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Peugeot-Citroen Europe's largest car maker after VW is seeingdeclining profitability as sales increases it expected in 2002 did not happen and its running plants well below capacity. Now the company is planning to increase sales by going into developing country markets- Russia, China, India, so on and will design and build small cars for these markets. It sell about 1.7 million cars outside Europe about half its sales of 3.37 million vehicles. Its hoping to add another 400,000 in vehicle sales by 2010. Its also planning to shorten the life of its models to 3 years i 2010 from 4 1/2 in 2006, and introduce 29 new models in the next 3 years to 2010, hoping to generate 300,000 additional car sales by 2010. About 53 ne models or variants of existing model are to be launched in the next 3 years worldwide to 2010. This plus cost reductions in purchasing, logistics, fixed and development costs, capacity utilization improvements, and headcount are planned to improve operating margins to 5.5% from 2.7% in first half 2007. In the emissions area Peugeot-Citroen wants to be a world leader in environmentally friendly vehicles. It will reduce CO2 emissions by having stop-start systems on all cars, and launch vehicles with hybrid diesel engines. ...

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European countries are focussing on the environmental damage and emissions of biofuels generation, and will not subsidize biofuels that cannot show sustainability or prove that they are produced without causing some environmental damage. Germany has canceled tax exemptions for biodiesel at the pump and is mandating that only biodiels produced meeting sustainability criteria will count towards the national quota.The annual target of biofuels making 5.75% of transportation fuel in Germany. The European Union will require restrictions on imports of biofuels that are produced in an environmentally harmful manner. Europe rushed into the push to produce biofuels without thinking of these issues. In 2007 Europe paid farmers 45 euros per hectare or $27 per acre for any biofuel produced. Note that corn ethanol made in the USA does not meet this standard as its carbon dioxide reduction is 10-20% from the level of gasoli, neaccording to one German NGO. Quebec has discontinued the building of cornbased ethanol plants. The feeling is growing that corn is a less efficient source of biofuels because it requires a lot of processing and the environmental net benefits are small. It is also seen that the rush to corn ethanol in US may be overdone and pushed by politicians trying to help farmers more than the environment....

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India's airlines together will lose $1 billion to $2 billion in 2008, twice what they lost in 2007, according to aviation analysts. The airlines face a glut of domestic overcapacity. Until recently therre were 50 flights between Bombay and Delhi with 4 seats chasing each passenger according to Keskar, Boeing vice president in charge of sales in India. Boeing and Airbus are advising airlines in India to delay deliveries of planes so that the overcapacity does no lasting damage and the industry can recover from this as they see India as a boom market in the future. Boeing expects India will need 1001 aircraft till 2027. Reasons for the airline losses are that in the 12 months ending April 2008 passenger traffic increased by only 7%, and in the 12 months before that by 31%, and in the 12 months prior by 59%. Air India is cutting its domestic flights by 15% returning 14 leased jets to their owners as the leases expire and freezing the size of its fleet. Worldwide the airline industry could lose $6.1 billion in 2008 with a third of the losses in the USA. Passenger volumes fell in China for the second straight month in June but China's airlines appear stable because of milder competition and government support....

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GM and Ford are burning cash at a rapid rate. And the Energy Department says it is unlikely that any of the $25 billion in loans already approved for fuel eficiency retooling of plants will be disbursed by the end of 2008. GM used up $6.9 billion in cash in the third quarter of 2008 leaving cash reserves at $16.2 billion. It needs $11-$14 billion to fund ongoing operations. Ford burned through $7.7 billion in cash in the third quarter of 2008, leaving it with $18.9 billion. Both companies cannot fund salaries and ongoing operations if the market continues to collapse the way it did in the third quarter 2008 with losses of 30-45% in sales. Government support is the only way to fund operations but instead of the $50 billion initially talked about for lifesupport by the government the numbers will run into much more and even then there is no limit to what may be needed. Chrysler is in much worse shape, because it depends on the US market entirely for sales, and is the weakest of the three Detroit carmakers. It is privately owned so figures are hidden, one can guess that big numbers are involved for Chrysler being rescued or merged or taken over by the government....

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The GM management does not get it , the GM spokesman does not get it, the workers don't get it, says Andrew Sorkin from what he hears them say. GM faces many problems, too many dealerships, too many models and brands, and union benefits and retiree benefits from another world of post 50's economic expansion, that can only be solved by a government sponsored bankruptcy or GSB. GSB is a necessary part of the solution as chapter 11 makes solutions possible without dealerships suing as state laws protect dealerships, unions striking and management insisting on the status quo. In all he sees the 35 plants of GM and Chrysler cut in half, only the Chevrolet , Cadillac and Buick and Jeep brands retained and Dodge Ram pickups merged with Chevrolet, in a GM-Chrysler merger. He cites Deutsche Bank's estimates that reducing the brands to the 3 mentioned for GM would reduce costs by $5 billion annually and reducing the dealerships by another $4 billion. Buick would be retained because its a huge seller in China. The government would setup a warranty insurance fund to insure the warranties of all GM and Chrysler vehicles bought while they are in Chapter 11. And some of the rescue money would go into retraining and helping promote new industry....

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India places a $3 billion order for 1200 electric locomotives and railway modernization with Siemens. It includes a 35 year contract for maintenance. The equivalent of 800,000 trucks can be replaced by these locomotives over the lifetime. Siemens CEO Roland Busch says "This will help India create the world's largest green rail network, as our locomotives will save the equivalent of 800 million tons of CO2 emissions over their lifecycles."

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Chancellor Scholz of Germany holds talks with PM Narendra Modi on growing ties between Germany and India in trade, clean energy and new technologies. Scholz is on a two day trip to New Delhi and Bengaluru. The trip takes place in the backdrop of G-20 talks in India.

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Chancellor Scholz's visit to India with the heads of 12 large German companies and heads of medium size company business associations will lead to increasing economic cooperation between Germany and India. Bilateral trade is about 25 billion dollars. German companies such as Siemens are suppliers of rail locomotives for modernization of India's rail network. Topics for talks include the geopolitical situation in Europe with the Russian invasion of Ukraine, cooperation on climate change, utilization of German technologies, and increasing investment by German companies in India's economy.

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As India takes on the presidency of the G20 in December the first steps are being taken by the German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock to build closer ties with India. The Hindu gives this intervew with Baerbock that shows Germany's keen interest in building the India Germany partnership. This sets the stage for the bi-annual India Germany summit meeting, with German chancellor Scholz to visit India in early 2023. Some of Baerbock's comments show energy and enthusiasm for India to work closely with Europe. "Our countries have so much to offer one another. We want to tap that enormous potential. One such example is the concrete agreement we will sign during my visit, making it a lot easier for both Indians and Germans to study, research and work in our respective countries." "Today's era is not the era of war, that was Mr Modi's message to Putin- that was the resounding message and I highly appreciate India's seminal role in achieving this." ...

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S7 is one of the largest private airlines in Russia and its purchases of Dreamliners and other Boeing planes show that it is planning for a large expansion in the Russian airlines passenger market as Russia continues its rapid growth, alongside China and India.

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India's chief of Defense Staff Chauhan talks to Admiral Paparo, Chief of US Indo-Pacific Command in Singapore Dialogue meeting in 2025.  He says China in northern borders no unusual activity had taken place. He also says after the loss of an aircraft, India was able to use different models of planes to tackle air bases in the opposite side in the Punjab region. At no time was there any thinking about nuclear options in this brief air war. “I think there’s a lot of space before that nuclear threshold is crossed, a lot of signalling before that, I think nothing like that happened. There’s a lot of space for conventional operations which has been created, and this will be the new norm.” “It’s my personal view that the most rational people are people in uniform when conflict takes place. During this operation, I found both sides displaying a lot of rationality in their thoughts as well as actions. So why should we assume that in the nuclear domain there will be irrationality on someone else’s part?” On China's involvement -“While this was unfolding from (April) 22nd onwards, we didn’t find any unusual activity in the operational or tactical depth of our northern borders, and things were generally all right.” ...

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The smaller containment design of the Mark 1 Nuclear Reactor used at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in Japan makes it more prone to explosion and rupture from a buildup of hydrogen, according to some experts in the U.S. Nuclear Safety Program at the Union for Concerned Scientists. This design is smaller and cheaper to build but is less robust than other designs. In the U.S. there are 23 Mark 1 reactors at 16 locations, including the Oyster Creek plant in New Jersey, Dresden plant near Chicago, and Monticello plant near Minneapolis. Worldwide there are 32 such reactors in operation. The design was first developed in the 1960's by General Electric. Since then various modifications have been developed including venting systems to help reduce pressure in overheating situations.

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On BBC: See key moments video of US Liberation Day, Rose Garden April 2, 2025. DJT describes decades of inaction by previous American presidents as the US and American workers, and factory towns were looted and pillaged of their factories by other nations. At one point he said the US lost 90,000 factories and it would be impossible to put 90,000 tacks on a map to show these lost factories from cheating by other trading nations including Japan, China, Taiwan, South Korea. And use of third nations Mexico and Vietnam by China, and Mexico by Germany to ship into the US. All this stops on April 2, 2025. In this way the US which made 100% od the worlds computer chips lost an entire industry to Taiwan. It also lost its electronics industries. And its pharmaceutical industry, so that antibiotics if not imported would not be available to the people of the United States. It becomes a antional security issue when the shipbuilding industry is also gone where one shipbuilding plant in china makes more ships than all the plants in the USA. And nothing was done about this till today. DJT said there is a simple way to avoid these tariffs- make in the USA and there are no tariffs. Already Apple he says has committed to invest $500 billion in the US and Taiwan to build the largest semiconductor plant in the world in the USA. And total investments in the US now add up to $10 trillion, says DJT. ...

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This Canadian opinion in the WSJ by Philip Cross of Statistics Canada, says Canada's opportunity to diversify its exports to places other than the US, especially for auto exports is essentially nil, and for oil exports because of a lack of pipelines will lead to losses of tens of billions of dollars.  He then goes on to say that Canada should wait for American buyers to suffer as car prices increase by $12,000. No such increase is likely. As pointed out by the UAW's Fain Shawn and others capacity utilization at US auto plants is low with only 60 to 65% capacity utlilization. Ford with 60% capacity utilization, has 568,000 cars in inventory 8% higher than 2024, and make 80% of its cars entirely in the US. Ford is actually cutting prices of its cars as of April 2025 under it's "From America For America Program." Ford and GM could replace German and other cars as Americans shift to buying American. Hyundai and Kia are already shifting production to the US. South Korean and Japanese leaders will support the US as it is the right thing to do. This Canadian opinion does not acknowledge that the US is simply creating a level playing field, a point USTR Jamieson and DJT repeatedly make, and the Japanese, South Koreans, and even the Chinese understand. These countries were given the benefit they received for three decades through the absolute generous attitude of the American people.   ...