AUTOMAKERS
Strike hits GM S Africa plant
General Motors Co (GM) yesterday said it had suspended production at its main South African assembly plant in the southeastern city of Port Elizabeth because a strike by the country’s biggest union had hit components suppliers. The engineering and metal workers’ strike shows no signs of abating after the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) rejected an increased employers’ wage offer late on Thursday, the Steel and Engineering Industries Federation of Southern Africa said. The NUMSA-led stoppage by more than 200,000 members began on Tuesday, dealing a fresh blow to Africa’s most advanced economy following a crippling five-month platinum mining stoppage that ended last week. GM’s suspension of output at Port Elizabeth signaled an escalating impact from the strike.
FINANCE
1MDB to list power assets
Sovereign wealth fund 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) has said it plans to raise more than 3 billion ringgit (more than US$1 billion) by listing its energy assets, in what would be the country’s second-biggest initial public offering. The state-backed investor said on Thursday it had “commenced activities” to list on Bursa Malaysia in the fourth quarter of the year. The proceeds from the offering will go toward funding future growth and parts of the company’s outstanding debt, 1MDB said. However, analysts have cast doubt on the long-term prospects of the stock, pointing to uncertainty over its ability to service its high debt, which stood at 37 billion ringgit by the end of March last year. Responding to critics, 1MDB says its debts are backed by operational assets “with healthy cash flows and strong growth potential.”
TECHNOLOGY
China replacing servers
China is replacing imported servers after the successful trial of a local brand by a state-owned bank as the nation steps up a campaign for information security, the official People’s Daily newspaper reported yesterday. Inspur Group Ltd’s (浪潮集團) Tiansuo K1 system has replaced imported servers “in large quantity” after its successful use by China Construction Bank Corp’s (中國建設銀行) Xinjiang branch, the newspaper said. The branch started testing the hardware in August 2010 and used the system for all businesses in 2011, replacing hardware from International Business Machines Corp, the report said, citing Lin Leiming, a deputy manager at the bank’s information technology department. More industries including power, oil and agriculture will start to use Inspur’s Tiansuo K1 system, according to the report, which did not provide details and cited Wang for the information.
AUTOMAKERS
BMW plans Mexico factory
Germany’s BMW announced on Thursday it would spend US$1 billion to build a new luxury car factory in northern Mexico that will start production in 2019 as part of an effort to expand the company’s presence in the US. BMW board member Harald Kruger said the plant in the northern state of San Luis Potosi will have an annual capacity of 150,000 cars and employ 1,500 people. Kruger said BMW’s only other North American factory, in Spartanburg, South Carolina, will receive US$1 billion in investment to increase its production capacity to 450,000 cars by the end of 2016. The announcement came a week after Daimler and Renault-Nissan said they would spend US$1.6 billion on a factory in Mexico to make premium compact cars for the Infiniti and Mercedes brands.
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
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
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