If one car maker folds, the others will fall

(Via MichaelSmithNews).

‘If one car maker folds, the others will fall’

Former Nissan Australia head Ivan Deveson believes that if one car manufacturer in Australia shuts down, the other two will follow.

In a stark warning for Australia’s remaining car makers, Ford, Toyota and General Motors Holden, Mr Deveson said it was “very hard” to disagree with the view of former Ford CEO Jacques Nasser that the Australian car industry was financially vulnerable and likely to collapse.

Mr Deveson, who worked in the automotive industry for 37 years in five different countries, said the industry would shut down unless it can restart exports, which have been hit hard by the rising dollar.

Analysts are concerned Ford will stop manufacturing after 2016, sending many parts suppliers broke, fears amplified by Mr Nasser, who said this week he didn’t think the industry would survive a global production glut.

“There’s no doubt with the three of them, if one was to fold up, the impact of the supplier industry would be devastating and probably cause the other two to pack their bags,” Mr Deveson said.

We need to retain a broad range of manufacturing for national security purposes, and to give our workers a range of careers to choose from. So we need to make engineering a viable career, but we can't do that if the car industry dies.

We need to take the pressure off our rising dollar by reducing the demand for Australia dollars i.e. we need to curb the mining industry, foreign ownership, foreign students, foreign investment, etc. And we need some form of protectionism to give our car manufacturers a local market too. Or something like that.

But no mainstream political party dares to step outside the demented ideology of free trade. Even conservative journalists like Andrew Bolt have nothing to say but stop subsidising a dying industry. He wants us all to work down a mine.

We were able to export cars until the mining boom drove the dollar up. The high dollar is also hurting food exports and the tourism industry.

File under: there's nothing free about free-trade when a small country (Australia) is controlled by the huge demand from a large country (China).