The world’s largest luxury carmaker based in Munich, BMW Group, today announced plans to increase purchases from Mexico in a bid to lower total costs under a new cost cutting program.

More specifically, BMW will buy more auto parts that are manufactured in Mexico for its vehicles that are assembled around the world, particularly in Germany and the United States.

BMW said it would more than double auto part purchases from Mexico over the next few years, starting two years from now.

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Nations, in particular, the United States, have long expressed concern over Beijing’s policy to peg its currency, the yuan, to the American dollar.

Beijing’s policy serves as a mechanism to keeping the value of the yaun discounted in order to give the country a competitive advantage in the global markets when it comes to exports by making their domestic products more attractive to international buyers due to a price advantage.

The result has been firm’s ceasing production in more expensive markets like North America in favor of moving manufacturing to China due to the lower prices.
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New 2010 BMW 5-Series

The luxury German carmaker, BMW, today released sales figures for the month of May 2010.

The company reported strong year over year gains in sales for select brands and models, including the super expensive Rolls-Royce Ghost that saw sales grow by more than 330-percent compared to the same period last year, as global economies slowly recover from the credit crisis.

The BMW brand sold 101,775 vehicles in May 2010, marking a significant 12.3-percent increase over May 2009.

The BMW 7-Series and the company’s new 5-Series models helped fuel sales.

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A source today confirmed to us General Motors tomorrow is scheduled to announce a massive investment of $500-million in the city of St. Catharines, Ontario, in Canada, as part of a plan to produce a new vehicle transmission system.

The source provided the information on condition of anonymity, as they were not permitted to disclose the information.

The capital will be used to design and manufacture a new efficient transmission that would be used in select new GM models.

The announcement will be made tomorrow by GM at the plant, with a ceremony that will include GM Canada president Kevin Williams, and Industry Minister Tony Clement, among other officials.

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Statistics Canada has released a new report today confirming Canada’s real GDP increased by 1.5-percent in Q1 ’10, beating analyst expectations, and marking the seventh consecutive monthly gain.

The increase marks the biggest year over year gain since at least over ten years ago. The Canadian GDP took a hit over the last couple of years, including negative quarterly GDP change in part of 2008 and 2009, during the global economic down turn that saw consumption spending and home prices fall.

In the first quarter of this year, GDP growth was largely attributable to significant gains in production and inventory levels.

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March 2010 marked the fourth consecutive gain in total sales in Canada, with a 2.1-percent gain to $37-billion, according to a report published today by Statistics Canada.

The highest gain in sales came from vehicle and vehicle part sales, seeing a 3.6-percent increase in the month. Gasoline stations also experienced an increase, netting a 2.3-percent game YoY in sales, marking 11 straight months in gains in that sector (table for all sectors).

All of the Canadian provinces experienced net gains in total sales, indicating the Canadian economy is beginning to pick up again as more people spend money more money.

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The specific sum is in relation to a $4-billion TARP loan that the Treasury underwritten on January 2, 2009.

The current payment is below the face value of the loan, but the amount received by the Treasury was greater than expected.

The U.S. Treasury to date has given Chrysler just over $14-billion in total loan payments to ensure the auto giant survives the global economic downturn and the credit crunch.

Chrysler currently has no other outstanding obligations with the U.S. Treasury in relation to TARP funds.

Chrysler most recently reported a significant $197-million total loss in the first quarter of this year. That number compares to $2.7-billion in total losses in Q4 ’09.

The company is aiming to breakeven by the end of 2010.

The news comes today as the top U.S. automaker, General Motors, released earnings for the first quarter of 2010. The company reported a net profit of $865-million in the quarter, marking the first profit in many fiscal quarters.

The top U.S. automaker, General Motors Inc., today published earnings for the first quarter of 2010.

The company said revenue in the quarter was $31.48-billion, up materially from $22.4-billion (an increase of 40.54-percent) in the same period last year.

GM had an operating profit of $1.2-billion in the period, and earned $865-million in net earnings in the period. Net earnings compare to a $5.98-billion loss YoY.

The current increase in net earnings is attributable to many factors, primarily the increase in demand for GM vehicles, and lower fixed costs as production rose. Additionally, the company said it transferred retiree health expenses to an independent less costly trust.

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The Greek Prime Minister, George Papandreou, today said in a televised Greek broadcast his government is considering launching investigations on major U.S. financial intermediaries to determine their role in the nation’s debt crisis that has fueled deadly protests in the Greek capital of Athens.

Mr. Papandreou also warned he would not rule out possible legal action as an option for recourse for the banks if necessary.

On May 6, the Greek government passed new austerity legislation to lower consumption spending and to increase revenue with higher taxes, in a bid to receive the now confirmed USD $140-billion emergency loan.

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Both the U.S. Labor Department and Statistics Canada today published employment statistics for the month of April of both respective nations.

The Canadian economy added 109,000 new jobs in April 2010, marketing the largest monthly gain in jobs since the summer of 2002. Interestingly, more than 72,000 of those jobs were taken by men aged 25 and over. Part time positions added 65,000 jobs, while full time added fewer of 44,000 jobs

Canada’s aggregate unemployment rate also marginally declined to 8.1-percent from 8.2-percent.

The Canadian province of Ontario added the most jobs in the month with 41,000 new jobs. The unemployment rate in Ontario remained unchanged at 8.8-percent YoY.

Manitoba added the fewest jobs with 7,000 jobs added, bringing its unemployment rate down to 4.9-percent, which is the lowest unemployment rate in the country.

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