Germany is examining the carmaker Opel’s request for government credit guarantees, German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck said.
“We are looking into it to see whether it’s appropriate,” Steinbrueck said on Friday night in Washington on the sidelines of the G20 summit of developed and emerging economies.
Opel — a unit of General Motors Corp, which itself is seeking a US government bailout — said earlier on Friday that it wanted the loan guarantees from German federal and state governments after a sharp downturn in orders but insisted it did not need cash injections.
The German-based carmaker did not name a sum for the guarantees it wanted, but Kurt Beck, the prime minister of the western state of Rhineland-Palatinate, said it was about 1 billion euros (US$1.27 billion).
Steinbrueck said a meeting between Opel representatives and the four US states where Opel has factories would take place on Tuesday, adding that the talks were still at an initial stage.
“The goal of the current talks is to ready security for additional loans because the global financial situation of parent company General Motors has worsened,” Klaus Franz, head of GM’s works council, said on Friday in a statement distributed by Ruesselsheim, Germany-based Opel’s press department.
The request is for loan guarantees if “GM’s financial situation were to intensify” and affect Opel, the German unit said in the statement.
Opel, which targets mainly low-income buyers, has been among the automakers hardest hit by the credit crunch.
The brand’s European sales have dropped 12 percent this year, more than twice the industrywide decline, according to the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association.
In the statement, managing director Hans Demant said that “we want to secure Opel’s competitiveness in this difficult situation.”
The carmaker, which is known as Vauxhall in the UK, said that it would use funds from government aid to develop vehicles and for equipment for its German factories.
“Under no circumstances would the money be used outside Europe,” Opel said in the statement.
Demant said Opel was only requesting credit guarantees. “At this time, we have no liquidity problems,” he said.
Opel, which employs 25,700 workers, and other German carmakers, such as Daimler and BMW, have announced temporary closures of factories to cut costs after a huge drop in orders.
In the US, GM, Ford Motor Co and Chrysler LLC would receive US$25 billion in loans out of a US$700 billion financial bailout package approved earlier this year under legislation that US Representative Barney Frank of Massachusetts and Senator Carl Levin of Michigan are writing. US President George W. Bush’s administration opposes using those funds for the auto companies.
Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) chairman Barry Lam (林百里) is expected to share his views about the artificial intelligence (AI) industry’s prospects during his speech at the company’s 37th anniversary ceremony, as AI servers have become a new growth engine for the equipment manufacturing service provider. Lam’s speech is much anticipated, as Quanta has risen as one of the world’s major AI server suppliers. The company reported a 30 percent year-on-year growth in consolidated revenue to NT$1.41 trillion (US$43.35 billion) last year, thanks to fast-growing demand for servers, especially those with AI capabilities. The company told investors in November last year that
Intel Corp has named Tasha Chuang (莊蓓瑜) to lead Intel Taiwan in a bid to reinforce relations between the company and its Taiwanese partners. The appointment of Chuang as general manager for Intel Taiwan takes effect on Thursday, the firm said in a statement yesterday. Chuang is to lead her team in Taiwan to pursue product development and sales growth in an effort to reinforce the company’s ties with its partners and clients, Intel said. Chuang was previously in charge of managing Intel’s ties with leading Taiwanese PC brand Asustek Computer Inc (華碩), which included helping Asustek strengthen its global businesses, the company
Taiwanese suppliers to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC, 台積電) are expected to follow the contract chipmaker’s step to invest in the US, but their relocation may be seven to eight years away, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. When asked by opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Niu Hsu-ting (牛煦庭) in the legislature about growing concerns that TSMC’s huge investments in the US will prompt its suppliers to follow suit, Kuo said based on the chipmaker’s current limited production volume, it is unlikely to lead its supply chain to go there for now. “Unless TSMC completes its planned six
TikTok abounds with viral videos accusing prestigious brands of secretly manufacturing luxury goods in China so they can be sold at cut prices. However, while these “revelations” are spurious, behind them lurks a well-oiled machine for selling counterfeit goods that is making the most of the confusion surrounding trade tariffs. Chinese content creators who portray themselves as workers or subcontractors in the luxury goods business claim that Beijing has lifted confidentiality clauses on local subcontractors as a way to respond to the huge hike in customs duties imposed on China by US President Donald Trump. They say this Chinese decision, of which Agence
RSS