With the U.S. auto industry in the midst of a crisis, Chinese media reports are saying that Chinese companies may buy up two giants, Chrysler and GM. From TheTruthAboutCars.com:
Chinese carmakers SAIC and Dongfeng have plans to acquire GM and Chrysler, China’s 21st Century Business Herald reports today… The paper cites a senior official of China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology– the state regulator of China’s auto industry– who dropped the hint that “the auto manufacturing giants in China, such as Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation (SAIC) and Dongfeng Motor Corporation, have the capability and intention to buy some assets of the two crisis-plagued American automakers.” These hints are very often followed with quick action in the Middle Kingdom. The hints were dropped just a few days after the same Chinese government gave its auto makers the go-ahead to invest abroad. And why would they do that?
It is worth noting that this plan has not been mentioned widely (or at all) in the U.S. media reporting of the automakers’ current troubles. This article, from AP, talks about decreased sales in China as being one more nail in U.S. car makers’ coffins:
The big automakers’ ability to weather the crisis hinges on drawing jittery customers like Yang back into dealerships, especially in China.
The urgency is particularly acute for America’s big automakers — GM, Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler LLC — which have been battered by the U.S. economic meltdown and are lobbying the federal government for a $25 billion bailout that looks increasingly murky. GM has said it could run out of cash by year’s end without government aid.
