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Saab's Chinese buyers present ambitious plan, heavy funding
by Staff Writers
Stockholm (AFP) Oct 31, 2011

Thailand floods disrupt Honda's car production in Canada, US
Ottawa (AFP) Oct 31, 2011 - Japanese auto maker Honda will slash production at its plants in North America as suppliers in flood-ravaged Thailand are unable to deliver parts, the company said Wednesday.

"As the flooding in Thailand continues, a number of Honda suppliers in Asia currently are unable to maintain parts production, which is disrupting the flow of parts to our production operations in North America," Honda said in a statement.

Most of the parts for Honda and Acura vehicles are sourced from North American suppliers, but "a few critical electronic parts" come from Thailand, it explained.

Starting on Wednesday, the company will cut in half its automobile assembly at all six of its plants in Canada and the United States, for at least one week.

The launch of the 2012 Honda CR-V could also be delayed "slightly," it said.

No layoffs are planned at any of Honda's North American facilities as a result of the disruption, the company added.

The Honda Civic is one of the best-selling cars in Canada and the United States.


Saab will turn a profit by the end of 2014, under an ambitious plan laid out on Monday by two Chinese companies aiming to buy the insolvent Swedish carmaker and offering substantial long-term funding.

Under an outline business plan filed with the Vaenersborg district court in southwestern Sweden and presented to Saab's creditors on Monday, Chinese companies Pang Da and Youngman intend to supply 610 million euros ($855 million) in long-term funding to Saab.

Saab, which revealed last week that the two firms had offered to buy it for 100 million euros from its Dutch owner Swedish Automobile (Swan), would also immediately receive 50 million euros in bridge financing and would tap a European Investment Bank credit for another 63 million euros, the court filing showed.

The funding is intended to prop up Saab, which halted production six months ago as suppliers stopped deliveries due to mountains of unpaid bills and which is currently restructuring under bankruptcy protection, until it can begin on the long road to recovery.

"The financing is set to meet Saab's future financing needs," Pang Da chief executive Pang Qinghua told reporters in Stockholm through an interpreter.

The creditors at Monday's meeting did not have any initial objections to the plan, which is widely seen as Saab's last chance at survival, and the court decided not to halt its reorganisation.

According to the scheme presented Monday, the company will start production again next year, making between 35,000 and 55,000 cars, and by 2014 it will be turning a profit.

By 2016 Saab is expected to be pushing out up to 200,000 cars a year, the plan showed, adding that the carmaker's biggest growth market will be in China, which is expected to account for a third of its global sales.

Returning Saab to profit will meanwhile entail cutting costs by one billion kronor (111 million euros, $155 million), and that 500 of Saab's some 3,700 employees -- mainly within production -- will lose their jobs.

"I truly regret that Saab now has to lay off 500 people," Stefan Loefven, the head of blue-collar union IF Metall, said in a statement, adding though he had been assured by Pang Da and Youngman management that laid-off workers would be hired back once Saab is back on its feet.

While the new business plan calls for some Saab cars to be made in China going forward, the potential new owners insisted they would also maintain production at the Trollhaettan factory in southwestern Sweden.

"We are not going to invest in a company here in Sweden and Trollhaettan and then not continue production in Trollhaettan. That would be a waste of our investments," Youngman chief executive Pang Qingnian told the TT news agency.

Saab has previously said it had about 220 million euros in unpaid bills to suppliers, but the speedily assembled business plan did not show how creditors would be repaid, though the would-be owners vowed all debts would be paid in full.

While the court and creditor approval of Saab's continued restructuring was good news for the carmaker, it was too early to declare its woes over.

Saab, which was rescued from the brink of bankruptcy only last year when Swan -- at the time known as Spyker -- bought it from General Motors for $400 million, has seen numerous schemes to keep it afloat in recent months fall through.

And the Youngman-Pang Da buy-out still requires approval from a long line of interested parties, including Chinese authorities, the European Investment Bank, the Swedish debt office and GM.

The latter is expected to be the most difficult to get onboard, due to among other things, concerns over its technology going to China.

Swan's charismatic chief executive Victor Muller said late last week he thought all the stamps of approval would be secured within a few weeks.

Martin Skoeld, a car industry analyst with the Stockholm Business School, cautioned though that even after all the necessary approvals are secured the road to success will be a very bumpy one.

After the deal is approved "one can start talking about how realistic the plans are. It will take enormous amounts of capital to carry them out," he told Swedish public radio.

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Honda profit tumbles amid disasters, strong yen
Tokyo (AFP) Oct 31, 2011 - Japan's third-biggest automaker Honda on Monday said net profit for the fiscal first half plunged 77.4 percent year-on-year, as it grapples with the impact of the March earthquake and a strong yen.

The automaker also held off giving an earnings forecast for the year ending March 2012 as it continued to assess the impact on its operations of Thailand's worst flooding in decades, which has forced it to halt production there.

Analysts say the efforts of Japan's automakers to restore production in the wake of the March earthquake and tsunami, which damaged facilities and crippled supply chains, face being undermined by the impact of the Thai disaster.

The maker of the Civic and Accord said vehicle shortages due to quake-related production problems pushed down sales in the United States and Japan.

Honda said its net income in the first half ended September 30 totalled 92.2 billion yen ($1.17 billion), a decrease of 77.4 percent from the same time a year ago.

Operating profit in the period plunged 81.1 percent to 75 billion yen, it said, due to lower sales and production, the impact of raw material price increases and the effects of a stronger yen.

Revenue fell 22 percent to 3.6 trillion yen on lower automobile sales "led by decreased production attributable to the impact of the earthquake and unfavourable foreign currency translation effects," the automaker said.

A strong yen makes it harder for domestically made vehicles to be competitive overseas, while Japanese automakers' overseas earnings are eroded when repatriated.

Japan on Monday intervened in currency markets to weaken the unit after it touched a fresh record high against the US dollar, amid concerns that its strength could undermine the nation's fragile economic recovery.

Meanwhile net profit in the second quarter ended September 30 fell 55.5 percent on-year to 60.4 billion yen.

Honda in August raised its full-year net profit forecast to 230 billion yen from an earlier estimate of 195 billion yen, although that figure represented a 56.9 percent drop from its year-earlier profit.

But on Monday the automaker declined to give an updated annual forecast.

Thailand's worst flooding in decades has exposed the complexity of the global supply chain and a lack of components has forced Japan's automakers to halt or slow production in Asia and beyond.

Honda has idled operations since early October at its four-wheel vehicle factory in Ayutthaya, central Thailand, as the factory remains submerged.

Honda shares closed down 3.68 percent to 2,406 yen in Tokyo trade Monday.



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CAR TECH
Honda profit tumbles amid disasters, strong yen
Tokyo (AFP) Oct 31, 2011
Japan's third-biggest automaker Honda on Monday said net profit for the fiscal first half plunged 77.4 percent year-on-year, as it grapples with the impact of the March earthquake and a strong yen. The automaker also held off giving an earnings forecast for the year ending March 2012 as it continued to assess the impact on its operations of Thailand's worst flooding in decades, which has fo ... read more


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