Are there under currents in the ultra-luxo market?

The news is not necessarily striking unless you blindly believe that the ultra-rich are untouchable.  The world continues to muddle through its economic malaise.  The $trillion European bailout seems to have very limited influence over what the markets think.  The Euro continues to tank and at last reading has broken into the 1.25s with considerable verbiage being written on parity in the not to distant future.

Another telling sign for me is the flood of sales of extreme-high end collector cars.  Selling near the top of the market is a task left to the magical.  But a variety of ultra-ultra high end collectibles have been exchanging hands for unheard of prices.  The record price for a Picaso of over $100million.  The sale of 1962 Ferrari GTO for $26million.  The sale of a rare Bugatti for an undisclosed sum of between $30-40Million.  These are only a very small sampling of recent sales.

And so it is with great interest that I read today about Ferrari and the potential for laying off workers, assembly and administration, closing of the plant for a specified period in the summer and other similar news.  Maserati has reduced their engine orders with Ferrari, and Ferrari is cutting their production almost in half from 20,000 to 11,000.  Not surprising considering their Q1 profits are down 28%.  I will keep watching and learning.

Ferrari looks at layoffs, cuts back production

LAT PHOTOGRAPHIC

We guess it's not all GTOs and 458 Italias. The word out of Italy is that Ferrari is looking at cutting production and eliminating 9 percent of its workers after sister company Maserati cut engine orders.

Ferrari made only about 4,500 engines for Maserati last year, compared with nearly 9,000 in 2008.

According to Automotive News Europe, workers walked out for four hours on Tuesday because Ferrari wants to cut 120 office positions and 150 factory jobs.

Ferrari plans to close its Maranello, Italy, plant for a week starting on May 17, giving about 600 workers the week off. Ferrari employs about 3,000 people.

Ferrari also is cutting 2010 production to 11,000 cars, from 20,000. The company claims it is focusing its money on product development, technological innovation and reaching new customers, although Ferrari's first-quarter profit was down 28 percent.

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This article was last updated on: 05/12/10, 12:03 et

Read more: http://www.autoweek.com/article/20100512/CARNEWS/100519968#ixzz0npjWr61q