The slump in Japan’s global auto production eased last month as a record month in China for Toyota, Honda and Nissan offset dire market conditions elsewhere.
Toyota Motor Corp, the world’s top automaker, partly credited a boost in production in Asia for its first year-on-year overseas production rise in 13 months last month. Production of 309,589 vehicles was up 4.7 percent from the same month the previous year.
Toyota’s global production remained sluggish at 508,673 vehicles, down 8.7 percent from a year earlier.
Toyota’s China production was a record high last month at 58,592 vehicles, up 53.4 percent from the same month the previous year.
Honda Motor Co also racked up record production in China, although its worldwide production fell year-on-year for the 10th straight month.
Nissan Motor Co, allied with Renault SA of France, was another automaker with record production in China at 44,441 vehicles last month, surging 60.1 percent.
Nissan’s global production sank 13.7 percent from a year earlier to 217,954 vehicles.
Mazda Motor Corp produced 84,823 vehicles around the world last month, down 12.8 percent from the same month last year.
Mitsubishi Motors Corp produced 62,924 vehicles globally last month, down 32.1 percent.
In Italy’s storied gold-making hubs, jewelers are reworking their designs to trim gold content as they race to blunt the effect of record prices and appeal to shoppers watching their budgets. Gold prices hit a record high on Thursday, surging near US$5,600 an ounce, more than double a year ago as geopolitical concerns and jitters over trade pushed investors toward the safe-haven asset. The rally is putting undue pressure on small artisans as they face mounting demands from customers, including international brands, to produce cheaper items, from signature pieces to wedding rings, according to interviews with four independent jewelers in Italy’s main
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has talked up the benefits of a weaker yen in a campaign speech, adopting a tone at odds with her finance ministry, which has refused to rule out any options to counter excessive foreign exchange volatility. Takaichi later softened her stance, saying she did not have a preference for the yen’s direction. “People say the weak yen is bad right now, but for export industries, it’s a major opportunity,” Takaichi said on Saturday at a rally for Liberal Democratic Party candidate Daishiro Yamagiwa in Kanagawa Prefecture ahead of a snap election on Sunday. “Whether it’s selling food or
CONCERNS: Tech companies investing in AI businesses that purchase their products have raised questions among investors that they are artificially propping up demand Nvidia Corp chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) on Saturday said that the company would be participating in OpenAI’s latest funding round, describing it as potentially “the largest investment we’ve ever made.” “We will invest a great deal of money,” Huang told reporters while visiting Taipei. “I believe in OpenAI. The work that they do is incredible. They’re one of the most consequential companies of our time.” Huang did not say exactly how much Nvidia might contribute, but described the investment as “huge.” “Let Sam announce how much he’s going to raise — it’s for him to decide,” Huang said, referring to OpenAI
Nvidia Corp’s negotiations to invest as much as US$100 billion in OpenAI have broken down, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported, exposing a potential rift between two of the most powerful companies in the artificial intelligence (AI) industry. The discussions stalled after some inside Nvidia expressed concerns about the transaction, the WSJ reported, citing unidentified people familiar with the deliberations. OpenAI makes the popular chatbot ChatGPT, while Nvidia dominates the market for AI processors that help develop such software. The companies announced the agreement in September last year, saying at the time that they had signed a letter of intent for a strategic
RSS