Leaders of the big three US automakers have all spoken at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, Michigan, about how US president-elect Trump might impact the industry, but the third, from GM, offered the most business-as-usual message. Trump has slammed US carmakers Ford, Fiat Chrysler and GM’s Chevrolet brand for manufacturing cars in Mexico to export to the US market, threatening them with import tariffs.
He has also blasted free-trade agreements.
Ford executive chairman William Ford Jr and Fiat Chrysler chief executive Sergio Marchionne offered their views on Monday, at the start of the important auto industry showcase.
Ford said Trump has been receptive to industry concerns, while Marchionne was taking a wait-and-see approach, but planning no additional Mexico investments for the time being.
GM chief executive Mary Barra was the last to be heard on Tuesday and she held firm to her plans for the biggest of the US automakers. She refused to speculate on whether a new White House may require the company to alter course — particularly with regard to investments in Mexico.
“We think there’s many things that we can do in working with the administration that are going to make America great again, that are going to strengthen business, which will strengthen growth, which will strengthen jobs,” she said, evoking Trump’s campaign slogan.
GM’s Chevrolet Cruze was the target of Trump’s Twitter attack a week earlier, but Barra said only that she looked forward to conversing with Trump once he takes office on Friday next week.
“We’re going to have an active voice as trade policy changes or evolves, but the foundation of our strategy is to build where we sell,” she told reporters.
GM, which includes four US brands — Chevrolet, Buick, Cadillac and GMC — has production plants in Mexico and even announced on Tuesday that the new version of the GMC Terrain, a sports utility vehicle currently produced in Canada, would be made in Mexico.
“These decisions were made two and three years ago” and involve “big investments,” Barra said.
Trump’s applauded the other two US automakers when they touted plans for US investments.
Barra said she, too, expected to have the administration’s ear as it takes power and begins work on its to-do list.
“When I think you look at our industry, and General Motors specifically, of how much we already contribute to jobs, we think that voice will be heard as any policy is set,” Barra said.
GM had good news on Tuesday, as it raised its earnings outlook for this year, attributed to expected solid final sales figures for last year. Its expected earnings per share was bumped up to between US$6 and US$6.5 for this year, from US$5.5 to US$6 last year.
“We had a great year in 2016 in every respect,” Barra said.
GM also said it would ramp up its global volume of crossovers, trucks and sports utility vehicles, models which accounted for approximately 60 percent of all US auto sales last year.
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
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
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],”
MAJOR BENEFICIARY: The company benefits from TSMC’s advanced packaging scarcity, given robust demand for Nvidia AI chips, analysts said ASE Technology Holding Co (ASE, 日月光投控), the world’s biggest chip packaging and testing service provider, yesterday said it is raising its equipment capital expenditure budget by 10 percent this year to expand leading-edge and advanced packing and testing capacity amid strong artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing chip demand. This is on top of the 40 to 50 percent annual increase in its capital spending budget to more than the US$1.7 billion to announced in February. About half of the equipment capital expenditure would be spent on leading-edge and advanced packaging and testing technology, the company said. ASE is considered by analysts