Posts tagged ‘cars’

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31/08/2012

* Beleaguered official faces netizens online

China Daily: “A senior work safety official’s grin at the site of a deadly traffic accident in Shaanxi province has become a nightmare haunting him.

Yang Dacai, 55, head of the Shaanxi Provincial Bureau of Work Safety, was seen to be grinning in a photo taken after he arrived at the scene of a deadly traffic accident on Sunday in Yan’an, Shaanxi. Thirty-six people were killed when a sleeper bus rammed into a truck carrying a tank of methanol and caught fire.

The photo triggered an online wave of criticism among netizens.

The criticism grew louder when photos of Yang wearing five different watches, including Rolex, Mont Blanc and Radar, were posted online.

Many bloggers questioned how he could afford the costly timepieces and called for a corruption investigation.

On Wednesday night, Yang went online and apologized for the “relaxed” grin, saying that he was just trying to cheer people up after a long trudge to the accident site.

And he defended his innocence regarding the watches, saying he had “used legal income” to buy them over the past 10 years and he had reported the situation to the Party’s disciplinary organization.

Despite this, the Party Discipline Inspection Commission of Shaanxi has started an investigation on Yang, who would be punished if he is found to have violated disciplines or committed corruption, cnwest.com, an online news portal of Shaanxi, reported on Thursday.”

via Beleaguered official faces netizens online |Society |chinadaily.com.cn.

The Internet is continuing to ‘liberate’ Chinese citizens and cede power from (minor) officials.

See also: * How China’s 300m microbloggers are shaking the system (chindia-alert.org)

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27/08/2012

* Car plate applicants exceed 1m in Beijing

China Daily: “A record 1-million-plus people in Beijing competed for fewer than 20,000 registration certificates qualifying them to buy cars through a lottery system on Sunday.

With a fixed number of car registrations issued each month and a lengthening waiting list, many potential car buyers are losing hope.

Some 1.05 million qualified applicants entered the registration lottery in August – 110,000 of them for the first time – and only 19,926 registrations will be issued, the city office in charge of the lottery system said on Saturday.

One in every 53 applicants will get the registrations, 80 percent fewer than in January last year, when Beijing introduced the lottery system to cap new car ownership at 240,000 a year.”

via Car plate applicants exceed 1m in Beijing |Society |chinadaily.com.cn.

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10/08/2012

* China Deal to Acquire U.S. Battery Maker A123 is Just the Beginning

WSJ: “As the script now reads, Wanxiang — China’s largest auto parts maker — plays the role of a clever opportunist in the unfolding tragedy of American competitiveness.

Here is an excerpt from the most recent episode:

A leading American maker of batteries for electric vehicles, A123 Systems, secures hundreds of millions of dollars in grants from Washington D.C and the State of Michigan.

A123 Systems, recently offered a $450 lifeline by China’s Wanxiang Group, makes lithium-ion car batteries at this plant in Michigan.

A123 quickly earns awards for both its innovative culture and its technical advances. But before long, the company encounters business difficulties, faces imminent bankruptcy and scrambles for money.

Wanxiang arrives with fistfuls of cash, takes control of A123 and inherits some of the world’s most advanced battery technology. Wanxiang is further encouraged as policy makers in Beijing promise $10,000 rebates to Chinese electric car buyers. The future is bright.

It is fair to say that Wanxiang, a private company based in Zhejiang, has broken no rules. Wanxiang sees a straight-up business deal in which it pays market price for a cash-starved company that is on the verge of failure.

However, what many American taxpayers see is bad business, a sham. And they sense a deeply troubling pattern for the future: America develops technology – subsidized with generous tax dollars – only to see it purloined, borrowed or, in this case, purchased on the cheap by firms from competing nations.

How can America possibly sustain its culture of innovation when assets are so vulnerable to cherry picking by cash-rich Chinese companies? This issue — not last month’s unemployment rate — should be the central issue as the U.S. tries to decide who will be its president for the next four years.”

via China Deal to Acquire U.S. Battery Maker A123 is Just the Beginning – China Real Time Report – WSJ.

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19/07/2012

* India arrests after riot at Maruti plant leave one dead

BBC News: “At least 80 people have been arrested after violent clashes between workers and managers at a Maruti Suzuki factory near the Indian capital, Delhi.

One person died and more than 85 were injured, including two Japanese nationals, in the riot at the Manesar plant on Wednesday evening.

Maruti, India’s biggest carmaker, has halted production at the factory.

Managers and workers blame each other for starting the clashes, which follow months of troubled labour relations.

The violence at the vast factory in Haryana state is believed to have erupted after an altercation between a factory worker and a supervisor.

Workers reportedly ransacked offices and set fires at the height of the riot. A charred body was found afterwards in a damaged conference room – the identity of the person who died has not yet been established.

Dozens of staff, both management and shop-floor workers, were taken to a nearby hospital.

Security has now been tightened at the plant, which employs more than 2,000 people and produces more than 1,000 of Maruti’s top-selling cars each day, and accounts for about a third of its annual production.

Maruti Suzuki, a joint venture between Maruti and Japan’s Suzuki Motor Corporation, has a 50% share of India’s booming car market.

It has been hit by a series of strikes since June 2011, when workers went on a 13-day strike demanding the recognition of a new union.”

via BBC News – India arrests after riot at Maruti plant leave one dead.

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10/07/2012

* 5m greener vehicles on the Chinese streets by 2020

China Daily: “China has set a target of producing and selling 500,000 energy-efficient and alternative-energy vehicles a year by 2015, and five million vehicles by 2020.

The blueprint, announced by the State Council on Monday, has outlined generous subsidies to consumers and producers of the new generation of greener vehicles, as it aims to ease the country’s heavy dependence on imported oil, cut emissions, and speed up the restructuring of its automobile sector into a more environmentally sustainable model.

According to the details, there will be heavy government investment in the core technology needed to build a strong and globally competitive new-energy vehicle industry.

The short-term emphasis will be on developing pure electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles, as well as wider usage of hybrid vehicles and energy-saving combustion engine automobiles.

The world’s largest auto market has set an accumulated production and sales target of 500,000 units of pure electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles by 2015, and that will be increased tenfold to more than 5 million units by 2020.”

via 5m greener vehicles on the streets by 2020 |Economy |chinadaily.com.cn.

Continuing on the path to a ‘greener’ China – https://chindia-alert.org/economic-factors/greening-of-china/

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13/06/2012

* Saab sold to Chinese-Swedish investment group

BBC News: “Bankrupt carmaker Saab has been sold to a Chinese-Swedish investment group which aims to turn the company into a maker of electric vehicles. Saab’s administrator said the buyer was National Electric Vehicle Sweden (Nevs). No sale price was given. Saab went bankrupt in December, two years after former owner General Motors sold it to Dutch group Spyker.

Saab “will start a new operation” to develop and produce electric cars, the administrator said in a statement.

The administrator said in April that Saab had assets to cover about a third of its debts of 13bn kronor (£1.2bn).

The chief executive and main owner of Nevs is a Chinese businessman with Swedish citizenship, Kai Johan Jiang. The chairman of Nevs is Karl-Erling Trogen, a former head of the truck division of truck and construction equipment maker Volvo.

“Nevs and the receivers of the Saab Automobile bankruptcy estate today signed a purchase agreement which covers the main assets of Saab Automobile AB, Saab Automobile Powertrain AB and Saab Automobile Tools AB,” Nevs and the administrators said in a joint statement.

Saab employs about 3,000 people, with its main base at Trollhattan, west Sweden, where investment in new electric car manufacturing will be made.”

via BBC News – Saab sold to Chinese-Swedish investment group.

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10/06/2012

* China Passenger-Car Sales Pick Up

WSJ: “Passenger-car sales in China accelerated in May, a positive sign for the world’s second-largest economy and the largest auto market. Strong auto sales in China, a signal consumers are still buying big-ticket items, could reassure markets concerned that the country is heading for a sharp economic slowdown.

Sales in May were up 23% from a year earlier, to 1.28 million vehicles, the semiofficial industry group China Association of Automobile Manufacturers said in a statement Saturday. That’s faster than Aprils 13% pace—which was itself an encouraging turnaround from the decline in the first quarter, when sales were down 1.3% from a year earlier.”

via China Passenger-Car Sales Pick Up – WSJ.com.

One small positive indicator amongst lots of negatives.  See: https://chindia-alert.org/2012/06/10/chinese-economy-shows-a-second-month-of-anemic-growth/

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26/04/2012

* China Invests in Germany Amid Uncertainty

New York Times: “As Prime Minister Wen Jiabao of China tours Europe this week, it is no accident that Germany occupies a special place on his itinerary. After all, Germany is the one European Union country that has a trade surplus with China. And it has also been a focus of Chinese investment in Europe — so much so that analysts say some Germans are growing wary as Chinese businesses have been snapping up German engineering companies.

Mr. Wen, making his sixth visit in eight years, and the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, on Sunday opened the annual trade fair in Hanover, billed as the world’s leading showcase for industrial technology. They plan to witness the signing of an economic agreement at the Volkswagen headquarters, in Wolfsburg, on Monday. According to German media reports, the deal will include the opening of a new car plant in the far western Chinese region of Xinjiang.

Mr. Wen’s agenda, as with a follow-up trip planned by his likely successor, Vice Prime Minister Li Keqiang, seems aimed at presenting an aura of business as usual, even as trade tensions flare with the West and the Communist Party at home is embroiled in its biggest scandal in years, involving the deposed Politburo member Bo Xilai.”

via China Invests in Germany Amid Uncertainty – NYTimes.com.

Two birds with one stone: Collaboration with Germany & VW; and opening up a major auto plant in Xinjiang, one of the two provinces with significant unrest (the other, of course, is Tibet).

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23/04/2012

* GM to Add 600 China Dealerships

WSJ: “General Motors Co. plans to add 600 dealerships in China this year, about a 20% increase, as the auto maker looks to bolster its presence here amid growing competition and an economic-growth slowdown.Chief Executive Dan Akerson on Monday outlined steps GM is taking to boost sales and market share in China, where it is the largest foreign auto maker.

The addition of 600 dealerships would bring the companys dealer network in China to 3,500 stores, up from 2,900 at the end of 2011.  At that size, Chinas dealers would begin to rival the companys U.S. network of 4,400.

GM is adding new models and factory capacity and expanding a technology center near its China headquarters in Shanghai, which will soon be its second-largest global development center. The largest is in Warren, Mich., near its Detroit headquarters. Like GM, many of the worlds major auto makers are expanding in China, concentrating on a market expected to grow to more than 30 million vehicle sales by the end of the decade from 18.5 million last year.”

via GM to Add 600 China Dealerships – WSJ.com.

If you are looking for a business opportunity in China, go for a tyre franchise. The vast majority of Chinese cars have yet to have their first set of tyres replaced!

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20/03/2012

* Chinese fuel prices raised by 6.5-7%

China Daily: “China raised fuel prices for the second time this year, hiking gasoline and diesel by 6.5 percent to 7 percent effective on Tuesday, amid rising world crude oil prices and falling domestic inflation. Prices went up by 600 yuan $94.90 a metric ton, the biggest hike since June 2009. The average gasoline price went up 6.5 percent to 9,980 yuan a metric ton, while diesel prices rose 7 percent to 9,130 yuan a metric ton.Both prices are record highs. China, the worlds second-biggest oil user, raised fuel prices for the first time this year by 300 yuan a ton on Feb 8.”

via Fuel prices raised by 6.5-7%|Economy|chinadaily.com.cn.

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