Mitsubishi Motors Corp said yesterday it would cut 1,100 jobs, laying off one-third of its temporary workers in Japan, as it reduces production to cope with sagging sales.
Japan’s fourth-biggest carmaker said it would not renew contracts with the workers when they expire at the end of March.
“We are adjusting production in order to reduce inventory stockpiles in view of the recent economic and market conditions,” the company said in a statement.
Mitsubishi aims to reduce its production in the current fiscal year to March by a further 30,000 vehicles, in addition to a reduction of 80,000 announced last month, a company spokesman said.
Mitsubishi has lagged behind other Japanese automakers as it recovers from a defect cover-up scandal that badly hurt its reputation, but other carmakers are also shedding temporary workers.
Toyota Motor Corp has said it plans to axe 3,000 jobs — half of its temporary work force in Japan.
Nissan Motor, Japan’s No. 3 automaker, is shedding 3,500 jobs worldwide, while Mazda is scrapping 1,300 temporary jobs and truckmaker Isuzu is axing 1,400 domestic posts.
Separately, Nissan reversed an earlier decision and said it would participate in the Chicago Auto Show.
The Japanese automaker, which said earlier this week it was pulling out of the Detroit and Chicago auto shows to cut expenses, has decided to participate in the exhibitions, spokesman Yuichi Nakagawa said by telephone yesterday.
The Chicago Auto Show, which starts on Feb. 11, is North America’s largest, according to the show’s Web site. Carmakers typically use the shows to generate excitement for new models and showcase concept cars.
Nissan became the seventh carmaker to pull out of the Detroit show, scheduled to start on Jan. 11.
Last week Mitsubishi Motors Corp said it wouldn’t attend Detroit this year, following similar decisions by Suzuki Motor Corp, Ferrari SpA, Land Rover and Bayerische Motoren Werke AG’s Rolls-Royce. Porsche SE abandoned Detroit last year.
General Motors Corp, which has said it may run out of cash before the end of the year, is scaling back its presence this year at the Detroit show, as it lobbies with Ford Motor Co and Chrysler LLC for US$25 billion in federal loans.
DISCONTENT: The CCP finds positive content about the lives of the Chinese living in Taiwan threatening, as such video could upset people in China, an expert said Chinese spouses of Taiwanese who make videos about their lives in Taiwan have been facing online threats from people in China, a source said yesterday. Some young Chinese spouses of Taiwanese make videos about their lives in Taiwan, often speaking favorably about their living conditions in the nation compared with those in China, the source said. However, the videos have caught the attention of Chinese officials, causing the spouses to come under attack by Beijing’s cyberarmy, they said. “People have been messing with the YouTube channels of these Chinese spouses and have been harassing their family members back in China,”
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said there are four weather systems in the western Pacific, with one likely to strengthen into a tropical storm and pose a threat to Taiwan. The nascent tropical storm would be named Usagi and would be the fourth storm in the western Pacific at the moment, along with Typhoon Yinxing and tropical storms Toraji and Manyi, the CWA said. It would be the first time that four tropical cyclones exist simultaneously in November, it added. Records from the meteorology agency showed that three tropical cyclones existed concurrently in January in 1968, 1991 and 1992.
GEOPOLITICAL CONCERNS: Foreign companies such as Nissan, Volkswagen and Konica Minolta have pulled back their operations in China this year Foreign companies pulled more money from China last quarter, a sign that some investors are still pessimistic even as Beijing rolls out stimulus measures aimed at stabilizing growth. China’s direct investment liabilities in its balance of payments dropped US$8.1 billion in the third quarter, data released by the Chinese State Administration of Foreign Exchange showed on Friday. The gauge, which measures foreign direct investment (FDI) in China, was down almost US$13 billion for the first nine months of the year. Foreign investment into China has slumped in the past three years after hitting a record in 2021, a casualty of geopolitical tensions,
‘SOMETHING SPECIAL’: Donald Trump vowed to reward his supporters, while President William Lai said he was confident the Taiwan-US partnership would continue Donald Trump was elected the 47th president of the US early yesterday morning, an extraordinary comeback for a former president who was convicted of felony charges and survived two assassination attempts. With a win in Wisconsin, Trump cleared the 270 electoral votes needed to clinch the presidency. As of press time last night, The Associated Press had Trump on 277 electoral college votes to 224 for US Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic Party’s nominee, with Alaska, Arizona, Maine, Michigan and Nevada yet to finalize results. He had 71,289,216 votes nationwide, or 51 percent, while Harris had 66,360,324 (47.5 percent). “We’ve been through so
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