ELECTRIC VEHICLES
Shell inks charging deal
Royal Dutch Shell PLC is linking up with some of the world’s biggest carmakers to expand its electric-vehicle charging business in Europe as it prepares for life beyond oil. The second-biggest oil company has agreed with IONITY — a Munich-based venture between BMW Group, Daimler AG, Ford Motor Co and Volkswagen AG — to start charging stations in 10 European nations, Shell said in a statement yesterday. The agreement builds on Shell’s acquisition of Europe’s largest electric-vehicle charging provider NewMotion last month. Shell and IONITY are initially to have charging points at 80 of Shell’s biggest highway fuel stations, with an average of six posts in each.
SAUDI ARABIA
Arrests spark stock sell-off
Foreign investors were net sellers of Saudi Arabian equities for a third straight week after authorities launched a major crackdown on corruption, but by a smaller margin than in the previous week, exchange data showed on Sunday. The crackdown, which has involved the arrest of dozens of senior officials and businessmen and the freezing of more than 2,000 Saudi Arabian bank accounts, has alarmed investors, who fear it could damage the economy and lead to forced sales of assets. Foreign investors sold 835 million riyals (US$223 million) of Saudi Arabian stocks and bought 598 million riyals in the week through Thursday last week, resulting in net selling of 237 million riyals. That compares with net selling of 309 million riyals in the week to Nov. 16 and 1.08 billion riyals in the week to Nov. 9, immediately after the purge was announced. The latest data also showed selling by Saudi Arabian individual investors easing.
UNITED KINGDOM
State tackles weak industry
Britain pitched a new strategy for industry yesterday that sees greater state intervention to tackle weak productivity and to help the world’s sixth largest economy cope with the upheaval of leaving the EU. The government said it had secured major investments from global healthcare company MSD, known as Merck & Co in the US, and German-based diagnostics company Qiagen ahead of the publication of the strategy. While the Financial Times estimated the value of the investments at more than ￡1 billion (US$1.3 million), MSD said it was too early to give an investment figure and Qiagen also gave no number. Life sciences is one of four sectors being targeted by the government, which will also focus on construction, artificial intelligence and the automotive industry.
JAPAN
Firm regrets Chinese ban
A Japanese cosmetics firm has apologized for a sign banning entry for Chinese people posted in one of its outlets, highlighting lingering hostility to foreign visitors from some in Japan as it strives to extend a shopping-driven tourism boom. Pola, a unit of Pola Orbis Holdings Inc, on Saturday said that images of an “inappropriate” poster were on Friday shared on Chinese social media sites, without specifying the contents or location of the offending item. Photos of a sign handwritten in Japanese saying “Entry by Chinese people prohibited” in a shop window were trending on Chinese and Taiwanese social media on Sunday. Pola, which has about 4,600 stores across Japan, apologized for causing “unpleasant feelings and inconvenience to many people” and said it had removed the sign. Japan is weighing looser visa rules for tourists from China, sources told Reuters earlier this year.
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: The US company could switch orders from TSMC to alternative suppliers, but that would lower chip quality, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), whose products have become the hottest commodity in the technology world, on Wednesday said that the scramble for a limited amount of supply has frustrated some customers and raised tensions. “The demand on it is so great, and everyone wants to be first and everyone wants to be most,” he told the audience at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc technology conference in San Francisco. “We probably have more emotional customers today. Deservedly so. It’s tense. We’re trying to do the best we can.” Huang’s company is experiencing strong demand for its latest generation of chips, called
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
GLOBAL ECONOMY: Policymakers have a choice of a small 25 basis-point cut or a bold cut of 50 basis points, which would help the labor market, but might reignite inflation The US Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut in more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the US presidential election. Senior officials at the US central bank including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool. The Fed, which has a dual mandate from the US Congress to act independently to ensure
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