GM, Ford to kill off small cars

GENERAL Motors and Ford are planning to kill off the Chevrolet Sonic (Holden Barina) and Fiesta, ending the US sales of the two light cars that were the third and fourth best sellers in the segment in 2017. Why? Fuel prices remain low and Americans can afford to run bigger SUVs, removing the main reason people buy light cars. Ford is also reported in the Wall Street Journal as being close to axing the Taurus large sedan while GM may get rid of its rival, the Impala, as large-car sales plunge. Passenger car sales plunged 10.9 per cent in 2017, according to vehicle data company Autodata, but light cars fell by 25.9 per cent and now represent only 1.3 per cent of the US vehicle market.

ACCC takes ship line K-Line to court

GLOBAL shipping line Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha (K-Line) has today entered a guilty plea in the Federal Court to criminal cartel conduct. Japan-based K-Line’s plea follows an investigation by the ACCC and charges laid by the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions in relation to cartel conduct concerning the international shipping of cars, trucks, and buses to Australia. This is the second guilty plea in Australia in relation to this cartel. On July 18, 2016, Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha (NYK) pleaded guilty to criminal cartel conduct. On August 3, 2017, NYK was convicted and fined $25 million. K-Line has offices in Europe, Africa, North East Asia, South East Asia, Japan, North America, Central America, South America, India, the Middle East and Oceania (including Australia). It has over 8000 employees and is headquartered in Tokyo. It also has an Australian subsidiary, K-Line (Australia) Pty Ltd. The matter will now proceed to sentencing and is next scheduled for a sentencing hearing in the Federal Court on November 15 and 16, 2018.

Quarterly sales reports replace monthly data at GM

GENERAL Motors has ended monthly sales reporting, replacing it with quarterly announcements, as Ford considers following suit. Monthly results have been used in the US since the 1990s but GM argues that the data gives a narrow view of the market and can distort trends. GM’s vice president of sales, Kurt McNeil, said: “Thirty days is not enough time to separate real sales trends from short-term fluctuations in a very dynamic, highly competitive market.” GM will continue to privately share sales results with the Federal Reserve, which uses them to help calculate the US gross domestic product, but won’t release them to the public. The move will also upset investors’ ability to gauge the seasonally adjusted annualised rate of sales, known as SAAR, which provides a monthly data point for the US market.

UK car sales down, diesels dive, exports rise

UK VEHICLE sales have fallen 2.8 per cent in February as Brexit concerns continue, while car production also fell, down 4.4 per cent in February compared with the same month in 2017. Diesel sales slumped 23.5 per cent. The only bright light was a record output of engine production in the UK. It made 254,607 engines in February, up 7.1 per cent on 2017’s month, of which 60 per cent were exported. Exports of engines jumped 16.1 per cent.