Paris - As French President Nicolas Sarkozy prepared to meet with representatives from the country's auto industry later on Monday, the head of Renault, Carlos Ghosn, said emergency government loans were necessary for the sector to survive the economic crisis.

"What we are demanding from the state is some reasonable financing, over 2 to 3 years, at interest rates between 4 and 5 per cent," Ghosn said in an interview published Monday in the daily Le Figaro.

The car industry is very "credit-intensive," Ghosn said, with two of every three cars purchased on credit. "If the finance crisis continues, you will see one producer after the other fail," he warned.

Bremerhaven, Germany  - Europe's biggest car terminal is bursting at the seams as unsold cars pile up, mirroring the dramatic situation in the automobile industry.

More than 90,000 vehicles are clogging the shipping terminal in the north German port of Bremerhaven, waiting to find new owners.

"We can't move the cars, work on them or deliver them until they find buyers," said Detthold Aden, head of the BLG Logistics Group, which administers the facility.

Roll-on roll-off vessels delivering new cars or loading them up for export have always been a welcome sight in the bustling port. That is not the case for the nine large car carriers tied up this weekend.

The corporate credit rating of automaker Tata Motors has been lowered by Standard & Poor’s (S&P’s), from ‘BB’ to ‘BB-’. S&P’s credit analyst Mehul Sukkawala said, “We've downgraded Tata Motors and placed the rating on credit watch due to the faster-than-expected deterioration in the automobile market conditions.”  

Tata's sales in India decreased 30 percent last month from November 2007, a much higher decline than expected. The decline followed a 20 percent October decrease from 2007. Also, Jaguar and Land Rover, the marquee British brands that Tata Motors bought out early this year, have seen shrinking demand in the key markets of the US and Europe. This is likely to have an adverse impact on Tata Motors’ financial profile.

When the U.S. senate failed on Thursday to pass a $14 billion rescue package for Detroit's three major car manufacturers, it took on the role of Christmas Grinch for autoworkers.

On Thursday, the senate got only a few ‘yes’ votes short of the 60 needed to block a filibuster on the bailout bill, effectively killing any chance of Congress providing a lifeline to the financially drowning automakers this year.

Following when the news was out, markets across the Asia-Pacific region were down more than 3 percent and Japan's Nikkei average and Hong Kong's Hang Seng were both down by more than 5 percent.

London, Dec. 13: General Motors, which employs 5,500 people around the UK, is in talks with the British government to secure cash to allow it to continue operating in what the car maker admits are "critical" conditions.

A report in The Telegraph says that the talks follow a decision by the US Congress to vote down a 14 billion dollar loan package to support the American automotive industry on Friday.

The future of British workers at GM plants in Luton and on Merseyside is unclear, as does that of up to a further 5,500 people employed by parts suppliers.

Washington  - General Motors Corp announced Friday that it will temporarily close plants and reduce production because of plunging car sales, one day after the US Senate rejected a massive bail-out package for the automotive industry.

General Motors will idle 30 per cent of its North American plants for the first quarter of 2009, citing a 36-per-cent drop in sales in November and a 41-per-cent decline in 2008 from the previous year.