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  • GM Temporarily Halts Paid Advertising On Twitter

    GM Temporarily Halts Paid Advertising On Twitter

    General Motors Co said late on Friday it had temporarily halted paid advertising on Twitter after Elon Musk completed his takeover of the social media company.

    The largest U.S. automaker said it was “engaging with Twitter to understand the direction of the platform under their new ownership.”

    Twitter did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Musk is also the chief executive of GM rival Tesla Inc.

    GM said, “as is the normal course of business with a significant change in a media platform, we have temporarily paused our paid advertising.” The Detroit automaker added its “customer care interactions on Twitter will continue.”

    Ad sales accounted for more than 90% of Twitter’s revenue in the second quarter. At a presentation for advertisers in May, some ad agencies and brands were already sceptical and concerned over Twitter’s future.

    On the eve of the deal’s closing, Musk appealed directly to advertisers in an open-letter tweet: “Twitter obviously cannot become a free-for-all hellscape, where anything can be said with no consequences! Twitter aspires to be the most respected advertising platform in the world that strengthens your brand and grows your enterprise.”

    Musk tweeted on Friday that Twitter will form a content moderation council “with widely diverse viewpoints.” Musk said no major content decisions or account reinstatements will happen before the council convenes.

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  • Unilever’s new New Zealand chief finally takes his office

    Unilever’s new New Zealand chief finally takes his office

    Unilever New Zealand MD Cameron Heath will relocate to take up the new role with his team this month after nearly six months of managing the role remotely.

    His predecessor, Nick Bangs, will move to Sydney to take on the role of GM, home, beauty and personal care for Unilever Australia and New Zealand.

    Heath spent seven years working as GM Baltics with Unilever in Latvia and four years as marketing director food & beverages in Prague. Prior to that, he worked at Procter & Gamble for seven years, taking responsibility for customer development and category strategy roles, including time working in the New Zealand market.

    Heath said Unilever’s commitment aligns with his personal goal to care of the health of the planet and create a fairer, more diverse, and equitable world.

    “As one of the world’s largest producers of consumer goods, we have both a responsibility and an opportunity to do more good for our planet, not just less harm,” said Heath.

    With 15 years in the FMCG industry, Heath has experience in marketing and category management, so he understands and has awareness of the challenges that lie ahead for the consumer goods sector.

    “I understand first-hand the pressure retailers and consumers are facing as we deal with supply-chain disruption and increased cost of production across the board,” he added.

    Cameron Heath started his role remotely last November and will join his team in New Zealand this month.

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  • GM and Honda To Produce ‘Attainable EVs’ In Bid To Surpass Tesla Sales

    GM and Honda To Produce ‘Attainable EVs’ In Bid To Surpass Tesla Sales

    General Motors and Honda Motor Co said on Tuesday they will develop a series of lower-priced electric vehicles based on a new joint platform, producing potentially millions of cars from 2027 in a bid to beat Tesla in sales.

    The announcement expands on plans for GM to begin building two electric SUVs for Honda starting in 2024 – the Honda Prologue and an Acura model.

    The automakers said the new deal is for “affordable” EVs, including compact crossover vehicles, built using GM’s Ultium battery technology. The compact crossover is the biggest selling auto sector in the world with annual volumes of more than 13 million vehicles, the companies said.

    The companies declined to say how much they are investing as part of the new collaboration.

    GM Chief Executive Mary Barra said Tuesday at an Axios event the pricing will come in below the $30,000 price tag planned for the electric Chevrolet Equinox SUV. She said the new lower-priced vehicles would be “attainable EVs.”

    She said the new vehicle is part of GM’s plan to surpass Tesla in EV sales.

    “We have a very important goal… that by mid-decade, by 2025, we’ll sell more EVs in the U.S. than anyone else and to do that, you need to have a portfolio of vehicles,” Barra said, noting GM plans a wide range of small to large EVs. “We definitely can scale and can do it quickly.”

    The companies said they will also discuss future battery technology collaboration for electric vehicles in a push to drive down costs.

    The deal is part of GM’s push to achieve carbon neutrality in its global products and operations by 2040 and eliminate tailpipe emissions from light-duty vehicles in the United States by 2035.

    Honda has said it aims to reach carbon neutrality on a global basis by 2050.

    The Japanese carmaker owns a stake in GM’s Cruise self-driving car subsidiary and the carmakers are co-developing the Cruise Origin autonomous EV. The companies also have a joint venture to develop and produce hydrogen fuel-cell systems at a plant in Brownstown, Michigan.

    “Honda and GM will build on our successful technology collaboration to help achieve a dramatic expansion in the sales of electric vehicles,” Honda CEO Toshihiro Mibe said.

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  • GM Boss Mary Barra Felt Surrel In Cruise Robotaxi

    GM Boss Mary Barra Felt Surrel In Cruise Robotaxi

    GM’s CEO Mary Barra recently took her first ride in a self-driving car which was shown off in a YouTube video on Cruise’s official channel. Of course, Cruise is owned by GM and is its self-driving car service which also operates a robotaxi service in limited parts of the US. “Last week our friends from Detroit took a midnight ride straight over the moon,” said the message on the video.

    Barra was visibly impressed by the flawless nature of the ride which was her first one. The ride took place in San Francisco, not Detroit which is the home of GM as Cruise operates its service right now in California. Barra rode is. Chevrolet Bolt EV named Tostada with Cruise Co-founder, interim CEO, and CTO Kyle Vogt.

    Both rode in the back seat of the car with the vehicle driving itself. Barra noted while she knew this was always going to happen, experiencing it for the first time felt surreal. In another Bolt EV, GM’s President Mark Reuss called the ride mind-blowing as he was a combined by GM’s Vice President of communications Craig Buchholz.

    Cruise is one of the pioneers of autonomous car technology alongside Waymo. It is closely working with GM towards developing a commercial autonomous vehicle for personal use which GM estimates will launch by the end of the decade.

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  • GM Says Seeing Better Flow Of Semiconductors

    GM Says Seeing Better Flow Of Semiconductors

    General Motors Co is seeing a better flow of semiconductors, and most of its assembly plants in North America are now back to running regular production, including Mexico, a GM spokesperson told Reuters in emailed comments.

    “In fact, the week of November 1 represented the first time since February that none of our North American assembly plants were idled due to the chip shortage,” the spokesperson said.

    GM’s third-quarter earnings were hit by a global semiconductor shortage and rising commodity prices, factors it has said it expects to continue until late 2022.

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  • GM Builds Pickups Without Certain Modules Due To Global Chip Shortage

    GM Builds Pickups Without Certain Modules Due To Global Chip Shortage

    General Motors Co said on Monday that due to the global semiconductor chip shortage the U.S. automaker is building certain 2021 light-duty full-size pickup trucks without a fuel management module, hurting those vehicles’ fuel economy performance. The lack of the active fuel management/dynamic fuel management module means affected models, equipped with the 5.3-litre EcoTec3 V8 engine with both six-speed and eight-speed automatic transmission, will have lower fuel economy by one mile per gallon, spokeswoman Michelle Malcho said.

    Malcho emphasized all trucks are still being built, something GM has repeatedly stressed it would try to protect as pickups are among GM’s most profitable models. She declined to say the volume of vehicles affected. “By taking this measure, we are better able to meet the strong customer and dealer demand for our full-size trucks as the industry continues to rebound and strengthen,” Malcho wrote in an email.

    The change runs through the 2021 model year, which typically ends in late summer or early fall, she said. Malcho said it would not have a major impact on the Detroit automaker’s U.S. corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) numbers.

    “We routinely monitor our fleet for compliance in the U.S. and Canada, and we balance our portfolio in a way that enables us to manage unforeseeable circumstances like this without compromising our overall (greenhouse gas) and fuel economy compliance,” she said.

    GM’s fleetwide fuel economy in the 2018 model year was 22.5 miles per gallon and was projected to rise to 22.8 mpg for 2019, according to a report by the Environmental Protection Agency. To meet federal CAFE requirements, automakers like GM often use credits from either earlier years where they faced less stringent rules and performed better than the requirements or buy credits from other automakers.

    GM said last month the chip shortage could shave up to $2 billion from this year’s earnings. It subsequently said it expected global chip supplies to return to normal rates by the second half of the year. The shortage, which has hit automakers globally, stems from a confluence of factors as carmakers, which shut plants for two months during the COVID-19 pandemic last year, compete with the sprawling consumer electronics industry for chip supplies.

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  • GM Extends Vehicle Production Cuts Due To Semiconductor Chip Shortage

    GM Extends Vehicle Production Cuts Due To Semiconductor Chip Shortage

    General Motors Co said on Wednesday it was further extending production cuts at three North American plants and adding a fourth to the list of factories hit by the global semiconductor chip shortage. The extended cuts do not change GM’s forecast last month that the shortage could shave up to $2 billion from this year’s earnings. GM Chief Financial Officer Paul Jacobson subsequently said chip supplies should return to normal rates by the second half of the year and he was confident the profit hit would not worsen.

    The U.S. automaker did not disclose the impact on volumes or say which supplier or parts were affected by the chip shortage, but said it intends to recover as much of the lost output as possible.

    “GM continues to leverage every available semiconductor to build and ship our most popular and in-demand products, including full-size trucks and SUVs,” GM spokesman David Barnas said. “We contemplated this downtime when we discussed our outlook for 2021.”

    The chip shortage, which has hit automakers globally, stems from a confluence of factors as carmakers, which shut plants for two months during the COVID-19 pandemic last year, compete against the sprawling consumer electronics industry for chip supplies.

    Consumers have stocked up on laptops, gaming consoles and other electronic products during the pandemic, leading to tight chip supplies. They also bought more cars than industry officials expected last spring, further straining supplies.

    GM said Wednesday it would extend downtime at plants in Fairfax, Kansas, and Ingersoll, Ontario, to at least mid-April, and in San Luis Potosi, Mexico, through the end of March. In addition, it will idle its Gravatai plant in Sao Paulo, Brazil, in April and May.

    The automaker did not disclose the impact on volumes or say which supplier or parts were affected by the chip shortage

    The Detroit automaker had previously extended production cuts at three North American plants into mid-March and said vehicles at two other plants would only be partially built. Following Wednesday’s cuts, forecasting firm AutoForecast Solutions estimated GM could lose more than 216,000 units globally due to the shortage.

    Ford Motor Co said last month the lack of chips could cut company production by up to 20% in the first quarter and hurt profits by as much as $2.5 billion. It had previously cut production of its top-selling F-150 pickup truck. Stellantis said Wednesday the chip shortage could weigh on 2021 results.

    Some automakers, including Toyota Motor Corp and Hyundai Motor Co, avoided deeper cuts by stockpiling chips ahead of the shortage.

    Industry officials and politicians have pushed U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration to take a more active role in dealing with the chip shortage.

    Last week, Biden said he would seek $37 billion in funding to supercharge chip manufacturing in the United States. An executive order also launched a review of supply chains for such critical products as semiconductor chips, electric vehicle batteries and rare earth minerals.

    Complicating matters was a severe winter storm in Texas last month that killed at least 21 people and led to the shutdown of several chip plants. Semiconductor industry officials said customers would face knock-on effects in several months.

  • General Motors Instructs Mexican Suppliers To Prepare To Resume Operations

    General Motors Instructs Mexican Suppliers To Prepare To Resume Operations

    The president of General Motors Co’s Mexican unit advised suppliers to prepare to resume operations after the Mexican government said the automotive industry could exit the coronavirus lockdown before June 1 with adequate safety measures.

    “We are now beginning a new phase given the Mexican government’s official announcement earlier this week to consider the transportation manufacturing industry as essential for the country’s economy,” Francisco Garza, president of General Motors de Mexico, wrote in an email to suppliers dated on Friday that was viewed by Reuters.

    Noting the Mexican government is due to publish final safety rules on Monday, Garza added: “Once those final guidelines are known, we will be in a position to move swiftly to comply.”

    GM is tentatively planning to restart operations at its auto assembly plant in the Mexican city of Silao on Wednesday, according to a message to workers seen by Reuters on Sunday.

    Hundreds of workers at General Motors and other auto companies have gone back to work to make face shields, surgical masks and ventilators in a wartime-like effort to stem shortages of protective gear and equipment.

    Workers at the plant in the central state of Guanajuato that has been idled for weeks due to the coronavirus outbreak had previously been told to plan to return to work on Monday.

    GM did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

    The Mexican government’s announcement, made on Friday, means that automakers from as early as this week can begin reconnecting supply chains between Mexico and the rest of North America, which depends heavily on parts made south of the U.S. border.

    Senior U.S. politicians and auto companies had pressed the Mexican government to reopen factories.

    Some politicians are wary, however, of opening too fast. Mexico registered its first case of the coronavirus weeks after the United States and Canada and the toll of daily infections and deaths in the country reached new peaks over the past few days.

    Mexico has registered 49,219 cases of the coronavirus and 5,177 deaths.

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  • General Motors Begins Production Of Ventilators For U.S. Government

    General Motors Begins Production Of Ventilators For U.S. Government

    General Motors said on Tuesday it had started producing ventilators in the volume needed to treat severely ill coronavirus patients and would deliver the first batch of the medical equipment to the U.S. government this month.

    The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has awarded nine contracts totaling nearly $2.6 billion to produce 137,000 ventilators by the end of 2020 for the U.S. Strategic National Stockpile, including a contract to GM worth $489.4 million for 30,000 ventilators by the end of August after President Donald Trump invoked the Defense Production Act.

    Other contracts announced by HHS in recent days include a $646.7 million contract to Dutch health technology company Philips and others to General Electric Co, Hill-Rom Holdings Inc, Medtronic Plc , ResMed Inc, Vyaire Medical Inc, Hamilton Medical AG and Zoll Medical Corp.

    The United States awarded General Motors a $489 million contract Wednesday to produce ventilators to treat severely sick coronavirus patients.

    Hamilton is receiving a $552 million contract for 14,115 ventilators, while Vyaire is receiving a $407.9 million contract for 22,000 ventilators produced by June 29 and Zoll is receiving a $350.1 million contract for 18,900 ventilators, HHS said on Monday.

    HHS Secretary Alex Azar said in a statement the contracts “will mean we have more capacity to respond to the pandemic as it evolves.”

    GM, which is working with ventilator firm Ventec Life Systems to produce the medical equipment, said it would ship more than 600 ventilators in April.

    It added that it expected to fill nearly half the order by the end of June and the full order by the end of August. The ventilators will be produced at a plant in Kokomo, Indiana.

    White House adviser Peter Navarro said that “as these lifesaving ventilators roll off GM’s assembly line as fast as tanks once did in an earlier World War, they will be rapidly deployed.”

    GM’s shares closed flat. The stock has fallen more than 37% this year, as coronavirus-related lockdowns weigh on automobile sales.

  • General Motors To Tout Its Electric Vehicles To Investors Swooning Over Tesla

    General Motors To Tout Its Electric Vehicles To Investors Swooning Over Tesla

    General Motors Co executives on Wednesday will tackle one of their toughest tasks: Persuading investors that a Detroit automaker can catch up with Elon Musk and Tesla Inc as vehicles go electric.

    Even as global markets reel from coronavirus fears, Tesla’s valuation is outpacing that of GM and most other legacy automakers. On Tuesday, Tesla’s market cap hovered around $144 billion, more than three times GM’s $45 billion.

    GM is by far the larger manufacturer by volume and generates more cash and profits. But in the electric vehicle market, Tesla is the leader.

    Carmakers unveil new models online as part of a digital press day after the cancellation of the Geneva motor show, due to the new coronavirus outbreak. Ciara Lee reports

    Last year, Tesla sold 367,500 electric vehicles globally, including 223,000 in the United States. GM sold just 16,400 Chevrolet Bolt EVs to U.S. buyers and 60,000 Baojun E-Series models in China with joint venture partner SAIC Motor.

    GM Chief Executive Officer Mary Barra and President Mark Reuss have ramped up electric vehicle development over the past three years, focusing on a proprietary battery, a low-cost flexible vehicle design and a blueprint for high-volume production, mainly in China.

    The company has revealed its electric vehicle strategy in incremental steps – announcing the Hummer brand will be reborn as an electric pickup and partnering with Korean battery maker LG Chem to build a $2.3 billion battery plant near a shuttered GM car plant in Lordstown, Ohio. GM is now trying to put the broader picture into focus for investors.

    GM has said it aims to reduce the cost of battery cells – the single greatest expense in electric vehicles – to less than $100 per kilowatt-hour. That in turn could slash the cost of battery packs for electric vehicles like the Chevrolet Bolt EV by up to 45%, experts say.

    GM is also developing an advanced battery, in partnership with LG Chem and Japan’s Honda Motor Co, that will be smaller than current EV batteries, can be charged more quickly and will provide more energy.

    Musk has told investors that Tesla has battery cost and range breakthroughs in the works that it will describe at a “Battery Day” in April.

    Barra has said GM plans to spend more on electric vehicles than on gasoline-powered cars over the next five years. But it has not put a figure on how much it will invest in its efforts to rival Tesla and traditional competitors such as Volkswagen AG or Ford Motor Co as the electric vehicle market develops.

    Barra has, however, promised that GM will make money on electric cars by 2021.

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  • Great Wall Motor To Purchase GM’s Thailand Manufacturing Plant

    Great Wall Motor To Purchase GM’s Thailand Manufacturing Plant

    Great Wall Motor announced that it has signed an agreement for the purchase of General Motors’ manufacturing facility in Rayong, Thailand. This announcement is subject to government and regulatory approvals. Under a signed binding term sheet, GM Thailand and GM Powertrain Thailand legal entities, which include the Rayong vehicle assembly and powertrain facilities, will transfer to GWM. GM and GWM are targeting the end of 2020 to close the deal and hand over the site.

    The acquisition of GM’s Thai Rayong plant will help the business development of Great Wall Motor in Thailand and the ASEAN market. Great Wall Motor will expand through the entire ASEAN region with Thailand as the center, and export its products to other ASEAN countries as well as Australia. Great Wall Motors’ investment will create more jobs in the local area, including direct and indirect employment and further enhance skill development in the automotive industry. GWM will also promote the development of the local supply chain, R&D and related industries, plus contribute more to the exchequer of both the local Rayong and Thailand governments.

    Parker Shi, Vice President, GWM India said, “This agreement marks an important milestone in the overall scheme of things for Great Wall Motor in the ASEAN Region and is a testimony of our global expansion strategy that is now focused on South East Asia including India.”

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  • Trump Prods General Motors Over Its Auto Plants In China

    Trump Prods General Motors Over Its Auto Plants In China

    U.S. President Donald Trump, who is engaged in a trade war with Beijing, said on Friday that the largest U.S. automaker, General Motors Co, should begin moving its operations back to the United States.

    “General Motors, which was once the Giant of Detroit, is now one of the smallest auto manufacturers there. They moved major plants to China, BEFORE I CAME INTO OFFICE. This was done despite the saving help given them by the USA. Now they should start moving back to America again?” Trump said in a post on Twitter.

    Trump appeared to be referring to a Bloomberg News story that reported GM’s hourly workforce of 46,000 U.S. workers has fallen behind that of Fiat Chrysler as the smallest of the Detroit Three automakers. Over the past four decades, GM has dramatically cut the size of its overall U.S. workforce, which numbered nearly 620,000 in 1979.

    GM did not directly comment on Trump’s tweet.

    “GM’s China operations are not a threat to U.S. jobs,” the company said in a fact sheet, noting that its joint ventures have sent $16 billion in equity income to GM since 2010 and that it has invested $23 billion in U.S. operations since 2009.

    GM’s U.S. hourly workforce has fallen by about 4,000 jobs since the end of 2018 to about where it was a decade ago.

    Trump’s ire with GM comes as contract talks with the United Auto Workers union with the Detroit Three automakers intensify ahead of a Sept. 14 deadline. Trump has previously attacked GM for building vehicles in Mexico and for ending production at plants in Michigan, Ohio and Maryland and threatened to cut GM subsidies in retaliation.

    GM’s decision to close four plants in the United States is a central issue in the contract talks.

    Trump has made boosting auto jobs a key priority and has often attacked automakers on Twitter for not doing enough to boost U.S. employment. His 2020 re-election bid will hinge on holding key industrial battleground states like Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan that narrowly voted for him in 2016.

    China is the world’s largest auto market, and government policy favors automakers assembling vehicles there, and not importing them from overseas.

    In response to Trump’s latest tariffs, China said last week it will reinstitute 25% tariffs on U.S.-made vehicles. The U.S. is imposing 15% tariffs on more than $125 billion in Chinese goods starting Sunday.

    GM sold 3.6 million vehicles in China last year accounting for 43% of its worldwide sales. GM booked $2 billion in equity income from its China operations last year.

    GM imports a small number of vehicles from China. In June, the Trump administration rejected a request from GM to exempt its Chinese-made Buick Envision from a 25% U.S. tariff on sport utility vehicle models.

    The midsize SUV has become a target for U.S. critics of Chinese-made goods, including leaders of the UAW members in key political swing states such as Michigan and Ohio.

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  • General Motors Cuts Some 350 Jobs In Thailand Operations

    General Motors Cuts Some 350 Jobs In Thailand Operations

    General Motors has cut about 350 jobs from its Thai subsidiary’s operations, a labor representative said on Friday, slashing more than 15% of the workforce for the U.S. automaker that has two factories in Thailand.

    Thailand is a major manufacturing hub in the competitive Southeast Asian auto market.

    Boonyeun Sookmai, coordinator for Labor Relations Group for Eastern Thailand, told Reuters more than 350 employees and contractors at General Motors (Thailand) were affected by the cuts, which employees and contractors were told about this week.

    GM did not confirm the number of layoffs but said in a statement it was “necessary to right-size” its operations.

    “We are taking every measure to support employees whose roles are impacted,” the statement said.

    It added: “There is no change to our ongoing business in Thailand – we continue to build and sell world-class trucks, SUVs and engines for Thailand and the world.”

    The company has about 1,900 employees in Thailand, according to the Bangkok Post, in operations that include a vehicle assembly plant that produces 180,000 units per year.

    Thailand is a regional vehicle production and export base for the world’s top vehicle manufacturers, including Toyota, Honda and Harley-Davidson.

    The auto industry accounts for about 10% of the Thai economy and has been one of a few growth drivers at a time of falling exports.

    Previously booming domestic auto sales have cooled in Thailand with finance firms using stricter lending criteria. Thai domestic car sales contracted in July for a second straight month, down 1.1% from a year earlier.

    GM has two plants in Rayong, a province on Thailand’s eastern seaboard, for vehicle assembly and another for powertrain and engines. Its vehicle assembly plant began operations in 2000 and the latter in 2011.

    The plants in Thailand produces vehicles for the domestic market and export under the Chevrolet and Holden nameplates.

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  • GM To Spend $20 Million More On Equipment Upgrade At Arlington Plant

    GM To Spend $20 Million More On Equipment Upgrade At Arlington Plant

    General Motors Co said on Tuesday it would invest an additional $20 million to upgrade equipment at the automaker’s Arlington Assembly plant in Texas, ahead of the launch of full-size sports utility vehicles (SUVs).

    The investment will not add to the plant’s production capacity, a GM spokesman said. The No.1 U.S. automaker has not revealed when the company is going to launch its next-generation full-size SUVs such as the Chevrolet Tahoe, Chevrolet Suburban, GMC Yukon, GMC Yukon XL and the Cadillac Escalade.

    GM has long been dominated the U.S. full-size SUV segment, which fetches higher margins, but rival Ford Motor Co has been pushing to capture market share. Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV said earlier this year it would start building a full-size Jeep SUV in late 2020.The latest equipment upgrade at Arlington plant is expected to be ready next year, the company said.

    GM has invested more than $1.4 billion in the Arlington Assembly plant since 2015.

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  • GM Korea’s union has plan to get workers paid

    GM Korea’s union has plan to get workers paid

    GM Korea’s union is planning to request further government support for employees who took unpaid leave after the shutdown of the Gunsan manufacturing plant last year. The decision, outlined in a follow-up document detailing a GM Korea union meeting held on Jan. 22, could go back on the original arrangement with the company to share the cost burden of supporting employees who went on unpaid leave.

    Since GM Korea’s Gunsan plant closed last year, the government provided support for six months, until November, to hundreds of workers who took unpaid leave. The company and its union decided to each cover half of the support payments, or 1.125 million won ($1,000) for every worker, for 24 months after the end of the government support. According to the document, the union will work towards gaining further government support by recategorizing unpaid-leave workers as paid-leave workers.

    According to the Ministry of Employment and Labor, companies can apply for government support for workers on paid leave to partially cover their payment. If the company pays 70 percent of the pay for employees on paid leave, the government can provide around two-thirds the amount for up to 180 accounting days.

    The document said the change would require agreement from the company and approval from the Labor Ministry. GM Korea said it has paid what it owes to workers on unpaid leave. It declined to comment on the union’s plans. Korea Development Bank completed last month injection of $750 million into the struggling company.