Well done Nissan

Although sad for the factories in Barcelona and Indonesia, great news for Britain and the North East as Nissan centres its European production in Sunderland

 

Sunderland needs something to raise their spirits, they cant rely on their football team!!

 

Wanting to raise their share of the British market from 4% to 20 % apparently.

 

It’s great news it’s staying open, let’s hope it thrives, I’d be a little wary going forwards But good news for now.

“However, the carmaker said it would seek to “improve efficiency” at the factory in the north-east of England as it revealed a plan to reduce annual spending by ¥300bn (£2.3bn) worldwide”

 

What's also interesting is that production of some of the Renault models will be moved to Sunderland.

 

Fantastic news for the area,,,,, and it only cost the taxpayer £80 million in subsidies apparently

 

Nissan have invested over 2 billion in Sunderland, it would be a big hit to take. Saw the workers outside the plant in Barcelona on the news last night and my heart gos out the them, the Spanish economy has been struggling for years and this closure will not just affect the plant but will ripple throughout the supply chain and local economy just like shutting the pits did here.

 

I'd expect even more closures across the whole car industry . Germany will be hit especially hard . People may have a little spare cash now but that's not going to last . Europe's economy could go into a real death spiral over the coming years with Greece being the forerunner of things to come .

 

Bad news for the Spanish workers although there is little comparison with shutting pits in areas where mining was, in many instances, the single source of income for many families and in turn the local economy and community with a factory in Barcelona the capital and largest city in Catalona.
That said, given Covid and the general state of the Spanish economy, it may well be the case that the skilled workers made redundant will find themselves in the same situation as the miners did in finding equivalent remuneration in replacement jobs utilising their existing skill-set.
The sad fact, as has always been the case, is that multinationals simply chase the money when it comes to moving their manufacturing around the globe and think nothing of making thousands of workers redundant at a stroke. Governments offering subsidies to entice businesses to relocate does not help the situation. In this case, the good fortune that Nissan invested heavily in making Sunderland plant and its workers highly productive and efficient worked in the UKs favour. Swings and roundabouts.
One thing would help... IF and it is a big IF, people, where possible, were to buy cars (as well as other goods) manufactured in UK, our trade deficit would reduce. THAT however depends on whether we can make stuff people want to buy and is better, or at least as good and comparatively priced as imports. That is a tall order given Thatcher decimated our industrial base. Nevertheless, given the huge fall indemand for cars (just one example) given the Pandemic and the effect it has had on demand, it is entirely possible a large proportion of the demand for new cars domestically could be met by UK based manufacturers

Going back a few decades, the main reason BL and Austin Rover failed was the cars... Allegros etc were poorly made, unreliable, poorly' spec'd' and expensive compared to Japanese stuff. My late brother in law (a motor engineer) recounted a tale of a new Mk1 Allegro being jacked up where the trolley jack was not properly positioned at the marked jacking point on the sill. Apparently the sub frame bent and the windscreen broke/fell out. Sounds a bit of a mythical tale but the fact it was even faintly credible to many shows what a poor reputation many UK cars had. I had a brand new Metro delivered to my home one evening ( for driving school) and woke up in the morning to find the entire contents of the sump had drained onto the road due to a cross threaded sump bolt. OK so it was the fault of the dealer rather than the manufacturer but the lack of care ran through the whole supply chain. After the demise of the UK car industry the prices of Japanese and other foreign imports rose over the past few decades rose considerably so they are no longer cheap.

 

The car industry will survive if it learns from its mistakes and adapts accordingly.
Interestingly the local Mercedes garage are saying they took slightly more orders during the lockdown by working from home as they would have expected being based in the showroom.

 

Interesting that once again the headline doesn’t match the reality.

 

According to James O'Brien of LBC one of the big knobs of Nissan, as stated today that if we leave the EU with a no-deal Brexit Nissan will have no option but to close its factory as tariffs will be too high to compete in a global market.

 

Ya that's that big nob's name Ashwarni Gupta mek no wonder I could not remember it

 

Sorry Farnham.... the Express reported it 12 hours ago.
11 hrs for the Mail.

 

Means Europe have the upper hand. more than ever re negotiations.
“Go Boris Go Boris”
JUST GO BORIS. Tek thi mate DC wi thi.

 

tarrifs set by who?

i'm askin because i cant see the EU setting tarrifs too high on uk produced cars because the uk would simply retaliate by setting high tarrifs on eu manufactured vehicles (german cars,german trucks, german motorcycles.austrian motorcyles,french cars,italian cars and motorcycles etc), the balance of trade is heavily in the eu's favour, which is something the manufacturers will not want to see compromised

still,only time will tell