Japan’s government-owned bank is planning to set up a ¥50 billion (US$617 million) fund to support auto parts makers hit by the March 11 quake and tsunami, an official said yesterday.
The Development Bank of Japan will launch the fund next month, asking major commercial banks for investment, the bank official said.
“The East Japan Great Disaster seriously damaged supply chains of auto parts makers, and we have been discussing possible financial support for them,” said the official, who declined to be named.
“Our negotiation is in the final stage,” the official said. “The size is likely to be as big as ¥50 billion,” he said, adding that the bank was scheduled to make an official announcement soon.
Under the plan, the bank will offer the investment to the Japan Auto Parts Industries Association, which will then provide cash for its member firms as well as their subcontractors.
Japan has 800 major auto parts manufacturers supplying interior equipment and parts such as air conditioners to the nation’s automakers.
Under these major auto parts makers, there are 4,000 subcontractors and 20,000 sub--subcontractors, local media reported.
Japanese auto giants Toyota and Honda saw global production halved last month as the disaster ravaged supply chains, the companies said on Friday.
The quake and the resulting tsunami shattered component supply chains and crippled -electricity-generating facilities, including a nuclear power plant at the center of an ongoing atomic emergency.
Amid power and parts shortages, Toyota had announced production disruptions domestically and in the US, Europe, China and Australia because of the crisis, temporarily slowing output or shutting plants.
Many component manufacturers that are key to auto production are based in the worst-hit regions of Japan, their facilities damaged by the magnitude 9 earthquake or inundated by the giant wave that followed.
While most plants resumed production by the middle of last month, operations remain well below capacity and analysts say parts shortages could go on for months, with the threat of summer power shortages also casting a shadow over the economy.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last