Two US automakers say they need billions more of government money in order to survive.
美国两家汽车制造商表示，他们需要政府再提供数十亿美元的帮助，才能生存下去。
General Motors and Chrysler say they need billions more from the government merely to survive until the end of March. The size of the requests were far bigger than expected.
通用汽车公司和克莱斯勒汽车公司说，他们需要政府再提供数十亿美元，才能坚持到3月底。两家公司提出的救助资金数额远远超过预期。
Chrysler, the smallest US car maker, says it needs an additional $5 billion. General Motors, after Toyota the world's biggest car company, says it requires $2 billion by March 1. Together with the money already borrowed, GM is asking for $30 billion from US taxpayers.
美国规模最小的汽车制造商克莱斯勒公司表示还需要50亿美元。世界排名仅次于丰田公司的通用汽车公司则要求在3月1号之前得到20亿美元的贷款。加上之前借到的款项，通用公司总共要求美国纳税人300亿美元的救助。
Company president Fritz Henderson says that figure is far less than what taxpayers would pay in the event of the company seeking bankruptcy protection.
公司总裁弗里茨.亨德森说，如果公司寻求破产保护，纳税人要付的钱比这要多得多。
"The additional financing requirement for the US government [with bankruptcy] would be $50 to $60 billion more, than the out of court process [of bankruptcy]," said Fritz Henderson. "And if you actually tally up the incremental requirements for foreign governments [where GM has plants] that would likely be required, the size of the incremental financing in order to operate General Motors at peak while in a traditional Chapter 11 [bankruptcy] process would be close to $100 billion."
他说：“如果破产，需要政府追加的财政援助比避免破产要多500至600亿美元。如果再加上设在外国的通用公司工厂可能向外国政府提出的资金要求，在破产保护下维持通用公司运作的费用最多可能接近1千亿美元。”
Both companies said they are closing more plants and laying off more workers. They have reached a contract agreement with the autoworkers union but terms of the concessions were not revealed.
通用和克莱斯勒都说，他们正在关闭更多的工厂，解雇更多的工人。两家公司与汽车工人工会达成了协议，但没有透露妥协的具体内容。
US car companies pay far more in wages and benefits than foreign car companies operating in the United States. GM chief executive officer Rick Wagoner was asked if his company is considering selling its profitable operations in China.
美国汽车公司支付的工资和福利远远高于在美国的外国汽车公司。通用公司行政主管里克.瓦格纳被问及，通用公司是否考虑出售设在中国的盈利的工厂。
"China is really fundamental to our future," said Wagoner. "And so I think that would be a very tough call for us to make. We've not had any conversations along those lines."
瓦格纳说：“中国对我们的未来至关重要，因此我认为，对我们来说，这将是一个非常困难的决定。我们从未谈论这种可能性。”
Wagoner did suggest that GM's European operations might be sold, but he said no prospective buyers have come forward.
不过瓦格纳暗示，可能会出售通用在欧洲的工厂，但是他说，现在还没有买主表示有收购意愿。
Car companies worldwide are enduring their worse sales slump in a quarter century as the financial crisis has caused buyers to cut back. Both GM and Chrysler say they expect the market to remain distressed for all of this year and into 2010.
由于金融危机使买车人数骤减，世界各地的汽车公司都在经历20多年来最严重的销售下滑。通用和克莱斯勒公司表示，他们预期汽车市场今年全年一直到2010年将持续低迷。 |