Wednesday, January 26, 2011

CHINESE COMMUNIST-CAPITALIST ECONOMIC STEAMROLLER

Back in 1983, I spent three weeks travelling in China. The only motor vehicles I saw on the roadways of Beijing and Shanghai were large trucks, buses and a few passenger cars, mostly taxicabs. The streets were jammed with a huge horde of bicyclists and the downtown sidewalks and esplanades were packed with parked bicycles. Today, the streets and modern highways of Beijing and Shanghai are experiencing motor vehicle traffic jams equaling, if not surpassing, t hose in Los Angles, New York, Houston and other major American cities.

GM’s good fortune is evidence that the Chines economic steamroller is not that far from overtaking the United States as the world’s strongest economic power.

GENERAL MOTORS SELLS MORE CARS AND TRUCKS IN CHINA THAN AMERICA FOR FIRST TIME IN HISTORY

Mail Online
January 25, 2011

General Motors sold more cars and trucks in China last year than it did in America for the first time in the company's 102-year history.

But despite GM's gains in China, Toyota Motor Corporation managed to hold on to the title of world's largest carmaker.

The Japanese company reported 8.42 million sales worldwide last year - 30,000 more than GM's 8.39 million global sales for 2010.

GM expects its sales growth to continue, and industry analysts say it may dethrone Toyota as the global sales leader this year.

The news came the same day that GM announced it was adding a shift and workers to a plant in Flint, Michigan, which makes popular pickup trucks.

GM and Toyota tied for the global sales lead in 2007, ending GM's 76-year string of dominance. Toyota took the title in 2008 and has held it ever since, but last year's string of embarrassing safety recalls and a resurgent GM combined to make the race close again.

'General Motors is going strong, and it's a sure sign of its re-emergence,' said Yasuaki Iwamoto, auto analyst with Okasan Securities Co in Tokyo.

GM spokesman Tom Henderson said the company is not focusing on the race with Toyota.

'A financially healthy and sustainable business that benefits our customers, stakeholders and employees takes precedence over any ranking.

'Our motivation is to be the best global company and let the numbers speak for themselves,' he said.

GM's global sales figure for 2010 was a dramatic 12 percent increase from 2009, a year in which it closed factories and was forced to take aid from the US government to survive. Its sales in the US, including heavy-duty vehicles, rose 6.3 percent.

But it did even better in China, selling 2.35 million vehicles there, up 29 percent as an expanding middle class gained wealth, making it the world's largest car market.

The showing in China was about 136,000 more than the amount GM sold in the US Toyota, meanwhile, sold just 846,000 vehicles in China.

GM said it achieved double-digit jumps in five of its top 10 markets last year, including China. GM marked a 12.4 percent sales rise in Russia and a 10.4 percent rise in Brazil.

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