Thursday, January 19, 2012 10:10:47 PM
G.M. Regains the Top Spot in Global Automaking
By NICK BUNKLEY
Published: January 19, 2012
DETROIT — After three years of settling for second place, General Motors reclaimed its title as the world’s largest automaker in 2011, a year when its sales grew in every region of the globe while Toyota sales were hampered by major natural disasters.
G.M. said Thursday that it sold 9,025,942 vehicles last year, 7.6 percent more than in 2010. Its closest competitor was Volkswagen, whose sales grew 14 percent to 8.156 million, with Toyota falling to third place.
Toyota has not released final sales results for the year but last month it estimated that sales totaled 7.9 million vehicles, a 6 percent drop.
The industry’s sales crown means little beyond bragging rights. But G.M.’s ability to climb back on top, only two years removed from its government rescue and bankruptcy, is certain to bolster morale within the company and strengthen the Obama administration’s argument that its bailout of the industry was worthwhile. G.M. was the world’s largest automaker for more than 70 years before Toyota surpassed it in 2008.
“Two years ago, nobody would have figured any of this would ever happen,” said Van E. Conway, chief executive of the turnaround consulting firm Conway MacKenzie, of Birmingham, Mich. “The intangible value of being No. 1 does have a positive impact, and it can feed on itself.”
Publicly at least, G.M. executives have been careful to avoid celebrating amid Toyota’s struggles. Toyota only recently was able to return production to normal levels after the earthquake and tsunami in Japan last March caused major disruptions and parts shortages.
“I want to win in the marketplace, but I want to win against a healthy and vibrant Toyota and Honda,” G.M.’s chief executive, Daniel F. Akerson, said in an interview last year. “Next year, we’ll put the gloves back on, and I’m sure they’ll go right back at us and we’ll go back at them.”
G.M. chose not to highlight its first-place finish Thursday, burying its global sales figures at the bottom of an announcement about its Chevrolet brand selling a record 4.76 million cars and trucks last year.
At the Detroit auto show last week, Mr. Akerson said G.M.’s focus was on increasing profits and margins, but he acknowledged that rising sales were a positive indicator of the company’s progress.
“We’re not going to achieve the financial goals that we want to achieve and have declining market share or declining numbers of units sold,” he told reporters. “It’s one indicator. What’s most important for our owners, our shareholders, is that we produce margins and profits and cash flow.”
G.M. shares rose 31 cents Thursday, to $24.82. They have risen 22 percent so far this month but remain well below the $33 price from G.M.’s initial public offering in November 2010. The Treasury Department, which still owns about 26 percent of G.M., needs the shares to reach roughly $54 to recoup its full investment in the company.
G.M., whose sales figures include its joint ventures in China, will need to continue increasing its sales to stay on top in the years ahead, if Toyota and Volkswagen are able to meet their ambitious forecasts. Toyota last month said it was aiming to sell 8.48 million vehicles in 2012 and nearly 9 million in 2013, not including some affiliate companies that are included in last year’s 7.9 million figure. Volkswagen is setting a target of 10 million in annual sales by 2018.
© 2012 The New York Times Company
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/20/business/gm-back-on-top-in-world-automaking.html
===
GM is Number 1 as Company Gobbles Market Share
By Avi Salzman
January 19, 2012, 1:01 PM ET
General Motors (GM) vaulted into the lead for most vehicles sold worldwide in 2011, as Toyota’s awful year pushed it into third place. GM sold 9.03 million vehicles in 2011, 7.6% more than in 2010, the company said today [ http://investor.gm.com/news-article.jsp?id=/content/Pages/news/us/en/2012/Jan/0119_chevysales.html ]. Chevrolet sales rose to 4.76 million, the highest level ever.
Volkswagen sales came in at 8.16 million, and Toyota’s are expected to be about 7.9 million, the New York Times [above] notes.
The results aren’t a huge surprise, particularly given Toyota’s myriad troubles: the strength of the yen and natural disasters in Japan and Thailand have hurt the company’s supply chain. But they do indicate that GM continues to gain market share around the world. The company said in its release that its market share rose to 11.9%, an increase of four-tenths of a percentage point.
Copyright © 2012 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
http://blogs.barrons.com/stockstowatchtoday/2012/01/19/once-again-gm-is-number-1-as-company-gobbles-market-share/ [with comments]
===
GM again the world's largest automaker
January 19, 2012
http://www.freep.com/article/20120119/BUSINESS0101/120119015/GM-again-the-world-s-largest-automaker
===
Dismantling Detroit
Video [embedded]
Dismantling Detroit: The filmmakers Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady look at young men who salvage scrap metal from Detroit’s derelict buildings, set against the backdrop of globalization [ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTEIGtHXOT4 ].
Published: January 18, 2012
We chose to focus our cameras on Detroit out of a gut feeling that this city — often heralded as the birthplace of the middle class — may well be a harbinger of things to come for the rest of the country.
Detroit lost 25 percent of its population between 2000 and 2010, and now, broke, finds itself on the verge of a possible state takeover. Yet visual reminders of a better time both haunt and anoint the residents here. The past is achingly present in Detroit, and the way its citizens interact with the hulking, physical remnants of yesterday is striking.
A few years ago, there was a rash of power outages in Detroit, caused by people illegally cutting down live telephone wires to get to the valuable copper coils inside. The Detroit police created a copper theft task force to deter the so-called “scrappers,” young men who case old buildings for valuable metals, troll cemeteries to steal copper grave plates and risk their lives to squeeze any last dollar out of the industrial detritus.
One freezing evening we happened upon the young men in this film, who were illegally dismantling a former Cadillac repair shop. They worked recklessly to tear down the steel beams and copper fasteners. They were in a hurry to make it to the scrap yard before it closed at 10 p.m., sell their spoils and head to the bar.
Surprisingly, these guys, who all lacked high school diplomas, seemed to have a better understanding of their place in the global food chain than many educated American 20-somethings. The young men regularly checked the fluctuating price of metals before they determined their next scrap hunt, and they had a clear view of where these resources were going and why. They were the cleanup crew in a shaky empire. Somebody’s got to do it.
One of the men, who had come up from Kentucky to scrap after losing a job in a coal mine, stands out in our minds. Taking a short break from the action, he looked up and said with disgust, “All that’s left here are the remnants of what was.”
The next day we went back to check on the progress of their project. The entire building was gone.
Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady are documentary directors and the co-owners of Loki Films, based in New York. This Op-Doc draws on some of the material from their upcoming feature-length documentary, DETROPIA, which is premiering at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival. In 2007 they were nominated for an Oscar for “Jesus Camp,” a candid look at the power of the Christian right.
This video was produced by independent filmmakers supported in part by the nonprofit Sundance Institute and the Ford Foundation.
*
Related in Opinion
Op-Ed Contributor: When the Lights Go Down in the City (January 19, 2012)
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/19/opinion/in-detroit-a-fresh-wave-of-hope.html
*
© 2012 The New York Times Company
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/19/opinion/dismantling-detroit.html [with comments]
===
(linked in):
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=69133046 and preceding and following
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=70840357 and preceding and following
By NICK BUNKLEY
Published: January 19, 2012
DETROIT — After three years of settling for second place, General Motors reclaimed its title as the world’s largest automaker in 2011, a year when its sales grew in every region of the globe while Toyota sales were hampered by major natural disasters.
G.M. said Thursday that it sold 9,025,942 vehicles last year, 7.6 percent more than in 2010. Its closest competitor was Volkswagen, whose sales grew 14 percent to 8.156 million, with Toyota falling to third place.
Toyota has not released final sales results for the year but last month it estimated that sales totaled 7.9 million vehicles, a 6 percent drop.
The industry’s sales crown means little beyond bragging rights. But G.M.’s ability to climb back on top, only two years removed from its government rescue and bankruptcy, is certain to bolster morale within the company and strengthen the Obama administration’s argument that its bailout of the industry was worthwhile. G.M. was the world’s largest automaker for more than 70 years before Toyota surpassed it in 2008.
“Two years ago, nobody would have figured any of this would ever happen,” said Van E. Conway, chief executive of the turnaround consulting firm Conway MacKenzie, of Birmingham, Mich. “The intangible value of being No. 1 does have a positive impact, and it can feed on itself.”
Publicly at least, G.M. executives have been careful to avoid celebrating amid Toyota’s struggles. Toyota only recently was able to return production to normal levels after the earthquake and tsunami in Japan last March caused major disruptions and parts shortages.
“I want to win in the marketplace, but I want to win against a healthy and vibrant Toyota and Honda,” G.M.’s chief executive, Daniel F. Akerson, said in an interview last year. “Next year, we’ll put the gloves back on, and I’m sure they’ll go right back at us and we’ll go back at them.”
G.M. chose not to highlight its first-place finish Thursday, burying its global sales figures at the bottom of an announcement about its Chevrolet brand selling a record 4.76 million cars and trucks last year.
At the Detroit auto show last week, Mr. Akerson said G.M.’s focus was on increasing profits and margins, but he acknowledged that rising sales were a positive indicator of the company’s progress.
“We’re not going to achieve the financial goals that we want to achieve and have declining market share or declining numbers of units sold,” he told reporters. “It’s one indicator. What’s most important for our owners, our shareholders, is that we produce margins and profits and cash flow.”
G.M. shares rose 31 cents Thursday, to $24.82. They have risen 22 percent so far this month but remain well below the $33 price from G.M.’s initial public offering in November 2010. The Treasury Department, which still owns about 26 percent of G.M., needs the shares to reach roughly $54 to recoup its full investment in the company.
G.M., whose sales figures include its joint ventures in China, will need to continue increasing its sales to stay on top in the years ahead, if Toyota and Volkswagen are able to meet their ambitious forecasts. Toyota last month said it was aiming to sell 8.48 million vehicles in 2012 and nearly 9 million in 2013, not including some affiliate companies that are included in last year’s 7.9 million figure. Volkswagen is setting a target of 10 million in annual sales by 2018.
© 2012 The New York Times Company
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/20/business/gm-back-on-top-in-world-automaking.html
===
GM is Number 1 as Company Gobbles Market Share
By Avi Salzman
January 19, 2012, 1:01 PM ET
General Motors (GM) vaulted into the lead for most vehicles sold worldwide in 2011, as Toyota’s awful year pushed it into third place. GM sold 9.03 million vehicles in 2011, 7.6% more than in 2010, the company said today [ http://investor.gm.com/news-article.jsp?id=/content/Pages/news/us/en/2012/Jan/0119_chevysales.html ]. Chevrolet sales rose to 4.76 million, the highest level ever.
Volkswagen sales came in at 8.16 million, and Toyota’s are expected to be about 7.9 million, the New York Times [above] notes.
The results aren’t a huge surprise, particularly given Toyota’s myriad troubles: the strength of the yen and natural disasters in Japan and Thailand have hurt the company’s supply chain. But they do indicate that GM continues to gain market share around the world. The company said in its release that its market share rose to 11.9%, an increase of four-tenths of a percentage point.
Copyright © 2012 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
http://blogs.barrons.com/stockstowatchtoday/2012/01/19/once-again-gm-is-number-1-as-company-gobbles-market-share/ [with comments]
===
GM again the world's largest automaker
January 19, 2012
http://www.freep.com/article/20120119/BUSINESS0101/120119015/GM-again-the-world-s-largest-automaker
===
Dismantling Detroit
Video [embedded]
Dismantling Detroit: The filmmakers Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady look at young men who salvage scrap metal from Detroit’s derelict buildings, set against the backdrop of globalization [ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTEIGtHXOT4 ].
By HEIDI EWING and RACHEL GRADY
Published: January 18, 2012
We chose to focus our cameras on Detroit out of a gut feeling that this city — often heralded as the birthplace of the middle class — may well be a harbinger of things to come for the rest of the country.
Detroit lost 25 percent of its population between 2000 and 2010, and now, broke, finds itself on the verge of a possible state takeover. Yet visual reminders of a better time both haunt and anoint the residents here. The past is achingly present in Detroit, and the way its citizens interact with the hulking, physical remnants of yesterday is striking.
A few years ago, there was a rash of power outages in Detroit, caused by people illegally cutting down live telephone wires to get to the valuable copper coils inside. The Detroit police created a copper theft task force to deter the so-called “scrappers,” young men who case old buildings for valuable metals, troll cemeteries to steal copper grave plates and risk their lives to squeeze any last dollar out of the industrial detritus.
One freezing evening we happened upon the young men in this film, who were illegally dismantling a former Cadillac repair shop. They worked recklessly to tear down the steel beams and copper fasteners. They were in a hurry to make it to the scrap yard before it closed at 10 p.m., sell their spoils and head to the bar.
Surprisingly, these guys, who all lacked high school diplomas, seemed to have a better understanding of their place in the global food chain than many educated American 20-somethings. The young men regularly checked the fluctuating price of metals before they determined their next scrap hunt, and they had a clear view of where these resources were going and why. They were the cleanup crew in a shaky empire. Somebody’s got to do it.
One of the men, who had come up from Kentucky to scrap after losing a job in a coal mine, stands out in our minds. Taking a short break from the action, he looked up and said with disgust, “All that’s left here are the remnants of what was.”
The next day we went back to check on the progress of their project. The entire building was gone.
Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady are documentary directors and the co-owners of Loki Films, based in New York. This Op-Doc draws on some of the material from their upcoming feature-length documentary, DETROPIA, which is premiering at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival. In 2007 they were nominated for an Oscar for “Jesus Camp,” a candid look at the power of the Christian right.
This video was produced by independent filmmakers supported in part by the nonprofit Sundance Institute and the Ford Foundation.
*
Related in Opinion
Op-Ed Contributor: When the Lights Go Down in the City (January 19, 2012)
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/19/opinion/in-detroit-a-fresh-wave-of-hope.html
*
© 2012 The New York Times Company
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/19/opinion/dismantling-detroit.html [with comments]
===
(linked in):
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=69133046 and preceding and following
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=70840357 and preceding and following
Greensburg, KS - 5/4/07
"Eternal vigilance is the price of Liberty."
from John Philpot Curran, Speech
upon the Right of Election, 1790
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