Automobiles
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Imported automobiles are parked in a lot at the port of Newark New Jersey, U.S., February 19, 2019. REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz
April 9, 2019
(Reuters) – Ratings firm Moody’s said on Tuesday that potential auto tariffs by the United States would be a risk to global growth, hindering economic momentum in Germany, Japan and Korea.
However, such a move would be less severe for China as Chinese vehicle exports were already subject to trade restrictions, Moody’s said in a report, adding that it would also be broadly credit negative for the global auto industry.
“Auto trade restrictions would cause a broader hit to business and consumer confidence globally in an already slowing global economy,” Moody’s Associate Managing Director Elena Duggar wrote.
(Reporting by Philip George in Bengaluru)
Source: OANN
FILE PHOTO: A Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) sign is seen at the U.S. headquarters in Auburn Hills, Michigan, U.S., May 25, 2018. REUTERS/Rebecca Cook/File Photo
April 8, 2019
By David Shepardson
(Reuters) – Italian-American automaker Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV has agreed to pay $110 million to settle a lawsuit alleging it misled U.S. investors over excess diesel emissions and failed to comply with federal safety regulations, court records show.
The company said in a statement on Monday it “continues to vigorously deny the allegations of wrongdoing made in this lawsuit” and said the settlement is “completely covered by the company’s insurance.”
Investors sued in 2015, charging that the company misled them by asserting that Fiat Chrysler was in compliance with vehicle safety regulations and that the company under-reported its reserves for the cost of recalls.
In 2015, Fiat Chrysler settled allegations with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration that it failed to properly complete 23 recalls affecting more than 11 million vehicles. It paid a $105 million U.S. penalty, conducted additional recalls and agreed to buy back hundreds of thousands of vehicles.
The securities suit also raised claims Fiat Chrysler misled investors over the Justice Department’s allegations it used defeat devices to allow diesel-powered vehicles to emit excess emissions.
In January, Fiat Chrysler agreed to an $800 million settlement to resolve claims by the U.S. Justice Department and the state of California that it used illegal software to produce false results on diesel-emissions tests.
The lawsuit covers investors who bought Fiat Chrysler stock on a U.S. exchange between Oct. 13, 2014 and May 23, 2017. Lawyers for the investors estimated in a court filing that the settlement is equal to 13.8 percent of maximum damages, calling it “an objectively excellent result when compared to historical statistics in class action settlements.”
The settlement must be approved by a federal judge in New York.
(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Dan Grebler)
Source: OANN
The German share price index DAX graph is pictured at the stock exchange in Frankfurt, Germany, April 5, 2019. REUTERS/Staff
April 8, 2019
(Reuters) – European stocks opened broadly lower on Monday following a week of strong gains, as dismal German trade data hurt auto makers and software company SAP dragged the tech sector lower after it announced another departure in its top management.
The pan-region STOXX 600 index was down 0.13 percent at 0723 GMT, having touched eight-month highs last week.
Germany’s trade sensitive DAX index fell 0.3 percent, breaking a seven day winning streak – its longest since October 2017.
Earlier on Monday data showed that German exports and imports fell more than expected in February, the latest sign that Europe’s biggest economy will likely post meager growth in the first quarter.
Auto stocks underperformed after a near 7 percent surge last week.
BMW, Daimler declined, with both facing possibly hefty fines after EU antitrust regulators charged them with colluding to block the rollout of clean emissions technology.
Continental AG fell 1.7 percent as Kepler Cheuvreux downgraded the auto parts maker to “hold” from “buy”.
By contrast Italian-U.S. carmaker Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV (FCA) rose after it agreed to pay electric carmaker Tesla Inc hundreds of millions of euros to allow Tesla vehicles to be counted in its fleet to avoid fines for violating new EU emission rules.
Software company SAP weighed the most on the STOXX 600 index, down 1.5 percent as Europe’s most valuable technology company said the head of its cloud business group had quit, the latest in a string of top departures.
Irish stocks, a barometer of Brexit sentiment, ended a six-day winning run.
Britain’s government held out the possibility of compromise with the opposition Labour Party on Sunday to try to win support in parliament for leaving the European Union with a deal. UK Prime Minister Theresa May heads to Brussels this week to ask for a further delay until June 30.
Banco BPM dropped 1.3 percent as Italy’s third biggest lender said it could be interested in tie-ups with banks close to its home turf in the north of the country, comments that appeared to play down a possible deal with Monte dei Paschi di Siena.
Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank dropped 0.4 percent and 1.5 percent respectively. European bank supervisors demanded a detailed roadmap outlining the pace and scale of staff cuts in the two lenders as they explore a merger, according to German daily Handelsblatt’s report.
The two German lenders favor a straightforward merger over more complex ways to structure a deal, Reuters reported on Friday.
(Reporting by Susan Mathew and Medha Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky)
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FILE PHOTO: 2019 Jeep Wranglers move to the Final 1 assembly line at the Chrysler Jeep Assembly plant in Toledo, Ohio, U.S., November 16, 2018. REUTERS/Rebecca Cook/File Photo
April 8, 2019
By Nick Carey and Ben Klayman
TOLEDO, Ohio (Reuters) – Lots of workplaces have a hot seat. At the Jeep assembly plant in Toledo, Ohio, there is a “sweet seat.”
In the production line where Jeep Wrangler sport utility vehicles are made at the rate of about one a minute, a panel must be screwed into the bottom of the vehicle. It used to be back-breaking work for two union members to carry the panel and screw it on as the vehicle moved down the line.
Occasionally, they would miss screws.
Now two workers sit comfortably on adjacent chairs that follow the vehicle. Lasers point out where the screws go, reducing errors.
What is remarkable about the so-called “sweet seat” at Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV’s Toledo plant is that like many other innovations here, it originated with United Auto Workers union members on the factory floor.
Production workers here create proposals to simplify tasks that are “too heavy or too hard,” said millwright Greg Harman, who is on a team of 10 UAW workers that implements those ideas. A handful of automakers have adopted aspects of a similar system, pioneered by Japan’s Toyota Motor Corp.
The uncommon level of union collaboration with Fiat Chrysler (FCA) management in Toledo offers a road map for union negotiations this summer with Detroit’s Big 3: FCA, General Motors Co and Ford Motor Co.
According to officials at the automakers, their key focus in this year’s contract talks will be on productivity and profitability in the face of an anticipated downturn in vehicle sales and non-unionized competition from the likes of Toyota, Nissan Motor Co Ltd and Volkswagen AG.
That clashes with union demands to maintain healthcare benefits and boost job security, and comes on the heels of GM’s warning that it could shutter a car factory in Lordstown, Ohio, along with three other UAW-represented plants. GM’S move drew harsh criticism from President Donald Trump, and prompted the UAW’s new president to bulk up the strike fund – serving notice the union is not afraid of a fight over jobs.
At a time when national UAW membership fell 8 percent in 2018 after rising for nine consecutive years, and has failed to organize a single U.S. assembly plant owned by a European or Asian automaker, FCA’s Toledo plant has more than tripled its workforce to 5,700 workers since 2009. For a graphic, click https://tmsnrt.rs/2I4S0wa
The biggest reason: Americans’ love with the Wrangler and other high-margin SUVs.
The Wrangler became so hot that FCA started running the plant virtually round the clock. So UAW Local 12, which represents workers at the Toledo plant, pushed for a flexible system under which workers could choose to work between four and seven days per week – a first for any FCA plant.
Temporary workers fill in the gaps, and Local 12 sought more protections for those workers, including providing a clear path to full-time employment status.
“Our members went way, way, way beyond the call of duty to provide what the company’s needs were,” said Mark Epley, the plant’s union chairman. “It’s a competitive market out there and we know that any plant can be taken away at any time.”
Thanks largely to its success at FCA, UAW Local 12 has hit a 40-year high in membership through organizing workers at many other companies in the area, including a Dana Inc plant where workers make Wrangler axles.
SANTA ON THE ASSEMBLY LINE
Success at Toledo took years to build. A decade ago, when the former Chrysler Corp was going through its government-funded bankruptcy, Toledo had a reputation as the automaker’s worst-run plant.
As Italian automaker Fiat S.p.A took control of the Chrysler, then-Chief Executive Sergio Marchionne turned to Fiat executive Mauro Pino with a challenge: which legacy U.S. Chrysler plant should they use as a proving ground for what Fiat called “World Class Manufacturing,” a version of Toyota’s lean production strategy but adapted to the Italian automaker’s culture?
Pino chose Toledo with the idea of turning the worst performing plant into the best. He had two years to prove he could turn the plant around, he told Reuters in an interview outside Cleveland, where he now runs an Eaton Corp aircraft parts plant.
Pino found a workforce of around 1,700 people, demoralized by Chrysler’s bankruptcy. The plant produced just over 140,000 vehicles in 2009.
He began working to win the workers’ trust. He dressed as Santa Claus before Christmas 2010 and handed out candy canes to workers on the line, greeting each by name, workers at the plant recall.
Pino also pushed for more productivity but did so by asking workers how they would redesign their own cumbersome jobs.
“Usually you need to convince people to change, but when they saw what we were doing they started coming to us,” he said.
“The new system gave everyone a voice,” said Cheryl Reash, a 36-year worker at the plant.
Tracy Seymour, also at the plant nearly 36 years, said the team of 10 millwrights – a team started by Pino – came up with a system for parts kits that eliminated the need for vast amounts of inventory on the line. That made it possible for workers to build 10 different engine types without having to bend over, lift heavy objects or walk off the line in search of parts.
“I wouldn’t run without their equipment,” Seymour said. “It would be impossible.”
RUNNING HOT
Over time, workers and managers at Toledo worked to unplug bottlenecks up and down the assembly line.
“Why we succeed and exceed is that union and management came together,” Seymour said.
Soaring customer demand for sport utility vehicles also helped the Toledo plant. As workers cranked out around 500,000 Wrangler and Jeep Cherokee SUVs annually from 2014 to 2016, the plant’s two production lines began running at well over 100 percent capacity, according to data from AutoForecast Solutions. This level of capacity utilization is rare in the industry.
Still, Fiat Chrysler could not keep up with demand in both the United States and in the 105 countries where the Toledo-made Wrangler is sold.
To ease the crunch, the company proposed moving the Cherokee to another factory so Toledo could make more Wranglers. In return, Local 12 was promised another new product. Baumhower said the local accepted the move based on that promise.
The plant is now ramping up production of the Gladiator pickup truck, which shares many parts with the Wrangler and is getting glowing reviews in the automotive media.
But while FCA’s Toledo success shows what can happen when a Detroit automaker and its union work together, it also shows how a strong local can also punch back. In February 2018, for instance, Local 12 publicly protested an FCA plan to replace 88 UAW-represented truck drivers with contractors, forcing the company to back down.
“We’re good at getting along if you want to get along,” said Bruce Baumhower, who has been president of Local 12 for 26 years. “And we can fight all day if you want to pick a fight.”
(Reporting By Nick Carey and Ben Klayman; Editing by Joseph White and Edward Tobin)
Source: OANN
FILE PHOTO: A worker monitors a process inside the plant at the copper refinery of Codelco Ventanas in Ventanas city, Chile January 7, 2015. REUTERS/Rodrigo Garrido/File Photo
April 7, 2019
By Zandi Shabalala and Ernest Scheyder
SANTIAGO (Reuters) – Global copper producers are converging in Chile this week as tightening supply buoys prices, even as the industry grapples with declining ore quality, project delays and worries the U.S-China trade war may hit long-term demand.
Despite these challenges, the industry is planning for substantial growth in the next decade thanks to an expected boom in production of electric vehicles, which use twice as much copper as internal combustion engines. Automakers are vowing to produce all-electric fleets.
With all that in mind, hundreds of investors, executives, analysts and regulators are gathering in Santiago, the Chilean capital, for the annual World Copper Conference.
“From a numbers perspective we have a deficit in copper, and it’s expected to be a tighter market in 2019 relative to last year,” said Eleni Joannides, a copper market analyst at consultancy Wood Mackenzie.
(For a graphic on ‘LME cash copper price’ click https://tmsnrt.rs/2Vr2Qzw)
Relatively upbeat commodity prices since January have lifted producers such as Freeport-McMoRan Inc, Antofagasta Plc, BHP and Anglo American Plc out of the doldrums and presented them with a new problem: the hunt for high-quality assets at a time of geo-political uncertainty.
LME cash copper is expected to average $6,397 a tonne this year, a Reuters poll of 30 analysts shows, slightly lower than $6,437 on Friday.
“I think we’re heading into a bull market for copper,” said Jefferies mining analyst Christopher LaFemina.
A lack of new supply and steady demand this year for the metal, widely used in power and construction, should keep the 25-million-tonne market in a slight deficit and support prices, analysts said.
The industry is moving to bring new supply online, but it will take time. Freeport, the world’s largest publicly traded copper producer, cut its 2019 output forecast at Indonesia’s Grasberg mines by more than half as it transitions to underground operations, a costly process that will take years.
But Freeport, BHP, Nevada Copper Corp and other miners are spending more than $1.1 billion to develop fresh copper projects in the United States, a country once seen as a laggard in the global mining industry.
Panama, not historically associated with a large mining industry, is also seeing investment dollars. First Quantum Minerals Ltd plans to spend $327 million to expand a copper mine, with the goal of increasing production by 375,000 tonnes annually within five years.
(For a graphic on ‘Exchange stocks for copper’ click https://tmsnrt.rs/2VmZbmd)
Tightening supply this year was Freeport, due in part to the Grasberg mine plan, while miner Glencore halved its 2019 output from its Mutanda copper and cobalt mine in Democratic Republic of Congo to 100,000 tonnes.
Meanwhile, global visible inventory in the form of combined stocks held by the London Metal Exchange, Comex and the Shanghai Futures Exchange have nearly halved from a year ago to around 500,000 tonnes, data from the exchanges show.
(For a graphic on ‘Mining companies vs. Copper price’ click https://tmsnrt.rs/2Vs3xJ8)
Analysts said this has helped boost sentiment in copper and some other metals, which had been held down by the U.S-China trade dispute and hiccups in economic growth of top consumer China where stimulus has been promised.
Copper is one of the metals that will benefit the most from an expected boom in the use of electrical vehicles, but significant demand for the low-emission automobiles is expected to only ramp up in the middle of 2020’s.
Roskill expects sales of electric vehicles powered by rechargeable lithium-ion batteries to rise to 17 million units, or 20 percent of the total, in 2025, and 32 million, or 37 percent, by 2030 compared with 3 percent, or 2.1 million, last year.
Still, some copper executives are concerned that aluminum may try to supplant copper’s role in electronic equipment in the near future. Aluminum is a cheaper alternative to conduct electricity, although less efficient.
A large portion of the weeklong conference is devoted to research presentations from industry scientists studying new applications for the red metal, part of a plan to go on the offense against aluminum.
(For a graphic on ‘Copper market deficit’ click https://tmsnrt.rs/2VoIGq5)
(Reporting by Zandi Shabalala and Ernest Scheyder; Editing by Veronica Brown, Leslie Adler and David Gregorio)
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FILE PHOTO: Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) headquarters are seen in Turin, Italy, July 21, 2018. REUTERS/Massimo Pinca
April 7, 2019
(Reuters) – Italian carmaker Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV has agreed to pay electric carmaker Tesla Inc hundreds of millions of euros so that the vehicles of Tesla are counted in its fleet to avoid fines for violating new European Union emission rules, the Financial Times reported on Sunday.
The step will let the Italian carmaker offset carbon dioxide emissions from its cars against Tesla’s, by bringing down its average figure to a permissible level, the FT said.
The report did not mention further financial details of the specific amount that Fiat Chrysler has agreed to pay Tesla.
The Italian carmaker formed an open pool with Tesla on Feb. 25, the report added, citing a declaration with the European Commission.
Tesla and Fiat Chrysler did not immediately respond to a request by Reuters for comment on Sunday.
(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Jacqueline Wong)
Source: OANN
President Donald Trump took a step back on Tuesday from his threat to close the U.S. southern border to fight illegal immigration, as pressure mounted from companies worried that a shutdown would cause chaos to supply chains.
Trump threatened on Friday to close the border this week unless Mexico acted. He repeated that threat on Tuesday but said he had not made a decision yet: “We’re going to see what happens over the next few days.”
Closing the border could disrupt millions of legal crossings and billions of dollars in trade. Auto companies have been warning the White House privately that it would lead to the idling of U.S. plants within days because they rely on prompt deliveries of components made in Mexico.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the largest U.S. business lobbying group, has been in contact with the White House to discuss the “very negative economic consequences that would occur across the country,” said Neil Bradley, the group’s top lobbyist, on a call with reporters.
Trump praised efforts by Mexico to hinder illegal immigration from Central America at its own southern border. On Monday, the Mexican government said it would help regulate the flow of migrants.
“I really wanted to close it,” Trump said on Tuesday night at a fundraiser for congressional Republicans.
The Mexican government has not published apprehension statistics, but a senior White House official said it had provided daily updates to the Trump administration, including specific apprehension numbers.
“They say they’re going to stop them. Let’s see. They have the power to stop them, they have the laws to stop them,” Trump said earlier on Tuesday.
PUSH BACK
Trump has made fighting illegal immigration from Mexico and Central America a key part of his agenda, but shutting down one of the world’s most used borders might be a step too far, even for many of his fellow Republicans.
Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell joined Democrats in warning Trump against such a move.
“Closing down the border would have potentially catastrophic economic impact on our country and I would hope we would not be doing that sort of thing,” McConnell told reporters on Tuesday.
A group representing General Motors Co, Ford Motor Co and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV said in a statement that “any action that stops commerce at the border would be harmful to the U.S. economy, and in particular, the auto industry.”
Dozens of U.S. vehicle, engine, transmission and other auto parts plants could close because of a lack of components in the days after a border shutdown. It would also prevent thousands of vehicles built in Mexico from landing in U.S. dealer showrooms.
Automakers exported nearly 2.6 million Mexican-made vehicles to the United States in 2018, accounting for 15 percent of all vehicles sold in the country. Some, like the Chevrolet Blazer SUV, are only made in Mexico.
Retailers are also raising alarm bells, according to officials with two groups that represent hundreds of U.S. retail firms.
“It will be unprecedented self-inflicted pain,” said David French, senior vice president of government relations at the National Retail Federation. “We are still nervous about this and we have been talking to some of our companies about maybe ramping up direct pressure on the White House by getting CEOs to call.”
SLOWER BORDER
Senior U.S. Department of Homeland Security officials said on Tuesday a recent redeployment of some 750 officers on the border to deal with a surge in migrants – mostly Central American families turning themselves in to border agents – had already led to a slowing of legal crossings and commerce at ports of entry.
“Wait times in Brownsville (Texas) were around 180 minutes, which were two times the peaks of last year,” said a senior DHS official on a call with reporters. “We ended the day yesterday at Otay Mesa (California) with a backup of 150 trucks that hadn’t been processed,” the official said.
Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said on Tuesday that backups were delaying commercial traffic at the U.S.-Mexico border at several crossings. He said the government had not drastically changed its migration strategy following the shutdown threats.
DHS officials said border facilities had been overwhelmed by families seeking asylum, fleeing poverty and violence in Central America.
DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said Manuel Padilla, a 30-year veteran of the U.S. Border Patrol, would now serve as the agency’s coordinator on the border response.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection estimated that some 100,000 migrants were apprehended or encountered at the border in March, the highest level in a decade. “The system is on fire,” a DHS official said.
Because of limits on how long children are legally allowed to be held in detention, many of the families are released to await U.S. immigration court hearings, a process that can take years because of ballooning backlogs.
To try to address the problem, the Trump administration in January started sending some migrants to wait out their U.S. court dates in Mexican border cities. On Monday, DHS said it would dramatically ramp up that program, despite court challenges.
The biggest priority for Nielsen is to seek action from Congress to change the immigration laws, said a DHS official. She sent a letter to Congress last week repeating many of the Trump administration’s demands, including a request to quickly deport Central American minors that cross the border alone.
Under current law, minors who are not from the contiguous countries of Canada and Mexico are placed in the care of sponsors in the United States, which Nielsen called a “dangerous ‘pull’ factor” for migrants. Migrant advocates and some Democrats in Congress oppose the proposed legislative changes, saying they would send vulnerable children back to dangerous situations in their home countries.
Trump said he had spoken with “a few” Democrats on Tuesday about the administration’s proposals and added: “They’re changing their minds.”
Source: NewsMax Politics
FILE PHOTO: Former Nissan Motor Chairman Carlos Ghosn sits inside a car as he leaves his lawyer’s office after being released on bail from Tokyo Detention House, in Tokyo, Japan, March 6, 2019. REUTERS/Issei Kato/File Photo
April 3, 2019
TOKYO (Reuters) – Tokyo prosecutors are preparing to build a fresh case against ousted Nissan Motor Co Ltd chairman Carlos Ghosn over suspect payments the automaker made to a business partner in Oman, Japan’s Yomiuri newspaper reported on Wednesday.
Tokyo prosecutors are in discussions with the Supreme Public Prosecutors Office and others and plan to make a decision soon on whether to prosecute Ghosn on further charges of aggravated breach of trust, the newspaper said, citing sources involved in the case.
A spokesman at the Tokyo prosecutors’ office was not immediately able to comment when contacted by Reuters.
Ghosn’s spokesman has previously said payments of $32 million made over nine years were rewards for the Oman firm being a top Nissan dealer. Such dealer incentives were not directed by Ghosn and the funds were not used to pay any personal debt, the spokesman said.
Ghosn was arrested in Tokyo in November and faces charges of financial misconduct and aggravated breach of trust over allegedly failing to report around $82 million in salary and for temporarily transferring personal financial losses onto Nissan’s books during the financial crisis.
Ghosn, who previously headed the Renault-Nissan alliance, denies the charges. He was released on bail last month as he awaits trial.
Sources told Reuters earlier this week that Renault SA had alerted French prosecutors after uncovering suspect payments to a Renault-Nissan business partner in Oman while Ghosn was chief executive of the French automaker.
Nissan had previously established that its own regional subsidiary had made questionable payments of more than $30 million to the Oman distributor, Suhail Bahwan Automobiles (SBA).
Evidence sent to French prosecutors late last week showed that much of the cash was subsequently channeled to a Lebanese company controlled by Ghosn associates, the sources said.
Reuters has not been able to reach SBA for comment on the matter.
(Reporting by Chang-Ran Kim, Kaori Kaneko and Tim Kelly; Editing by Christopher Cushing)
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FILE PHOTO: UAW Vice President Norwood Jewell addresses their Special Bargaining Convention held at COBO Hall in Detroit, Michigan March 25, 2015. REUTERS/Jeff Kowalsky/File Photo
April 2, 2019
By Nick Carey
DETROIT (Reuters) – A former top United Auto Workers official in charge of the union’s relations with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV (FCA) pleaded guilty on Tuesday in a U.S. federal court in Detroit to misusing the automaker’s funds for lavish spending on UAW officials.
As part of a plea agreement, Norwood Jewell, who headed the UAW’s FCA department from 2014 until his retirement in January 2018, pleaded guilty to a single charge of conspiring to violate the Labor Relations Management Act, which carries a maximum prison sentence of five years and a fine of up to $250,000.
Jewell is the highest-ranking former UAW official charged so far in a wide-ranging investigation into illegal payoffs to UAW officials by FCA. To date, seven people linked to the union and the automaker have been sentenced in the government’s corruption investigation.
Jewell’s court appearance comes at a sensitive time for the UAW, which faces contract talks later this year with FCA, General Motors Co and Ford Motor Co.
Prosecutors say FCA officials conspired to divert to UAW officials more than $4.5 million in training center funds intended to pay for training for union members.
Both the UAW and FCA have repeatedly said that only a few individuals were involved and that this did not affect contract talks between the two in 2015.
Dressed in a black suit, charcoal gray shirt and a black-and-blue striped tie, Jewell told the court he failed to properly apportion funds between his two roles at the UAW and the National Training Center funded by the FCA to train workers.
“I own up to what I did and I am taking responsibility for my actions,” Jewell said.
Prosecutors have recommended a sentence of 12 months to 18 months.
According to court documents, Jewell used the FCA’s National Training Center credit card and approved the use of the credit cards by other UAW officials to make more than $40,000 worth of charges for items such as travel and meals.
Defense attorney Michael Manley told reporters the corrupt practices preceded Jewell’s appointment in 2014, that he had worked to halt those practices and “that he did not take anything for personal gain.”
“My hope is that he will not go to jail,” Manley said.
(Reporting By Nick Carey; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall)
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FILE PHOTO: A Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) sign is seen at the U.S. headquarters in Auburn Hills, Michigan, U.S., May 25, 2018. REUTERS/Rebecca Cook/File Photo
April 2, 2019
(Reuters) – Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV on Tuesday reported an 11 percent fall in total March sales in Canada.
The company, which is among the top four carmakers in the country, sold 21,684 vehicles in March, with its Alfa Brand reporting a 56 percent drop in sales.
Sales in the United States fell 7.3 percent, hit by a decline in sales across all of its major brands, except RAM trucks.
(Reporting by Arundhati Sarkar in Bengaluru; Editing by James Emmanuel)
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