BRIEFS: Saab reports loss

AMSTERDAM (AP):

Spyker Cars NV, owner of Saab Automobile, on Friday reported a large loss and growing debt in 2010, with chief executive Victor Muller saying a profit might only come in 2012.

In an earnings report, Spyker ignored its own branded luxury-car figures — a small business which it is selling — and said the much larger Saab lost €218 million (US$308 million) on sales of €819 million in 2010. That compares with a €400 million loss on sales of €1 billion in 2009, when it was part of General Motors Corp.

Spyker noted it sold 10,000 retail Saabs in the fourth quarter of 2010, continuing a steady upward trend within 2010, but didn't provide comparisons to 2009.

Japan crisis may prompt US layoffs

INDIANAPOLIS (AP):

Business analysts say some Indiana autoworkers could be laid off by mid-April as Japan's post-earthquake crisis creates a shortage of auto parts made by Japanese companies.

The Indianapolis Star reports that few analysts expect mass layoffs. They, instead, predict that some Indiana plants that employ about 50,000 autoworkers will use short workweeks, scattered short-term layoffs and slower line speeds to keep workers busy during the downturn.

Economist Thomas Klier of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago says he isn't sure if the impact of Japan's crisis will create a "major event" for the US auto industry. He says that's hard to say given the complexity of the global supply chain.

GM plans to bring back laid-off workers

DETROIT (AP):

The United Auto Workers (UAW) union says General Motors Co (GM) plans to recall the last 2,000 of its laid-off workers by this fall, clearing the way for new hiring at its US plants.

The Detroit News and the Detroit Free Press report that word about the jobs came Wednesday at a union meeting in Detroit that set goals for bargaining a new labour contract with automakers later this year.

The three-day event wraps up Thursday. Joe Ashton, UAW vice-president in charge of GM, says the union expects "full employment in September, for the first time in a long time."

GM spokeswoman Kimberly Carpenter tells The News that GM's remaining laid-off workers are concentrated in southeastern Michigan.