About That GM China Sales Report

The headlines are blaring how GM sold more cars in China, a first for the corporation, than the United States. Their sales in China alone are up 28.8% from a year ago.

GM's sales in China rose 28.8% last year to 2,351,610 vehicles, GM said Monday. U.S. sales rose just 6.3% to 2,215,227

Unfortunately the financial press then tries to tie those sales to mean more U.S. jobs. That is simply not the case.

The company said the expansion will generate 750 jobs for the Flint plant, which makes Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra pickups and has been operating on two shifts per day. The last time the plant worked around the clock was in the second quarter of 2008.

GM will fill the shift by recalling laid off workers who will start arriving in the second quarter. It expects to hire no new employees.

The Flint factory employs about 2,100 hourly and salaried workers. It made 115,000 trucks last year.

Last year, GM sold 8.39 million autos. Toyota is still #1 with 8.42 million car sales.

What the press and GM are not telling you is that sales in China are extensively through Joint Ventures. A joint venture means a Chinese company is partnering with GM, but they have their own plants, their own factories, their own manufacturing and their own workers.

As an example of the media spin, recently an export deal to China of $400 million in vehicle exports and $500 million in components over two years was announced.

What they are not telling you is this very JV, or Chinese company, made & sold 1.03 million of the 2.35 million GM cars sold in China.

GM Wants to Dump Off Their Skilled Labor

GM's recent move to early retire their skilled labor is a great example of labor arbitrage by nation-states. The reason is so they can match labor costs to Mexico for manufacturing a new car in the United States. Remember all of that talk about fixing NAFTA?

U.S. Taxpayer bails out GM, now China Gets a Piece?

At first blush most people will probably be outraged China would buy a stake in GM. This is from the impending IPO (or initial public offering).

In a sign of the changing fortunes of the world's top two economies, China's biggest auto maker, SAIC Motor Corp., is negotiating to acquire a stake of about 1% in General Motors Co. worth about $500 million, according to a person familiar with the matter.

The U.S. auto maker also is prepared to sell more than $1 billion worth of shares to sovereign wealth funds in the Middle East and Asia. Combined, the sales would give foreign investors roughly 16% of the shares to be sold next week under an initial public offering of stock, and give them a stake of some 4% in the Detroit auto maker.

Pretty incredible huh? We bail out GM and now China buys a piece? That said, with the impending trade war and considering GM's sales and existing joint ventures in China this should come as no surprise.

Shame the government didn't do a better job of negotiating U.S. jobs in the bail out mix.

GM's IPO is due to be priced next Wednesday:

Here's a bit of good news, GM to pay back the government

Looks like GM has recovered (unlike Detroit):

General Motors Co., steadily returning to health after its near-collapse in 2009, said Tuesday it plans to pay off its government loans by June — five years ahead of schedule — and could report a profit as early as this year.

Remember all of the controversy and blasting of the U.S. auto industry?

Here is the past and current financial situation. GM may report a profit this quarter.

Saturn Dies

No, not the planet, but that wouldn't surprise me either these days. Nope, a deal fell through to sell off the Saturn brand of cars. Bloomberg has the best details on what happened.

General Motors Co. will close Saturn, the brand created 24 years ago to mirror Japan-based companies’ carmaking, after Penske Automotive Group Inc. said it has broken off discussions to buy the unit.

Penske, operator of 310 auto retailers, backed out because of concern it wouldn’t have access to cars and sport-utility vehicles after 2011 when GM stopped supplying vehicles.

Makes sense, why buy a brand if there will be no new cars to sell? But guess how many jobs this involves:

GM Selling Itself to....GM?

This is an update to a post from June 29th. A judge approved the sale of GM to itself.

This is one of the weirder things I've ever heard of. General Motors to seek approval to sell itself:

General Motors Corp (GMGMQ.PK) is heading to bankruptcy court on Tuesday to seek approval to sell its assets to a "New GM" in a plan to reinvigorate the automaker under U.S. government ownership.

GM is seeking approval for the sale from U.S. bankruptcy Judge Robert Gerber just 30 days after filing for Chapter 11. Under the deal, brokered by the Obama administration's autos task force, the company would sell its assets under Section 363 of the bankruptcy code to a "New GM" and continue to operate its best assets, like Chevrolet and Cadillac, while gaining access to billions in funding from the U.S. Treasury.

Saturn's diesel savior and the foundation of a new "Big 3 or 4 or 5??"

In case anyone missed the news, Saturn was sold to the Penske Auto Group. For the uninitiated, Penske's an automotive conglomerate to put it mildly. Basically if it's got wheels or has something to do with transportation, chances are this group has a piece of the action. The company is the second largest automotive car dealer in the country. They also have their own u-haul truck business. And yes, they do racecars.

Obama Administration tried to Kill GM Pension Plan.

I suppose that this shouldn't be a surprise given the number of "Chicago Boys" in the Obama administration.

Washington -- General Motors Corp. won't terminate its hourly pension plan, the United Auto Workers union told its members today -- a move that could have cost retirees thousands of dollars in lost benefits.

Here Comes the Bomb - GM to file for bankruptcy on June 1st

We all knew this was coming, but now it's official, GM to file for bankruptcy on June 1st.

General Motors Corp., the world’s largest automaker until its 77-year reign ended in 2008, plans to file for bankruptcy protection on June 1 and sell most of its assets to a new company, people familiar with the matter said.

The U.S. Treasury will provide financing for GM while the asset sale is arranged to a company formed by the government, according to a regulatory filing today. June 1 was the deadline set by the U.S. for GM to restructure outside court.

GM, which would follow Chrysler LLC into bankruptcy, plans to build a new business around assets such as the Cadillac and Chevrolet brands. The 100-year-old automaker, a victim of tumbling sales, fell short in a bid to cut debt by $44 billion by June 1.

GM gets more money to declare bankruptcy and offshore outsource the jobs?

GM is getting yet another $4 billion of U.S. taxpayer money. This makes their bail out loan total $19.4 billion. This figure does not include the Canadian taxpayer money also given to GM.

Yet GM is heading towards bankruptcy at the end of the month. Supposedly the bankruptcy is a show down with GM bondholders and investors, but why pump more U.S. taxpayer money into a company that is planning to offshore outsource the jobs?

GM has already stated their intent to offshore outsource 98% of production, as part their (government approved) restructuring plans.

Do you want your taxpayer dollars going to a company who is busy squeezing workers and planning to offshore outsource their jobs?

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