General Motors saved by boom in Chinese auto market
The Chinese market has saved General Motors. Shanghai Securities News reported that, due in part to strong sales on the Chinese mainland, GM has already paid off loans to the U.S. and Canadian governments and plans to announce an IPO in the U.S. market by the end of this year.
GM China said yesterday that GM has paid off the remaining 5.8 billion U.S. dollars owed to the U.S. Treasury Department and the Export Development Corporation of Canada as of April 21. Edward Whitacre, CEO and board chairman of GM, praised the strong performance of Shanghai GM.
GM received 52 billion U.S. dollars in aid from the U.S. government for bankruptcy protection last year and as part of the agreement, GM was required to pay back 6.7 billion U.S. dollars.
Ding Lei, general manager of GM Shanghai, said that China has replaced U.S to become the largest sales market for GM in the first quarter of this year. Shanghai GM has sold 235,000 cars total in Q1, double the amount sold in the same period of last year.
Ding also expects close to a 20 percent increase in sales in both automobiles and passenger cars. This means more than 15 million automobiles will be sold and 10 million passenger cars will be purchased in its market.
