China

Editorial: China Could Buy 433 General Motors With Their T Bills Alone

By Bertel Schmitt
November 20, 2008 - We made a huge mistake with our "SAIC may buy GM" story. We paid for our sins. The story created so much traffic that it literally melted two servers. TTAC's China Syndrome. As you are painfully aware, TTAC was out of commission several times yesterday. A day after the story broke, the story broke our servers. Hit counters for all stories are currently SNAFU; they just gave up and went home. A huge amount of traffic keeps pouring in from China. And no wonder: a Chinese search for the same story produces 76,500 hits. If we'd run this story a few months ago, a wagon would have pulled up outside of TTAC World Headquarters, and they would have taken us away in straitjackets and a Thorazine drip in our veins. Now, a lot of people think GM is crazy for not doing the deal. A Connecticut hedge fund manger, who we reached for comment, looked at the screen, said "Ugh, the market is ugly." When prodded to focus on GM and SAIC, he said: "If I'd be GM, I'd be in Shanghai right now, negotiating the deal. Then I would go to Congress and say: What are you going to do about it?"

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Posted in China | Editorials | 30 comments

Editorial: Bloom Off The Rose For Chinese Car Industry

By Bertel Schmitt
November 16, 2008 - Time for the United Auto Workers (UAW) to collect second-hand songbooks and ship ‘em over to their comrades-- make that "union brothers" in China. Chinese taking our jobs? Wake up guys! Solidarity forever! The Chinese worker is taking it on the chin just like the working stiff in God's Own Country. And let's ignore the fact for a while that FICA, SECA, COBRA, and VEBA are not part of the Chinese language. PSA Peugeot Citroën, an affiliate of Dongfeng Motor in China, has "decided not to renew the contracts" (translation: has fired) 1000 workers on their Wuhan site, Gasgoo reports. Volkswagen, which depends on China for 15 percent of its worldwide auto sales, gave the Chinese equivalent of pink slips to 700 people at their Changchun factory. According to Chinese media reports, Ford, BMW, Chery, and untold more are busy. Busy thinning out their working masses, that is. Where did all the thousand flowers go?

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Posted in China | Editorials | 8 comments

The Chinese Are Coming!

By Andrew Dederer
February 26, 2008 -

Or not. Despite all the noise about a Chrysler - Chery hook-up, despite Chinese manufacturers' presence at the North American International Auto Show, we have yet to see a single Chinese-built (let alone designed) vehicle here in the U.S. So, are they really coming? The short answer is yes, some of them, eventually. But not for quite a while yet.

The Chinese Are Coming! editorial continued »

Posted in China | Editorials | Sales and Marketing | 17 comments

Chinese Automakers Set to Pump and Dump Western Partners

By Frank Williams
January 3, 2008 -

I once worked for a colonel who'd address all obstacles by saying "you can solve any problem if you throw enough money at it." While our budget officer would have to breathe into a paper bag for a half hour afterwards, the colonel always managed to squeeze whatever was needed to resolve the crisis du jour from the budget-- and solve the problem. Automakers native to the People's Republic of China (PRC) must have bugged his office; they've adopted the exact same philosophy.  

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Posted in China | Editorials | 40 comments

China to Foreign Automakers: Drop Dead

By Frank Williams
August 16, 2007 -

By law, foreign automakers seeking a foothold in China must form joint ventures (JVs) with domestic "partners." As we've outlined before, there's an immediate downside: China's scant regard for intellectual property rights (IPR). For example, GM found itself suing Chinese automaker Chery (whose name middle-finger salutes Chevy) over the QQ, a blatant copy of the Daewoo Matiz. The case was settled out of court, but the issue of IPR remains unresolved. Now that Chinese automakers are consolidating and striking out on their own, what's going to happen to their foreign partners and their IPR? What do you think?

China to Foreign Automakers: Drop Dead editorial continued »

Posted in China | Editorials | Industry | 32 comments

The Chinese Automotive Market: A Primer

By Frank Williams
November 6, 2006 - The Chinese automotive market has over a billion potential customers. Sales growth is well into the double digits. Labor rates are a fraction of those paid in western countries, without any union rules to slow down investment or add legacy costs. An ideal place for American investment? Depends on how you look at it. The [...]

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Posted in China | Editorials | 59 comments