Tag Archives: Great Wall

Chinese SUV Maker Great Wall Says Net Profit Shot Up 74% In 1st Half

July 23, 2013 Bartle Doo Leave a comment

By Russell Flannery, Forbes Staff Great Wall Motor, the fast-growing, non-government-own Chinese motor vehicle maker, said today its business continued to expand rapidly in the first half of the year. Net profit shot up by 74% in the six months to June from a year earlier to 4.1 billion yuan, or $683 million, on sales that soared 44% to 26.6 billion yuan, or $4.4 billion, the company said, without giving a reason for the increases. Baoding-based Great Wall is one of China’s largest SUV makers and was a member of the 2012 Forbes Asia Fab 50 List of Asia’s best-performing large companies. …read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

License Fee Threatens China Car Sales

April 29, 2013 Bartle Doo Leave a comment

By 24/7 Wall St.

Filed under: Automotive Industry

Most large global car companies still believe that China will not only remain the world’s largest car market, but also will be one of the fastest growing. But growth there has been unimpressive recently, and taxes imposed by the government on auto licenses may make that problem worse, damaging efforts by manufacturers who have increased investment in the People’s Republic.

March is usually a good month for car sales in China. However, sales rose only 11% to 2.01 million. That is down from a rate of 20% improvement in the first two months, according to The Wall Street Journal. And these low double-digit percentage numbers come after an anemic 2012.

The investments in China made by large car companies must be relying on the 20% number more than on 2012 growth rates, because they are so large in dollar terms. This is particularly true of America manufacturers. A year ago, Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) said it would invest $760 million in its operations in the People’s Republic. The money will go into a new plant in Hangzhou, set with its joint venture Changan Ford Mazda Automobile. And Bloomberg said of the investment in China by General Motors Co. (NYSE: GM):

GM‘s announcement at the Shanghai auto show this month that it is spending $11 billion by 2016 on new plants, products and people in China demonstrates a change in priorities. GM is investing $1.5 billion in North America this year, where it has a more modest factory footprint.

For the past two years, the primary concern about the growth of car sales in China has been based on whether its economy would slow, and its large middle class would move to its traditional habit of saving instead of consumer spending. As it turns out, that is not the most significant threat. Pollution is. And the People’s Republic has decided to attack the problem in part by high car license fees, most analysts believe. BusinessWeek reports on the cost of license plates in China:

Shanghai is one of four Chinese cities that limit car purchases by imposing quotas on registrations. The prices paid at Shanghai’s license auctions in recent months — 90,000 yuan ($14,530) — have exceeded the cost of many entry-level cars, the stronghold of Chinese brands such as Chery, Geely, and Great Wall. While residents with modest incomes may be able to afford an inexpensive car, the registration cost is often beyond their reach.

It is too early to know exactly what effect these license fees will have on sales, or whether they will be imposed more broadly. No matter what the reason, these new, high fees could scuttle the hopes that car sales in China will make it the Holy Grail for the industry.

Filed under: 24/7 Wall St. Wire, Autos, China Tagged: F, featured, GM

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

News, Politics, Government

After petition, atomic bomb re-enactment dropped from Ohio air show

April 18, 2013 Bartle Doo Leave a comment

A popular southwest Ohio air show has canceled plans to stage a re-enactment of the devastating World War II atomic bomb attack on Japan after protests, officials said Thursday.

Dayton Air Show spokeswoman Brenda Kerfoot said the June 22-23 event at Dayton International Airport will keep a planned “Great Wall of Fire” pyrotechnic show but not as an event meant to re-enact the Aug. 6, 1945, bombing of Hiroshima. The B-29 plane “Fifi,” similar to the Enola Gay B-29 bomber used to attack Japan, will remain in the show but in a separate role.

Air show officials said the re-enactment was meant to highlight a historic event that helped end the war and save lives that would have been lost if the war had been prolonged.

“We’ve taken it as more of an educational show,” Kerfoot said. “The wording that we used probably wasn’t the best.”

She said once critics this week began calling it inappropriate for a family event, the air show decided to separate the B-29 from the pyrotechnic show.

“We didn’t want it to become a distraction to the overall quality of the show,” she said.

The Dayton Daily News reported that art curator Gabriela Pickett started an online petition to object to the “glamorization of destruction,” and said it didn’t reflect Dayton’s image as a city of peace. Dozens of people around the country signed it.

The city has for years highlighted its role as the site of the Dayton peace accords on Bosnia negotiated in 1995. The Dayton Literary Peace Prize each year honors literature’s power to promote peace.

A University of Dayton associate professor who was born in a U.S. wartime detention camp for Japanese-Americans said besides the “re-enactment” being offensive, the show’s contention that the bomb that killed so many Japanese ended up saving more lives is disputable — some historians say Japan would have surrendered without the atomic bomb attacks.

“By having shows like that, it is not only in bad taste, but I think I sustains misinformation,” said Ron Katsuyama, past president of the Asian American Council.

As many as 140,000 people were killed by the atomic bomb attack on Hiroshima, with more than 70,000 more killed in an attack three days later on Nagasaki.

In 1994, Bill Clinton’s White House pressured the U.S. Postal Service into scrapping a mushroom cloud stamp planned to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the war’s end, following protests by the Japanese government.

A spokeswoman at the Japanese Embassy in Washington said Thursday it was unaware of the air show issue and had no comment.

The controversy is another setback for the show that dates to 1975 in the city that was home to the aviation-pioneering Wright Brothers.

The air show last month announced that its headline act, the U.S. Air Force’s Thunderbirds jet demonstration team, was canceled because of the cuts triggered by the failure to reach a federal budget deal in Washington.

The show normally attracts more than 70,000 people for its displays of vintage planes, aerial acrobatics and stunts. Kerfoot said attendance likely will be lower this year.

From: http://feeds.foxnews.com/~r/foxnews/national/~3/YDyMIlj5vZM/

News, Politics, Government

Chinese automakers struggle against global rivals

April 18, 2013 Bartle Doo Leave a comment

These should be good times for Chinese automakers as they prepare to show off their latest models at the Shanghai auto show.

Their home market is the world’s biggest and growing. But independent automakers such as Chery and Geely are being squeezed by bigger, richer global rivals including General Motors and Nissan that have moved into turf the Chinese makers considered their own: low-priced models for local tastes. Domestic brands account for less than half of their own market.

“At a time when the Chinese were getting ready to move upscale, they have come under siege in their area of traditional strength,” said Michael Dunne, president of Dunne & Co., a research firm. “They didn’t see that coming and it hurt.”

Fighting back, Chery, Geely and local rivals Great Wall and BYD are scaling down ambitious expansion plans and focusing on improving quality. Some hired managers or designers with experience at Mercedes Benz and other foreign producers. Others aim at specialties such as SUVs, minivans for export to other developing countries and electric buses.

This week, Chery Inc. announced a corporate overhaul after sales plummeted 10 percent last year. The company said it will shrink its range of 20 models to 11 or 12.

BYD Co., in which American investor Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Corp. owns a 10 percent stake, plans to display a new SUV and its Si Rui sedan at Auto Shanghai 2013, which opens Sunday.

The company, China‘s leading maker of electric cars, blamed intense competition for a 94 percent plunge in profit last year and says the midsize Si Rui should help to drive a rebound.

Great Wall Motors Co. plans to debut two SUVs, a pickup and a sedan among 23 models on display. Last year, the company was China‘s top-selling independent automaker on the strength of its popular SUVs, which are exported to 80 countries.

China‘s failure to follow its neighbors Japan and South Korea in creating at least one global auto brand — even after this country passed the United States in 2009 as the biggest auto market — has frustrated communist leaders.

They see auto making as a national priority — the “industry of industries” that supports higher-paid jobs in fields from manufacturing to electronics to chemicals. They have spent

From: http://feeds.foxnews.com/~r/foxnews/world/~3/bq2fIrU_Sl8/

History

Va. Group Looks to Preserve Monticello’s View

April 17, 2013 Bartle Doo Leave a comment

By hnn

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) — The foundation that owns Thomas Jefferson’s estate hopes to take efforts to preserve Monticello’s spectacular mountain views a step further, an idea that worries some developers.

A request the group filed with the Albemarle County Planning Commission calls for nearly quadrupling the size of what’s known as the Monticello viewshed and expanding voluntary guidelines for developers in the region.

“There’s a reason we’re up there with the pyramids and the Great Wall,” said Leslie Greene Bowman , president of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation. “It has a lot do with Jefferson’s vision, not only figuratively but literally.”…

Source:

Source URL:

http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/15591-va-group-looks-to-preserve-monticellos-view/

Date:

4-15-13

From: http://hnn.us/articles/va-group-looks-preserve-monticello%E2%80%99s-view

Articles of Interest

’19 Kids & Counting’: Duggars Enjoy The Great Wall Of China, Surprise Baby Delivery (VIDEO)

March 27, 2013 Bartle Doo Leave a comment

By The Huffington Post News Editors

The Duggars were so excited about the Great Wall of China, they wanted to spend two days enjoying it on “19 Kids & Counting.” It was their last stop on their Asian tour, and they were determined to make the best of it. The family marveled at the wall, while the Chinese were marveling at the size of the Duggar family.

“Just unbelievable to think about how all this was built,” Jim Bob said of the wall.

But there was more excitement to be had on this trip. Coordinating producer Courtney Enlow’s water broke five weeks early, meaning she was going to have to have her baby in China. Luckily, her husband is also the show’s director, so he was there as well. Still, it was a harrowing and stressful delivery considering the language barrier, and then the baby had to be put into neonatal care for three days.

Study: China still 10 years away from globally competitive car company

February 25, 2013 Bartle Doo Leave a comment

By Zach Bowman

Filed under:

It may be a spell before Chinese automakers are capable of turning out a globally competitive vehicle. That’s the findings of a sprawling 200 page report by Bernstein Research. The group went through the trouble of purchasing two Chinese-made cars, importing them to Europe and disassembling them down to every last nut and bolt. The study also included in-depth interviews with CEOs at each of the major manufacturers, including Great Wall, Chery, Brilliance and SAIC among others. Researchers found that by and large, global partners aren’t holding up their end of joint venture deals, with the vast majority of foreign automakers seemingly not taking the Chinese market seriously.

The one exception to that rule, according to Bernstein, is General Motors and SAIC. GM has pumped a staggering amount of cash into China, and as a result, SAIC seems leagues ahead of its peers on the design and engineering front. Speaking of engineering, the study found most Chinese cars to simply be reverse-engineered examples of foreign models, with the Toyota Corolla being the most popular. That’s due in part to the fact that Chinese automakers spend $100 million a year on research and development on average. For comparison’s sake, a company like Volkswagen or Toyota spends closer to $1 billion. The Truth About Cars has a closer look at the report’s contents. You can find that writeup here.

China still 10 years away from globally competitive car company originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 25 Feb 2013 16:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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