In 2009-2011, during profitable times, semiconductor makers over-spent on capital equipment, and this has come back to bite them in the form of production overcapacity.

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The EU proposed to further limit greenhouse gas emissions from cars by 2020, stirring unease in an industry already suffering from a slump in demand and production overcapacity.

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And it has considerable stocks of cars to plug any gap in production one potential upside of that overcapacity.

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Alex Kinmont, an investment analyst for Morgan Stanley, points out that the domestic overcapacity in Japan's car market is equivalent to Britain's total car production.

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