Holden Desperate

[Chilliman]

Hmmm.....smells like desperation to me :

News

Holden urges state and local governments to buy Australian carsBy Stuart Martin
The Advertiser
November 21, 2009 12:01am
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+ - Print Email Share Add to MySpace Add to Digg Add to del.icio.us Add to Post to Facebook Add to Kwoff What are these? CARMAKER Holden has urged local and state governments to ditch their imported vehicles and buy Australian-made instead.
The Victorian and South Australian state governments were the only ones to buy more local than imported cars this year, Holden's new chairman and managing director Alan Batey said in Adelaide yesterday.

The story was much the same in local government, The Advertiser reports.

It comes in the face of a 20 per cent drop in the domestic car market, sparked by the global economic downturn.

Mr Batey said in some government jurisdictions, the ratio was as low as 20 per cent local vehicles.
But he was not making a "blind request" to buy Australian.

"It's been a huge year for Holden on the innovation front - we are building a case to remove every possible reason not to buy an Australian car," he said.

"We're simply just asking for a fair go. I'm going to do everything I can to get ministers, mayors and public servants out of foreign cars and back into local products."

Mr Batey said buying Australian was also an issue for Holden, with the sustainability of local suppliers the company's biggest concern.

"A perfect example is tyres," he said. "With Bridgestone closing its Salisbury facility by next April, we will be unable to put Australian tyres on our cars."

The Holden boss has pledged to continue to support local companies and source as many local components as possible for the new Cruze small car, to be built in Adelaide next year.

Mr Batey called the decision to build the Cruze in Adelaide "perhaps Holden's most innovative decision".

"It is a bold plan to return to small-car production but we need to do it, we need to do it now. We know it is the right decision," he said.

Meanwhile, the federal and state governments yesterday announced an $11.7 million funding injection for SA's manufacturing sector.

The money, from the $40 million South Australian Innovation and Investment Fund established in response to the closure of Mitsubishi's Tonsley Park assembly plant in March last year, will be used to generate $78.3 million in private manufacturing and create up to 476 new jobs.

Grants range from $250,000 to $2.5 million and were made to assist the establishment and expansion of manufacturing capabilities. Eleven manufacturers will receive funding for projects, including:

DEVELOPMENT of an integrated research and development engineering, test and manufacturing facility for a new range of drill rigs (Boart Longyear, Lonsdale, 67 jobs)

BUILDING a facility to manufacture environmentally friendly building blocks (Benex Technologies, Lonsdale, 70 jobs)

BUILDING a mass production facility to manufacture Modpod demountable and flat-pack accommodation, storage and service solutions (Modra Hayes, Warooka, 80 jobs).

Federal Innovation Minister Senator Kim Carr and Treasurer Kevin Foley said the first $14.4 million of funding, announced in February, was generating a total investment of $63 million and creating about 430 new jobs.

Senator Carr said the competition for support from the fund had been fierce.