AUTOMAKERS
Audi targets top spot
Volkswagen AG’s Audi unit, the world’s second-biggest maker of luxury cars, plans to spend 22 billion euros (US$30.3 billion) through 2018 developing new models and expanding production to gain the premium segment’s top spot. About 15.4 billion euros, or 70 percent of the total, will be invested in new cars and sport-utility vehicles along with developing technology, the Ingolstadt, Germany-based carmaker said today in a statement. Audi targets 2 million deliveries annually after achieving a goal of selling 1.5 million cars this year, two years ahead of its original plan. The budget is equivalent to spending 4.4 billion euros a year, an increase from a previous plan that called for investing 4.3 billion euros annually on new models and expanding production capacity.
AUTOMAKERS
GM to recall cars in China
General Motors Co’s (GM) China joint venture will recall close to 1.5 million vehicles due to potential safety issues in one of the biggest recalls in the world’s biggest autos market. Shanghai General Motors Co Ltd, GM’s venture with SAIC Motor Corp 上海汽車), will recall about 1.46 million Buick and Chevrolet models produced locally due to issues with a bracket that secures the fuel pump, the country’s quality watchdog said on Friday. Some of the recalled vehicles include the Chevy Sail which is exported to emerging markets, a Shanghai-based GM official said. Separately, the watchdog said Ford Motor Co’s joint venture with Chongqing Changan Automobile Co ( 重慶長安汽車) Ltd will recall close to 81,000 of its Kuga cars over a steering part.
DIPLOMACY
UN agrees budget cut
The UN General Assembly on Friday ordered a staff and budget cut for the world body under pressure from the US and other austerity-stricken industrialized powers. After protracted negotiations, the 193-nation assembly agreed to cut 221 staff at the UN headquarters and ordered a one-year pay freeze for the more than 10,000 workers in New York. UN members also voted to cut the UN’s general budget to US$5.5 billion for 2014-15, US$50 million below the final spending level for the previous two years. Joe Torsella, the US diplomat in charge of UN management affairs, hailed the move to “eliminate unnecessary, duplicative or outdated” jobs.
SOVEREIGN DEBT
Brazil narrows debt gap
Brazil’s ratio of net debt to GDP was the lowest last month since 1997, as the government took in one-time payments of back taxes and oil auction fees. Net debt to GDP fell last month to 33.9 percent, after Brazil posted the narrowest budget deficit in ten months, the central bank said in a report distributed in Brasilia today. The number was lower than every estimate from six economists surveyed by Bloomberg, whose median forecast was 34.4 percent. Standard & Poor’s in June placed Brazil’s rating on negative outlook, and Moody’s Investors Service in October lowered its outlook to stable from positive, citing deteriorating debt and investment ratios and evidence of slow growth. Brazil’s fiscal performance will continue to improve through next year, Treasury secretary Arno Augustin told reporters yesterday in Brasilia.
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
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
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