I remember seeing some crazy strike footage coming out of Korea in the past. Riots and all that, I take it there is a law that requires a certain percentage of manufacturing to be done in country for companies like Kia and LG?
I remember seeing some crazy strike footage coming out of Korea in the past. Riots and all that, I take it there is a law that requires a certain percentage of manufacturing to be done in country for companies like Kia and LG?
C.H.U.D.
Originally Posted by Kiwon
That reminds me of when Schlitz went on strike in Milwaukee for (among other things) a bartender for their beer breaks.
Thank you Ronald Reagan, for firing those Air Traffic Controllers.
Megacorporations like Hyundai, Samsung, LG, Daewoo, Kia, etc.... while not government owned are basically properties of the nation. They exist in people's minds in order to advance the nation of Korea itself.
Remember, this is a group-oriented society and 99% of the people are ethnic Koreans (same language, history, culture, etc.). They have kept it that way intentionally for 5,000 years. Mixed-married couples and especially mixed-raced children are just basically completely shunned. They almost all end up living abroad.
You will never see a large Korean firm being bought out by a multinational. It will NEVER happen. It took about 5 years for a GM-Daewoo partnership to be formed with a bankrupt Daewoo Motors to build cars. The worker unions sabotaged parts plants, threatened everything, pledged to never work for foreigners, but finally after years of being out of work and no other domestic buyouts in sight they decided to okay the merger.
Workers totals were set and not everyone was rehired. Despite all the BS and concessions on top of concessions by GM, the new company made money (exporting cheap cars to China and the Middle East). After a couple of years, guess what, all the original workers were hired back. Lesson learned? I doubt it.
These folks are used to having jobs for life and globalization is like an electric shock to the Korean psyche. They are adjusting but the FTA with the USA is widely unpopular (American beef brings Mad Cow disease, etc., etc).
As for the demos (demonstrations), they are completely orchestrated. The unions announce when they will hold one and get a permit. The government shows up with the riot police (mostly young people doing their national service) and they yell at one another and push back and forth. Occasionally, some protestor will set himself on fire to go down in infamy.
Ridiculous, but it makes for dramatic TV.
Scott, seriously, tell me you are kidding.
That reminds me of when Schlitz went on strike in Milwaukee for (among other things) a bartender for their beer breaks.
Scott, seriously, tell me you are kidding.
That reminds me of when Schlitz went on strike in Milwaukee for (among other things) a bartender for their beer breaks.
Nope. I'm sure it wasn't their primary motive, but it did give the boys something to rally around. The unions in this country have gotten the pounding they deserve.
Thank you Ronald Reagan for firing those Air Traffic Controllers back in the early 80's.
Megacorporations like Hyundai, Samsung, LG, Daewoo, Kia, etc.... while not government owned are basically properties of the nation. They exist in people's minds in order to advance the nation of Korea itself.
Remember, this is a group-oriented society and 99% of the people are ethnic Koreans (same language, history, culture, etc.). They have kept it that way intentionally for 5,000 years. Mixed-married couples and especially mixed-raced children are just basically completely shunned. They almost all end up living abroad.
You will never see a large Korean firm being bought out by a multinational. It will NEVER happen. It took about 5 years for a GM-Daewoo partnership to be formed with a bankrupt Daewoo Motors to build cars. The worker unions sabotaged parts plants, threatened everything, pledged to never work for foreigners, but finally after years of being out of work and no other domestic buyouts in sight they decided to okay the merger.
Workers totals were set and not everyone was rehired. Despite all the BS and concessions on top of concessions by GM, the new company made money (exporting cheap cars to China and the Middle East). After a couple of years, guess what, all the original workers were hired back. Lesson learned? I doubt it.
These folks are used to having jobs for life and globalization is like an electric shock to the Korean psyche. They are adjusting but the FTA with the USA is widely unpopular (American beef brings Mad Cow disease, etc., etc).
As for the demos (demonstrations), they are completely orchestrated. The unions announce when they will hold one and get a permit. The government shows up with the riot police (mostly young people doing their national service) and they yell at one another and push back and forth. Occasionally, some protestor will set himself on fire to go down in infamy.
Ridiculous, but it makes for dramatic TV.
The sort of protectionism you describe is a recipe for disaster. If Korea or any other country does not adapt to changing globalization, it will eventually suffer.
Your post makes me wonder how in the world Samsung remains so unbelievably competitive in so many markets.
The Confucianist, group orientation works to their advantage.
The work force is highly educated and infused with an extremely competitive spirit. Korea is #2 in the world in math and science. Many Middle Schoolers return home from study institutes around 10 or 11 pm. High School is even worse. Korean parents will spend almost any amount of money for the sake of their child's education. This is the norm. It's one of the reasons that the birthrate is the lowest among industrialized nations.
The employees at the Samsung corporation (electronics, engineering, finance, on and on...) are the cream of the crop. The same for LG and Hyundai and most of their related companies. These "chebols" has benefited from decades of sweetheart deals with the Korean government and advanced from simple reverse engineering to cutting edge R and D in IT, Biochem, etc. Broadband Internet has been the standard countrywide here for almost ten years. I noted that the new iPhone has a Samsung chip in it. Sweet deal.
A lot of manufacturing is also done overseas due to labor costs. The engine of the Korean economy is exports (cars, ships, chips). If that ever goes south then the gig is up. They know it and are fighting like mad to maintain their competitive advantages, especially in the area of electronics, until China's economy really gets cooking. They are getting burned now with China blatantly violating intellectual property copyrights. What goes around comes around it seems.
Very true. I see globalization at work every day as a Customs Broker. I just got hired by a 49 billion dollar company to oversee their US import operations. "Made in the US" is a thing of the past. I have some relatives that are extremely pro Union. For some reason they can never remember what I do for a living, and I've been doing it for 10 years. Well, at a famliy get together recently they asked me again, and I said "You see all that "Made in China" stuff, I help bring it into the country." Needless to say, my pro union family members sat there all quite and pissed. I wanted to tell them to get a grip with reality, and your kids factory jobs will no longer exist someday.
Very true. I see globalization at work every day as a Customs Broker. I just got hired by a 49 billion dollar company to oversee their US import operations. "Made in the US" is a thing of the past. I have some relatives that are extremely pro Union. For some reason they can never remember what I do for a living, and I've been doing it for 10 years. Well, at a famliy get together recently they asked me again, and I said "You see all that "Made in China" stuff, I help bring it into the country." Needless to say, my pro union family members sat there all quite and pissed. I wanted to tell them to get a grip with reality, and your kids factory jobs will no longer exist someday.That's a good story. A true clash of cultures.
Darwin is stalking them.
Damn...and we don't even get their best models!
August 1, 2007
Detroit Is Outsold by Imports in U.S.
By MICHELINE MAYNARD
.
DETROIT, Aug. 1 — Detroit lost its leadership of the American automobile market for the first time ever in July, when import nameplates outsold the three American companies in a dismal month for auto sales.
The traditional American brands owned by General Motors, the Ford Motor Company and the Chrysler Group held 48.1 percent of the market in July, according to a preliminary estimate by Autodata Inc., an industry statistics firm in Woodcliff Lake, N.J.
That meant foreign auto companies held 51.9 percent of the market. The most they had previously held was 49.8 percent of the market earlier this year.
Even taking into account the companies’ foreign brands, such as Volvo and Mazda, which are owned by Ford, the Detroit companies only held 49.7 percent of the market last month, said Edmunds.com, a Web site that offers buying advice to consumers.
In July last year, Detroit companies held 52 percent of the American market, according to Autodata.
Foreign nameplates have led Detroit in sales of cars for much of this decade, but Detroit’s wide lead in sales of light trucks, like pickups, sport utility vehicles and minivans, managed to keep the American companies ahead in the overall market.
The popularity of S.U.V.’s began to plummet, however, after gasoline prices spiked in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. And this year, with gasoline above $3 a gallon in many parts of the country, sales of big pickup trucks by Detroit companies have fallen, helping the foreign companies squeak ahead in total sales.
“It’s a clear signal that the industry’s business model needs to be transformed ASAP,” said John Casesa, a veteran industry analyst with the Casesa Shapiro Group. “It adds urgency to what is already an extremely fragile situation in Detroit.”
Foreign brands’ dominance of the American market came in a month when even the major Japanese companies, Toyota and Honda, reported small declines in sales.
But the declines by Detroit companies were even deeper, causing a shift in the ranking of the auto companies.
General Motors said its sales fell 23 percent in July compared with 2006, while Ford Motor Company said its sales fell 19.1 percent. The Chrysler Group, which has been enjoying a comeback this year, said its sales fell 9 percent last month.
Toyota, which unseated Ford earlier this year to rank as the No. 2 auto company in the United States, said its sales fell 3.5 percent from July 2006, which was a record month for the auto company.
“It was a rough month for everybody,” said Mike Michaels, a spokesman for Toyota.
Honda Motor Company also reported a sales decline, but it outsold Chrysler to take fourth place among companies selling vehicles in the United States last month, as it did in July 2006.
That meant the ranking among auto companies last month was G.M., Toyota, Ford, Honda and Chrysler.
All the figures were unadjusted for the number of selling days last month. There were 24 selling days this year and 25 last year. Adjusted numbers showed smaller declines in sales, but that did not affect the market share percentages.
Detroit companies, in particular, have been hit hard by the rise in gasoline prices, and the drop in home sales that has curbed the demand for big pickups and sport utility vehicles, which still dominate their lineups, even though they have introduced new cars and crossover vehicles.
The Ford decline is another setback for the automaker, which is in the midst of a restructuring program called the Way Forward.
Although Ford and G.M. are voluntarily cutting back on unprofitable sales to fleet customers, like rental car companies, Ford said its sales to consumers also fell 17 percent in July.
“We are encouraged by the progress we have made and consumers’ response to our new products,” said Mark Fields, Ford’s president for the Americas region. “At the same time, we know we have a lot of work to do, and July is a sobering reminder of the economic and competitive challenges we face.”
George Pipas, Ford’s chief sales analyst, played down the significance of foreign auto companies’ dominance of July sales, saying that the import brands have dominated the retail sales market since last year.
For the year to date, Ford sales are down 12.2 percent on an unadjusted basis. By contrast, Toyota sales are up 5.5 percent for the year.
Chrysler’s decline came despite the wave of new vehicles it has introduced over the last few months. But its sales for the year to date are up 2 percent over 2006.
Edmunds estimated that the average incentive last month rose to $2,524 per vehicle, up $102, or 4.2 percent, from June 2007, but down $286, or 10.2 percent, from July 2006. G.M. has already rolled out a zero percent financing plan on its big pickup trucks in an effort to increase their sales. Toyota has been offering zero percent financing on its Tundra pickup since June.
Nick Bunkley contributed reporting from Phoenix.
C.H.U.D.
Hop Sing do good?
China threatens 'nuclear option' of dollar sales
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard
Last Updated: 6:00pm BST 07/08/2007
The Chinese government has begun a concerted campaign of economic threats against the United States, hinting that it may liquidate its vast holding of US treasuries if Washington imposes trade sanctions to force a yuan revaluation.
Two officials at leading Communist Party bodies have given interviews in recent days warning - for the first time - that Beijing may use its $1.33 trillion (£658bn) of foreign reserves as a political weapon to counter pressure from the US Congress. Shifts in Chinese policy are often announced through key think tanks and academies.
Described as China's "nuclear option" in the state media, such action could trigger a dollar crash at a time when the US currency is already breaking down through historic support levels.
advertisement
It would also cause a spike in US bond yields, hammering the US housing market and perhaps tipping the economy into recession. It is estimated that China holds over $900bn in a mix of US bonds.
Xia Bin, finance chief at the Development Research Centre (which has cabinet rank), kicked off what now appears to be government policy with a comment last week that Beijing's foreign reserves should be used as a "bargaining chip" in talks with the US.
"Of course, China doesn't want any undesirable phenomenon in the global financial order," he added.
He Fan, an official at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, went even further today, letting it be known that Beijing had the power to set off a dollar collapse if it choose to do so.
"China has accumulated a large sum of US dollars. Such a big sum, of which a considerable portion is in US treasury bonds, contributes a great deal to maintaining the position of the dollar as a reserve currency. Russia, Switzerland, and several other countries have reduced the their dollar holdings.
"China is unlikely to follow suit as long as the yuan's exchange rate is stable against the dollar. The Chinese central bank will be forced to sell dollars once the yuan appreciated dramatically, which might lead to a mass depreciation of the dollar," he told China Daily.
The threats play into the presidential electoral campaign of Hillary Clinton, who has called for restrictive legislation to prevent America being "held hostage to economic decicions being made in Beijing, Shanghai, or Tokyo".
She said foreign control over 44pc of the US national debt had left America acutely vulnerable.
Simon Derrick, a currency strategist at the Bank of New York Mellon, said the comments were a message to the US Senate as Capitol Hill prepares legislation for the Autumn session.
"The words are alarming and unambiguous. This carries a clear political threat and could have very serious consequences at a time when the credit markets are already afraid of contagion from the subprime troubles," he said.
A bill drafted by a group of US senators, and backed by the Senate Finance Committee, calls for trade tariffs against Chinese goods as retaliation for alleged currency manipulation.
The yuan has appreciated 9pc against the dollar over the last two years under a crawling peg but it has failed to halt the rise of China's trade surplus, which reached $26.9bn in June.
Henry Paulson, the US Treasury Secretary, said any such sanctions would undermine American authority and "could trigger a global cycle of protectionist legislation".
Mr Paulson is a China expert from his days as head of Goldman Sachs. He has opted for a softer form of diplomacy, but appeared to win few concession from Beijing on a unscheduled trip to China last week aimed at calming the waters.
Information appearing on telegraph.co.uk is the copyright of Telegraph Media Group Limited and must not be reproduced in any medium without licence. For the full copyright statement see Copyright
C.H.U.D.
Woohoo! A couple good days in the market! I think they say there are 2 major market corrections a year, so we should be on the upswing for the rest of the year.
Uh...yep.
Well that wasn't that painful when it was all over.
But what does the future hold? I read that 1 in 5 subprime loans are in default nationwide and that many, many more are getting ready for a upward rate change which means much higher payments for the buyer or greedy speculator.
So is it almost time to get another home somewhere? Of course the places where I want to buy are still sky freaking high but I think that is getting ready to change....there are just WAY to many vacant homes on the market for the prices to stay up.
Aloha.
C.H.U.D.
Um...the Dow was down 387 points today.
Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack, a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in - Leonard Cohen
It's kinda scary when a large Bank like BNP Paribas, a large French bank suspends the operations of three of its funds because of "the complete evaporation of liquidity in certain market segments" -- that is, there are no buyers. Just a bit ominous...
C.H.U.D.
The market is really taking a beating now! My returns on the year have gone from 28% to 12%! It's not just the US market either. The good thing is that there are 4 more months in the year for a small rally.
Okay, enough of the correction already.
Holy Canuck Batman! I just noticed that the Canadian Dollar was within 2 cents of the Greenback. The Sky has fallen.
C.H.U.D.
Stock tips, anyone?
For us capitalist pig rats, what companies are you following whose stock looks promising?
Let's get a little investment chit-chat going.
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote