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I wouldn't take all that CNBC says as truthful. Besides, the Japanese car makes are still selling a shed load of cars in the US, unlike in the UK and the rest of Europe where sales are dropping, especially from Honda (why the Swindon factory closed). In the UK, Mazda sell roughly half the number of cars they did when I bought my Mazda3 back in 2006, and more people buy Mazdas in Australia than in the UK, and by a HUGE margin too.
I would note that many car makes made similar veilled 'threats' before and after a certain political event in the UK in 2016. The US is most Japanese makes largest market, so why would they pull out, especially when the Chinese market is not doing very well and Europe isn't either?
As usual with Trump, there's a lot of bluster as part of 'negotiations'. We're just not used to politicians going about their business as he does.
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I wouldn't take all that CNBC says as truthful. Besides, the Japanese car makes are still selling a shed load of cars in the US, unlike in the UK and the rest of Europe where sales are dropping, especially from Honda (why the Swindon factory closed). In the UK, Mazda sell roughly half the number of cars they did when I bought my Mazda3 back in 2006, and more people buy Mazdas in Australia than in the UK, and by a HUGE margin too.
I would note that many car makes made similar veilled 'threats' before and after a certain political event in the UK in 2016. The US is most Japanese makes largest market, so why would they pull out, especially when the Chinese market is not doing very well and Europe isn't either?
As usual with Trump, there's a lot of bluster as part of 'negotiations'. We're just not used to politicians going about their business as he does.
Can't see they have said they would leave the US just that they see the move as counterproductive and may hurt the business which in turn will hurts their US workers as we as the consumer.
I expect many car makers are still waiting to see what effect Brexit will have before deciding anything here in the UK although if anything affects their bottom line in the EU market then some will leave the UK to build in the EU especially as you say the market is struggling already.
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Any decisions as to whether car manufacturers come, stay or go won't have anything to do with the outcome of Brexit, but ultimately are economic ones, as Honda's was in the UK. Toyota have recently started up production of their new Corolla at their UK plant to fee European demand, and notibly Nissan are silent on their threats to leave.
The vast majority of the time, statements by car firm bosses threatening to leave due to other (political) factors rarely come to anything, because they'd lose far more profits by having to relocate and the backlash (lower sales through bad publicity) of closing factories down. IMHO it's almost always bluster and bluffs.
In the US, Japanese makes have way too much to lose by moving manufacturing elsewhere, because they sell so many cars in the US, and Trump's policy makes them moving out far more damaging than the bad publicity from doing so, as they would be limited to what they could sell or have to endure very high tariffs.
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Tariffs are not the reason that American auto manufacturers sell few vehicles to EU/Japan - the cars are not well-suited (size, design, handling etc.).
Trump is not interested in America so much as himself & his cronies ...
Edited by Heidfirst on 22/05/2019 at 19:54
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Tariffs are not the reason that American auto manufacturers sell few vehicles to EU/Japan - the cars are not well-suited (size, design, handling etc.).
Trump is not interested in America so much as himself & his cronies ...
I never said anything about US manufacturers selling cars to Japan, but the other way around - Trump has said that if foreign car firms want to sell cars in large volumes to the US and avoid import tariffs, they must have a reasonable amount of manufacturing plants to make them in the US. Japanese fims won't give up such a huge market when they've already got so much invested there.
Whether you agree with this policy or not, that is his policy and ran on it and was elected to carry it out, which is more than many of us can say for many other elected politicians these days.
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Tariffs are not the reason that American auto manufacturers sell few vehicles to EU/Japan - the cars are not well-suited (size, design, handling etc.).
Trump is not interested in America so much as himself & his cronies ...
I never said anything about US manufacturers selling cars to Japan, but the other way around - Trump has said that if foreign car firms want to sell cars in large volumes to the US and avoid import tariffs, they must have a reasonable amount of manufacturing plants to make them in the US. Japanese fims won't give up such a huge market when they've already got so much invested there.
Whether you agree with this policy or not, that is his policy and ran on it and was elected to carry it out, which is more than many of us can say for many other elected politicians these days.
You didn't however from the article "Trump issued a new directive Friday giving Japan and the European Union six months to renegotiate their trade deals with the U.S. so that the “American automobile industry, its workforce, and American innovation” are protected." Trump looks & sees they sell us many times what we sell them & that is unfair without looking at the reasons why that is (& it isn't tariffs). Interestingly, the volume car sold in the US with the most US content is the Toyota Camry. Meantime GM has/is shuttering plants & Ford is laying off thousands in the US despite Trump's claims that he would bring car manufacturing back to the US (some companies incl. Toyota were already planning new US plants before he was elected but no doubt he will claim those ...)
Edited by Heidfirst on 23/05/2019 at 14:40
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Ford and GM are downsizing because they don't make very good cars that people want to buy (especially GM). Expect the Asian firms to fill the void, including from Hyundai/KIA, who are definitely on the up.
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I have no personal axe to grind on Brexit, but I can assure you working in an automotive company, it's significant factor in the business cases used to evaluate the economics of different manufacturing locations today. Depending on the type of deal finally negotiated (or not), it could remain a factor far in the future.
Today, no one is going to prematurely close a location which is profitable, or change plans in place for years based on a very uncertain situation. Longer term it may be very different.
Car manufacturing in some countries is attractive due to state of the art skills and technology base, and "frictionless" (yuck...) access to a huge supply chain and consumer market.
Other countries are attractive due to lower salary costs and a flexible workforce.
Yet other countries are enormous, fast growing markets, which politically or financially incentivise local assembly.
Most big manufacturers look to develop a mix of manufacturing locations with those different strengths. If you don't have any of those strengths, don't be surprised if you're not making mass-market cars in 10 or 15 years time.
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Perhaps, but in the end, manufacturers will have to weigh up lots of factors, including the cost of production and the available design talent (if they don't do it all in their home nation), as well as import tariffs. Given how the German car industry is now dead scared of us leaving the EU without any free trade deal, they are pressurising their own government to give us one when we eventually leave.
Any pain will likely be short term, and would be far less than arbitrarily pulling out of the UK for political reasons, especially if they moved production to France (high employment costs and poor labour relations), similar with Germany but with better labour relations, so they would have to turn to Eastern Europe as some already have, well before the Brexit referendum was on the horizon (JLR).
That being said, I doubt if the car-buying public will take kindly to that sort of thing happening and would, to some degree, vote with their wallets and take their business elsewhere. Similarly to the US, a lot of this is bluster knowing that in the end, very few upheavals specifically due to the political conditions will take place, except in our country where a certain change of government might force their hand, though that would more likely be due to very unfavourable economic conditions.
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As usual with Trump, there's a lot of bluster as part of 'negotiations'. We're just not used to politicians going about their business as he does.
Trump is not what I regard as a 'politician' and he seems to have no wish to become one. I wonder if he will get re-elected.
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From what I have read and heard I think it more than likely he will get re-elected for a second term, for the very reason that he is not seen as a politician!
Edited by focussed on 23/05/2019 at 11:16
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From what I have read and heard I think it more than likely he will get re-elected for a second term, for the very reason that he is not seen as a politician!
...and because the opposition are falling over themselves to be the most woke and supporting far more idiotic policies.
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