AUTOMAKERS
BMW may invest in CATL
BMW AG is the first overseas automaker to get a potential toehold in Chinese electric-car battery maker Contemporary Amperex Technology Co (CATL, 宇德時代), obtaining the right to make an equity investment of as much as 2.85 billion yuan (US$427 million) for an estimated 2 percent stake. BMW Brilliance (華晨寶馬汽車), its Chinese joint venture, is entitled to invest in CATL if the company plans to sell shares in China or abroad, according to a statement from the battery maker yesterday. BMW Brilliance will also prepay 2.85 billion yuan as part of a long-term contract to buy batteries from CATL. Additionally, it is purchasing an 815 million yuan battery-production project from the supplier to make designated products, according to the statement.
E-COMMERCE
Amazon sales a success
Amazon.com Inc’s sales rose sharply during the first three hours of its Prime Day sales event, dispelling fears that the technical glitches that incensed shoppers would significantly hurt business. Shoppers spent 54 percent more in the first three hours of this year’s event — from 3pm to 6pm — than in the first three hours of a year ago, when the shopping bonanza began at 9pm, according to Feedvisor, which sells software to set prices in e-commerce. Amazon’s annual 36-hour shopathon had been expected to drum up US$3.4 billion of spending. However, the e-commerce giant on Monday said that shoppers were having trouble on the site, while numerous customers vented their frustrations on social media with the hashtag #PrimeDayFail. Feedvisor’s estimates that the glitches limited sales in only the first hour of the event, when sales were down 5 percent before recovering in the second and third hours.
AUTOMAKERS
UK first-half sales fell 6.3%
UK car sales fell 6.3 percent during the first half of the year, running counter to rising demand on the continent, indicating the planned withdrawal from the EU is hurting consumer confidence. Business optimism last month dropped to the lowest level this year, as Britons became markedly more gloomy and unwilling to make purchases, according to separate indices on economic mood from Lloyds and Gfk. Overall new-car registrations across Europe rose 2.8 percent in the first six months, led by gains in France and Spain, according to figures released yesterday by the Brussels-based European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association. Germany, the largest market, also rose 2.9 percent.
E-COMMERCE
Pinduoduo plans IPO
Pinduoduo Inc (PDD, 拼多多), the Chinese e-commerce operator backed by Tencent Holdings (騰訊), plans to raise as much as US$1.6 billion in a US initial public offering (IPO) to bankroll a fight against rivals like Alibaba Group Holding (阿里巴巴). The Shanghai-based firm is offering 85.6 million American depositary shares at US$16 to US$19 apiece, it said in a stock exchange filing. PDD became one of China’s fastest-growing start-ups by creating a sort of Facebook-Groupon mashup that challenged the e-commerce duopoly of Alibaba Group Holding (京東). PDD, which has yet to turn a profit, popularized a format where people spot deals on products from fruit and clothing to toilet paper, then recruit friends to buy at a discount. It can offer savings of up to 20 percent on market prices by letting consumers buy directly from manufacturers, cutting out resellers and advertising.
Intel Corp chief executive officer Lip-Bu Tan (陳立武) is expected to meet with Taiwanese suppliers next month in conjunction with the opening of the Computex Taipei trade show, supply chain sources said on Monday. The visit, the first for Tan to Taiwan since assuming his new post last month, would be aimed at enhancing Intel’s ties with suppliers in Taiwan as he attempts to help turn around the struggling US chipmaker, the sources said. Tan is to hold a banquet to celebrate Intel’s 40-year presence in Taiwan before Computex opens on May 20 and invite dozens of Taiwanese suppliers to exchange views
Application-specific integrated circuit designer Faraday Technology Corp (智原) yesterday said that although revenue this quarter would decline 30 percent from last quarter, it retained its full-year forecast of revenue growth of 100 percent. The company attributed the quarterly drop to a slowdown in customers’ production of chips using Faraday’s advanced packaging technology. The company is still confident about its revenue growth this year, given its strong “design-win” — or the projects it won to help customers design their chips, Faraday president Steve Wang (王國雍) told an online earnings conference. “The design-win this year is better than we expected. We believe we will win
Chizuko Kimura has become the first female sushi chef in the world to win a Michelin star, fulfilling a promise she made to her dying husband to continue his legacy. The 54-year-old Japanese chef regained the Michelin star her late husband, Shunei Kimura, won three years ago for their Sushi Shunei restaurant in Paris. For Shunei Kimura, the star was a dream come true. However, the joy was short-lived. He died from cancer just three months later in June 2022. He was 65. The following year, the restaurant in the heart of Montmartre lost its star rating. Chizuko Kimura insisted that the new star is still down
While China’s leaders use their economic and political might to fight US President Donald Trump’s trade war “to the end,” its army of social media soldiers are embarking on a more humorous campaign online. Trump’s tariff blitz has seen Washington and Beijing impose eye-watering duties on imports from the other, fanning a standoff between the economic superpowers that has sparked global recession fears and sent markets into a tailspin. Trump says his policy is a response to years of being “ripped off” by other countries and aims to bring manufacturing to the US, forcing companies to employ US workers. However, China’s online warriors
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