Filed under: China, Plants/Manufacturing, Paris Motor Show
Ssangyong says it's out of money, can't pay workers
Ssangyong, which recently attended the Paris Motor Show and showed off the C200 4-wheel-drive, is officially out of money. The company is more than $77 million (US) in debt, and no longer has the funds to pay its employees' salaries. Ssangyong is owned by Shanghai Automotive Industries China, otherwise known as SAIC. In what could provide a cautionary tale to Volvo workers assuming Ford actually does a deal with SAIC for the Swedish brand, when Ssangyong asked SAIC for the money to pay employees, SAIC refused because Ssangyong's internal employee's union had earlier called for Chinese executives to resign. In the meantime, Ssangyong has merged operations and shut down all of its plants and the employees have planned a protest to make their feelings known.
[Source: Chosun]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
bazzz 10:06AM (12/22/2008)
Quote: "The company is more than $77 billion (US) in debt, and no longer has the funds to pay its employees' salaries."
Please check your numbers... Ssangyong (very small manufacturer) can't have a debt of $77 billion US dollars - are we talking korean wong here perhaps?
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KLR 10:16AM (12/22/2008)
The source article says there's W100 billion deficit this year alone. Using their provided exchange value of US$1=W1,292 that's a US$77.4 million deficit.
Shawn 11:21AM (12/22/2008)
KLR is correct, KRW 100,000,000,000 = USD 76,383,622.0129 (76 million)
USD 77 billion = KRW 100,766,377,203,658.12 (100 trillion)
Jonathon Ramsey 11:49AM (12/22/2008)
Fixed. My bad.
Epyx 10:10AM (12/22/2008)
Silver lining to the economic collapse, I suppose. 1 Chinese company going down, hopefully many more to follow.
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Epyx 10:11AM (12/22/2008)
-of course the bad news is European and North American companies are hurt just as badly when China slows down. Maybe not so silver of a lining.
Talisman 10:16AM (12/22/2008)
lol Why does it seem like everyone hates China?
I dont want them to fail, I just want them to start making their own stuff.
revaholic 10:12AM (12/22/2008)
Ssangyong never made a good car anyway.
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Avinash machado 10:14AM (12/22/2008)
Alan Mullay beware of SAIC.
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MajorGeek 10:15AM (12/22/2008)
Another highlight as to why so many car companies are in trouble; basic math. They are now broke? Apparently they did not think they were broke at a 1 billion dollar loss, or even 10 billion, but somehow at 77 billion now they are broke. I sucked at math myself in school, so maybe this is some new math I am unaware of.
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JZeke 11:03AM (12/22/2008)
As ever, its all about the product - and Ssangyong's has sucked for too long.
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Cmicasa the Great XvX 11:29AM (12/22/2008)
Actually I'm seeing a huge opportunity for GM... as they are partnered with SAIC in China due to their Government protectionism
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hypermiler 11:44AM (12/22/2008)
Any US or US-held brands sold to Chinese would face similar fate, as Chinese goal is not to turn around the acquired foreign automaker, but to keep them alive long enough to learn the operations then to drive them into bankruptcy in order to ship assets back to China.
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why not the LS2LS7? 12:03PM (12/22/2008)
I have to imagine the auto market is going to be awful in China this year. The burgeoning market for cars is managers at plants in the Pearl River delta (and other similar places), and those plants are laying off like crazy.
But the real pain will likely be that these companies had geared their spending for explosive growth. Now they have to cover all their positions and likely don't have the money to do it.
I don't know if China would bail out companies, but if they do, SAIC would be probably high on the list.
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Ken 12:04PM (12/22/2008)
Some people don't like China beacuse they copy stuff (i.e., of course BMW would lose the infringement court case, it was held in China!!)
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why not the LS2LS7? 12:25PM (12/22/2008)
The case was tried in Italy.
http://www.autoblog.com/2008/12/19/bmw-loses-clonewars-italian-court-battle/
Corey L 12:30PM (12/22/2008)
No Arrested Development fans? Anyong!
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Gardiner Westbound 1:00PM (12/22/2008)
Picket line duty in Red China can be a career limiting move. They drive tanks over protesters.
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R Wiggler 2:01PM (12/22/2008)
A company responsible for the likes of the following deserves to go out of business.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/marcosg/2865520855/
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Frank Hoffman 2:04PM (12/22/2008)
I sure hope Volvo doesn't fall into the hands of the Chinese
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