When american George Soros and Canadians Maurice Strong and Frank Stronach were little boys, they knocked their enemies' cars off the road when they played with their Dinky Toy cars.
Years later, the three septuagenarians seem to be playing the same game for real.
Knocking down the big guys in your 70s is a sport when the big guys are already tumbling.
"U.S. sales fell for all three big american automakers in June, led by a 26 percent drop at General Motors Corp, (GM), while Japan's Toyota Motor Corp. surged." (myway, July 3, 2006).
"Ford's June sales dropped 7 percent and DaimlerChrysler's plunged 13 percent, underscoring the pressure on Detroit automakers at the start of a summer season they are counting on to clear an unsold inventory of 2006 models.
"By contrast, Toyota---now No. 3 in the U.S. market for cars and trucks–posted a 14 percent sales gain. Toyota sold more cars in June than Ford and Chrysler combined.
The days of Lee Iacocca are long gone.
If Japan is doing well, China is bringing up the rear.
Canadian oil tycoon and UN poster boy Maurice Strong recently teamed up with american George Soros, the man who blew $23 million to keep Bush from returning to the White House, to saturate the american market with cheap Chinese cars,
Now that the vultures are circling the auto giants, Strong and Soros hope to decimate Ford, Chrysler and GM by flooding the market with Chinese `Cherys' by as soon as 2007.
Magna International Inc. founder Frank Stronach, a staunch supporter of the Canadian Liberal Party, is a Johnny-come-lately to the producing cheap and cheerful car-manufacturing regime. an international auto parts producer, Magna has pledged to build a $50-million plant in St. Petersburgh, Russia, and is building it near the future Toyota and General Motors assembly sites.
"But experts told the paper that the plan looks too small to make a profit." (Novostim Russian News & Information agency).
"So far, few parts producers have launched production in Russia, Johnson Controls Inc, has been making seats in St. Petersburg for the nearby Ford factory in Vsevolozhsk for a year now. The U.S. giant has also been buying exhaust systems from a Tenneco subsidiary in Tolyatti, Russia's Soviet-era car-making center built in 2003.
"Russian Carmakers' association president Igor Korovkin said Magna, as a diversified producer, would be able to satisfy the demand of all foreign carmakers launching in Russia,
"Carmakers traditional suppliers are just looking around here. They will come no sooner than when car factories launch production and post substantial growth," he said.
Korovkin assessed the $50-million investment as enough for a plant making 100,000 gearboxes a year. However, as it takes up to two years to build, he said, the factory would only make a profit if it produced no fewer than 250,000 to 300,000 gearboxes.
UFG analyst Yelena Sakhnova allayed fears by citing a Deutsche UFG projection, according to which the aggregate foreign car production in Russia will climb to 520,000 by 2009, when the Magna factory could become operational.
Magna, which supplies gearboxes and body and interior elements to Ford, Toyota, Honda, Volkswagen, Porsche, GM, DaimlerChrysler, Mitsubishi, Hyundai, Great Wall, and others, posted $22-billion in revenue and $639 million in profits last year.
Now that U.S. sales have fallen for all three giant american automakers, the shark fins are moving in for the kill.
Meanwhile, sales of Ford's Explorer, a best-selling SUV, dropped by 36 percent in June while sales of the larger Expedition were down 46 percent. "There's no question that higher gas prices have hurt demand for these products," said Ford sales analyst George Pipas.
The environmentalists, whose agendas are shared by the likes of Strong and Soros, finally had their way and did in gas-guzzling SUVs. and now their mentors, with cheap Chinese Cherys, are moving in for the kill.
Canada Free Press founding editor Most recent by Judi McLeod is an award-winning journalist with 30 years experience in the print media. Her work has appeared on Newsmax.com, Drudge Report, Foxnews.com, Glenn Beck. Judi can be reached at: judi@canadafreepress.com
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