Monday, November 26, 2018

The Market, Energy, And Political Page, T+20 -- Monday, November 26, 2018

Happy? Real happy? Not so happy? I guess it depends on the definition of "surges."

********************************** 
Chevrolet Volt Short-Circuited


GM will shut down production of Chevrolet Cruz (small car); the Volt (EV); and, several others. Stories everywhere; one link here. It appears four plants in the US will be closed, and one in Ottawa, Canada. But the number of employees -- it appears 3,300 blue collar workers at the one plant in Canada; and 2,600 employees spread across four factories in the US.

US EV sales are tracked here.

I watched ABC report this story; I don't watch evening news but I made an exception tonight to watch the Mars landing story. After listening to the ABC story I went to the internet story regarding GM. What ABC said was accurate. What ABC left out was huge. 14,000 jobs lost; about 5,900 in North America meaning that the vast majority of employees are overseas (perhaps China?). Of the 5,900 in North America, as noted above, 3,300 in one factory in Ottawa, whereas 2,600 employees spread across four plants in the US. From the ABC I had the distinct impression 14,000 GM employees in the US were being cut just before Christmas. Not even close. This is a huge GM story. It's a huge business story. It's not a huge American job story -- GM may in fact hire 2,600 new employees for their US plants. The Bolt was unveiled in January, 2016. The Volt is a hybrid, first commercial production in 2010. The Volt was showing its age and absolutely not competitive against the Toyota Prius.

Wow, the GM story, as I said earlier: his is a huge GM story. It's a huge business story. It's not a huge American job story.

***********************************
Two Throwaways For The Archives

In default? Tick, tick, tick: apparently Venezuela is in default to both China and Russia. Russia strongmen have gone to Venezuela to break some kneecaps.

White elephant? The billion-dollar pipeline Canadians own but can't build. Trudeau seems confused.

No comments:

Post a Comment