Saturday, November 22, 2008

General Motors will idle plants; Awaiting U.S. aid decision

General Motors Corp., under pressure after Congress delayed action on automaker aid, is idling four plants for an additional week, extending the shutdown of an engineering center and returning some corporate jets.

The closure of a truck factory in Oshawa, Ontario, is also being moved up by two months to May 14, Tony Sapienza, a spokesman for Detroit-based GM, said yesterday. The plants that will have the extra shutdown week in January are in Michigan, Ohio, Kansas and Missouri.

GM, which has said it may run short of operating cash by the end of this year, acted a day after Democratic leaders in Congress put off deciding on loans to automakers until next month. Congressional leaders want GM, Ford and Chrysler LLC to make a case for the help.

``At this point, GM is not thinking about 2015, they are thinking about 2009,'' said Mike Robinet, an analyst at CSM Worldwide Inc. in Northville, Michigan. ``Ninety percent of their decisions are focused on what they need do to bolster revenue and save cash.''

To read on ...click on the link below:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a0ZU61nc9TH0&refer=home

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I believe this problems with car making industry are natural. Lack of innovations, strong workers' unions making the companies inflexible, traditional concept of "American car" being unable to cope with high oil prices - problems were piling up for a very long time.
But I don't think company like GM can fall into dust. It can go bankrupt, it can split into more companies, it may sell its subsidiaries, but it will survive finally...
Regards,
Jill

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