GM's strategy of accelerating global contraction: withdrawing from "non-profit" markets such as Australia, New Zealand and Thailand.

As part of the global contraction strategy, GM is accelerating its withdrawal from more "non-profit" markets outside the United States and China.

On February 16, GM announced that it would further reduce the scale of its sales, design and engineering departments in Australia and New Zealand, and gradually stop selling the Australian Horton automobile brand by 20021year.

At the same time, GM also said that its manufacturing plant in Thailand has been "packaged" and sold to Great Wall Motor, an independent car company in China, and it also plans to withdraw the Chevrolet brand from Thailand.

According to GM's forecast, this round of business adjustment will lead to a net cash expenditure of about $300 million, and cash and non-cash expenditure of about 1 1 billion. At the same time, factories in Thailand will reduce 1500 jobs, and Australia and New Zealand will reduce 828 jobs.

In the process of rearranging the global business, in addition to the current business in the United States, China, Latin America and South Korea, GM will gradually divest or reduce those markets that cannot make too much profit, especially the European market.

On February 5, General Motors Chief Financial Officer Divya? Suryadevara said in a report that restructuring GM's international business outside China can increase its profits by about $2 billion compared with 20 18.

Before the report was released, GM predicted that its profit would be flat in 2020 and announced that its profit in the fourth quarter was better than expected. However, the 40-day strike by the United Auto Workers (uaw) still cost GM $3.6 billion.

Mary, Chairman and CEO of General Motors? Bora (Mary? Barra) said in a statement that GM "will focus on markets where we have the right strategy and can bring strong returns, and give priority to global investments that will promote the growth of the automobile industry in the future, especially in the fields of electric vehicles and self-driving cars."

"I often say that even in difficult times, we will stick to the right decision, and now we are in such a moment." Mary? Bora added that since 20 14 took over, she has always put the importance of profit margin above sales volume and global expansion strategy.

In fact, GM's global contraction strategy will not happen overnight. As early as 20 15, GM withdrew the Chevrolet brand from Europe and left the Russian market in the same year.

In 20 17, GM sold its European business units Opel and vauxhall to PSA, and withdrew from South Africa and other African markets. Since then, Mary? Bora also decided to withdraw GM from Vietnam, Indonesia and India.

In the domestic market of North America, in view of the changes in consumer demand, GM announced a major adjustment plan in 2008, closing four factories in the United States and 1 factory in Canada, laying off a large number of employees in the United States and Canada, cutting down the production of unsalable models, and shifting more investment to electric and self-driving cars.

It was strongly condemned by the local government.

"Horton" was originally a local Australian car brand, and 1908 began to produce cars. 193 1 year, GM acquired Horton Company and changed its name to GM-Horton Company. The name was changed to Horton Company in 1998.

Like Britain, Australia and New Zealand are right-hand drive markets. General Motors President Royce (Mark? Reuss) said in a statement on Sunday that with the sales of Horton brand in Australia plummeting, the company could not justify continuing to invest in the production of right-hand drive vehicles.

The company said in a statement that in the past ten years, GM's market share in Australia has dropped from 65,438+03% to 4.65,438+0%, which is why GM ended Horton's Australian production in 2065,438+07. At present, most Horton models sold in Australia come from factories in South Korea and Thailand.

However, in Australia, a market that is increasingly dominated by Asian automakers, the cost of maintaining an independent brand has proved unbearable, even for an automobile group of the size of General Motors.

It is reported that GM's decision to withdraw from the Australian and New Zealand markets has been strongly condemned by the local government. Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison (Scott? Morrison) said: "I am extremely disappointed with GM." According to the Australian government, over the years, GM has received as much as $2.2 billion from the Australian government for the Horton brand.

"I am very angry. Australian taxpayers have invested $2.2 billion in this company. They have shrunk this company, and now they want to abandon it directly. " Scott Morrison said that GM has been supported and funded by the Australian government and taxpayers for many years, but it doesn't care about the local government and people.

A spokesman for the Australian Prime Minister said that GM did not communicate with the government in advance. The Prime Minister received an email notice three minutes before GM officially released the press release, and the Prime Minister's policy adviser was informed 15 minutes before the official announcement.

Traditional car companies have entered a difficult "transition period"

Not long ago, Tesla's share price soared and became a hot topic in the industry. On February 4, US Eastern Time, Tesla's share price was as high as 968.99 US dollars, and its market value reached 65.438+059.888 billion US dollars. This is almost the sum of the market values of Ford ($36.2 billion), General Motors ($49 billion), Honda ($45.9 billion) and Ferrari ($31300 million), and it is overtaking Toyota's market value of nearly $200 billion.

In the context of the soaring share price of electric vehicle companies, traditional car companies have released "diving" performance reports. For example, Ford's annual profit in 20 19 was 47 million dollars (about 330 million yuan), which was 98.7% lower than the 3.7 billion dollars in 20 18. Daimler's net profit in 20 19 also plummeted by 64% to 2.7 billion euros, and its earnings per share fell to 2.22 euros (6.78 euros in 20 18).

Many people in the industry believe that under various throttling strategies, the profits of some traditional and powerful car companies are still declining, which means that the profit "ceiling" of traditional cars has emerged, and the transition to emerging technology fields is imminent.

And GM's drastic "cutting meat" on its traditional automobile business is precisely to accelerate the transformation of intelligent driving and electrification. 20 19- 1, GM announced that it plans to double the total number of new energy vehicles put into the China market between 20021-2023; Cruise, a subsidiary of General Autopilot, received the latest round of financing165438+500 million USD in May of 20 19, with a valuation of 1900 million USD.

However, under the accelerated contraction of some multinational car companies, Great Wall Motor, one of the largest SUV manufacturers in China, said that it would radiate the whole ASEAN region with Thailand as the center and export its products to other ASEAN countries and Australia. At a time when the domestic market is slowing down, the automobile manufacturer headquartered in Baoding, Hebei Province is looking for opportunities for global expansion.

In addition to acquiring GM's factory in Thailand, Great Wall Motor also signed an agreement to acquire GM's factory in India in June+10 this year. The two companies said that the transaction is expected to be completed in the second half of 2020.

This article comes from car home, the author of the car manufacturer, and does not represent car home's position.