The man who trades freedom for security does not deserve nor will he ever receive either. – Benjamin Franklin
– Ford Targeting Massive $25.5 Billion Cuts, Confirming End Of Major Automotive Cycle:
The rising cost of commodities, combined with the end of a bubble in the automobile sector, are taking tolls on automobile companies and forcing drastic restructurings at major US automakers like Ford.
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Total new-vehicle sales in the US fell 5.2% year-over-year in December to 1.6 million units. For all of 2017, sales declined by 320,000 vehicles, or 1.8%, to 17.23 million units. It was the first overall decline since the Financial Crisis.
Compared to 2015, sales fell by 249,033 vehicles, or 1.4%. These sales are vehicles delivered by dealers to their customers, or delivered by automakers directly to large fleet customers, as reported by Autodata.
For the big three US automakers and some import brands it was the second year in a row of sales declines (two-year percent change from 2015):
The table below shows new-vehicle sales by automaker, sorted by total sales in 2017 (gray column). Automakers with declining sales in 2017 are marked in red. The green column shows the two-year percentage change from 2015:
Update: sure enough, here comes Trump’s twitter victory lap:
“@DanScavino: Ford to scrap Mexico plant, invest in Michigan due to Trump policies”https://t.co/137nUo03Gl
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 3, 2017
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Trump’s recent “strong hints” to US-based automakers to keep production within the US are starting be heard loud and clear, and nowhere more so than at Ford, which just hours after observing the beat down Trump gave to competitor GM on Twitter, announced that it is scrapping plans for a new $1.6 billion plant in San Luis Potosi, Mexico after itself coming under criticism by Donald Trump for shifting small-car production south of the border, and announced it would instead invest $700m in a plant expansion in Flat Rock, Michigan.
– More Jobs Shipped Out Of The Country: Ford Moves All Small Car Production To Mexico:
What is going to happen when America finally doesn’t have any manufacturing jobs left at all? On Wednesday, we learned that Ford Motor Company is shifting all small car production to Mexico. Of course the primary goal for this move is to save a little bit of money. This hits me personally, because my grandfather once worked for Ford. He was loyal to Ford all his life, and he always criticized other members of the family when they bought a vehicle that was not American-made. When I was young I didn’t understand why making vehicles in America is so important, but I sure do now. By shipping jobs overseas, we are destroying jobs, we are destroying small businesses and we are destroying our tax base. If we want to be a wealthy nation, we have got to make things here, and hopefully we can get the American people to start to understand this.
Read moreMore Jobs Shipped Out Of The Country: Ford Moves All Small Car Production To Mexico
– Ford Announces Plans To Self-Destruct Starting In 2021:
Ford CEO, Mark Fields, sat down with Bloomberg to discuss plans to introduce a completely autonomous car by 2021. The only real problem we see with that plan is that it pretty much ensures their own demise. That said, they’re pretty much doomed anyway so might as well go for it.
The company said it plans to have a fully autonomous vehicle — no steering wheel, no gas or brake pedals — available by 2021 for ride-hailing services.
Read moreFord Announces Plans To Self-Destruct Starting In 2021
– GM, Ford US Auto Sales Tumble In “Bellwether” Month Of May:
You can’t say we weren’t warned. As reported over a month ago, before the surprising rebound in April retail sales, the biggest drag on consumer spending was auto sales. One month later, this is finally starting to materialize when earlier today, both GM and Ford’s US vehicle sales fell more than analysts had estimated in May. According to Bloomberg this “raises questions about stalling consumer demand.” Not really: as we also warned a month ago when looking at stalling use car price changes, it was only a matter of time before the lack of demand for every low priced autos spilled over to new car sales, which it now has.
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– Ford to invest $1.6 billion for new plant in Mexico:
Ford is among at least a half-dozen automakers that have either expanded production or built new plants in Mexico in recent years.
Ford sparked outrage from both the UAW and Republican front-runner Donald Trump on Tuesday, uniting two unlikely foes, after the automaker said it would invest $1.6 billion to build a new plant in Mexico and create 2,800 new jobs there.
Read moreFord Dumps Detroit, To Build $1.6 Billion New Plant In Mexico
– Chart Of The Day: The Unprecedented Implosion Of European Car Sales (ZeroHedge, Dec 4, 2012):
The graphic below, which presents an unvarnished picture of Europe’s true economic state, needs no explanation:
Source: FT
In the context of the above, no explanation is also needed that quietly, and without much fanfare, French car-maker, Peugeot, and Europe’s second largest after VW, was recently GMed, and received a government bailout.
Carmaker Peugeot gets $9.1B government bailout
The French government has agreed to underwrite up to €7 billion ($9.1 billion) of bonds issued by Banque PSA Finance SA, the financing unit of carmaker PSA Peugeot Citroen SA, allowing the French automaker to offer low-cost credit to its dealerships and clients amid a slump in sales.
Read moreUnprecedented Implosion Of European Car Sales (Chart Of The Day)
Flashback:
– Welcome to the Recovery (New York Times, by Timothy Geithner, August 2, 2010)
‘Recovery’ is the ‘Greatest Depression’.
Don’t miss:
– COLLAPSE: 37 Facts About How Cruel This Economy Has Been To Millions Of Desperate American Families
– Will The Bottom Fall Out? 15 Signs That Layoffs And Job Losses Are Skyrocketing (Economic Collapse, Oct 25, 2012):
If you still have a good job, you might want to hold on to it very tightly because there are a whole bunch of signs that unemployment in the United States is about to start getting worse again. Over the past several weeks, a substantial number of large corporations have announced disappointing earnings for the third quarter. Many of those large corporations are also loaded up with huge amounts of debt. So what is the solution? Well, the favorite solution on Wall Street these days seems to be to lay off workers. In fact, it is almost turning into a feeding frenzy. Since September 1st, we have seen more job cuts announced than during any other two month period since the start of 2010. These announcements represent future layoffs and job losses which are not even showing up in the unemployment numbers yet. So needless to say, things don’t look very promising for the end of 2012 or for the beginning of 2013. If this race to eliminate jobs becomes a stampede, will we see the bottom fall out of the employment market?If you are concerned about whether or not you will still have a job 12 months from now, you might find the numbers posted below to be quite alarming. We have not seen layoff announcements come this fast and this furious since the gloomy days of the last recession.
According to Bloomberg, job cuts are well ahead of the pace set last year…
North American companies have announced plans to eliminate more than 62,600 positions at home and abroad since Sept. 1, the biggest two-month drop since the start of 2010, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Firings total 158,100 so far this year, more than the 129,000 job cuts in the same period in 2011.
So what happens if the economy really starts sliding rapidly and this loss of jobs becomes an avalanche?
Can the U.S. economy and the American people handle another major economic downturn?
Some of the biggest names in the business world have announced job cuts in recent weeks.
The following are 15 signs that layoffs and job losses are skyrocketing…
Read more‘Welcome To The Recovery’: 15 Signs That Layoffs And Job Losses Are Skyrocketing
– Worse Than The Infamous Lehman September: France’s Private Sector Gets Kicked Off A Cliff (ZeroHedge, Oct 1, 2012):
This should have been an exciting moment: the Paris auto show, “Mondial de l’Automobil,” this weekend with over 100 new models from around the world, from econo-boxes with rounded corners to exotic prototypes that will never see production. Chicks next to some of them. Nausea-inducing colors, downsized motors. Something for everyone. But it had been preceded by two days of supplier events loaded with the dire verbiage of an industry that is on a death march. Particularly in France, whose private sector is veering into economic fiasco. And on Monday, it became official.
A barometer of the real economy in France, new car sales as measured by registrations, crashed in September—down 18.3% from September last year, and accelerating (year-to-date, sales were down “only” 13.9%). It was the worst September in years, worse even than the infamous Lehman September of 2008. And 2012 is shaping up to be the worst year since long before the financial crisis.
Of the French brands, market leader PSA Peugeot Citroen saw sales drop “only” 5%, helped by the introduction of its new sub-compact Peugeot 208. But year to date, sales were down 18.4%. Renault got killed. A stunning 33.4% plunge for the month and 19.8% YTD.
An equal-opportunity fiasco. Even the heroes from across the Rhine got their clocks cleaned in France. Volkswagen (VW, Audi, SEAT, Skoda) fell 17.4%. BMW and Mercedes where hit as well. GM (Opel, Chevrolet) tumbled 20.8%, Ford 31.5%. And Fiat, well, it might as well hang up its hat: down 38.4%!
Congratulations Centrally Planned Garbage Motors: GM slides to below its IPO price, hitting $32.75. And now we get to see if GETCO has been swimming with no bathing suit on the entire time.
(Click on iimages to enlarge.)
As a reminder, 112 hedge funds hold GM stock. Oops.
And time to remind the retarded market making robots of what we posted a week ago:
And some bad news for the world’s worst car maker (recently bankrupt), which has bet its entire “growth” platform as per the recent IPO on the one market that is so far unfamiliar with said carmaker’s “quality” reputation. In January, the Shanghai-based China Passenger Car Association reported that sales of passenger cars fell 10.3 percent in January from the month before to 965,238. Per Manufacturing.net: “Chinese bought 13.7 million passenger vehicles last year, up by a third from 2009. But that robust growth is forecast to cool this year due to the expiration of tax incentives for some vehicle purchases and a renewed effort by cities to bring traffic under control.”Is the recent collectivist action to cool off purchasing actually going to have an adverse impact not only on GM’s margins but its sales as well? Why yes. But the market will be stunned when this is publicly announced shortly.
Furthermore, the deterioration in car sales is accelerating:
Read moreGM (Garbage Motors), Held By 112 Hedge Funds, Slides Below IPO Price
See also:
– US: Record 1 in 6 Americans in Government Anti-Poverty Programs
Aug. 31 (Bloomberg) — U.S. auto sales in August probably were the slowest for the month in 28 years as model-year closeout deals failed to entice consumers concerned the economy is worsening and they may lose their jobs.
Industrywide deliveries, to be released tomorrow, may have reached an annualized rate of 11.6 million vehicles this month, the average of eight analysts’ estimates compiled by Bloomberg. That would be the slowest August since 1982, according to researcher Ward’s AutoInfoBank. The rate would be 18 percent below last year’s 14.2 million pace, when the U.S. government’s “cash for clunkers” incentive program boosted sales.
“Home sales are way down, the stock market is way down, the unemployment report is very disappointing and consumer confidence is sputtering,” Jesse Toprak, vice president of industry trends at TrueCar.com, said in an interview. “People just don’t want to make big-ticket purchases because they’re uncertain about their jobs and the value of their homes.”
While automakers increased discounts by 1 percent from July to an average of $2,864 per vehicle, sales to individuals probably fell 7 percent from last month, according to Santa Monica, California-based TrueCar.
Read moreUS Auto Sales May Hit 28-Year Low as Discounts Flop
Billionaire Kirk Kerkorian, whose Beverly Hills-based investment company confirmed Monday that it had dumped its remaining stock holdings in struggling Ford Motor Co., had had a long, if not always profitable, relationship with Detroit. Associated Press
The investor spent about $1 billion acquiring a 6.5% stake in the struggling automaker this year, then saw the value of its stock plummet.
Kirk Kerkorian wasn’t kidding when he said he was putting the brakes on his latest foray into the auto industry.
A spokeswoman for Tracinda Corp., the billionaire’s Beverly Hills-based investment company, confirmed Monday that it had dumped its remaining stock holdings in struggling Ford Motor Co. She declined to provide details of the stock sales.
Kerkorian owned 107.1 million Ford shares, or 4.9% of the company, in late October, when Tracinda reported in a regulatory filing that it had unloaded 7.3 million shares and planned to sell the rest of its holdings by the end of the year.
Because it owned less than 5% of the company — the regulatory threshold for reporting changes in stock ownership — Tracinda was not required to file information with the Securities and Exchange Commission regarding the more recent sales, such as when the shares were sold or at what price.
But Kerkorian, who began buying Ford shares in April and spent about $1 billion acquiring a 6.5% stake in the automaker, clearly took a bath on the investment. Ford was trading at about $7.75 a share when Kerkorian began acquiring his stake. The average price since his last SEC filing in late October: $2.33 a share.
FedEx and other pinched companies have cut their contributions to 401(k)’s, which could force some people to work longer. Joe Raedle/Getty Images
Companies eager to conserve cash are trimming their contributions to their workers’ 401(k) retirement plans, putting a new strain on America’s tattered safety net at the very moment when many workers are watching their accounts plummet along with the stock market.
When the FedEx Corporation slimmed down its pension plan last year, it softened the blow by offering workers enriched 401(k) contributions to make up for the pension benefits some would lose. But last week, with Americans sending fewer parcels and FedEx’s revenue growth at a standstill, the company said it would suspend all of its contributions for at least a year.
A future out of control, bankrupt financial institutions trying to hold on, limitation on credit severely limits ability of the economy to start up again, debt totally embraces our lives, handouts a state secret, soon cash infusions wont work for banks anymore, banks hold too much toxic garbage to even know if they are solvent. We are now 17 months into a credit crisis that continues to expose the corruption and incompetence of government, banking, Wall Street and transnational corporations. The situation has not stabilized and it won’t anytime soon. All we see are sweetheart deals for elitist corporations for which American taxpayers will pay for years to come. The future of our nation is totally out of control. For the last eight years our economy has been running on something for nothing, lies and deceit. The result will be hyperinflation and then the Second Great Depression.
Read moreHyperinflation and then The Second Great Depression
If you oppose those disastrous bailouts people then you should have better voted for Ron Paul and not for Mr. ‘Change is Protectionism’ or Mr. ‘Bomb Them All’. Ron Paul would have listened to the people. He always did. Those elite puppets won’t.
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NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — A majority of Americans oppose a bailout of the troubled U.S. auto industry, according to a poll released Wednesday.
The CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll, conducted by telephone on Dec. 1-2 with nearly 1,100 people, showed that 61% of those surveyed oppose government assistance for the major U.S. automakers.
The poll comes at a critical time for the American auto industry. Ford Motor, General Motors and Chrysler LLC are requesting up to $34 billion dollars in emergency loans from the government to amid the weakest auto sales in 25 years and persistently tight credit.
General Motors and Chrysler, burning through billions of dollars in cash, are the most imperiled. All three companies submitted plans to Congress on Tuesday making their case for funding, and industry executives are set to testify on Capitol Hill as lawmakers debate whether to take emergency action.
But Wednesday’s poll suggests that Americans believe bailing out the Big Three is a bad idea.
A full 70% of respondents indicated that a bailout is unfair to taxpayers.
Read morePoll: 61% oppose auto bailout; 70% say bailout is unfair to taxpayers
The Volvo V70
General Motors and Ford Motor have approached Sweden’s government about financial aid for their lossmaking Saab and Volvo brands.
Related article: Ford Says It May Sell Volvo, Its Last European Brand
GM and Ford want to bolster the two marques’ finances in anticipation of selling them as the Detroit carmakers grapple with a cash crunch that threatens their survival.
Stephen Odell, Volvo’s chief executive, and Saab’s managing director Jan-Ake Jonsson have separately spoken to Maud Olofsson, Sweden’s industry minister, and other officials about securing funds, according to several people familiar with the discussions.
Ford and GM will both tell the US Congress they have long-term plans to dispose of the brands this week when they present detailed business and financial plans to support their request for $25bn of emergency funding.
The Volvo C70
Dec. 1 (Bloomberg) — Ford Motor Co. said it may sell its Volvo unit, the company’s sole remaining European brand, a day before the automaker is scheduled to present a survival plan to U.S. lawmakers.
The review of options for Volvo was spurred by the worldwide auto decline and probably will take several months, Ford said today in a statement. Shedding the Swedish unit would complete the unwinding of a two-decade strategy of diversifying by buying European luxury brands. Volvo, acquired in 1999 for $6.4 billion, was retained after a similar evaluation last year.
Related article: Volvo and Saab ask Sweden for aid
Ford, General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC are to present plans tomorrow demonstrating why they should get $25 billion in U.S. financial aid and that they can be viable businesses. Volvo was once central to a failed strategy by Dearborn, Michigan-based Ford to reap a third of its profits from luxury autos in 2006.
“All of these businesses are being forced to reveal their hand,” said Maryann Keller, an independent auto analyst and consultant in Greenwich, Connecticut, in an interview. “Ford can put Volvo up for sale, but there aren’t going to be any buyers. It may come down to the Swedish government taking it.”
Read moreFord Says It May Sell Volvo, Its Last European Brand
