Chrysler and China’s biggest domestic automaker said yesterday they have called off talks on cooperation because of the global financial crisis.
The proposed partnership with Chery Automobile Co (奇瑞汽車), first announced in July last year, was meant to produce a low-cost model in China to be sold under Chrysler’s Dodge brand in the US and Europe.
“There’s a global financial crisis happening, and the two sides decided it would be better for both companies to develop independently and promote their own businesses,” Chery spokesman Jin Yibo (金弋波) said.
He said the talks were called off on Monday.
The companies declined to disclose details of the talks.
Auburn Hills, Michigan-based Chrysler LLC, which is seeking US government aid to avoid a financial collapse, had hoped the Chery partnership would add to its small car lineup following its split with Germany’s Daimler AG last May.
The companies have gone through “major internal changes and evolution, resulting in different business directions and priorities,” Mike Manley, Chrysler’s executive vice president for international sales, said in a statement.
“As a result, many of the original premises the two companies had when entering into the agreement no longer apply,” Manley said.
Chrysler and General Motors Corp are seeking a total of US$14 billion to US$15 billion to survive through early next year.
Ford Motor Co has said it has enough money to stay afloat unless one of the other Big Three US automakers goes under or the economy deteriorates more sharply.
In the US, a federal “car czar” would oversee a government-run restructuring of US auto companies in return for a US$15 billion bailout of the beleaguered industry under an emerging deal between the White House and Congress.
Negotiators worked through the night on Monday narrowing differences on a bill to rush short-term loans to the struggling Detroit carmakers through a plan that requires that the industry reinvent itself to survive — and pay back the government if it fails to do so.
The package could come to a vote as early as today.
The measure would put a government overseer named by US President George W. Bush in charge of setting guidelines for an industrywide overhaul, with the power to revoke the loans if the automakers fail to do what’s necessary to become viable.
The White House was seeking tougher consequences, including allowing the overseer to force the companies into bankruptcy if they were not doing enough to cut labor costs, restructure their debt and downsize to stay afloat.
The developing plan would dole out auto industry loans right away, drawing the money from an existing program meant to help the carmakers retool their factories to produce more fuel-efficient vehicles.
Then the czar would write guidelines, due on the first of the year, for restructuring the companies.
The proposal would attach an array of conditions to the auto bailout money, including some of the same restrictions that were imposed on banks as part of the Wall Street rescue.
Among them are limits on executive compensation, a prohibition on paying dividends, and requirements that the government share in future profits and taxpayers be repaid before any other shareholders.
A Chinese freighter that allegedly snapped an undersea cable linking Taiwan proper to Penghu County is suspected of being owned by a Chinese state-run company and had docked at the ports of Kaohsiung and Keelung for three months using different names. On Tuesday last week, the Togo-flagged freighter Hong Tai 58 (宏泰58號) and its Chinese crew were detained after the Taipei-Penghu No. 3 submarine cable was severed. When the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) first attempted to detain the ship on grounds of possible sabotage, its crew said the ship’s name was Hong Tai 168, although the Automatic Identification System (AIS)
An Akizuki-class destroyer last month made the first-ever solo transit of a Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force ship through the Taiwan Strait, Japanese government officials with knowledge of the matter said yesterday. The JS Akizuki carried out a north-to-south transit through the Taiwan Strait on Feb. 5 as it sailed to the South China Sea to participate in a joint exercise with US, Australian and Philippine forces that day. The Japanese destroyer JS Sazanami in September last year made the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force’s first-ever transit through the Taiwan Strait, but it was joined by vessels from New Zealand and Australia,
CHANGE OF MIND: The Chinese crew at first showed a willingness to cooperate, but later regretted that when the ship arrived at the port and refused to enter Togolese Republic-registered Chinese freighter Hong Tai (宏泰號) and its crew have been detained on suspicion of deliberately damaging a submarine cable connecting Taiwan proper and Penghu County, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement yesterday. The case would be subject to a “national security-level investigation” by the Tainan District Prosecutors’ Office, it added. The administration said that it had been monitoring the ship since 7:10pm on Saturday when it appeared to be loitering in waters about 6 nautical miles (11km) northwest of Tainan’s Chiang Chun Fishing Port, adding that the ship’s location was about 0.5 nautical miles north of the No.
SECURITY: The purpose for giving Hong Kong and Macau residents more lenient paths to permanent residency no longer applies due to China’s policies, a source said The government is considering removing an optional path to citizenship for residents from Hong Kong and Macau, and lengthening the terms for permanent residence eligibility, a source said yesterday. In a bid to prevent the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from infiltrating Taiwan through immigration from Hong Kong and Macau, the government could amend immigration laws for residents of the territories who currently receive preferential treatment, an official familiar with the matter speaking on condition of anonymity said. The move was part of “national security-related legislative reform,” they added. Under the amendments, arrivals from the Chinese territories would have to reside in Taiwan for
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