WCA November 2008

America, $582 million in Europe, and $153 million in Asia and Africa. Ford has said it will make an investment of $1.5 billion to expand manufacturing capacity in Thailand, China and India. In other news of GM, even as ❖ Detroit auto makers pressed for $25 billion in US government loans to support the develop- ment of advanced-technology vehicles, the company’s chief executive Rick Wagoner on 17 th September declined to guarantee that the auto giant would use American-made batteries in its new electric- powered car, the Chevrolet Volt. During a morning round table discussion with reporters and editors in Washington, before joining Ford and Chrysler executives on visits to congressional leaders to lobby for approval of the loan package, the GM chief said it was likely that “at least initially” the sub- components for the batteries will come from other parts of the world. Mr Wagoner said that US battery making capability trails development in Asia, where government policy has long supported the technology. LG Chem, a South Korean chemical company with a subsidiary in Troy, Michigan, is believed to be a top contender to supply batteries for the Volt. T-Mobile’s Android phone paves Google’s way onto a broad range of handsets running Android software from Google. Writing in InformationWeek (16 th September), Thomas Claburn observed that the arrival of the ‘Dream’ handset from Taiwan’s HTC – “after months of anticipation among technophiles” – promises to reinvigorate the smartphone market and to provide a mobile T-Mobile has introduced the first mobile phone Telecommunications

General Motors will invest $445 million in diesel in Thailand In the aftermath of some of the largest quarterly losses in its history, General Motors on 13 th August announced it is going to invest nearly a half-billion dollars in a new diesel plant in Thailand. The No 1 American car maker said it is putting its money into the Thai plant to be sure of meeting growing demand in the Asian market in a period of contraction in the domestic market. North American car sales were down 20% in the second quarter. Although much of Asia remains the province of Toyota and other Japanese producers, by its own reckoning General Motors has increased its market share there from 5.9% to nearly 7% over the last three years. Thailand in particular has been lucky for the company. GM benefited for a decade from its now defunct partnership with the Japanese truck maker Isuzu, which provided engines to the US company and offered access to local suppliers. Brian White, an Oklahoma-based business consultant who has covered ‘Fortune 500’ companies for six years, observed that GM’s growth outside the US “can’t come soon enough.” Mr White wrote, “[The company’s Thailand move] comes as it has made a decent profit in its European, Latin American, African and Middle East regions. Together, those sections of the world gave GM a combined $465 million gain in the most recent quarter, while the auto maker lost $9.3 billion in North America.” (bloggingstocks.com, 13 th August). Thailand has become a hub for car manufacturers serving South-East Asia, Australia and the Middle East, and is now Asia’s third-largest car exporter after Japan and South Korea. The GM pattern is similar to that ❖ of Ford Motor Company, which reported a loss of $1.3 billion in the second quarter of 2008 in North America, compared with profit of $388 million in South

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Wire & Cable ASIA – November/December 2008