Chery suffers loss in Q1 and 'plans layoffs'

　　 Chery Automobile Co, headquartered in Anhui, lost 191 million yuan ($31 million) in thefirst quarter and is planning on slashing jobs to cut costs, China Business Newsreported on Monday.

　　Chery has been reeling with problems, including excessively long production lines,constantly changing its managers, and heavy losses. Its various sub-brands have beendisputing each other for market share, causing brand confusion.

　　As a result, in April this year, the company decided to suspend some of its sub-brandsincluding Ruilin, Rely and Karry. But the debt ratio remained high according to thecompany's first quarter financial report.

　　An inside source, who requested anonymity, told CBN that Chery was planning to slashjobs to cut costs, but the size of the layoff was not clear.

　　It is believed that the company will do away with 9,000 jobs, but the number might beexaggerated, according to the insider.

　　Operating profits have suffered a 191 million yuan loss compared with 234 million yuanin the first quarter of 2012.

　　Meanwhile, Chery's funded liability keeps rising from 2.9 million yuan in the first quarterof 2012 to 3.7 million yuan for the same period in 2013. Its total debt is 50.3 millionyuan, and the debt ratio has risen from 73.58 percent in first quarter 2012 to 74.22percent a year later.