Outsourcing and NAFTA

[waltky]

Ford Expands Manufacturing in India...

Ford to Put $500 Million into India Manufacturing
Jan 8, 2008 - Ford Plans to Double its Manufacturing Capacity in India by 2010

Ford Motor Co said on Tuesday it plans to invest $500 million in India to double manufacturing capacity by 2010 and make a small car and engines to compete more effectively in the fast-growing market. Ford, which last week named India's top vehicle maker, Tata Motors Ltd , as the preferred bidder for its luxury Jaguar and Land Rover brands, will double its capacity in India to 200,000 vehicles a year by 2010, it said.

Within the next two years it will begin production of a new small car for a bigger share of the dominant segment, and build an engine plant adjacent to its existing car plant near Chennai in south India. "This new investment highlights the significance of India's role in our continued expansion and overall strategy for the Asia Pacific and Africa region," John Parker, executive vice president, for Asia-Pacific and Africa, said.

Ford will have an annual capacity to make 250,000 petrol and diesel engines, with the first diesel engines for its local Fiesta and Fusion cars rolling out in April, it said. The small car, which will be an international design with local inputs, will not compete at the low end of the price spectrum, which will see a new Tata car priced at about $2,500.

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[waltky]

Gee, think maybe outsourcing car plants to India might have something to do with it???

Ford CEO says U.S. economy a concern
Wed., Jan. 9, 2008 - Mulally: Automaker will cut production if market demand falls

Ford Motor Co. Chief Executive Alan Mulally said on Tuesday that the U.S. economy is “clearly a concern” and the automaker will cut production as needed if market demand for vehicles weakened. “For us, any slowdown in the economy — the housing industry, financing of vehicles, tightening of credit, housing starts — it puts a lot of pressure on consumer confidence to buy big-ticket items,” Mulally told reporters at a dinner ahead of the North American International Auto Show.

Ford has forecast that U.S. demand for light trucks and cars could dip below 15.5 million units on an annualized basis over the next six months. In 2007, U.S. sales dropped almost 3 percent to 16.14 million vehicles, the lowest since 1998 and down from 16.55 million a year earlier. “A lot of people are concerned about the value of the dollar,” Mulally said. “People are concerned about the U.S. economy. I think the whole (stock) market reflects uncertainty in the U.S. market.”

Ford, which lost $12.6 billion in 2006, is in the midst of a multiyear restructuring that aims to return its money-losing North American operations to profitability in 2009. Ford President of North America Mark Fields said earlier on Tuesday that the automaker was on track to achieve that profitability target.

More Ford CEO says U.S. economy a concern - Autos - MSNBC.com

[waltky]

And now even some of our farms...

Some Farms Outsourced to Mexico
Tuesday, May. 27, 2008 - American companies farm more than 45,000 acres of land in three Mexican states, employing about 11,000 people, a survey shows

Antonio Martinez used to pay smugglers thousands of dollars each year to sneak him into the United States to manage farm crews. Now, the work comes to him. Supervising lettuce pickers in central Mexico, Martinez earns just half of the $1,100 a week he made in the U.S. But the job has its advantages, including working without fear of immigration raids.

Martinez, now a legal employee of U.S.-owned VegPacker de Mexico, is exactly the kind of worker more American farm companies are seeking. Many have moved their fields to Mexico, where they can find qualified people, often with U.S. experience, who can't be deported. "Because I never moved my family to the U.S., I was always alone there," said Martinez, 45, who could never get a work permit, even after 16 years in agriculture in California and Arizona. "When I got the opportunity to be close to my family, doing similar work, I didn't even have to think about it."

American companies now farm more than 45,000 acres of land in three Mexican states, employing about 11,000 people, a 2007 survey by the U.S. farm group Western Growers shows. There were no earlier studies to document how much the acreage has grown. But U.S. direct investment in Mexican agriculture, which includes both American companies moving their operations to Mexico and setting up Mexican partnerships, has swelled sevenfold to $60 million since 2000, Mexico's Economy Department told The Associated Press. Major corporations such as Archer Daniels Midland Co. and Bunge have invested across Latin America for decades, particularly in countries like Brazil, where agribusiness is booming.

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[waltky]

Put yer ear up to a Fiesta an' ya can hear that giant sucking sound Ross Perot warned us about...

Ford to build Fiesta subcompact in Mexico
Fri., May. 30, 2008 - The move is the latest blow to the United Auto Workers union

Ford Motor Co. plans to build its new Fiesta subcompact at a factory near Mexico City for sale in the U.S., the company said Friday. Ford plans to retool its Cuautitlan Assembly Plant from large-truck to small-car production as it moves to shift its factories from trucks toward more fuel-efficient vehicles, the company said.

The move is a blow to the United Auto Workers union, which last year approved a contract that granted concessions to the automaker. Earlier this year, UAW President Ron Gettelfinger said the union would try to convince Ford that its U.S. plants were competitive enough that the automaker could make money building its smallest cars in the U.S. Currently, all subcompacts sold in the U.S. are built overseas, he said. Messages seeking comment were left with UAW spokesman Roger Kerson.

The Fiesta is critical to Ford's effort to unify its global operations and sell versions of the same vehicle in markets worldwide. Three- and five-door hatchback versions will go on sale in Europe this fall and China by the end of the year. Other versions, including a four-door sedan, will reach the rest of Asia by 2009. North America will get a four-door version as well as the European hatchback in 2010.

More Ford to build Fiesta subcompact in Mexico - Autos - MSNBC.com

[waltky]

Of course they hail moving our auto plants and jobs south of the border...

Mexico hails Ford's 'global' car decision
May 31, 2008 - Mexico celebrated Saturday after landing the biggest foreign manufacturing investment in its history, a $3 billion deal from Ford to build a new world car.

Mexican President Felipe Calderon announced Friday the Detroit automaker had chosen its facilities in that country as the site to make its "global" car, a new subcompact model meant to be marketed to consumers around the world, the Washington Post reported. Mexico had been competing with Asia and the United States as possible manufacturing venues for the global car.

The decision means Ford is likely to create 4,500 jobs at its existing Cuautitlan, Mexico, truck manufacturing plant, an area just north of Mexico City, the newspaper said. The big investment also is expected to generate 25,000 spin-off jobs for Mexico, which has ties with Ford stretching back to the 1920s.

Analysts have long expected Ford to announce plans for a big push behind a "global" car in an effort to switch its product mix away from gas-guzzling pickup trucks and SUVs toward more fuel-efficient vehicles amidst high energy prices, the Post said. Members of the United Auto Workers were disappointed by the company's decision to invest in a foreign country.

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[waltky]

NAFTA puttin' American truckers out of business...

Bush extends Mexican truck program
Tuesday, August 5, 2008 - Miffed Democrats see move to defy Congress on recess

Infuriated Democrats vowed Monday to kill a pilot program that gives Mexican trucks access to U.S. highways after the Bush administration - acting on the first day of Congress' summer recess - announced that it was extending the test project. Rep. James L. Oberstar, chairman of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, said the administration's maneuver was the latest attempt to flout the will of Congress on the matter, and said he will introduce legislation ending the program once and for all.

"When Congress reconvenes in September, I intend to have the full House of Representatives approve our bill as quickly as possible, and make certain that the voice of Congress is heard loud and clear at the Department of Transportation and that this program is finally shut down," the Minnesota Democrat said. The committee approved a bill Friday to prohibit continuation of the program beyond its original end date of Sept. 6. That measure still requires a vote by the full House when lawmakers return in September.

John H. Hill, administrator of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, said the Mexican truck program has been successful and deserves to be expanded. He said the program is designed to save consumers money by reducing shipping costs. "We intend this extension to reassure trucking companies that they will have sufficient time to realize a return on their investment, and we anticipate additional participation with this extra time," Mr. Hill said. "The extension will ensure that the demonstration project can be reviewed and evaluated on the basis of a more comprehensive body of data."

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[waltky]

With The Rise Of China And Other Economies, The "Golden Age" Of American Influence May Be Coming To An End...

Coming Soon: A Post-American World
Aug. 17, 2008 : Millions of us have been swept up in the color and drama of the Olympic Games. But the Beijing Stadium isn't the only arena for global competition. Now, after decades of dominance, will the U.S. soon be "passing the torch"? Here's Martha Teichner:

Consider the Olympic Games a giant exclamation point … a fanfare announcing a message from the Chinese. They're putting the world on notice, that they are players playing to win, and not just Olympic gold. They want you to know that China is a power to be reckoned with, and proud of it, that it's bearing down on the United States … fast.

"The implications are that China will be the commercial leader of the world," Albert Keidel, an expert on China's economy, told Teichner. "It will also deserve and demand leadership in global institutions." Keidel is the author of a startling new study for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, "China's Economic Rise: Fact And Fiction."

"We can model the economy and show that by 2035, it will be as big, if not bigger than the United States' economy will be at that time, and by the middle of the century it will be twice the size of the U.S. economy at that time," Keidel said.

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[waltky]

Obama singin' to the choir...

Obama stirs up outsourcing row again
4 Sep 2008, WASHINGTON - US Presidential hopeful Barack Obama once again touched on the ticklish issue of outsourcing and while vowing to end tax breaks to companies that ship works overseas conceded that all lost jobs could not be redeemed.

Promising to retain as well as create more jobs for the Americans, the Democratic nominee said while all lost jobs cannot be redeemed, further movement can be halted by giving incentives to companies investing in the country. "Not all jobs that have left are going to come back. We can stop some of them that are already leaving by stopping to give tax breaks to companies that are shipping jobs overseas and saving those tax breaks for investing in plants and equipment right here in the US," Obama said at a campaign stop in Ohio.

Maintaining that the issues of energy are going to be the "centrepiece of re-building manufacturing in the US", Obama said having energy as one of its main economic planks will ensure creation of millions of jobs as there are growing energy needs in emerging economies like India and China. Terming the high growth in India and China as a "huge opportunity" for America's energy sector, Obama said the US should choose to invest in clean alternative technologies to milk this opportunity.

"We know that energy is going to be driving the economy in the future. Think about it. China, India -- they are all growing, and they are all deciding we would not mind having a car, too. So as they drive we're already seeing demand outstrip supply in terms of oil," Obama said. "If we can put research and development into clean coal technology, then we're the Saudi Arabia of coal. And that, right away, helps us and it helps the Ohio economy," Senator Obama said, adding,"the same is true on nuclear energy".

In his opening remarks Senator Obama had his standard refrain on outsourcing, a theme that he and his campaign have been hammering away in a state like Ohio that has taken a hard hit economically, especially in the manufacturing sector. "We can put millions of people back to work. Five million new jobs that cannot be outsourced in the clean energy sector jobs. If we have got bold leadership from the White House," Senator Obama said.

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[waltky]

More jobs lost and they ain't comin' back anytime soon...

Jobless rate soars to 6.1%
September 5, 2008: Unemployment surges to 5-year high as employers cut workers for eighth straight month, bringing '08 job losses to 605,000.

The unemployment rate soared to a nearly five-year high in August, topping 6%, as employers trimmed jobs for the eighth straight month, according to the latest government reading Friday that came in weaker than forecasts. The big surprise in the report was that the unemployment rate rose to 6.1%, the highest level since September 2003. That's up from the 5.7% rate in July and 4.7% a year ago. Economists surveyed by Briefing.com had forecast the rate would remain unchanged from the July reading.

There was a net loss of 84,000 jobs in August, according to the Labor Department, compared to a revised reading of a 60,000 job loss in July. Economists surveyed by Briefing.com had forecast a loss of 75,000 jobs. With the August report, the U.S. economy has now lost 605,000 jobs so far this year. Manufacturing lost 61,000 jobs, while construction employment fell by 8,000. But the job losses were widespread beyond those two troubled sectors.

Retailers trimmed 20,000 jobs despite the back-to-school shopping season that is second only to the holiday period for many stores. Business and professional services, a broad category that includes industries such as accountants, consultants and legal services, lost 53,000 workers. Leisure and hospitality cut 4,000 jobs.

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No job turnaround on horizon
September 5, 2008: Economists don't expect job losses to end with August as they forecast a weak employment outlook for the rest of the year.

August was another bad month for the job market. But many economists also are predicting job losses to continue deep into 2009 as well. The government reported on Friday that there were 84,000 job losses last month, worse than the 75,000 job losses that economists were predicting according to Briefing.com. U.S. employers have now trimmed 605,000 jobs from the payrolls during the first eight months of the year. For the month of August, economists are predicting that. The unemployment rate surged to 6.1%, a nearly five-year high and up from 5.7% in July. Economists were expecting the rate to remain at 5.7% in August. While the monthly job losses so far this year have been modest compared to levels in past recessions, filings for initial jobless claims and continuing jobless benefits have both climbed in the last month to levels typical with a recession. And beyond the headline numbers, there are a number of segments watched by economists, such as temporary workers, which have also turned lower in recent months.

So even though there have been some hopeful signs for the economy in recent weeks, including declining oil prices and a reading on second quarter economic growth that was stronger than both forecasts and initial estimates, most economists say it's much too soon to look for a true turnaround in the labor market. "I think we'll continue to see (job losses and rising unemployment) unfortunately throughout the rest of the year. It's not until the first part of next year we'll see a sustained uptick," said Rich Thompson, vice president of Adecco Group North America, the world's largest employment services firm.

Thompson said one problem for job seekers is that the professional services sector, which includes accounting, legal and consulting firms among other businesses, are now shedding jobs as well. In the past few years, these businesses were a big engine of employment growth. In addition, employment is a trailing indicator of economic growth, with job losses and rising unemployment common even after the end of a recession. Employers often make staffing decisions based on recent profitability and sales more than on forecasts for growth. So even if the latest gross domestic product report -- which showed the economy grew at a solid 3.3% annual rate in the second quarter -- marks the start of a sustained turnaround, there might not be a pick up in hiring until next year.

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