"The continent has too many car factories, but governments are reluctant to allow carmakers to close them.
"Peugeot’s family owners have patriotically kept 40% of production in France, where prickly unions and a Socialist government make factory closures and job cuts difficult. Renault, a French rival, has built more factories in lower-cost countries; it makes only a quarter of its cars in France.
Note:
(a) PSA Peugeot-Citroën http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PSA_Peugeot_Citro%C3%ABn
(officially Peugeot SA [acronym for "Société Anonyme"], informally PSA; headquarters Paris; in 1974, Peugeot SA acquired a 38.2% share of Citroën)
(b) Armand Peugeot made bicycles in 1882. In 1919 French industrialist André-Gustave Citroën (1878–1935) founded Citroën. Wiki.
(3)
(a) Oil in China | Smog and Mirrors; Sinopec’s big plans hit an obstacle. http://www.economist.com/news/bu ... le-smog-and-mirrors
("unlike its Chinese peers, Sinopec is heavily exposed to refining. It owns half of the country’s refining capacity. The snag: Sinopec must buy crude at global prices but its refined petrol and diesel can be sold only at artificially low prices set by the government. The result is red ink")
(b) Ajay Makan and Leslie Hook, China’s Foreign Oil Output Surges. Financial Times, Feb 20, 2013
Quote:
"China is on track to produce enough crude oil outside its borders to rival Opec members such as Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates, after its state-owned oil companies spent a record $35bn buying foreign rivals last year. In the first tally of the impact of China's recent overseas oil first tally of the impact of China's recent overseas oil will produce 3m barrels a day abroad in 2015, double their 2011 of 1.5m b/d and equivalent to Kuwait's annual output.
"Chinese national oil companies such as Cnooc and Sinopec have been on a buying binge over recent years, spending $92bn since the start of 2009 on oil and gas assets in countries from the US to Angola, according to Dealogic.