Toyota Motor Corp and Honda Motor Co’s Chinese ventures joined Daimler AG’s Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen AG’s Audi in reducing prices of spare parts amid an antitrust investigation into the auto industry.
GAC Toyota Motor Co, the Japanese automaker’s venture with China’s GAC Group, is to cut prices on some components from Monday next week, according to a statement yesterday on its Web site.
Guangqi Honda Automobile Co, Honda’s venture with GAC, is to lower prices of some auto parts from Sept. 1, according to a separate statement.
China, the world’s largest auto market, is stepping up scrutiny over how much foreign automakers charge for vehicles and spare parts.
The government began looking into possible antitrust violations in the auto industry at the end of 2011 when Chinese media outlets accused manufacturers of inflating prices and overcharging consumers.
20 PERCENT CUT
Bayerische Motoren Werke AG is to reduce prices on more than 2,000 components by an average of 20 percent starting Aug. 11, the Munich, Germany-based automaker said in an e-mailed statement on Thursday.
Daimler plans to cut spare-part prices for its Mercedes Benz vehicles in China by an average of 15 percent starting next month.
Audi’s Chinese joint venture said late last month that the brand would lower replacement costs of its parts by as much as 38 percent on Aug. 1.
Antitrust officials in Jiangsu Province have begun investigations of Mercedes Benz dealers in five cities, including Suzhou and Wuxi, while Mercedes Benz’s Shanghai office was raided by local officials of China’s National Development and Reform Commission, a spokesman for the commission, Li Pumin, said in a briefing in Beijing on Wednesday.
CHRYSLER
The government is also soon to punish Chrysler Group LLC and Audi for engaging in monopolistic actions, he said.
The commission is undertaking the investigation to protect the competitive order of the auto industry and safeguard consumer interests, Li said at the briefing.
It has completed an investigation into 12 Japanese companies and is soon to announce the actions it is to take, he said.
BUSINESS UPDATE: The iPhone assembler said operations outlook is expected to show quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year growth for the second quarter Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported strong growth in sales last month, potentially raising expectations for iPhone sales while artificial intelligence (AI)-related business booms. The company, which assembles the majority of Apple Inc’s smartphones, reported a 19.03 percent rise in monthly sales to NT$510.9 billion (US$15.78 billion), from NT$429.22 billion in the same period last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 14.16 percent, it said. The company in a statement said that last month’s revenue was a record-breaking April performance. Hon Hai, known also as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), assembles most iPhones, but the company is diversifying its business to
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Microsoft Corp yesterday said that it would create Thailand’s first data center region to boost cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure, promising AI training to more than 100,000 people to develop tech. Bangkok is a key economic player in Southeast Asia, but it has lagged behind Indonesia and Singapore when it comes to the tech industry. Thailand has an “incredible opportunity to build a digital-first, AI-powered future,” Microsoft chairman and chief executive officer Satya Nadella said at an event in Bangkok. Data center regions are physical locations that store computing infrastructure, allowing secure and reliable access to cloud platforms. The global embrace of AI
Qualcomm Inc, the world’s biggest seller of smartphone processors, gave an upbeat forecast for sales and profit in the current period, suggesting demand for handsets is increasing after a two-year slump. Revenue in the three months ended in June will be US$8.8 billion to US$9.6 billion, the company said in a statement Wednesday. Excluding certain items, earnings will be US$2.15 to US$2.35 a share. Analysts had projected sales of US$9.08 billion and earnings of US$2.16 a share. The outlook signals that the smartphone market has begun to bounce back, tracking with Qualcomm’s forecast that demand would gradually recover this year. The San