Germany’s decision to phase out nuclear power after the Fukushima Dai-ichi catastrophe in Japan could lead to some of the country’s major companies relocating elsewhere in search of cheaper energy.
“It is important that we remain competitive compared with other countries. Otherwise, a global company like Bayer will have to consider relocating its production to countries with lower energy costs,” said Marijn Dekkers, head of Bayer, the pharmaceuticals group.
HIGHER COSTS
Under a package of energy bills passed last month by the German government, all nuclear power facilities in the country will be taken offline by 2022. Analysts say that the move will hit energy companies hard and contribute to an increase in electricity prices.
Dekkers told the business magazine WirtschaftsWoche that Germany’s electricity costs were already the highest in the EU, making the country “unattractive” for the chemicals industry.
Bayer, which developed the first aspirin in 1897, employs more than 35,000 people in Germany. Dekkers said that his company was planning 4,500 job cuts worldwide — including 1,700 in Germany — but that it was already investing in emerging markets.
“Overall, we will create over 2,500 new jobs in countries like Brazil, India, Russia or China,” he told WirtschaftsWoche.
The report also quoted Robert Hoffmann, head of the communications company 1&1, saying that taxes to subsidize renewable energy sources were too high in Germany. Hoffmann said that his company drew energy from Norwegian hydropower plants, but that it still had to pay a contribution to German renewable energy costs.
SOLAR SUBSIDY
“Essentially, we’re subsidizing the construction of solar-powered roofs ... So we end up paying double,” he said.
In a report released last week, the Swedish energy company Vattenfall attributed a fall of 10.2 billion Swedish krona (US$1.58 billion) in operating profit for the second quarter of this year to “a one-off effect of the German parliament’s decision to phase out the country’s nuclear power.”
The move has also prompted concerns about disrupted power supplies. German transmission system operators have warned there could be a risk of power outages this winter, and have questioned the reliability of renewable energy sources.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained