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.
‘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
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
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
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