Renault, Nissan, GM consider alliance
Paris: French automaker Renault SA and its Japanese partner Nissan Motor Corp. are preparing to begin talks with General Motors Corp. about forming an alliance that would create the world's largest auto group.

The proposal has been made by billionaire investor Kirk Kerkorian. GM's board met on Friday to consider the Kerkorian proposal.

Renault has a controlling 44-percent stake in Nissan. The French state has a 15.33 percent stake in Renault.

Kerkorian owns 10 per cent of GM which posted a 26-per cent decline in June auto sales from a year earlier in the U.S. market. The company has been struggling to shore up its market share as it cuts 30,000 jobs and shutters a dozen factories.

Renault and Nissan tying up with GM would create the world's largest carmaker by volume that would be breathing down the neck of Toyota, which has a market value of some $190 billion.
Back to News Review index page  

Demand zooms for Suzki's SX4 crossover
Tokyo: Japan's carmaker Suzuki is witnessing runaway demand for its latest crossover model and is planning to spend up to $70 million and hire 1,000 more workers to expand output at its Hungary plant by 76 per cent.

Suzuki, specialist in compact cars, is struggling to keep up with orders for its third global car, the SX4 crossover, introduced first in Europe this March. Suzuki said it now plans to sell 60,000 SX4s in Europe this year instead of 40,000.

Italy's Fiat, which co-developed the Suzuki-built compact crossover and sells it as the Fiat Sedici, also has a backlog of orders stretching to five months, a Suzuki executive told a news conference in Tokyo to launch the SX4 in Japan. Fiat's sales target has also been lifted, to 30,000 units from 20,000, requiring more capacity at the Magyar Suzuki plant in Hungary.

Suzuki also plans to export 40,000 units of the car annually to North America starting in September.

Shares in Suzuki were up 1.19 per cent at 2,555 yen as of 0514 GMT, outpacing the Nikkei average's 0.53 per cent rise and most other auto stocks.
Back to News Review index page  

China is world's fourth-largest economy
Beijing: China is now the world's fourth largest economy and has replaced UK according to the World Bank's latest calculations.
The World Bank said China produced $ 2.263825 trillion in output in 2005, just $94 million, or 0.004 per cent more than Britain produced.

China comfortably overtook Britain last year based on each country's gross domestic product converted into US dollars at current exchange rates.

The United States, Japan and Germany remain the world's first, second and third-largest economies respectively, according to the bank, which posted its 2005 rankings on its website over the weekend.

The new figures is good news for China as it means its economy is healthier, more diversified and more capable of sustaining growth than previously believed.

China said on December 20, 2005 that its economy was bigger than previously estimated. It revised its economic data after a year-long nationwide economic census uncovered about $280 billion in hidden economic output in 2004.
Back to News Review index page