The owner of Australia’s McGuigan wine label said yesterday that it had won a distribution deal with China’s state-owned food conglomerate COFCO Ltd (中國糧油集團), giving it a chance to tap into the vast market.
Australian Vintage Ltd said that it had signed a long-term agreement with COFCO Wine and Spirits to distribute McGuigan wine, effective immediately.
“There is currently an opportunity for Australian wine in China and it is one of the most exciting emerging markets for the global wine industry,” chief executive Neil McGuigan said.
China overtook France as the world’s largest consumer of red wine last year, guzzling 1.865 billion bottles, according to Vinexpo Asia-Pacific.
However, growth has begun to stall as Beijing reins in luxury spending and extravagant banquets against the backdrop of a slower economy, with people increasingly turning to cheaper wines. McGuigan said Australian Vintage hoped the deal could help it reach the “substantial targets we have set ourselves.”
He added that the partnership with COFCO was an honor because “they are a forward-thinking wine distribution company that understands the need to take the Chinese consumer on the wine journey.”
In a statement, COFCO Wine and Spirits general manager Li Shiyi (李士禕) said wines from Australia would be key for Chinese consumers.
“There is no doubt that Australian wine will play a critical role in the future of wine in China,” he said.
HORMUZ ISSUE: The US president said he expected crude prices to drop at the end of the war, which he called a ‘minor excursion’ that could continue ‘for a little while’ The United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Kuwait started reducing oil production, as the near-closure of the crucial Strait of Hormuz ripples through energy markets and affects global supply. Abu Dhabi National Oil Co (ADNOC) is “managing offshore production levels to address storage requirements,” the company said in a statement, without giving details. Kuwait Petroleum Corp said it was lowering production at its oil fields and refineries after “Iranian threats against safe passage of ships through the Strait of Hormuz.” The war in the Middle East has all but closed Hormuz, the narrow waterway linking the Persian Gulf to the open seas,
Apple Inc increased iPhone production in India by about 53 percent last year and now makes a quarter of its marquee devices there, reflecting the US company’s efforts to avoid tariffs on China. The company assembled about 55 million iPhones in India last year, up from 36 million a year earlier, people familiar with the matter said, asking not to be named because the numbers aren’t public. Apple makes about 220 million to 230 million iPhones a year globally, with India’s share of the total increasing rapidly. Apple has accelerated its expansion in the world’s most populous country in recent years, bolstered
RATIONING: The proposal would give the Trump administration ample leverage to negotiate investments in the US as it decides how many chips to give each country US officials are debating a new regulatory framework for exporting artificial intelligence (AI) chips and are considering requiring foreign nations to invest in US AI data centers or security guarantees as a condition for granting exports of 200,000 chips or more, according to a document seen by Reuters. The rules are not yet final and could change. They would be the first attempt to regulate the flow of AI chips to US allies and partners since US President Donald Trump’s administration said it rescinded its predecessor’s so-called AI diffusion rules. Those rules sought to keep a significant amount of AI
HEADWINDS: The company said it expects its computer business, as well as consumer electronics and communications segments to see revenue declines due to seasonality Pegatron Corp (和碩) yesterday said it aims to grow its artificial intelligence (AI) server revenue more than 10-fold this year from last year, driven by orders from neocloud solutions clients and large cloud service providers. The electronics manufacturing service provider said AI server revenue growth would be driven primarily by the Nvidia Corp GB300 server platform. Server shipments are expected to increase each quarter this year, with the second half likely to outperform the first half, it said. The AI server market is expected to broaden this year as more inference applications emerge, which would drive demand for system-on-chip, application-specific integrated circuits
RSS