...in China..

http://www.autoweek.com/news.cms?newsId=102994

 

increased sales volume, even in china, makes everything else cheaper.

 

Even in China? China is one of the fastest growing car markets coming up. This is VERY good news for GM.

 

Great news for GM, however I wouldn't expect it to last. There's no such thing as momentum in the Chinese market, and a company's fortunes can change very quickly. It's not like North America where it took GM decades to lose 20 points of market share; Volkswagen managed that same feat in China in about 2 years. GM's going to have to be very sharp to hang on to the number 1 position.

However the interesting thing about China is that's it's a great test case to see if GM really can compete head to head with the best in the world. All of GM's competitors are also foreigners in China so there's no home-field advantage. GM did get a head start on most of the Japanese but everyone's still a relative newcomer to the mainstream market. And since everyone is new in China, there's no real baggage associated with any brands. We should be able to see if GM really does deserve to be the world's largest automaker.

 

China will crumble faster than gas prices rise. China is nothing. There's so much corruption going on over there its pitiful, yet goes unnoticed just like our borders.

Whatever.

 

China is a huge market. It's very good that GM establishes a foothold there as the automotive scene takes off. China's additional competition for the world's oil resources is a big part of the increased gas prices.

We all love the USA, but crack a world geography book open or something.

 

 

Agreed.

 

Sorry Josh but I gotta disagree. China has line 1/3 the world population and A LOT of manufacturing operations are setting up over there for a very good reason.

 

I agree to a point... Their government is still communist. Their government still has disillusions of grandeur.

Do I think we should hands-off China like we did to Cuba? Absolutely not. As long as China is willing to play the game, lets trade like hell with them. Competition never hurt noone, so to speak.

However, it would be good to keep in mind that the government body in that country is an unpredictable entity. Add in the (currently rather dim) possibility of a popular revolt, and you have a market, that, whilst having huge potential, cannot really be relied upon.

 

I suppose I should be happy for GM, but I find it difficult.

 

For those of you who think China is insignificant or too corrupt, consider these items.

First, China is home to over 1.3 billion people. That's 1,300,000,000!

Secondly, here in the world's largest car market (the USA if you didn't know) we have a population of roughly 250 million people.

Finally, even if their experiment with capitalism only effects the lives of 20% of the population in some way or the other, and of that 20% only 2% get "rich" off of it all, that is still a larger potential market than the US has and a similar break down of wealth.

How?
1. 20% of China's population is 260 million people. 10 million more than us.
2. 2% of that is 5.2 million. depending on your yardstick for "rich" that's either more than or similar to what we have here in the US.

When you hear of China being a whole new market, it's no understatement. It has the potential of being a market bigger than the US..... even if 60% of it's population continue to be "dirt farmers".

Almost the same thing happened when the Soviet Union collasped 15 years ago. The USSR had a population of 293 million when it disintergrated. Businesses were all over that like ants on a sandwich.

 

What about the whole deal with China stealing technology and putting it into there own Commi brand cars, without paying GM or anybody else that was stolen from for the use.

 

I don't know the specifics of GM's dealings with China, but typically these host countries will require that a foreign corporation be run/attached to a local business or government so they can get something in return for letting the MNC do business, use cheap labor, etc. and maintain the host country's interests. Part of these agreements will also call for some level of information sharing. I'm not sure if this is what you're referring to, but it's par for the course in that part of the world.

 

That just makes the news sound that much more significant!! Thanks for posting that.