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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (April 12, 1982)
national Battalion/Pi April 12, Car inventories drop; fewest built since 1958 United Press International DETROIT — Automakers have a 59-day supply of new cars on hand, marking the first time since last fall that inventories have dropped below the indus try’s optimum level, according to a trade publication. Ward’s Automotive Reports also said Friday that U.S. manu facturers will build only 5.1 mil lion cars in the 1982 model year — the lowest production since 1958. Inventories on March 31 were 11 days below the 70-day level recorded Feb. 28. A year ago, however, end-of-March in ventories stood at 44 days. This is the first time since last summer backlogs have been be low the 60-day level — the mark at which the industry considers itself adequately stocked. The number of cars on hand totaled 1,247,000. The smaller inventories appa rently are due to automakers’ production cuts in the first quar ter plus the extensive rebate plans offered by all five firms in March. Ford Motor Co. had the in dustry’s lowest supply of cars — 51 days — followed by General Motors Corp. with 59 days and Chrysler Corp. with 62 days. American Motors Corp. had 81 days worth of cars on hand while Volkswagen of America had a 95-day supply. Ward’s said, nowetti, lories are likely tocliml] as automakers prepart traditional spring sell The trade journal ils price hikes could fol achievement o! lower levels. It said GMI announced it was up|i prices an average percent. Ford held announcement until Mil The publication production reports 5.1 million units to be year are 23 percent year’s 6.6 million cars From bluegrass to bluebonnets photo by Jane Hollingsworth Bluegrass music by the Skillet Lickers set the mood last week at a Brazos Center agricultural economics banquet for Brazos County farmers, the band was formed three years ago when the members met in Dunn Hall. From left to right, the band members are Irwin Sivin, a senior marketing major from Rockwall; Dale Whittaker, a junior agricultural economics major from Shiloh; Jim Wagner, a senior pre-med major from Dallas; Steve Vogel, a junior petroleum engineering major from Tampa Bay, Fla.; and Dale Tibodeau, a senior industrial engineering major from Dallas. Polish crackdown worsens economy United Press International WASHINGTON — Poland’s martial law has dimmed chances for its economic recovery, it was reported to Congress Saturday. The Polish economy has been devastated by a huge debt to the West, falling exports, raw- material shortages and labor un rest. the report said. “If present cash flow prob lems can be solved, the economy reformed and labor peace re established, Poland has a chance to get its economy back on the track,’’ Commerce Department officials said in the report to Congress’Joint Economic Com mittee. “But, at this time,” the report said, “the outlook for the achievement of these prere quisites is bleak.” The 39-page report was writ ten by Gary Teske of the depart ment’s Office of East-West Poli cy, who cautioned he was not stating official administration policy. “Martial law has not post poned the regime’s labor prob lems. It has only postponed the day when the government again will have to confront them,” Teske said. Rep. Henry Reuss, D-Wis., chairman of the committee, noted that Poland’s economic problems have been building since the mid-1970s and said the political crisis sparked by the emergence of the Solidarity labor movement in 1980 and 1981 was a result, not a cause of those problems. “Martial law will therefore compound, not cure, the Polish economic crisis,” Reuss said. As for the outlook through 1985, the study said, it is difficult- if not impossible to predict Po land’s trade performance and hard currency imports — the key to its economic well-being— because of the uncertainties sur rounding the martial law re gime. “Obtaining financing for hard-currency imports will be Poland’s major difficulty in the next few years,” the study said. “Since the imposition of martial law, Poland’s financial situation has become even more uncer tain.” The study said the reduction in Western credits already has forced Poland to import most of what it needs on a cash-only basis. This will force it to buy only vital goods and the result ing shortage in raw materials may lead to further industrial slowdowns. “In turn, such a development could lead to an intensification of the present domestic econo mic and political turmoil,” the report said. Poland’s economic problems stem from a development policy of the early 1970s that backfired before the end of the decade. The idea was to expand rapidly capital investments and consumption through massive purchases of Western goods and equipment financed by Western credits. The credits were to be paid back with hard-currency earn ings from the exports the Polish government hoped would be generated by the Western- financed industrial moderniza tion. But bureaucratic mismanage ment and bottlenecks in con struction and supplies — com pounded by the Western reces sion of the mid-1970s — caused that strategy to sour. lIFGoodrich BRAZOS TIRE SERVICE AN AGGIE OWNED BUSINESS SINCE 1952 J. N. HOLMGREEN CLASS OF ’44 R. J. HOLMGREEN CLASS OF 47 MIKE A. HOLMGREEN-MANAGER-CLASS OF ’77 2707 TEXAS AVE. BRYI 823-0551 822-142 ■ uc ted war t jfflie wmdswe Unite ■ Argentina Kace forim lands that w< pation in lot Bntish-ownc k :Aii'es newsp I The mo’ State Alexan parture Iroi ™day with 1 ■hatcher a jsjiultle to lie lilnds hadn’t to instil \ an ■ The Br — Snd the com leet gave hi in preparati jhallenge to ]de of the F The Cla military soi Argentine F j tosta Ment 1 fnswer in a nth Haig. Chlorine gas leak in West Virginia forces evacuation United Press International BELLE, W.Va. — Toxic- chlorine gas leaking f rom a che mical plant formed a thick yel low cloud that sent 12 people to hospitals and forced nearly 2,500 area residents to flee their homes for nearly three hours Saturday. Almost all the inhabitants of the southwest W’est Virginia town of Belle, along with resi dents of three nearby hollows, were evacuated due to the leak at a Diamond Shamrock Co. plant. Major highways near the scene were closed. “Everything’s under control now,” Belle Police Chief Larry Conley Saturday said. “We’re just fortunate we didn’t have no wind to amount to anything.” The potentially deadly gas cloud formed when a line car rying liquid chlorine ruptured in two spots and was dispersed with water, officials said. Three chemical company em ployees and nine firefighters were taken to hospitals 10 miles away in Charleston after being overcome by the chlorine, which can be fatal if inhaled in high concentrations. Most of those affected were treated for chlorine inhalation and released. But one plant em ployee, Cornelia Hutchinson, 29, of Charleston, was admitted to the hospital. She was listed in stable condition at the Charles ton Area Medical Center. The leak was reported shortly after 7 a.m. and officials im mediately began evacuating re sidents of the Kanawha River town, using loud speakers mounted on police cruisers. The leak was brought under control after about 90 minutes, Tom Burns of the West Virginia Office of Emergency Services said. Enter the Seven & Seven Weather conditions — cold and damp with light winds — helped authorities to neutralize the cloud with water, he said. “The wind is with us today,” said one unidentified firefighter at a roadblock on U.S. 60. “If the wind had picked up heavily and gone east or west, it would have ate this valley up.” 500 T-shirts, that is. We’ll be raffling them off at College Expo ’82. Just bring this form to our Seagram’s 7 booth to enter the raffle. The good times stir at Fort Lauderdale, March 17-20, and Daytona Beach, March 22-26. So come on down and enter our Seven and Seven 500. You could walk away with a free Seven and Seven T-shirt. 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