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* Russia - GM, Ford invest in new plants to take advantage of growth
Moscow,Russia -The Detroit News (USA), by Karl Henkel -May 6, 2013: -- Russia is a giant diamond in the rough for automakers struggling to climb out of the financial muck in most of Europe... Russia is largely an untold story, taking a back seat to the turbulent European auto market, with sales at 20-year lows... But the Russian auto market, close to other growth markets like Belarus, Kazakhstan, the Ukraine and Uzbekistan, is primed for growth and has an appetite for expensive SUVs... The passenger car market in Russia could grow by another 1 million vehicles annually and top 3.5 million sales, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers. And during the next 10 years, because of an aging vehicle fleet and helped by a declining light vehicle import tariff, the number of new cars sales in Russia will be equal to all of the cars on the road today... But the true impact of Russia may be further down the road because of nearby countries like Kazakhstan... Auto sales in Kazakhstan are up 50 percent this year and long-term could reach 400,000 annually... That's roughly the same number of sales that Belarus, Ukraine, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan had collectively in 2012, according to a report compiled by Ernst and Young... U.S.-based automakers Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Co. are heavily investing in Russia...* Michigan / USA - Detroit automakers fight to stem huge losses in Europe
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(Photo by Akos Stiller / Bloomberg: An employee works on a camshaft at GM’s new Opel assembly plant in Szentgotthard, Hungary. GM expects to become profitable in Europe by mid-decade)Rüsselsheim,Germany -The Detroit News, by Karl Henkel -6 May 2013: -- Detroit automakers stand to lose more than $4 billion in Europe this year as they struggle to push through the sort of changes that saved the U.S. industry four years ago... Plant closures and layoffs — tools that helped turn around the U.S. market, where Detroit automakers shed 230,000 jobs between 2001 and 2010 and eliminated brands in the midst of a precipitous sales decline — are taking longer to execute there. And restructuring is more expensive than in North America because of powerful European unions, political resistance and restrictive labor laws... Sales in Europe are running at 20-year lows. But Ford, General Motors Co. and Chrysler Group LLC, owned by Fiat SpA, remain profitable in North America, making it difficult to sell sweeping cutbacks in Europe because the parent companies are now financially stable. And as automakers seek leaner operations in Western Europe — they've already shed about 300,000 jobs in the past decade — they don't want to be caught short if growing demand in Eastern Europe, particularly in Russia, outpaces production. GM has lost $15 billion in Europe the past dozen years and stands to lose more than $1 billion there this year. Ford will lose nearly $4 billion, combined, in 2012 and 2013. Fiat, which could lose more than $1 billion in Europe this year, is barely profitable because of Chrysler's success. Ford and GM expect to become profitable in Europe by mid-decade...
* Mexico - Audi first of German luxury carmakers to open full-scale plant in
San Jose Chiapa,MEX -The Detroit News (USA), by John McCormick -May 4, 2013: -- Outside this small, dusty town in the heart of the country, Audi is making history as the first German luxury brand to set up a complete car plant in Mexico... Audi rivals BMW and Mercedes-Benz established manufacturing operations years ago on the North American continent but decided on the U.S., in South Carolina and Alabama respectively. Despite their best efforts, both BMW and Mercedes experienced initial quality problems with their U.S.-made vehicles... Audi is determined not to suffer quality issues in Mexico and has begun an elaborate training program, three years before the $1.3 billion plant starts production in 2016...
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