New York Times (July 23)
“G.M. was the second automaker this week to show the toll that the Trump administration’s trade policies are taking on the industry. Stellantis, the maker of Chrysler, Jeep and Ram vehicles, said on Monday that it lost 2.3 billion euros ($2.7 billion) in the first half of the year partly because of tariffs and other Republican policies.” Automakers employ roughly “one million manufacturing workers. Eroding profits will make it harder for them to invest in new technologies to withstand growing competition from Chinese automakers that have been expanding abroad.”
Tags: $2.7 billion, Automakers, China, Chrysler, Competition, G.M., Industry, Invest, Jeep, Manufacturing, Profits, Stellantis, Tariffs, Technologies, Trade policies, Trump, Withstand, Workers
Reuters (December 23)
“EU industries pay power prices 2-3 times higher than those in the U.S. Taxes made up, on average, 23% of the retail electricity price paid by Europe’s energy-intensive firms in 2023.” In addition, energy-intensive industries face “a more fragmented market than China and difficult access to credit.” Lowering taxes might be a way for policymakers “to offer fast relief” to industry.
Tags: China, Credit, Energy-intensive, EU, Fragmented market, Higher, Industry, Policymakers, Power prices, Relief, Retail electricity, Taxes, U.S.
Inc. (October 4)
There was “a collective sigh of relief from U.S. business owners and economic officials” with Thursday’s agreement “to send 45,000 striking longshoremen back to work, and reopen nearly 40 East and Gulf Coast ports that had been closed since Tuesday.” The move “allows nearly half of the nation’s imports and exports to begin flowing again, and avoid the serious blow to retailers and industrial companies—and the wider economy—that could have occurred if the walkout had continued.”
Tags: Agreement, Business, East coast, Exports, Imports, Industry, Longshoremen, Officials, Owners, Ports, Relief, Reopen, Retailers, Striking, U.S.
Financial Times (May 27)
“What industry could replace” real estate “as the main driver of growth in China?” The automobile industry may look promising, but it’s a mere fraction of the size and creates other problems. China’s massive manufacturing sector already “exceeds domestic demand and expanding exports would encounter more trade friction with other countries.” Education and healthcare, on the other hand, have received insufficient spending. These areas would present the market with business opportunities and bring “substantial potential for growth” to the Chinese economy.
Tags: Automobile, China, Demand, Domestic, Education, Exports, Growth, Healthcare, Industry, Manufacturing, Real estate, Sector, Trade friction
The Economist (April 13)
Extreme weather incidents are increasing in frequency due to climate change. “In the decade from 2000 to 2009 only three thunderstorms cost the industry more than $1bn at current prices. From 2010 to 2019 there were ten. Since 2020 there have already been six. Such storms now account for more than a quarter of the costs to the insurance industry from natural disasters.”
Tags: $1bn, 2010, 2019, 2020, Climate change, Costs, Extreme weather, Frequency, Incidents, Industry, Insurance, Natural disasters, Storms, Thunderstorms
Financial Times (October 25)
“Japan’s biggest automotive trade show acts as a gauge of how hard the country’s once unstoppable carmakers are ready to fight for survival. Increasingly it looks like an industry waiting for a miracle. The trillion-dollar question is whether solid-state batteries — a technology that promises greater range and safety than lithium-ion ones, and which Toyota has indicated it is near to mass producing — can be that miracle.”
Tags: Automotive, Carmakers, Industry, Japan, Lithium-ion, Miracle, Range, Safety, Solid-state batteries, Survival, Toyota, Trade show, Unstoppable
Washington Post (July 12)
Toyota could “upend the EV business even as that business is itself upending the wider autos industry…. Think about what a breakthrough along the lines of Toyota’s claims would mean: A battery that can power a vehicle for 745 miles on a single charge, recharge in 10 minutes or less and is far less prone to overheating and fire. In other words, all the current hang-ups about EVs — range, refueling time, safety — disappear.”
Tags: 10 minutes, 745 miles, Autos, Battery, Breakthrough, EVs, Hang-ups, Industry, Power, Range, Recharge, Refueling time, Safety, Single charge, Toyota, Upend
Institutional Investor (March 29)
“Personal coaches to private-equity executives report that their clients are increasingly worried about their impact on their employees, business, and even the world.” While fundraising dominates their concerns amid recent market uncertainty, “executives are also thinking hard about other broad changes in their industry. Investment committees, limited partners, and employees increasingly expect firms — and their portfolio companies — to be more diverse, inclusive, and generally better places to work than in the past.”
Tags: Diverse, Employees, Executives, Fundraising, Impact, Industry, Investment, Market uncertainty, Personal coaches, Portfolio, Private equity, Worried
The Economist (November 17)
“Nobody in crypto has slept in days.” Despair has filled the crypto universe since ftx, a Bahamas-based crypto exchange and crown jewel in the empire of Sam Bankman-Fried, its once-feted founder, filed for bankruptcy on November 11th…. He was supposed to be crypto’s future. Instead, he may have robbed the industry of one.”
Tags: Bahamas, Bankman-Fried, Bankruptcy, Crypto, Despair, Exchange, Founder, FTX, Future, Industry
Bloomberg (August 19)
“The US mortgage industry is seeing its first lenders go out of business after a sudden spike in lending rates, and the wave of failures that’s coming could be the worst since the housing bubble burst about 15 years ago.” Though a “systemic meltdown” is not expected, market watchers still anticipate “a string of bankruptcies broad enough to trigger a spike in layoffs in an industry that employs hundreds of thousands of workers, and potentially an increase in some lending rates.”
Tags: Bankruptcies, Failures, Housing bubble, Industry, Layoffs, Lenders, Market, Mortgage, Rates, Spike, Systemic meltdown, U.S.
