Quoting the Crisis

18/11/2009

“ But, just as the backing out created huge waves in Germany, this latest salvo from GM is likely to enrage Canadians and Americans as they see their tax dollars at work to protect the jobs of Europeans. GM may think using Canadian and American bailout funds for GM Europe is a good ‘technical’ solution. But, it is a very poor choice politically and they will pay the price. „

Edward Harrison in GM looks to use US and Canadian tax money to bailout Opel - Credit Writedowns

Quote posted at 09:02

03/11/2009

» Ford Reports Nearly $1 Billion Profit - BusinessWeek

continuum:

It’s now fair to declare Ford Motor (F) an unqualified turnaround story.

The company reported a $997 million third-quarter profit on Nov. 2, adding profits to gains in market share and improvements in quality since CEO Alan Mulally took over in September 2006. The nearly $1 billion profit is a $1.2 billion turnaround from the third quarter of last year. The company also generated $1 billion in cash and paid down $2 billion in debt.

Link posted at 13:13

24/10/2009

“ The cultural deficiencies were equally stunning. At GM’s Renaissance Center headquarters, the top brass were sequestered on the uppermost floor, behind locked and guarded glass doors. Executives housed on that floor had elevator cards that allowed them to descend to their private garage without stopping at any of the intervening floors (no mixing with the drones). „

Steve Rattner in Behind the scenes with Steven Rattner, Obama’s ‘Car Czar’ - Oct. 21, 2009 

Quote posted at 15:02

“ Everyone knew Detroit’s reputation for insular, slow-moving cultures. Even by that low standard, I was shocked by the stunningly poor management that we found, particularly at GM, where we encountered, among other things, perhaps the weakest finance operation any of us had ever seen in a major company. „

Steve Rattner in Behind the scenes with Steven Rattner, Obama’s ‘Car Czar’ - Oct. 21, 2009 

Quote posted at 13:00

17/09/2009

» New Chrysler Boss Says September Auto Sales A "Disaster"

crazynutjob:

At least the US factories are working to restock that inventory.

Link posted at 14:50

15/09/2009

“ Canadian auto parts maker Magna and its Russian finance partner plan to cut 10,500 jobs in Europe when taking over car makers Opel and Vauxhall, 4,500 of them in Germany, a German newspaper reported. „

Magna wants to cut 10,500 jobs: report

Quote posted at 11:02

14/09/2009

“ The decision to impose extra tyre tariffs followed a petition by the United Steelworkers union, which represents workers at many US tyre factories. Official US figures show an increase in imports by volume from 14.6m tyres in 2004 to 46m in 2008. The US data shows that the value of tyre imports from China increased from $453.3m in 2004 to $1.8bn in 2008. Four US plants closed in 2006 and 2007 and three more are likely to be closed this year. US production capacity has fallen by 17.8 per cent in the past four years, according to the official data. „

Geoff Dyer and Tom Braithwaite in FT.com / China - US tyre duties spark clash

Quote posted at 21:29

27/08/2009

“ 

Visteon, which sought bankruptcy protection on May 28, wants to give bonuses of up to $80.1 million to top execs — as much as 250 percent of base pay, for some of them.

Visteon has delayed a hearing seeking approval from bankruptcy judge Christopher S. Sontchi on its bonus proposal.

“We still do intend to ask the court for authority to pay our leaders some incentive. It has not been determined when or if it will be different,” Visteon spokesman Jim Fisher said, adding the actual amount awarded would be far less than $80 million because of the company’s performance.

Sontchi has not yet ruled on Visteon’s request to cancel health and life insurance benefits to nearly 8,000 retirees and their dependents, and future retirees — a move that would save $31 million a year. Ford, GM and the United Auto Workers object to Visteon’s bonus plan, as does the U.S. Trustee in the Visteon case, Roberta A. DeAngelis. She noted that no exec working for the three domestic automakers is getting a bonus this year. Other major suppliers have suspended bonus plans.

Ford, which is providing financing to Visteon during its reorganization, called the bonus plan “entirely too rich.”

Ford, in court documents, said it “cannot see how, in a market with mass layoffs, salary reductions and bonus program curtailments occurring daily, anyone can justify a bonus program of $80.1 million when job retention should be enough.”

 „

David Shepardson in Bankrupt suppliers seek exec bonuses | detnews.com | The Detroit News

Quote posted at 17:07

26/08/2009

» Toyota reportedly to slash production by 10%

crazynutjob:

This is the rational thing to do.

  1. Cash for Clunkers moved demand forward, so some of the sales these last few weeks will cut into future sales.

  2. The baseline sales rate should pick up a bit naturally just because sales collapsed so far below the historical replacement rate for vehicles. But,

  3. Unemployment will act as a bit of a drag on sales, so everyone may have to wait a bit longer for the auto recovery.

  4. Even after a recovery, there’s no reason to expect the same sales rate as during the bubble.

Also, note that while Toyota is cutting some production in the US, they are increasing some production in Japan.

I am curious what the new sales rates will be for the different automakers when the new models come out. Curious, but not hopeful.

Link posted at 23:08

24/07/2009

“ It’s amazing the hoops the auto industry had to jump through. The humiliation they had to suffer compared to what the financial sector dealt with. The auto industry has been vilified as dinosaur-like or fully incompetent, whereas the financial sector has pretty much gotten a blank check. GM and Chrysler have had to submit all kinds of elaborate plans for restructuring, and they had to argue for their long-term viability. JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs never had to go through that. In this culture there is something about people who make things, they have a much lower prestige than people who trade in fictitious capital. „

Doug Henwood (via azspot)

Quote posted at 20:57

10/07/2009

“ GM now consists of four U.S. brands, has about $11 billion in U.S. debt and will be run by a smaller corps of executives, the Detroit-based company said today. It finished restructuring in 39 days, three days faster than Chrysler Group LLC. „

Jeff Green in New GM Emerges From Remains of Bankrupt Automaker (Update3) - Bloomberg.com

Quote posted at 18:51

06/07/2009

“ As nobody can seriously dispute, the only alternative to an immediate sale is liquidation – a disastrous result for GM’s creditors, its employees, the suppliers who depend on GM for their own existence, and the communities in which GM operates,. In the event of a liquidation, creditors now trying to increase their incremental recoveries would get nothing. „

Judge Robert Gerber of the US bankruptcy court in Manahattan, quoted in FT.com / Companies / Automobiles - Judge approves plan to sell GM assets

Quote posted at 12:04

28/06/2009

“ Who did we pick to figure out how to fix the automobile industry? We picked two investment bankers…It’s sort of like asking the arsonist to run the fire department. „

Louis Gerstner, the former International Business Machines Corp. chief executive officer.

Obama Picked Wrong Advisers for Auto Overhaul, Gerstner Says - Bloomberg.com

(via dan-e)

Quote posted at 19:49

10/06/2009

» Ford Says Government Backed Debt For GMAC Is Unfair

dan-e:

It’s like the person who is the bank when they play Monopoly… I know i always cheat!

crazynutjob:

Ford has been learning the danger of being a relatively successful company in the age of bailouts: higher borrowing costs.

13 vs 2.25 percent. Ouch.

Link posted at 10:11

08/06/2009

0.000000435%

crazynutjob:

continuum:dihard:

is roughly the percent of GM that each of us own.

$362 is what each of us paid for that equity stake.

That’s because $50,000,000,000 is the total amount the US Treasury has spent of GM’s survival. (That’s $30.1 billion for 60% of New GM’s equity + $20.6 billion that we spent trying to keep them out of bankruptcy.) And that’s just the beginning of it.

So $83,000,000,000 is what New GM would have to be worth in order for us to break even on our investment.

But $56,000,000,000 is what GM was worth at its all time peak in 2000.

And it’s only worth about $7,300,000,000 now.

So New GM would have to have about a 48% increase in value from its all time peak. Likely?

Text posted at 18:54

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