Main page | June 11, 2007 »

Chinese Auto Parts Enter the Global Market

China’s auto parts exports have increased more than sixfold in the last five years, nearly topping $1 billion in April and emerging as one of the fastest-growing categories of Chinese industrial products sold overseas, according to the New York Times.

More than half of these auto parts go to the United States; most of the rest to Europe and Japan.

The rise of Chinese auto parts exports is part of a much broader shift. China is moving up from basic goods like textiles, toys and shoes and toward higher-value industrial goods that pay better wages — but also compete more directly with products from countries like Mexico and even from advanced industrialized countries like the United States.

Posted by   at 1:04 PM to Auto industry | Permalink | Comments 0

G.M. Chief Tells Shareholders to Take Long View

The chairman and chief executive of General Motors, Rick Wagoner, faced more than two hours of criticism from shareholders at the annual meeting Tuesday, but he countered that the company had made major progress in turning around its fortunes last year, and he urged patience for the long term, the New York Times reports.

Posted by   at 12:57 PM to Companies | Permalink | Comments 0

Lawmakers and regulators should mandate higher mileage without worrying that they are compromising safety by encouraging small vehicles, according to the report by the International Council on Clean Transportation, the USA Today.

The report says its recommendations could boost the average fuel economy of new vehicles 50% in 10 years. That would make it roughly 33 mpg in 2017.

Even in cases where bigger vehicles are safer for their occupants, they ought to be discouraged by regulators as threats to people in smaller vehicles, ICCT says.

Posted by   at 12:55 PM to Fuel economy | Permalink | Comments 0

A decade after first Prius, Toyota's hybrid sales pass 1M

A decade after the first Prius went on sale, Toyota's global sales of hybrid vehicles have hit 1 million, underlining the Japanese automaker's lead in "green" technology, according to USA Today.

Toyota says it has sold 577,311 gasoline-electric hybrid vehicles in the USA from mid-2000, when it launched the Prius here, through May.

Toyota's worldwide sales of gas-and-electric-powered vehicles totaled 1.047 million as of the end of May. Nearly 345,000 of those were sold in Japan.

Posted by   at 12:53 PM to Alternative fuels , Companies , Environment , Fuel economy , Sales | Permalink | Comments 0

Gas Prices Gnaw at Consumer Confidence

Consumer confidence tumbled to a 10-month low as gyrating gasoline prices and persisting problems in the housing market gnawed at people's sense of economic well-being, the Associated Press reports.

The magnitude of the drop shown in the latest RBC Cash Index was surprising given the healthy state of the nation's job market, which is usually an important factor coloring consumers' perceptions of how the economy and their own financial fortunes are faring.

But nagging worries about gasoline prices, if the yearlong housing slump will worsen and drag down home prices further and whether the economy will, in fact, snap out of its sluggish spell, are taking a toll on confidence, economists explained.

"There is too much uncertainty. That is the mindset of consumers right now," said Brian Bethune, economist at Global Insight

Posted by   at 12:37 PM to Gas prices | Permalink | Comments 0