The News Review:
- Japanese car makers upbeat on 2009 China sales
- GM exec says 1600 will lose jobs in next few days
- Schwarzenegger blames auto woes on empty US policy
- GM lobbying falls 15 percent in first quarter
- Idea of quick GM bankruptcy filing meets with skepticism
Japanese car makers upbeat on 2009 China sales
MarketWatch
“China’s economy and auto industry are continuing their steady growth amid the global economy slowing down” Katsuaki Watanabe Toyota president said at a press conference at the Shanghai auto show. The Chinese auto market is showing surprising resilience with sales in March climbing 5% to a record 1. 11 million vehicles helped by government stimulus initiatives to boost spending such as tax cuts and other subsidies on auto purchases. This is a major improvement from the last six months when car sales slowed amid the global financial crisis. The country’s vehicle sales growth slowed to 6.
Related from 9p2cn: Honda’s China vehicle sales up 11.7 percent in 2008
GM exec says 1600 will lose jobs in next few days
The Associated Press
The company will provide services to help them find other jobs for up to three months he said. GM must cut costs and win concessions from bondholders and its unions in order to get more government aid. The government’s auto task force has said the company must persuade the holders of $28 billion in GM bonds to take stock in exchange for part of the debt. and Canada must agree to concessions too. For GM to qualify for more help the United Auto Workers must agree to take stock for part of the roughly $20 billion that GM must pay into a union-run trust that will take over retiree health care costs starting next year.
Schwarzenegger blames auto woes on empty US policy
AFP
“The government should provide money to help the automakers in research and development but it can also no longer keep changing their policies” said Schwarzenegger at the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) conference here. “We need a vision for energy a vision for our cars a vision for greenhouse gases and a vision for tailpipe emissions. In all this time we have not had those visions. “The lack of a coherent energy policy dating back to the late 1980s has hurt carmakers he said alleging that prevailing policies had been basically tied to the low price of oil in the United States which stiffled innovation.
GM lobbying falls 15 percent in first quarter
The Detroit News
com | The Detroit News. 8 million on lobbying in the first three months of 2009 falling 15 percent over the last three months of 2008.
Idea of quick GM bankruptcy filing meets with skepticism
USA Today
He looked at recent prepackaged bankruptcies and saw that none took less than six months. That’s because bankruptcy law allows every interested party to be heard by a judge which can take weeks months or years. Auto supplier Delphi filed in ctober 2005. It is still in bankruptcy court and more than 16000 documents have been filed. “The process of bankruptcy cannot be rushed” Bernstein said. GM has received $13. 4 billion in federal loans and President bama said it must offer a more aggressive restructuring plan by June 1 to get more aid.