U.S. automakers General Motors, Ford Motor and Chrysler will idle about 59 factories over the next month as they struggle to adapt to plummeting sales, Bloomberg reported.

Chrysler said it will suspend production at all of its 30 factories for at least a month starting today.

The company’s 30,000 payroll will get their full salaries and extra compensations.

Ford said it will shut down nine of its 15 U.S. production units in the first week of 2009 struggling to curtail first-quarter output by 38%.

The closings show how far automakers are going to conserve cash under the pressures of a shrinking U.S. market and dwindling access to credit for dealers.

“No one is immune,” said Ed Kim, director of industry analysis for consulting firm AutoPacific Inc. The industry is “imploding to a degree I’ve never imagined could happen, and at a speed I’d never expected.”

Sales at GM, Chrysler and Ford slid this year 22%, 19% and 28%, respectively, against a sector average of 16%.

The three giants count on U.S. President George Bush to tap on the USD 700 bank bailout and save them from collapse looming above millions of jobs.

The automakers are pleading for USD 14 billion to plug in financial gaps or else run out of cash by early January 2009.

(Dnevnik)

Bulgarian stocks failed to extend Wednesday’s gains as sellers dampened high spirits from early trading.

SOFIX of the 20 blue-chip companies dropped 0.76% to 54.56 points matching a 0.75% loss at Dnevnik 20 of the 20 biggest and most liquid companies, which also closed at 54.56 points.

“At the end of the session sellers decided to shed their stocks at the current buy offers,” said Nikolai Kyuchukov, broker at investment brokerage Elana Trading.

Volumes were higher than last week’s, and special purpose vehicles generated half of the BGN 1.8 million trade turnover.

Advance Terrafund traded 400,000 stocks at a price close to the nominal wiping out 5% from its market capitalisation.

There was heavy trading at Central Cooperative Bank, which sold 130,000 shares.

Investors snubbed industrial conglomerate Chimimport, Bulgaria’s biggest holding company, dragging it over 1% by exchanging a scanty 1,700 shares.

The consensus among analysts was that the sharp base lending rate cut in the U.S. will not move equity markets in the short term.

The move is logical and is aimed at jump-starting the economy, said Vladislav Penev, board chairman of asset manager Status Capital.

(Dnevnik)

Devnya-based chemical fertilisers maker Agropolychim has restarted phosphorus production, Rosen Korelov, head of Podkrepa union at the plant, told Dnevnik.

The nitrogen fertilisers capacities are expected to remain idle for no less than a month.

The company’s executive director Philippe Rombaut forecast domestic demand will revive in the first quarter of 2009 as farmers hoping for bumper crop prep for spring sowing.

The market is now stagnated due to a drastic decline in demand on a global scale.

Agropolychim is Bulgaria’s largest chemical fertilisers plant. In the face of deteriorating market conditions and a global oversupply, on November 21 the company became one of Bulgaria’s first firms to fall victim to the worldwide crisis when it idled all production units and slashed 200 jobs out of a total of 1,100.

A raft of global fertiliser plants were forced to temporarily close down including Italian major Yara.

(Dnevnik)

Pioneer, the biggest family of mutual funds operating in Bulgaria, will streamline operations at its sub-funds, the financial regulator said in a statement.

Yavor Achev, country manager of Luxembourg-based Pioneer Investments, told Dnevnik the company will rename some sub-funds due to new conditions on the capital markets but launch no stakes from new funds.

The shake-up is also aimed at optimising costs. Still, the asset manager will not change fees and buyback terms and conditions, neither redraft its investment strategy.

In the meantime, the Bulgarian mutual fund market will greet another new player after the Financial Supervision Commission gave Optima Asset Management the go-ahead to set up and run the mutual fund Optima Select. The fund will operate in the mid-risk range and focus on liquid equities, debt instruments and fixed-income assets.

(Dnevnik)

Bulgarian wireless carrier Globul, a unit of Greece's OTE, appointed a new chief financial officer after a year of management moves across the market.

Anatoli Kraev, a former financial head of WiMAX telecoms operator Trans Telecom, takes over from Atanas Dobrev, who left for the Bulgarian Telecommunications Company, the nation’s dominant landline operator.

Kraev has also been senior financial planning manager at BTC’s mobile arm, Vivatel, and has worked at the financial department of Mobikom, the Bulgarian analogue wireless operator.

Globul also lost to BTC its regulations head, Mihaela Kalaidjieva, whose position has not been filled in yet. She is the telco’s general secretary in charge of the legal, HR and PR departments.

In the first of a string of management reshuffles on the Bulgarian telecoms market during the year, Bernard Moscheni replaced Martin Staub at the helm of BTC, who got a seat on the company’s board.

Next Globul’s chief executive Thanasis Katsiroubas resigned after three years in the top job at the operator.

Bucking the trend, Mobiltel has kept its CEO Josef Vinatzer ever since its 2005 acquisition by Telekom Austria.

(Dnevnik)

Austria’s leading steel mill voestalpine has put off indefinitely plans to build a new production unit in the Black Sea region, Reuters reported.

The news was announced yesterday by the company’s spokesman, Peter Schiefer, who voiced concerns about the slowing economies of the four countries which competed to host the new plant.

Schiefer said the steel maker was unlikely to implement its plans in the near future.

Sisecam, the Turkish glass and chemicals maker, meantime said it would reconsider proceding with its Bulgarian investment programme, the news agency reported.

The Austrian company planned to build a state-of-the-art steel plant in Bulgaria, Romania, Ukraine or Turkey and make the heftiest investment across Southeastern Europe.

The Bulgarian Government pledged to provide a plot in an industrial area near Burgas Bay and build part of the adjacent infrastructure.

Turkish glass manufacturer Trakya Cam, a unit of leading Turkish glass producer Sisecam, said the second stage of its planned investment in Bulgaria in 2009 will depend on market conditions.

The company said in March it would pump a further USD 415 million into its Bulgarian operations by 2010.

(Dnevnik)