Luxury automaker Infiniti yesterday said it would manufacture cars in China for the first time starting in 2014, joining a rush by global automakers to expand production in the world’s biggest auto market even as sales growth fades.
Infiniti, owned by Nissan Motor Co, said two of its models would be produced in factories run by Nissan and its Chinese joint-venture partner. It will be Infiniti’s first production outside Japan.
“For the brand to reach its aggressive sales target of 500,000 units by 2016, local production in the world’s largest automobile market is not an option but a necessity to our success,” Andy Palmer, executive vice president of the Global Infiniti & Luxury Business Unit, said in a statement.
Photo: Reuters
Growth in China’s vehicle sales plunged from an eye-popping 35 percent in 2010 to just 2.5 percent last year as the economy slowed. That is forecast to rebound to about 5 percent this year — stronger than the US or Europe, but a challenge for automakers that added new assembly lines during the boom, leading to a glut of supplies.
Also this week, Ford Motor Co said it would build a US$760 million auto assembly plant in Hangzhou, part of plans to double its China capacity to 1.2 million vehicles a year.
To many, Tatu City on the outskirts of Nairobi looks like a success. The first city entirely built by a private company to be operational in east Africa, with about 25,000 people living and working there, it accounts for about two-thirds of all foreign investment in Kenya. Its low-tax status has attracted more than 100 businesses including Heineken, coffee brand Dormans, and the biggest call-center and cold-chain transport firms in the region. However, to some local politicians, Tatu City has looked more like a target for extortion. A parade of governors have demanded land worth millions of dollars in exchange
An Indonesian animated movie is smashing regional box office records and could be set for wider success as it prepares to open beyond the Southeast Asian archipelago’s silver screens. Jumbo — a film based on the adventures of main character, Don, a large orphaned Indonesian boy facing bullying at school — last month became the highest-grossing Southeast Asian animated film, raking in more than US$8 million. Released at the end of March to coincide with the Eid holidays after the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan, the movie has hit 8 million ticket sales, the third-highest in Indonesian cinema history, Film
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) revenue jumped 48 percent last month, underscoring how electronics firms scrambled to acquire essential components before global tariffs took effect. The main chipmaker for Apple Inc and Nvidia Corp reported monthly sales of NT$349.6 billion (US$11.6 billion). That compares with the average analysts’ estimate for a 38 percent rise in second-quarter revenue. US President Donald Trump’s trade war is prompting economists to retool GDP forecasts worldwide, casting doubt over the outlook for everything from iPhone demand to computing and datacenter construction. However, TSMC — a barometer for global tech spending given its central role in the
Alchip Technologies Ltd (世芯), an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) designer specializing in server chips, expects revenue to decline this year due to sagging demand for 5-nanometer artificial intelligence (AI) chips from a North America-based major customer, a company executive said yesterday. That would be the first contraction in revenue for Alchip as it has been enjoying strong revenue growth over the past few years, benefiting from cloud-service providers’ moves to reduce dependence on Nvidia Corp’s expensive AI chips by building their own AI accelerator by outsourcing chip design. The 5-nanometer chip was supposed to be a new growth engine as the lifecycle
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