Wino Posted October 12, 2009 Report Share Posted October 12, 2009 Hummer, the off-road vehicle with military roots has been sold to Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery Corp. for a reported $150 million. When GM filed for bankruptcy last summer they listed the price as $500 million. Both the US and Chinese governments still have to approve the deal. Looks like China is getting a bargain. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob Posted October 12, 2009 Report Share Posted October 12, 2009 Actually, I was rather surprised at this given I thought the Chinese were smarter than that. If GM can't make a profit on the Hummer in the land of ostentatious barges driving down the wide streets, I can't believe the Chinese can ultimately make any money on it. Given the width of most asian roads, the congestion, and the cost of gasoline, I'd guess that only a very few wealthy show-offs will buy it - and nobody is going to make money without selling a substantial number of them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wino Posted October 13, 2009 Author Report Share Posted October 13, 2009 With the China-US trade balance, what is $150 million? Drop in a bucket for the Chinese. They are keeping all the US dealerships and the manufacturing plant in Ohio(?). I think the Chinese really bought a bargain. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WannaGo Posted October 14, 2009 Report Share Posted October 14, 2009 Maybe we're giving them the Hummer as payback for the lead-coated toys and the defective sheetrock. You guys been following this Chinese drywall situation in the States? Basically, the U.S. started running out of sheetrock in 2004 because there was a housing boom and several hurricanes that destroyed homes and necessitated rebuilding. Contractors started buying drywall imported from China. Billions of tons of the stuff. In one year, they imported something like 7 million pieces. Then, within a couple of years, bad things started happening in the homes with this drywall. The people who lived there were complaining about smelling sulfur, they were getting headaches and bloody noses and having constant episodes of nausea, and all the metal in the houses started getting corroded. The government started looking at the sheetrock. What they think is that the gypsum that the stuff is made out of is contaminated with chemicals that decay and emit sulfide gases. The gases apparently are causing the medical issues and the corrosion. Property insurance won't pay to get the houses fixed -- it can cost $100K -- and there are supposed to tens of thousands of houses with this drywall in them. Now everybody is suing the Chinese manufacturers and the companies that brought the stuff into the country. There's a huge class action case going on in New Orleans. But some of these Chinese companies are actually owned or operated by the Chinese government. And at least one of them so far has just ignored the suit. Lawyers in the case say they think most of the Chinese companies are going to do the same...and there's not much anybody can do about it because they aren't required to play by American court rules. All this means the home owners are getting screwed. They can't live in their houses, they can't get money to fix them, so of course a lot of them are going into foreclosure. At some point, the U.S. is going to have to impose some rules on Chinese companies that import these defective products. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wino Posted October 15, 2009 Author Report Share Posted October 15, 2009 That is the first I have heard of the problem. What a mess! The importing companies will be sued but will just go bankrupt and re-organize under a different name. The people are left holding the bag. I am surprised that a couple coats of paint aren't enough to stop the problem with the drywall. I am not an expert, but you would think there would be a fix? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beer Chang Posted October 15, 2009 Report Share Posted October 15, 2009 Maybe we're giving them the Hummer as payback for the lead-coated toys and the defective sheetrock. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wino Posted October 15, 2009 Author Report Share Posted October 15, 2009 And the tainted milk scandal, but I guess they didn't export any of the milk? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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