March 6, 2017
By Steven Overly
General Motors (click here) is selling its two major European brands to French automaker PSA Group and pulling back from the world’s third-largest auto market, where the company has struggled to turn a profit for nearly two decades.
GM’s Opel and Vauxhall brands, as well as the European arm of its financial division, were valued at about $2.3 billion in the transaction. If the deal clears regulators, it is expected to close by the end of the year, the companies said.
PSA Group will then become the second-largest automaker in Europe behind Volkswagen.
The sale includes 11 manufacturing facilities and one engineering center that collectively employ about 40,000 people, according to the companies. GM will incur a non-cash accounting charge of $4 billion to $4.5 billion as a result of the sale....
GM's CEO has a much healthier vision for the company. Building facilities and cars in Europe has not worked and will not work. Building cars in the USA for the USA market and exporting them will work. It is the way it is suppose to work.
August 5, 2017
By David Sheperson
Washington — U.S. auto imports (click here) hit a new all-time high in the first half of the year — as auto production is surging in lower wage countries such as Mexico and a strong dollar is hindering American exports.
The overall U.S. trade deficit rose 7.1 percent — adjusted for seasonal fluctuations — to $43.8 billion in June. Autos, which includes vehicles, parts and engines, accounted for more than one-third of the trade deficit as U.S. auto imports rose to $29.8 billion, the U.S. Census Bureau reported Wednesday.
U.S. exports of autos are down $3 billion in the first half of 2015 to $74.8 billion. Auto exports were flat in June at $12.6 billion — up just $62 million.
By contrast, U.S. imports of autos rose by $10.8 billion to $171.5 billion in the first six months of the year....
...The U.S. sent Japan about $1 billion in total auto exports in the first half of the year, while Japan sent the United States $25 billion in cars, trucks and parts.
Both nations are fighting in the ongoing free trade talks over rules that would make each country more attractive for production.
The U.S. auto trade deficit is soaring. In May, the United States imported $29.4 billion in autos — nearly as much as July. In the first half of the year, the U.S. imported $171.5 billion in autos — up $10.8 billion.
Auto imports have been rising steadily. Americans bought $254 billion in imported automobiles in 2011, $298 billion in 2012, $309 billion in 2013 and $328 billion last year. The auto trade deficit is also rising — it was $156 billion in 2013 and $169 billion last year....
Japan as an ally needs the USA market, but, does it need this much of the USA market?
Interestingly, Japan's economy is not impoverished. It is not Third World. He has many programs to support it's people. It has a higher minimum wage than the USA, yet, it has products the American consumer still purchases over that of a USA product.
Imagine that, a First World country that actually values it's people and still sells products on the USA market with exceptional results. The Japanese people have a high quality of life.
March 6, 2017
New York - Japanese automakers logged record sales (click here) in the United States in 2015 as the overall market swelled to an unprecedented level, driven by the stronger economy and robust demand for sport utility vehicles and trucks, Autodata Corp. data showed Tuesday.
Manufacturers sold 17.47 million cars in 2015, up 5.7 percent from the year before. The figure broke the previous record of 17.40 million cars sold in 2000, according to the U.S. research company.
Low fuel prices intensified the shift toward SUVs and pickup trucks and away from hybrid and electric vehicles. Light trucks made up 52.1 percent of the market in 2015, compared to 50.1 percent in 2014 and 48.8 percent in 2013, according to Autodata....
...Among Japanese automakers, Toyota Motor Corp. reported all-time high sales of 344,601 for its Lexus luxury brand, up 10.7 percent. Toyota’s overall sales expanded 5.3 percent to 2,499,313 units — its third-best annual result after 2.62 million in 2007 and 2.54 million in 2006. Japan’s top automaker was the third-largest player in the United States.
“December closed out an all-time, best-ever year with sales we couldn’t have predicted,” Lexus group Vice President Jeff Bracken said in a press release, adding that the brand is “well positioned for 2016.”...
