GM to end vehicle, engine manufacturing in Australia
Related Topics
Manufacturing
General Motors
Toyota
Australia
December 11, 2013 - 8:57 am ET -- UPDATED: 12/11/13 10:34 am ET - new story
SYDNEY (Bloomberg) -- Australia’s century-old automotive industry is stepping closer to extinction after General Motors Co. joined Ford Motor Co. in deciding to stop making cars in the country.

Seven months after Ford announced it would pull out, GM said Tuesday its Holden unit will cease production in 2017. That prompted Toyota Motor Corp. to say the move will place “unprecedented pressure” on parts makers and questioned the merits of remaining in the country. An appreciating local currency and falling import tariffs have driven down sales of Australian-made cars by almost half since 2007.

The hollowing out of the nation’s auto industry has implications beyond the three companies as carmakers have about 150 suppliers that employ an estimated 42,000 people. The departure of Australia’s biggest carmaker also adds pressure on Prime Minister Tony Abbott, who’s facing rising unemployment and deteriorating consumer sentiment three months after winning an election by pledging to restore confidence in the economy.

“The Australian dollar has claimed an iconic brand of cars,” said Martin Whetton, an interest-rate strategist at Nomura Holdings Inc. in Sydney. “The announcement will be a major blow to confidence in the run-up to Christmas, as job losses will exacerbate an already heightened sense of insecurity.”

112 years

Australia’s auto industry, which traces its roots to when land surveyor Harley Tarrant built an early petrol car with an imported Benz engine in 1901, won’t survive GM Holden’s departure, said Dave Smith, head of the vehicles division at the Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union.

“A lot of older workers are going to be consigned to the unemployment scrap heap,” Smith said by phone. “This is what happens when you open up the borders” to imports, he said.

The flood of imports, mainly from Asia, has resulted in locally-made vehicles only accounting for 10 percent of total auto sales in the country this year, versus 80 percent three decades ago, according to data from Ford and the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries.

For example, Holden’s Commodore was the country’s best-selling car for 15 consecutive years before it was overtaken by Mazda Motor Corp.’s 3 in 2011. Commodore sales point toward the vehicle’s ranking falling to third this year, behind the Mazda 3 and Hyundai Motor Co.’s i30.

Tariffs on South Korean auto imports, halved to 5 percent in 2010, will be scrapped under a free-trade agreement between the two countries announced Dec. 5.

'Not sustainable'

“Building cars in this country is just not sustainable,” Mike Devereux, managing director of the Holden unit, told reporters in Melbourne Tuesday. “We have looked at every possible option.”

The decision to shutter Holden, bought by GM in 1931, was taken during a call with GM management on Dec. 10, hours after Devereux had told the government that the company was still assessing the unit’s future, he said. The timing of the Holden announcement came within a day of parent GM’s own disclosure that Mary Barra will succeed Dan Akerson as CEO of the carmaker starting next year.

Manufacturing in Australia has been a victim of the commodities boom that helped drive the value of the local currency to $1.11 in July 2011, the highest level in the 30 years since exchange controls were dropped. While the Australian currency has since depreciated to about 0.90 to the U.S. dollar, that’s still higher than at any point in the 23 years running up to 2007.

Costly cars

“The Aussie dollar has been a major headwind for Australia’s trade-exposed sectors for a number of years,” said Tom Kennedy, a Sydney-based economist for JPMorgan Chase & Co. “When you combine that with Australia’s quite-high labor costs, it makes it uncompetitive to produce automobiles here.”

GM estimates it costs about A$3,750 more to produce a car in Australia than elsewhere. Ford said in May that its costs in the country are double those in Europe and four times those of its Asian divisions.

Such costs have made automakers depend on government aid to keep Australian plants running. Enter the new prime minster, who pledged to cut A$500 million from auto subsidies by 2015 instead of “waving a blank check” at carmakers before winning a general election in September.

The prime minister is now facing an unemployment rate that’s climbed to a four-year high and falling consumer confidence as the fading mining investment boom leads to slower-than-expected economic growth. Abbott’s ruling Coalition is trailing the Labor party for the first time in three years, according to an opinion poll published in the Australian newspaper Dec. 10.

'Labor gift'

“This announcement is a bit of a gift for Labor and its support in the union movement,” said Stephen Stockwell, a political analyst at Griffith University in Brisbane. Labor and the unions “will be making a big deal about this from now until the next election” due in 2016, he said. Ford’s plants will close during that year and Holden’s by the end of 2017.

The three carmakers’ suppliers, which account for the majority of the jobs in the country’s automotive manufacturing industry, are already planning for a future without their biggest customers.

“We’ve had this on our radar for a long time,” said Craig O’Donohue, managing director of Australian Arrow Pty., a wiring manufacturer in Melbourne’s western suburbs that’s supplied Toyota since 1975 and Holden since 1983. “You have to be realistic in this industry.”

Since 2011 the company has been trying to move into businesses such as wiring for slot machines, solar panels, and the military, using a government fund set up to support diversification. Toyota and Holden still account for almost all its revenue, O’Donohue said.

“If Toyota follows Holden, we would close,” said Pat Aughterson, managing director of Melbourne-based Excellent Plating Works Pty., which provides protective coatings to about 100,000 Toyota Camry bumpers each year. “If automotive goes, manufacturing is finished.”



La produzione automobilistica in Australia entro pochi anni scomparirà del tutto, Ford 6 mesi fa ha annunciato la chiusura del suo impianto e oggi anche Gm ha alzato bandiera bianca. Rimane solo Toyota ( Mitusbishi fermo' gli impianti nel 2007) ma anche i giapponesi sono pronti alla ritirata produttiva.
Le cause risiedono in una valuta troppo forte, costi produttivi elevati ma soprattutto negli accordi di libero scambio con Giappone, Corea e paesi dell' area Asean.
E' molto più conveniente produrre a basto costo in Thailandia o in Indonesia che produrre nella terra dei canguri.
Purtroppo holden (divisone australiana di Gm) e Ford Australia avevano una grande tradizione e ancora sviluppavano modelli solo per il mercato locale. Tutto ciò e' destinato a sparire.

Sì, peccato...

E dire che l'Australia è stata molto attiva nel settore, basti pensare alla Orbital. Peccato davvero!

Mi dispiace per loro, so che sono un popolo appassionatissimo... e tutto sommato hanno anche tirato fuori dei mezzi simpatici.

Oltre al cuore delle Alfa più potenti a listino della storia

_________________
Fiat Panda Hobby - 39 cavalli, sì, ma non per tonnellata

Ho visto della roba interessante da quelle parti... diversi UTE, V6 e V8, ignorantissimi... Roba Ford e Holden, niente giappume appartenente al genere. Sarebbe un peccato...

More than a third of Holden’s future model line-up will comprise vehicles from European sister brand Opel.

General Motors’ Australian and German divisions made the joint product announcement at this week’s 2014 Paris motor show.

Holden has already committed to bringing the Astra GTC three-door, Astra VXR hot-hatch, Cascada convertible and Insignia OPC to Australia in 2015 as it targets becoming Australia’s most popular brand by 2020. These Opels would account for less than a quarter of the brand’s model range, but more imports are promised

“I’m very excited about the role our great products will play in the resurgence of the Holden brand, by being able to provide more than one-third of Holden’s future product line-up,” said Opel boss Karl-Thomas Neumann in a statement.



“Spearheaded by Opel’s Drive! 2022 strategy, we are making significant investments in new models, engines, transmissions and testing facilities to ensure we deliver truly world class products to our export markets like Australia.”

Holden chairman and managing director Gerry Dorizas added in the release that the company is “absolutely committed to bringing the best possible products from GM’s global portfolio to Australian customers”.

Holden won’t confirm yet which additional models it will bring in, while the total number of Opels that could be imported depends on how many vehicles in total will be sold in Australia in the coming years.

One model where betting odds won’t be worthwhile is the new, fifth-generation Corsa (above). As CarAdvice revealed earlier today, the Corsa is being primed to join the Barina in a double assault on the city car segment. The Corsa would essentially be positioned as the premium city car taking on the likes of the VW Polo, while the Barina would be the price leader.



Holden could adopt a similar strategy in the small car class by bringing the Astra five-door hatch to sit above the locally built Cruze, though the future of the latter model carries a question mark beyond the end of local manufacturing in 2017. The next-generation Astra is due in 2015.

Other realistic options from the current Opel portfolio include the style-focused Adam city car (below), the budget-conscious Opel Karl/Vauxhall Viva minicar out in 2015, and the Zafira people-mover (above, in Tourer guise) that was set to launch in Australia before being cancelled when Opel announced its premature withdrawal from the Australian market in 2013.

Holden already sells the Trax that’s a Chevrolet version of the Opel Mokka baby SUV, though Opel boss Neumann revealed it was looking at more SUVs and crossover-style vehicles – all of which would be natural fits for the Australian market. There’ll be no large car, though.



“Obviously the segment of large cars beyond [the mid-sized] Insignia is shrinking in Europe and other places so we don’t want to invest there,” said Neumann.

“We have other gaps in our portfolio. Yes I agree there’s potential there [for more SUVs] but we should not underestimate how important the CO2 discussion will be and the footprint of SUV, the 4WD is not really helping here. So we do think the focus will be more on the crossover type of vehicle.

“We already have a few – the Insignia Cross Country and Adam Rocks. We’ve also said before with our traditional MPVs, we have Meriva and Zafira … great cars but they also operate in shrinking segment so the next generation will be more crossover style. They will have strong appearance like an SUV but will not be as high as an SUV. I think this type of crossover has a lot of potential for the future.”


Gli amministratori delegati di Opel/Vauxhall e di Holden (marchio australiano della galassia Gm) a Parigi hanno annunciato che Holden riceverà parte della sua gamma da Opel ( che da pochi mesi ha abbandonato completamente l'Australia). Le prime ad arrivare saranno la Corsa, la prossima Insignia e la nuova Monza suv.
In linea teorica l'idea non e' cattiva, da una parte i marchi satellite di Gm riescono a completare la gamma ( le Opel diventano Holden in Australia, Buick negli Usa e in Cina, prima erano anche Chevrolet in Sud America), nel frattempo Opel riesce ad abbattere i costi fissi.
Naturalmente parliamo di Gm che rimane uno dei gruppi più sconclusionati al mondo. L'attuale Insignia fu per 2 anni prodotta in Germania come Buick Regal ma a causa del tasso di cambio euro-dollaro persero un sacco di soldi. Dopo 2 anni si resero conto di poterla produrre in Canada.
L'Opel cascada e' un mezzo flop, il 30% delle vendite mondiali di cabrio avviene in California, non era logico in fase di sviluppo prepararne una versione Buick?
Prima Gm disse di no, poi hanno cambiato idea e adesso devono spendere 100 milioni di dollari per riadattare le specifiche.
Karl Thomas Neumann (ceo di Opel) e' molto fiducioso sul futuro Opel, non so su quale base.

Ma Cessa o Chelsea ?



Ps seriamente parlando, ero rimasto a Saturn negli USA, in luogo di Buick.

_________________
-- LE IENE PORTANO BENE --
- Renault New Laguna Sportour 4Control 2.0 dCi 150cv - 06/2010 -
- Suzuki GSR 600 K6 - 04/2006 -
- Ford Transit VII T350L 2.2 Tdci 140 cv - 06/2008
- [New entry] Lancia Delta Oro 1.4 T-Jet GPL 120 cv - 09/2008

Prima erano Pontiac, poi Saturn (marchio ormai cancellato), adesso Buick.
In futuro anche Holden.

in effetti mi chiedevo sempre perche rimarchiare le auto in 50 marchi differenti..

_________________
-- LE IENE PORTANO BENE --
- Renault New Laguna Sportour 4Control 2.0 dCi 150cv - 06/2010 -
- Suzuki GSR 600 K6 - 04/2006 -
- Ford Transit VII T350L 2.2 Tdci 140 cv - 06/2008
- [New entry] Lancia Delta Oro 1.4 T-Jet GPL 120 cv - 09/2008