GM lost more than half a billion dollars because of the strike

From Bloomberg:

After missing a profit of more than $ 500 million due to a strike, General Motors Co. has reached a potential turning point in its contract negotiations with United Auto Workers.

Proposals for any outstanding issues have been submitted to the automaker and the union is awaiting a response, said Terry Dittes, vice president of the GM department of UAW, in a letter to the workers' group leaders on Wednesday. .

[…]

The strike cost GM production more than 8,000 vehicles a day, according to IHS Markit analysts. With an average profit before interest and taxes of each vehicle of about $ 8,000, and the walkout affecting nearly nine days of production, GM has not made a profit of up to $ 544 million, of course. 39, after calculations by Credit Suisse analyst Dan Levy, published last week. The total would reach 700 million dollars by Sunday if no settlement is reached this week.

That's a lot of money for GM, who was already struggling to reach its truck sales targets and other promising profit targets before its employees thrown all the shit straight into the mix.

A contractual settlement could soon come in, due to the golden rule of American companies: time, it is money.

2nd gear: Trump's tariffs cost US metallurgists their jobs

President Trump's promise that foreign steel tariffs would boost US jobs does not really deliver the desired results. At present, some Michigan metallurgists who have supported the tariffs are suffering layoffs anyway.

From Reuters:

Some metallurgists who applauded US President Donald Trump's foreign steel tariffs last year are now fired, an unintended consequence of his America First policy, with US Steel Corp. reacting to declining demand from automakers upset by higher prices for steel.

[…]

Steel prices peaked in May 2018 and returned to their pre-tariff levels after US factories boosted production and weakened demand.

In June, US Steel shut down a blast furnace at the local Great Lakes Works plant in the cities of Ecorse and River Rouge, Michigan, a moving Electoral State. Two months later, the company decided to temporarily dismiss 48 employees and warned of an additional 200 layoffs by the end of September.

[…]

The latest layoffs are a blow to employees and their families. A licensed worker from Great Lakes Works said unemployment benefits of $ 362 a week were not enough to pay her bills.

"You can not survive with that," Perry agreed.

Local Wayne County officials say the layoffs could have been much more serious without the tariff on foreign steel, which executives have praised for maintaining the local factory after asserting that the Steel plant was about to close since 2002 with little support until now. . But this counterfactual will probably always be an unknown.

3rd gear: Everyone has their own regulations on emissions, why not?

California's efforts to double the emissions regulations of the Obama era, forcing automakers to achieve an average fuel economy of 54.5 mpg by 2025, have been modified in a compromise agreement reached with four builders earlier this year, to bring this target back to 2026. More and more states are joining Cali to call for tougher standards.

From Automotive News:

Two Democratic governors have aligned their US states to join the other 13 by adopting California's rules to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from cars, even after the Trump government overruled the state on the rules of fuel economy.

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz on Wednesday urged his state's environment agency to start drafting rules to reduce exhaust emissions and support sales of electric cars, in line with state policies. established by California regulators. On Tuesday, New Mexico's Governor, Michelle Lujan Grisham, said her state would also adopt new greenhouse gas and zero emission vehicle requirements starting in the 2022 model year.

[…]

The addition of Minnesota and New Mexico would broaden the scope of the California Greenhouse Gas Regulations, which between California and the other 13 countries that have already adopted them already account for more than one-third of sales. American automobiles.

Although Minnesota and New Mexico have already signed legal action to support California, it appears that the two states are further strengthening this support by developing their own California-style emissions regulations with the aim of to challenge directly the authority claimed by the federal government. emission requirements.

The last thing that automakers would like is even slightly different regulations in some state markets, to determine exactly how they need to build their cars.

Ideally, a federal standard would be better, but most automakers (at least by 2025, after billions of R & D) have supported Obama's rules and would prefer to stick to the standards of the California because it is easier to comply with the most stringent requirements. rather than build multiple versions.

4th gear: Make expensive cars difficult for NIO Still

Earlier this week, it did not look good for NIO – a once-promising start-up from an electrical builder, which some were considering (or hoped for) would be the "Tesla of China". The company is losing a lot of money, the electric car market in the region is extremely competitive at present, the Chinese car market and the economy as a whole are collapsing for the first time in decades.

And NIO continues to slide, via the Bloomberg transfer service sent to Jalopnik (or via Yahoo Finance):

Shares of NIO Inc. plunged to record lows for a second consecutive day after China's electric vehicle manufacturer did not quell its fears of running out of cash.

[…]

US shares of NIO fell 6.9% to 2.02 dollars on Wednesday. Shares fell more than 30% this week as the automaker suffered from cost overruns, vehicle recalls and a decline in public subsidies for electric car purchases recorded a worse-than-expected loss.

"If a company's liquidity is measured in weeks, it's really very dangerous," said Sanford C. Bernstein analyst Robin Zhu. NIO may need to seek help from the government, which will be difficult to obtain, he said.

The Chinese government is already heavily involved and invested in its electric car business, but as the car market in general starts to falter, the help will become more and more difficult to obtain, the government seeking to stimulate the economy by whatever means necessary (despite strong pressure to encourage buyers to switch to electric vehicles to reduce their emissions).

NIO is pretty cool, although a little standard for electric vehicles. But they make the whole trip by car "battery exchange", which is pretty cool if possible without success and unhappy! Still, it's a cool technology and it's one of the most remarkable and interesting players.

5th gear: European companies finally change their travel policies as far as airline emissions are concerned

Airplanes and ships are huge nightmares in emissions, and doing everything in their power to reduce emissions from wider travel, beyond just targeting car exhausts, will go a long way to avoid a calm and relaxing climatic apocalypse.

Some European companies are aware of this, limit their air travel and have a noticeable impact on airlines. From Bloomberg:

[C]Companies across Europe are reconsidering their travel policies, and individuals are wondering if the environmental cost is to embark on a sunny vacation. The Swedes even have a name for it: flygskamor the shame of the flights, which represents a growing threat for airlines in Europe and beyond.

According to SAS AB, its traffic decreased by 2% in the nine months ended 30 July compared with the same period last year, and the Swedish airport operator handled 9% fewer passengers for domestic flights this year. Flygskam played a role in the decline of traffic. "Unquestionable, this anti-theft feeling will grow and spread," says Alexandre de Juniac, president of the International Air Transport Association. "Politicians do not support us."

[…]

Airlines have few options, as even the latest aircraft emit much more CO₂ than trains and electric or hybrid jets are unlikely to enter commercial service for two decades.

To be fair, it is much easier for European companies to opt for rail and bus alternatives because their networks are much larger than they would find in the United States. Partly by geography, partly by a long history of infrastructure development and partly by the fact that they are all a little more aware of the "climate fires" issue than we are here in the United States.

Good for them, you like to see it.

Reverse: They said it very loudly, they said it to the antenna