plus 3, Hummer faces shutdown after Chinese sale collapses - The Sun News

Hummer faces shutdown after Chinese sale collapses - The Sun News
Business & Industry: The RV industry will celebrate 100 years this ... - Elkhart Truth
Pilot's insurer meets with East Palo Alto residents - San Jose Mercury News
Business & Industry: Automaker reThinks local manufacturing process - Elkhart Truth

Hummer faces shutdown after Chinese sale collapses - The Sun News

Posted: 24 Feb 2010 08:14 PM PST

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GM said Wednesday that its bid to sell Hummer to Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machines Co. fell through. The Chinese manufacturer said it failed to get clearance from regulators in Beijing within the proposed timeframe for the sale.

GM will continue to honor warranties for current Hummer owners.

"We are disappointed that the deal with Tengzhong could not be completed," said John Smith, GM vice president of corporate planning and alliances. "GM will now work closely with Hummer employees, dealers and suppliers to wind down the business in an orderly and responsible manner."

GM did not disclose a timeframe for winding down the brand, which employs 3,000 people in the U.S. Hummer will be the second division after Saturn that GM failed to sell as planned. Its one successful sale was Swedish car brand Saab, which is going to Dutch carmaker Spyker Cars NV in a $74 million deal.

That sale came together at the last minute after a deal with a group led by another Swedish car manufacturer fell apart. A similar outcome for Hummer would be its only hope of survival, but no new buyers had emerged as of Wednesday evening, Richards said.

The deal's backers in China had been racing to save the acquisition this week. As recently as Tuesday, private investors were trying to set up an offshore entity in a last-minute effort to complete the deal ahead of a Feb. 28 deadline.

That scheme, along with other plans that investors were considering, was unsuccessful, according to a person close to the situation. The person declined to be identified in order to speak more freely.

"There's no way forward with that," this person said. "We're out of time."

Tengzhong said it was disappointed with the deal's collapse.

"Tengzhong worked earnestly to achieve an acquisition that it believed to be a tremendous opportunity to acquire a global brand at an attractive price," it said in a statement, thanking GM, Hummer, its executives, and employees.

Hummer, which traces its origins to the Humvee military vehicle built by AM General LLC in South Bend, Ind., acquired a devoted following among SUV lovers. But Hummer was always a polarizing brand with a fuel-thirsty lineup that many saw as symbols of excess.

Hummer sales peaked at 71,524 in 2006. But they collapsed when gas prices shot above $4 a gallon in the summer of 2008 and never recovered. In December 2009, only 325 Hummers were sold, down 85 percent from the previous year, according to Autodata Corp.

Sticker prices start at more than $42,500 and run to about $63,000, according to data posted at the Hummer.com Web site. The H3, the most fuel-efficient vehicle in Hummer's lineup, averages about 16 mpg. The vehicles are built at GM's factory in Shreveport, La.

Under the initial agreement to sell Hummer, Tengzhong would have received an 80 percent stake, while Hong Kong investor Suolang Duoji, who indirectly owns a big stake in Tengzhong, would have gotten 20 percent. The investors would also have owned Hummer's nationwide dealer network.

Financial terms of the sale were not disclosed, although a person briefed on the deal at the time said the sale price was around $150 million. GM's bankruptcy filing last summer said that the brand could bring in $500 million or more.

Beijing had been cool to the acquisition. Tengzhong lacks a government permit to manufacture cars, and the Chinese government has been seeking to streamline and slow investment in the fast-growing auto industry rather than to attract newcomers.

Richards said the collapse of the sale does not change earlier plans to close the Shreveport facility by 2012. The plant also builds the Chevy Colorado and GMC Canyon trucks and is currently operating on a single 10-hour shift, he said. Hummer production was idled in January.

The plant once employed about 3,000 people, but that payroll has been reduced to about 950.

Plant worker Alex Santana, a 17-year veteran of the Shreveport operation, said the end of Hummer "is going to hurt a lot of people."

"There's a lot of jobs going down the drain," he said.

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Business & Industry: The RV industry will celebrate 100 years this ... - Elkhart Truth

Posted: 24 Feb 2010 08:07 PM PST

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ELKHART -- This is a big year for the RV industry, and not just because business is picking up after a major hit from the recession.

It's the 100th anniversary of the RV, and the industry's nationwide celebration will have a major component here at the Recreational Vehicle/Manufactured Housing Hall of Fame and Museum.

There's a private industry party planned with the RV Industry Association in June, but several large clubs plan to have gatherings in the area which will include stops at the hall of fame, checking out its historical collection of RVs and the historical display set up for the centennial.

The biggest event is the Good Sam group, which will start a caravan in July at the RV/MH Hall of Fame, sending 100 RVs on a tour that will end in a giant rally in Louisville, Ky., though several others will be in the area over the year. The RV Industry Association made the local facility the center of the centennial celebration.

"Those major events will bring thousands of people to the museum and to the Elkhart area," said Al Hesselbart, historian for the hall of fame.

Of course, the museum is open to the public daily. You can check out the progression of the automotive RV from the Model-T days through today. Admission ranges from $3 for children to $8 for adults, with discounts for seniors and large groups.

For more information go to www.rvcentennial.org, to www.rvia.org or to www.rvmhhalloffame.org.

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Pilot's insurer meets with East Palo Alto residents - San Jose Mercury News

Posted: 24 Feb 2010 07:31 PM PST

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As East Palo Alto residents clean up from last week's deadly private plane crash that claimed three lives, they're preparing for the next step: trying to recover their damages. The likely $1 million policy on pilot Doug Bourn's Cessna must be divided ...

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Business & Industry: Automaker reThinks local manufacturing process - Elkhart Truth

Posted: 24 Feb 2010 08:07 PM PST

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ELKHART -- It isn't quite like an automotive manufacturing plant, but it isn't quite a recreational vehicle facility, either.

Think North America's electric car production facility here, company officials said, will be different in many ways from the type of manufacturing plants Elkhart County is used to.

That doesn't mean, though, that workers from those facilities will be completely lost moving from an RV operation to an electric car factory.

"I think in a lot of ways, it'll be easier for that kind of adjustment than someone coming from a normal OEM (original equipment manufacturer) plant," said Keith Takasawa, Think's director of product development. "The processes are more simple and more in line with an RV kind of production. I think the transition will be relatively easy."

Think is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Think Global, a Norwegian manufacturer that, until now, produced electric vehicles solely in European markets. The Magnum Drive plant, Think's first North America operation, will be quite similar to its facilities abroad, officials said.

While large car manufacturers contain assembly lines with hundreds of stations, Think's will only require about 20.

Since the body of the small car is made of pre-colored plastic, two of the most complicated and expensive parts of an auto plant -- the painting and sheet metal body shops -- aren't needed. The powertrain is also a much simpler process in Think's vehicle, Takasawa said, reducing the space required in the Elkhart plant.

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