Chrysler LLC said on Sunday its financial unit had renewed lines of credit totaling US$24 billion that will fund the automaker’s dealers and its financial services business.
Chrysler Financial initially sought US$30 billion but reduced the amount “due to conditions in the credit markets and changes in the company’s retail strategy,” the company said in a news release.
“The liquidity provided by these facilities will enable us to support our dealers and their retail customers,” said Tom Gilman, executive vice chairman of Chrysler Financial.
Last month, Chrysler said its financial arm was getting out of the auto leasing business because economic conditions have made leasing more expensive than buying, for both consumers and the company.
The move came amid a sharp drop in values for leased trucks and sport utility vehicles that are coming back to automakers as leases end. Executives said the automaker wanted to allocate its limited resources to retail incentives and financing, which make up 80 percent of the market, instead of leasing, which is 20 percent of the US market.
On Friday, Chrysler said it was ahead of its financial goals for the first half of this year, despite slumping US vehicle demand and tough economic conditions.
The automaker also said it posted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of about US$1.1 billion for the first half of the year, also well ahead of its plan. Chrysler did not provide a net income figure or break down of its results, but Daimler AG, which owns 19.9 percent of Chrysler, indicated last week that Chrysler lost an estimated US$510 million in the first quarter.
Chrysler, which has been a private company since it was bought last year by Cerberus Capital Management LP, isn’t required to release financial data.
A signaling system malfunction disrupted high-speed rail (HSR) services beginning at 8am today, with trains temporarily reduced to three northbound and three southbound trains per hour as authorities conduct inspections. The malfunction occurred on a section of track in Miaoli County during pre-operation checks early this morning, forcing northbound and southbound trains to use a single track, the HSR operator said. The regular schedule has been replaced with three hourly trains offering only nonreserved seating in each direction, stopping at every station, it said, adding that business class cars would still have reserved seating. Departures from terminal stations are scheduled at the top
Taiwan is still in the process of assessing the possibility of recruiting workers from Eswatini, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday, adding that its goal is to help Eswatini upgrade its vocational training centers. If there are plans to recruit workers from Eswatini, safeguarding national security, protecting public health and ensuring the employment rights of Taiwanese would be prerequisites, Department of West Asian and African Affairs Director-General Yen Chia-liang (顏嘉良) told a news conference. Key considerations would also include filling labor shortages in specific industries, and fostering bilateral professional and technical exchanges, he said. Yen was asked about the progress of labor
A US uncrewed surface vessel (USV) encountered multiple Chinese warships during an autonomous transit of the Taiwan Strait, US defense company Seasats said in a statement on Wednesday. Seasats announced that a Lightfish USV had completed the first autonomous transit of the Taiwan Strait. Over five days, the USV traversed the entire length of the Strait while constantly monitoring surface vessel traffic, the company said. The Lightfish encountered multiple Chinese warships, one of which was a Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) Type 056 corvette, it said. The Chinese vessels were operating “well within Taiwan’s exclusive economic zone without transmitting their identity via the
VERBOSE VESSELS: A CGA cutter and a China Coast Guard exchanged verbal barbs for more than a day in Taiwanese-controlled waters before the Chinese vessel left The Taiwanese and Chinese coast guards had a standoff near the strategically located Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) in the north of the South China Sea, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. The two sides engaged in intense radio exchanges over sovereignty claims during the 33-hour standoff. China Coast Guard vessel 3501 eventually left the restricted waters, 26.6 nautical miles (49.2km) west of the Pratas Islands, at 5pm yesterday, the CGA said. Lying approximately between southern Taiwan and Hong Kong, the Taiwan-controlled Pratas are seen by some security experts as vulnerable to Chinese attack due to their distance — more than
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