AUTOMAKERS
US probes Nissan recall
US regulators are looking into whether a recall last year by Nissan Motor Co, Japan’s second-largest automaker, failed to fix a flaw in the air-bag control systems on almost 1 million vehicles. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened a query on Wednesday last week, citing 124 complaints filed by motorists after the recall began in April last year, according to a notice posted on the regulator’s Web site. Some drivers alleged the flaw persists after multiple repairs by dealers. Nissan recalled 989,701 vehicles last year, saying the software may incorrectly classify the passenger seat as empty when it is occupied by an adult. This may lead to a failure of the air bag to deploy during a crash and could increase the risk of injury to the passenger, according to a filing with the regulator by the Yokohama, Japan-based carmaker.
TRANSPORT
India paper invests in Uber
Uber Technologies Inc said the publisher of India’s most-read English newspaper has taken a small stake in the ride-hailing application company as part of a strategic partnership to support its expansion. The deal with Times Internet Ltd will help increase the marketing and distribution of Uber’s services to more than 200 million consumers in India, the US company said in a statement on its blog, without giving details of the investment. Times Internet is a fully owned unit of Bennett, Coleman & Co, the flagship company of the Times of India Group and publisher of the newspaper. Uber counts India as its biggest market outside the US and the fastest growing globally. Baidu Inc (百度), China’s largest Internet search engine, in December agreed to invest in Uber.
TELECOMS
Micromax seeks investors
Micromax Informatics Ltd., the Indian smartphone maker threatening Samsung Electronics Co’s lead in the world’s second-largest market, plans to raise more capital to help it break away from foreign rivals. The closely held company is considering outside investment to develop locally focused software to complement mobile phones already available in 21 local languages, CEO Vineet Taneja said. Micromax expects to hit US$2 billion in sales in the fiscal year that ends this month, Taneja said, up from US$1.2 billion last year. “It will be critical to differentiate ourselves through something beyond the hardware,” Taneja said in an interview at the company’s New Delhi headquarters. “The Internet services space does require money because it requires investment, new capabilities and strategic partnerships.” Micromax became one of India’s top two smartphone vendors by offering affordable devices tailored to a market where carriers typically do not subsidize phones and dozens of languages are spoken.
SECURITIES
China to ease foreign rules
China is considering sweeping changes to its securities industry that would allow foreign banks to control their local joint ventures and broaden their offerings, people with knowledge of the matter said. Overseas firms could be allowed to own majority stakes in local ventures as soon as this year, and they may ultimately be able to take full control, the people said. Regulators also plan to give foreign-owned joint ventures permission to expand into areas beyond stock and bond underwriting, they said, asking not to be named as the deliberations are private. Easing restrictions that currently limit overseas banks to 49 percent ownership will let them more effectively compete with incumbents such as Citic Securities Co (中信證券).
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his
Taiwan’s official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) last month rose 0.2 percentage points to 54.2, in a second consecutive month of expansion, thanks to front-loading demand intended to avoid potential US tariff hikes, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. While short-term demand appeared robust, uncertainties rose due to US President Donald Trump’s unpredictable trade policy, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s economy this year would be characterized by high-level fluctuations and the volatility would be wilder than most expect, Lien said Demand for electronics, particularly semiconductors, continues to benefit from US technology giants’ effort
ADVERSARIES: The new list includes 11 entities in China and one in Taiwan, which is a local branch of Chinese cloud computing firm Inspur Group The US added dozens of entities to a trade blacklist on Tuesday, the US Department of Commerce said, in part to disrupt Beijing’s artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced computing capabilities. The action affects 80 entities from countries including China, the United Arab Emirates and Iran, with the commerce department citing their “activities contrary to US national security and foreign policy.” Those added to the “entity list” are restricted from obtaining US items and technologies without government authorization. “We will not allow adversaries to exploit American technology to bolster their own militaries and threaten American lives,” US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said. The entities
Minister of Finance Chuang Tsui-yun (莊翠雲) yesterday told lawmakers that she “would not speculate,” but a “response plan” has been prepared in case Taiwan is targeted by US President Donald Trump’s reciprocal tariffs, which are to be announced on Wednesday next week. The Trump administration, including US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, has said that much of the proposed reciprocal tariffs would focus on the 15 countries that have the highest trade surpluses with the US. Bessent has referred to those countries as the “dirty 15,” but has not named them. Last year, Taiwan’s US$73.9 billion trade surplus with the US
RSS