Filed under: China, Government/Legal, Plants/Manufacturing, Chrysler, LLC., Ford, GM, Earnings/Financials
GM, Ford exporting $2 billion in vehicles, parts to China
American automotive companies have been doing rather well for themselves these last few years in China. Still, the majority of manufacturing those vehicles is done in China using locally sourced parts. For this reason, the Chinese government has been facing pressure to ink more deals with American companies for the export of goods there, which is apparently now beginning to take place. Ford, for instance, has announced that it will be sending 30,000 complete vehicles (no word on which ones) to China along with other various auto parts. General Motors has also signed on with about $1 billion in vehicles and parts for export to China. Chrysler too will get in on the trading, though its deals will likely be smaller than either Ford's or General Motors'. All in all, the automotive sector will make up about $2 billion of the recently announced deals, which total more than $8.3 billion in exports. And we're pretty sure they're all lead-free.
[Source: The Detroit Free Press, Photo by BYUN YEONG-WOOK/AFP/Getty]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
zamafir 7:09PM (6/17/2008)
No surprise here, talk to any car salesman about china and under the table deals their doing to export cars of US lots there, at a profit.
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ZetoSanNi 7:25PM (6/17/2008)
Send them the F-150s and Durangos! Along with the rest of the giant gas-guzzling SUVs. harhar
America ftw.
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2004m3driver 7:30PM (6/17/2008)
Highly unlikely. What would an already congested China do with those big gas guzzlers? But at least our companies are making some money some where.
Kakapu 8:46PM (6/17/2008)
What would they do? They would do the same thing we Americans do: potentially (but not actually) haul stuff around, lord over smaller stature vehicles, demonstrate their capacity for financial superiority with single-digit mpg's, compensate for small members by buying larger engines, etc.
Cyx 10:23AM (6/18/2008)
Oh,no,we dont want to get a F-150,too big too ugly!
Quicksilver 7:27PM (6/17/2008)
Lets send them our tainted beef and tomatoes since we already buy all their lead filled toys.
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Rene Curry 12:07AM (6/18/2008)
This should have been negotiated a long time ago with our large trade deficit. At that, this is only a baby step.
Before that Paulson would only negotiate to open the financial markets for the big banks. Now that US banks are the joke of the world, we need to get to the meat & pataoes of manufacturing. That is where true value is added and our standard of living is derived.
Autos are the largest dollar amount in trade with our key trading partners. Germany, Japan, Korea. So USA auto exports to China is a key ingredient to fix our trade deficit problem with China.
Example: We should be seeing V6 Mustangs at a low sell price in China. Not with all the taxes added.
The only way the USA will start to fix their long term economic model is to have the RMB correctly valued and to have open markets in BOTH directions immediately. Not later after we give all the keys away.
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The Other Bob 9:00AM (6/18/2008)
Now if the Japanese would buy a significant amount of imported cars maybe we could start actually calling it a global economy. People wonder why the American companies are having a hard time, it because Japanese cars sell in their home, protected market.
Japanese cars should be tariffed until we have equal access to their market.
pmiddle5 10:01PM (6/18/2008)
To hell with Japan. Reach into India, Korea, and China!
iScream 1:39AM (6/18/2008)
How ironic, cars running on unleaded in China
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J.A. 8:01AM (6/18/2008)
I don't know if this fixes the problem of China putting very high (around 60%) import tariffs on many imported auto parts.
The US should reciprocate, and put high duties on Chinese parts, especially the fake brake pads. We seem not to have any fake brake pad factories left in the USA, but there are still plenty in China.
Seriously, the Chinese government let many of the people responsible for the fake baby milk formula avoid punishment. The Chinese government has the doctor who reported the truth about SARS under house arrest. Now they are doing their best to keep their officials from being held accountable for the shoddy construction of the schools that collapsed in the earthquake, killing hundreds of children. Can we trust Chinese auto parts?
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Ron 12:46PM (6/18/2008)
No you can't - and people will still buy them anyway, because a portion of the population will buy anything if it's priced low enough and looks like a deal.
J.A. 10:38PM (6/18/2008)
To Ron:
I agree, therefore I think we ought to match the tariffs that the Chinese put on foreign auto parts. When they have to play by the rules that we have to play by in their country, they won't be able to sell their garbage here.
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