(Note: it would be interesting to chart the actual number of individuals involved in auto production – per vehicle, from say 1984 when the industry recovered from the “downturn” bookmarked as Chrysler declaring bankruptcy in the third quarter of 1979, to today, January 2011). WL.
China's 2010 auto sales top 18 mn units BEIJING (AFP) – Auto sales in China, the world's top car market, rose more than 32 percent in 2010 to 18.06 million units, Dow Jones Newswires quoted the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers as saying. December sales rose 17.9 percent from a year earlier to 1.67 million units, the association said in a statement. China overtook the United States in 2009 to become the world's largest car market. GM, Ford and Volkswagen all posted record sales in the country last year. (china exports very few of these vehicles. If memory serves me in 2009 roughly 334,000 vehicles were exported) In 2007, worldwide production reached a peak of 73.3 million new motor vehicles.[1] In 2009, production dropped 13.5 percent to 61 million. Sales in the U.S. dropped 21.2 percent to 10.4 million units, sales in the European Union (supported by scrapping incentives in many markets) dropped 1.3 percent to 14.1 million units. China became the world's largest motor-vehicle market, by both sales and production. Sales in China rose 45 percent in 2009 to 13.6 million units.[2] In 2010, world markets mostly recovered[3]. With 18,061,900 vehicles sold in 2010, China established a new world record, previously held by the U.S.A. with sales of 17.4 million units in 2000[4]. _http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automotive_industry_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automotive_industry) ……………………………………………. DETROIT — U.S. auto sales sputtered back to life in 2010 and car companies expect them to keep climbing this year as the economy recovers and buyers grow more confident. With sales of around 11.5 million new cars and trucks, 2010 was still the second-worst year in almost three decades, after 2009. And car companies are starting to wonder if they will ever reach the heights they saw in the early 2000s, when credit was cheap, incentives were rampant and sales topped 17 million. Still, 2010 was a good year for Detroit's car companies. Ford Motor Co. sales rose 15 percent and it grabbed market share from rivals for the second year in a row. General Motors Co.'s sales rose 6.3 percent while Chrysler climbed 17 percent, an impressive rebound from 2009 when the two companies restructured in bankruptcy court. _http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2011/jan/04/us-auto-sales-rise-in-2010-b u-remain-below-highs/_ (http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2011/jan/04/us-auto-sales-rise-in-2010-bu-remain-below-highs/) _______________________________________________ Marxist-Leninist-List mailing list Marxist-Leninist-List@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxist-leninist-list