BMW has high hopes for US

Germany's BMW, the world's biggest premium carmaker, said it saw no sign of a slowdown in the United States and aimed to sell at least as many cars in 2008 here as in 2007.

"And that is a minimum," chief executive Norbert Reithofer told journalists on the sidelines of the North American International Auto Show.

He said the group would also reduce its job numbers by several thousands "in coming years" but there would be no layoffs.

Reithofer said BMW had hired a net 7,000 staff in the past year and aimed to reduce its recourse to temporary workers. There would also be early retirement plans and voluntary redundancy packages. He declined to comment on a German newspaper report that it would concern 8,000 people but he said the final number would depend on the take up of the programs. It employs some 108,000 full time staff.

He added the group would hire more staff in the United States to boost capacity at its Spartanburg, South Carolina, plant to 240,000 cars in 2010 from its current capacity of 140,000. Spartanburg made 170,000 cars in 2007, boosted by some special measures and temporary staff. Reithofer said the group was "open to cooperation" with other companies on ventures.

BMW and Daimler have been in discussions to probe possible cooperation for small vehicles, mainly focused on engines.

Reithofer said there were talks with other carmakers too. When asked specifically whether there were talks with Audi, Ford or Fiat he said: "Not with Audi."

BMW already develops petrol engines with PSA Peugeot Citroen of France.

Reithofer confirmed that BMW expects to post a pre-tax group profit of at least 3.7 billion euros in 2007.

He said he expected the negative impact of foreign exchange fluctuations in 2007 to be less than the 660 million euros in 2006 while the impact of higher raw material prices was seen equal to 2006 when it was 168 million euros.

Agencies

(China Daily 01/15/2008 page16)