimately end up back in Detroit rather than bolstering needy sectors of the local industry.

Former managing director of Mitsubishi Australia Graham Spurling said the car companies would get a "free ride" from the Rudd Government on research and development, The Australian reports.

"They will say: 'Aren't we suckers'," said Mr Spurling, who led a South Australian government special automotive industry taskforce.

"We should be pumping so much - everything we can - into making the remaining car components people more efficient, more financially viable, less reliant on the vagaries of the car companies and their choices."

The Rudd Government is pushing for the big car companies to invest in locally made "green cars" by more than doubling its green car fund to $1.3 billion.

Component manufacturers will be encouraged to consolidate and increase efficiency with $116.3 million, and the 10 per centimport tariff will be halved from 2010.

But the financial troubles of GM and Ford in the US continue to cast doubt on the survival of subsidiary Australian manufacturing.

More: http://www.news.com.au/business/money/story/0,25479,24639993-462,00.html

[bemildred]

4. Nationalize them and socialize them, or let them die.

"Rescuing" the current failed management is a loser.

[Soylent Brice]

5. there was a story here yesterday about the VOlt being made in

Britain.

it's not just Australia. apprently they could either

a. make the fuel efficient cars overseas, and start producing immediately

or

b. take 1-2 yrs rebuilding their plants' infrastructure to maintain and house production of fuel efficient cars.

one costs american jobs, but gives us what we want sooner.

the other keeps american jobs, but delays what we want now.

looks like they've made their decision.

i know a GM exec and he was telling me that the Corvette production is being moved to China.