DETROIT (Reuters) - General Motors Corp <GM.N> told analysts on Thursday that it expected to cut annual U.S. labor costs by $5 billion by 2011 and increase its revenues in all regions during 2008.
Corrects date cost savings will be achieved in 1st paragraph
DETROIT (Reuters) - General Motors Corp <GM.N> told analysts on Thursday that it expected to cut annual U.S. labor costs by $5 billion by 2011 and increase its revenues in all regions during 2008.
GM, in a presentation to Wall Street analysts, said it plans to reduce its annual U.S. labor costs by about $5 billion by 2011, mainly through the labor agreement reached with the United Auto Workers union last year.
"The most significant savings is the estimated $4-5 billion GM expects to gain in 2010 once it realizes the full-impact of the 2007 GM-UAW labor agreement," the company said in a statement.
!ADVERTISEMENT!But GM Chief Executive Rick Wagoner said the company will face some challenging headwinds in 2008, including weak U.S. auto industry sales, high fuel prices, high commodity and steel prices, and mounting regulatory requirements.
"This has been a turnaround so far without any tailwind from the industry so far," Wagoner told analysts in Dearborn, Mich. "Frankly the outlook for '08 is uncertain and a lot of people view it negatively."
GM expects industry sales to come in slightly above 16 million this year, while it projects global industry volume to reach a record high of about 73 million vehicles, up 2 million from 2007.
Despite this year's projected weakness, GM said it "sees the probability of a stronger U.S. industry in 2009 and beyond.
"It is estimated that a move of the industry back to trend levels by 2010 would generate additional pre-tax income to GM in the range of approximately $1 billion to $1.5 billion annually," the company said in a statement.
(Reporting by Poornima Gupta, additional reporting by David Bailey and Nick Carey in Chicago, editing by Leslie Gevirtz)
