{"text":[[{"start":8.6,"text":"Shares in Volvo Cars plunged as much as 30 per cent to a record low after the Swedish carmaker fell to a loss on collapsing sales in China, forcing it to cut another 2,500 jobs as well as warning of potential “additional actions”."}],[{"start":23.6,"text":"The company on Friday reported a net loss of SKr5.7bn ($575mn) during the third quarter, compared with a profit of SKr4.5bn the same time last year. The shares later pared their losses and were trading down 26 per cent in mid-morning trading."}],[{"start":42.74,"text":"The Geely-owned carmaker had already issued a profit warning earlier this month and pulled its annual guidance. But Volvo Cars said it would need to cut another SKr5bn in costs, including reducing about 6 per cent of its workforce on top of its previous cut of about 3,000 jobs."}],[{"start":59.58,"text":"In addition to its revenue falling by almost 50 per cent in China from last year, it also re-evaluated the revenue it had expected from selling regulatory credits to rivals after the Trump administration rolled back rules to cut vehicle emissions."}],[{"start":73.56,"text":"For the quarter, its revenue declined 23 per cent year on year to SKr66.9bn, while it reported cash outflow of almost SKr9bn."}],[{"start":83.6,"text":"“You have a market based on global cars which are just assembled locally. That market, I think, has not reached the bottom. That is on its way towards zero,” chief executive Håkan Samuelsson told the FT."}],[{"start":96.48,"text":"But he added that the group was rolling out locally produced cars with Chinese software and a lower-cost platform developed by Geely, which will make it more competitive in the next few years."}],[{"start":105.8,"text":"“This is a very deep decline and I hope we will see a sort of stabilisation, but I don’t think we should expect real improvement” in the immediate future, Samuelsson said, cautioning that it was too early to rule out additional measures the company may need to take to reduce costs."}],[{"start":121.76,"text":"Western carmakers from Volkswagen, Porsche to BMW and Jaguar Land Rover are all cutting their workforces as they face increased competition from Chinese rivals, US tariffs and higher raw material costs caused by the conflict in the Middle East."}],[{"start":136.04,"text":"But Volvo Cars has been hit particularly hard by falling EV and plug-in hybrid sales in China and the US even as it carried out significant cost reductions and drew more synergies from the Geely Group by sharing car components."}],[{"start":150.04,"text":"Klaus Zellmer, the former boss of Škoda, is set to take over as chief executive by October next year, replacing Samuelsson, who came out of retirement in 2025. Under Zellmer’s tenure, Škoda replaced Porsche as the biggest contributor to parent company Volkswagen’s profits."}],[{"start":166.76,"text":"“We struggle to see things improving any time soon,” Bernstein analyst Harry Martin wrote in a research note. “New CEO Klaus Zellmer . . . has an even harder job on his hands now than when he was announced one month ago.”"}],[{"start":184.48,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1792748709_9737.mp3"}