May 5 (Reuters) – Swiss industrial group OC Oerlikon on Tuesday withdrew its full-year outlook and slashed 800 jobs, citing a high degree of market uncertainty triggered by the coronavirus crisis.
The group had previously expected full-year 2020 order intake and sales of between 2.5 billion and 2.6 billion Swiss francs ($2.6 billion to $2.7 billion) and earnings before interest, taxes, amortisation and depreciation (EBITDA) margin before exceptional items to improve to 15% to 15.5%.
In the first quarter, Oerlikon reported a 38% drop in EBITDA at 58 million francs, which came above estimates of a company-compiled consensus of 51 million francs.
“China has shown signs of overcoming the virus, in particular in our man-made fibers business, while we faced increasing challenges from the global impact in our surface solutions segment toward the end of the first quarter in Europe and in the U.S.,” Chief Executive Roland Fischer said.
The Swiss company's largest segment, surface solutions..
Author: World_Newz Mon
Nissan to retrench further in new plan to focus on US, Japan, China
May 4 (Reuters) – Nissan Motor Co Ltd will pull back from Europe and elsewhere to focus on the United States, China and Japan under a plan that represents a new strategic direction for the embattled carmaker, people with direct knowledge of the plan told Reuters.
The “operational performance plan” is due to be announced on May 28 and goes beyond fixing problems from ousted leader Carlos Ghosn's aggressive expansion drive, the people said.
Pursuit of market share, particularly in the United States, led to steep discounting and a cheapened brand. Under the new, three-year plan – reported here for the first time – Nissan aims to restore dealer ties and refresh lineups to regain pricing power and profitability, the people told Reuters.
“This is not just a cost-cutting plan. We're rationalising operations, reprioritising and refocusing our business to plant seeds for the future,” one of the people said.
The plan also aims to cut competition and expand cooperation with alliance par..
Russian automobile industry will be 100% used for public transport production
/Update/
MOSCOW, May 3. /TASS/. Russian automakers will be 100% loaded with public transport production in 2020, Minister of Industry and Trade Denis Manturov said on Sunday in an interview with the Rossiya-24 TV Channel.
“I can confidently state that the utilization will be 100% in 2020, particularly for the public transport, for buses of different classes,” the Minister said. “This is a helping hand and concurrently the support for the automotive industry and the upgrade of the public transport for regions,” Manturov noted.
Automobile producers will also deal with manufacturing of ambulance cars and reanimobiles, the Minister said. “Speaking about reanimobiles, there will be about 1,400 units. We already have experience of implementing such tasks in prior years. These are centralized supplies,” Manturov said.
Ford Romania to gradually resume production next week
The Romanian unit of U.S. auto maker Ford Motor Company has said on Tuesday that its plant in Craiova, southwestern Romania, will gradually resume production, starting May 4, SeeNews reports.Other non-production employees who can work from home will continue to do so for the present time, including those employees on short-time working arrangements.
Nissan Warns of Losses, Delays Earnings Report Due to Pandemic
Nissan Motor Co. warned that it expects to post a loss for the just-ended fiscal year, becoming the latest global automaker to be hit by the coronavirus pandemic.
GM Suspends Dividend, Buybacks in Pivot to Cash Preservation
General Motors Co. suspended its dividend and the share-buyback program activist investors fought for over the last half decade as the largest U.S. automaker seeks to preserve cash in the midst of the pandemic shutting down much of the global car industry.
New Datsun redi-GO teased, launch soon
Nissan is all set to introduce the new Datsun redi-GO in India.Before the 2020 Datsun redi-GO is launched, the automobile manufacturer has released a couple of teaser images of the entry-level hatchback giving us a hint of its rather ‘bold’ exterior.The new Datsun redi-GO price might hover in the range.
Renault Samsung to suspend plant for 11 days on virus impact
Renault Samsung Motors Corp., the South Korean unit of Renault S.A., said Monday it will suspend its sole plant for 11 days, as the coronavirus outbreak has affected production and sales.The carmaker stopped the Busan plant for four days in February due to lack of parts from its Chinese suppliers as the COVID-19 outbreak hit supply chains.This month, the company’s 1,700-member union voted to accept a wage freeze and cash bonuses of 8.88 million won (US$7,320) per person for 2019.
China self-driving truck startup Inceptio raises US$100m from investors including GLP: sources
China’s Inceptio Technology, a startup developing self-driving trucks, has raised US$100 million in its latest funding round from logistics firm GLP, its key strategic investor G7 and other investors, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.The company, which aims to operate a freight network with autonomous driving trucks in China from 2022, has partnerships with Dongfeng Automobile Co, Sinotruk Hong Kong and Foton.The two-year-old firm is developing autonomous driving software and an in-car computing system while the truckmakers are responsible for the vehicles’ platforms.
Great Wall Motor posts profit decline in 2019
SHIJIAZHUANG, April 26 (Xinhua) — Chinese carmaker Great Wall Motor said its net profit fell 13.6 percent year on year in 2019 as the world's largest auto market slowed.
The leading sport utility vehicle (SUV) and pickup maker said in its annual report that it made a net profit of 4.5 billion yuan (about 635 million U.S. dollars) last year when its total operating revenue dropped 3 percent year on year to 96.2 billion yuan.
The carmaker sold 1.06 million vehicles, an annual increase of 1.4 percent, in 2019 when auto sales in the whole country fell 8.2 percent to 25.77 million units.
In the first quarter of 2020, Great Wall Motor reported a net loss of 650 million yuan, compared to a net profit of 773 million yuan a year ago, according to a separate quarterly report.
Meanwhile, its first-quarter total operating revenue fell 45.1 percent year on year to 12.4 billion yuan, mainly as vehicle sales declined amid the COVID-19 epidemic.