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.
MULTIFACETED: A task force has analyzed possible scenarios and created responses to assist domestic industries in dealing with US tariffs, the economics minister said The Executive Yuan is tomorrow to announce countermeasures to US President Donald Trump’s planned reciprocal tariffs, although the details of the plan would not be made public until Monday next week, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. The Cabinet established an economic and trade task force in November last year to deal with US trade and tariff related issues, Kuo told reporters outside the legislature in Taipei. The task force has been analyzing and evaluating all kinds of scenarios to identify suitable responses and determine how best to assist domestic industries in managing the effects of Trump’s tariffs, he
TIGHT-LIPPED: UMC said it had no merger plans at the moment, after Nikkei Asia reported that the firm and GlobalFoundries were considering restarting merger talks United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電), the world’s No. 4 contract chipmaker, yesterday launched a new US$5 billion 12-inch chip factory in Singapore as part of its latest effort to diversify its manufacturing footprint amid growing geopolitical risks. The new factory, adjacent to UMC’s existing Singapore fab in the Pasir Res Wafer Fab Park, is scheduled to enter volume production next year, utilizing mature 22-nanometer and 28-nanometer process technologies, UMC said in a statement. The company plans to invest US$5 billion during the first phase of the new fab, which would have an installed capacity of 30,000 12-inch wafers per month, it said. The
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
‘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
RSS