Airbus, VW May Open US Plants

Weak dollar has European companies looking overseas
By Jim O'Neill,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 4, 2007 4:00 PM CST
Airbus, VW May Open US Plants
The 2001 computer image provided by Airbus shows the planned military plane Airbus A400 M dropping goods in the desert. Shares in Airbus parent EADS sank after the company warned Monday, Nov. , 5, 2007 that a six-month delay on the delivery of its A400M military aircraft will cost as much as $2.03 billion.(AP...   (Associated Press)

The dollar’s continued weakness against the euro has European companies such as Airbus and VW looking to move production to the US, reports Der Spiegel. “We don’t have a choice,” said the CEO of Aribus parent company EADS. If Airbus wins a contract to supply the US Air Force with 180 refueling jets, the company says it might build an assembly plant in Alabama.

VW, too, hopes to reduce the impact of the dollar’s plunge and is scouting for plants in the US. American autoworkers earn $10 less per hour than their Western European counterparts, Der Spiegel notes. VW, which is also looking in Mexico, has experience manufacturing autos in the US. It once operated a plant in Pennsylvania, though it closed in 1987. (More US dollar stories.)

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