GM to Speed Cost Cuts, May Sell Factory in France

General Motors Corp., struggling to stem more than three years of losses, said it plans to accelerate its $10 billion cost-cutting program and may sell a French parts plant.

The company expects to send out marketing materials during October for the Strasbourg plant, as well as for the Hummer sport-utility vehicle division, Treasurer Walter Borst said in a presentation posted today on GM's Web site.

The automaker also is reviewing other assets valued at more than its target of raising as much as $4 billion by the end of 2009, Borst said, without providing details.

GM, the largest U.S. automaker, is trimming expenses and considering more asset sales after $69.8 billion in losses since the end of 2004. By 2010, the Detroit-based company should be able to reduce its annual North American structural costs to as low as $26 billion, from $33.2 billion last year, Borst said.

In August, Chief Financial Officer Ray Young said GM by the end of this year may be able to reap more of the proposed savings than originally planned.

Among the savings that may be achieved in 2008 instead of next year are a portion of capital-spending cuts and 10 percent of the reductions in salaried payroll, Young said. Bloomberg