MundoMotorizado.com

El Financiero en línea

"Roma, 7 de mayo.- El ministro de Desarrollo Económico, Claudio Scajola, pidió hoy al grupo Fiat evitar cerrar fábricas, en el marco del reciente acuerdo alcanzado con la estadounidense Chrysler y de las negociaciones para entrar en el capital de la alemana Opel.

En una carta al presidente de la Fiat, Luca Cordero di Montezemolo y al consejero delegado Sergio Marchionne, Scajola resaltó la "centralidad" de las fábricas del grupo en territorio italiano.

Ello luego de que el diario alemán Handelsblatt aseguró que en el marco de la operación con la Opel, la Fiat contempla "drásticos" recortes de personal también en Italia.

Scajola confirmó que el gobierno convocará próximamente a un encuentro con la cúpula del grupo con sede en Turín y con los sindicatos "para discutir las perspectivas de la empresa en Italia".

"Con la certeza de que la excelencia de las plantas en Italia será confirmada, incluso en un contexto de globalización de la producción, buscaré programar un encuentro en el corto plazo", dijo el ministro italiano.

De acuerdo con el cotidiano alemán, tras ingresar en el capital de Opel, el grupo italiano cerrará algunas plantas en Europa, entre ellas dos en Italia.

Handelsblatt dijo que esa previsión está incluida en el "proyecto Fénix", presentado por Marchionne a Berlín.

En ese plan también se confirmaría la voluntad de Fiat de ingresar en General Motors América Latina y General Motors Sudáfrica.

El grupo italiano alcanzó un acuerdo la semana pasada con la estadunidense Chrysler, que permitirá a Fiat quedarse con un 20 por ciento del capital de la sociedad estadunidense.

Esta participación podrá ampliarse hasta el 35 por ciento, una vez que el consorcio estadunidense exporte el primer coche construido en Estados Unidos con tecnología suministrada por su nuevo socio."

Hay temor de que se dé cierre de fábricas si Fiat absorbiera Opel porque algunos estiman que se da mucho traslape de los productos en oferta. Esto ha causado un poco de resistencia en los sindicatos, principalmente los de Opel. El detalle es que TODO el grupo Fiat tiene 11 plantas de producción en Europa, empleando 39000 personas. Por otro lado, GM Europa tiene 10 fábricas, emplea casi 55000 personas y produce muchos carros menos que Fiat. O sea... dónde son más eficientes las operaciones?

Esta noticia es de anteayer pero igual esta buenilla para leer...


Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne is in Germany today outlining ambitious plans to spin Fiat Group Automobiles out of the Fiat Group and merge it with GM's Vauxhall/Opel division and its 20 percent stake in Chrysler. Marchionne will be making his case today to German government ministers as well as the key union leaders at Opel for the creation of a new carmaker that will be second only to VW Group in Europe in terms of size.

The Fiat boss will outline his ambitious strategy to create a new carmaking giant this afternoon in Berlin in front of Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the German Vice-Chancellor, and Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, the Economy Minister, while also present at the meeting will be Klaus Franz, the Co-Chairman of Opel’s supervisory board and head of its works council. Last week. Taking a stake in Opel could result in the German government offering up to 3.3 billion euros in loans. Marchionne said that Opel was an "ideal partner".

Marchionne, who has turned Fiat's fortunes around since he took charge five years ago, has long made it clear that he sees the need for a carmaker to be able to produce more than six million vehicles a year in order to achieve the required economies of scale to be profitable. Merging Fiat's auto division (which comprises of the Fiat, Fiat Professional, Lancia, Alfa Romeo and Abarth divisions) with GM's European manufacturing operations (Vauxhall, Opel and possibly Saab) plus Fiat's stake in Chrysler would create a company with around US$106 billion in annual revenues and sales of 6-7 million vehicles a year. The resulting entity would be bigger than Ford, GM or Renault/Nissan and only Toyota globally would have a bigger reach.

Marchionne believes that merging Fiat with Opel would create a new car manufacturer that would be a "perfect fit", despite widespread fears emanating from the German company's unions that it could result in massive job cuts and plant closures. “From an engineering and industrial point of view, this is a marriage made in heaven," he told Financial Times today in an interview.

Marchionne said Fiat and Opel would achieve cost saving of around 1 billion euros a year by merging their B- and C- segment platforms as well as amalgamating Fiat's A-segment platform, that underpins the Panda and 500, with Opel's similar size architecture. Fiat and Opel already share platforms and engines across B-segment (the Fiat Grande Punto and Opel/Vauxhall Corsa) as the legacy of a previous agreement. "It’s an incredibly simple solution to a very thorny problem," Marchionne told FT.

According to FT Marchionne plans that the new group, tentatively called Opel/Fiat, will be publically listed, possibly as early as later this month. He has often said that he would spin Fiat's carmaking operations out of the Fiat Group when the time was right, and this would leave a rump of companies that include CNH Global (agricultural and construction machinery), Iveco (large vans, trucks and buses), Ferrari/Maserati (niche luxury/sports cars), Magneti Marelli (electronics and components) plus other niche divisions such as Comau and Teksid.

In Germany later on today Marchionne will try to allay fears of job cuts, an issue that is sensitive with a general election due in the autumn. He is expected to guarantee no plant closures in Germany and that Italy will share in the brunt of any job cuts. GM has 10 plants in Europe while Fiat has 11 that are mostly clustered in Italy. Fiat Group Automobiles employs 39,000 staff while GM Europe has 54,500.