– General Motors is prepared to invest in a fourth auto plant in China. GM, whose flagship car plant in Shanghai is running at near capacity, and Shanghai Automotive Industry will each control half of the Yantai Bodyshop Corp., a $109 million, state-owned greenfield plant. The move could boost GM’s car capacity in China by 50 percent.
– Volkswagen will raise capacity by half at one of its two Chinese car plants next year, hoping to rev up sales in its second largest and the world’s fastest growing auto market. FAW-Volkswagen’s capacity will grow to 300,000 cars by the end of 2003, from 200,000 now. First Vice President Peter Wolters sees China’s car demand accelerating 20 to 30 percent next year. The venture between Volkswagen and China’s leading First Auto Works holds an 18.1 percent share of the China car market and expects to sell about 200,000 cars this year, up 54 percent from 2001.
– The U.S. government and the trucking industry are expanding an initiative to roll out safer and more fuel-efficient heavy-duty trucks and buses, aiming to reduce emissions and oil dependence. The New Vision for the 21st Century Truck Partnership will encourage the development of new engines that use advanced fuels, improve the safety and security of heavy-duty trucks and create technologies to reduce engine idling. The agreement builds on a collaboration between the government and the truckmakers created in the Clinton administration.
– Toyota Motor Corp. plans to build a diesel engine factory in southwestern Poland. The $161 million project some 210 miles southwest of Warsaw is to begin production in early 2005, according to Tokuichi Uranishi, Toyota’s managing director. Uranishi says the new plant, together with a nearby gearbox factory that began production in April, will make up Toyota’s largest component manufacturing facility in Europe.
– Saab plans to cut about 20 percent of its workforce, or about 1,300 jobs. The job cuts, mainly in southern Sweden, are part of cost-cutting measures also made by other General Motors units. Saab employs 6,600 people in Sweden plus another 3,000 or so in joint ventures and non-Swedish sales operations.
