Fiat: Business Is Horribile
Mamma mia! Fiat’s order book looks “worse than in the beginning of 2009, when we were deep in the economic crisis,” said Sergio Marchionne. Cosa facciamo? Eccola: Fiat will close all of their Italian plants for two weeks, from February 22 to March 5, reports Das Autohaus.
That doesn’t bode well for the company.
If Fiat lost money in 2009, then they will have a really hard time in 2010 ff. CSM Worldwide thinks that European car sales will decline by 7.9 percent in 2010. Fiat was one of the top beneficiaries of European cash for clunker programs. In Abwrackpämien-addled Germany, Fiat’s sales skyrocketed 86.1 percent in 2009. All over Europe, Fiat’s group market share climbed from 8 percent in 2008 to 8,7 percent in 2009.
With Fiat closing down plants and preparing for massive losses in 2010, how much money do you think they have to get Chrysler going?
Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.
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Hang on "Fiat business is HORRIBILE"? or is that a pun on "automobile"? if it is it's an awful one!
Would closing a few factories for a while cause a general strike in Italy ?
Chrysler is doomed... you heard it here first... or maybe not first. They're toast anyway.
Oh well, down here they're running at 100% capacity. And since this is their largest market. As always Brazil will keep Italy afloat. Big news. What they need to do is send most or all manufacturing capacity down south or east (as in Poland) and they'l do ok. Quastion is politics. Well i'm Latin so i'm well qualified to say this: Cry me a river.