GM Reports A $3.3B Loss For The First Quarter

April 30, 2008 9:45 a.m. EST

Detroit (AHN) - America's largest automaker, General Motors Corp., reported a $3.3 billion loss for its first quarter in an announcement made early Tuesday morning. The domestic auto giant pointed to slow sales in the U.S., ongoing labor strikes from key suppliers, and a drop in the sale of gas-guzzling sport utility vehicles and trucks to explain the financial hit.

The strike at American Axle and Manufacturing Holdings Inc, a battle that has waged on nearly two-months, accounted for $800 million of GM's losses. The strike has also had a ripple affect throughout the company, affecting 30 GM plants and costing GM the production of 100,000 vehicles.

GM's total revenue for the first quarter also dropped--down to $42.7 billion--a figure that falls short of the $43.4 billion in total revenue the company reported during the first-quarter of 2007.

The loss also included the $731 million GM spent to support Delphi Corp. through its persistent financial troubles and the $1.45 billion loss that came from GMAC, a finance company that is partly owned by GM.

Even without these one-time costs, though, the company is still down $350 million for the financial period that runs from January to March. For stockholders, the total hit translates to 62 cents per share.

Though revenues from North American auto sales were also down by nearly $4 billion compared to the same quarter last year, GM did see a 20 percent increase in revenue from countries outside of North America, including places like China, Russia, Brazil and India.

"We continue to leverage our global product portfolio to take advantage of tremendous growth in key emerging markets, while at the same time taking the appropriate actions to deal with the challenging economic conditions in the U.S.," Rick Wagoner said in a statement. Wagoner is GM's chairman and chief executive officer.