GENEVA AUTO SHOW Renault sees ‘mediocre’ 2006 Europe sales
Renault expects 2006 sales in Europe to be ‘mediocre’, with the European market remaining ’subdued’ or possibly even ’shrinking slightly’, the company’s deputy managing director and director of sales Patrick Blain said at the Geneva Auto Show.
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Source: forbes.com
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Volkswagen's chief executive, Bernd Pischetsrieder, has said that 2005 was a "long ways from a good year." His counterpart at Renault, Carlos Ghosn, has predicted that profit in 2006 will fall as models age.
Neither view is evident in the companies' share prices. The stocks have rallied this year on investors' belief that European carmakers will increase their profit by cutting costs.
Volkswagen, for instance, plans to eliminate as many as 20,000 jobs in Germany. Shares are also rising on the view that a string of new sedans and hatchbacks
GM expects Europe market share growth in 2006
General Motors Corp. (GM.N: Quote, Profile, Research) said Tuesday it expected an increase in its European market share this year and flagged plans to increase sales in higher-margin areas.
"We are certainly (looking) for share growth in Cadillac," the automaker's Europe chief, Carl-Peter Forster told reporters at the Geneva auto show.
"Saab could grow or at least maintain its share...Chevrolet most probably is up for another year of strong growth. Put it all together, most probably we will grow share," Forster said.
Chevrolet is launching two new products, including the Captiva SUV, this year in Europe.
The
Renault, GM Lead Europe Sales Drop as Oil Prices Rise
Renault SA and General Motors Corp. led a decline in European car sales in June, the second monthly drop this year, as rising gasoline prices discouraged large purchases and some countries had fewer working days.
Industrywide sales fell 4.1 percent to 1.5 million vehicles from 1.55 million units a year earlier, the Brussels-based European Automobile Manufacturers Association said in a statement today. First-half sales gained 1.3 percent to 8.32 million units.
Those numbers are atrocious, Stephen Pope, head of equity research at Cantor Fitzgerald in London, said. The recent uptick
Wolverine sees Europe import duties hurting profit
Shoe manufacturer Wolverine World Wide Inc. (WWW.N: Quote, Profile, Research) said on Thursday 2006 earnings will be at the low end of its previously announced range of $1.34 to $1.40 per share due to additional duties on leather footwear imported into the European Union from China and Vietnam.
The company, whose shares were down 2.5 percent, said the European Commission's provisional trade measures could reduce its earnings by 4 cents to 5 cents a share, weighted to the back half of the year.
Wolverine, whose brands include Hush Puppies, Merrell and Wolverine, stood by its forecast
OECD sees Europes economy strong
The Organisation for Economic Development (OECD), the Paris-based think tank, has raised its forecast for European economic growth for 2006.
Europes recovery seems sufficiently robust, the organisation says, to boost eurozone growth to 2.7% in 2006 - up from its May forecast of 2.2%.
Growth of that magnitude would justify higher interest rates, OECD chief economist Jean Philippe Cotis said.
More : news.bbc.co.uk
