Reuters (September 4)
“China’s automotive industry must seem like an unstoppable force to outsiders.” Nevertheless, “scores of their carmakers are heading for a crash.” They remain challenged by “a vicious price war that has lasted more than two years,” with Chinese policymakers expect an “involution” or “frantic, self-destructive struggle.” Government officials are struggling to bring the price war to an end, but their measures have not addressed overcapacity. Sales of passenger vehicles stood at 27.6 million in 2024, while “production capacity hit 55.6 million units, more than 50% higher than a decade ago.”
Tags: Automotive industry, Carmakers, China, Frantic, Government, Involution, Officials, Overcapacity, Passenger vehicles, Policymakers, Price war, Production, Self-destructive, Struggle
New York Times (May 29)
Companies initially “welcomed a court decision striking down President Trump’s tariffs. Then a stay of that ruling left no one breathing easy.” Uncertainty, with a splash of potential relief, now prevails as U.S. businesses struggle to digest “the latest twist in Mr. Trump’s roller-coaster trade war, which has made it impossible to plan more than a few weeks in advance. It’s particularly hard on industries that place their orders entire seasons ahead of time.”
Tags: Businesses, Companies, Court decision, Impossible, Industries, Orders, Relief, Roller coaster, Ruling, Stay, Striking down, Struggle, Trade war, Trump’s tariffs, U.S.
Wall Street Journal (December 14)
“Falling prices in China” are causing havoc “as factories struggle to cope with overcapacity and weak demand.” This is increasing pressure “on Beijing to take more forceful action to prevent a downward spiral of deflation that becomes self-reinforcing, potentially landing China in a longer-term recession.”
Tags: China, Deflation, Downward spiral, Factories, Falling prices, Havoc, Overcapacity, Recession, Self-reinforcing, Struggle, Weak demand
Washington Post (April 19)
“Earth’s record hot streak might be a sign of a new climate era.” Existing models are coming up short as scientists struggle “to explain how the planet could have exceeded previous temperature records by as much as half a degree Celsius (0.9 degrees Fahrenheit) last fall.” Efforts over the next quarter or so may determine “whether Earth’s climate has undergone a fundamental shift — a quantum leap in warming that is confounding climate models and stoking ever more dangerous weather extremes.”
Tags: Climate, Climate models, Confounding, Dangerous, Earth, Era, Existing models, Hot streak, Quantum leap, Records, Scientists, Struggle, Temperature, Warming, Weather extremes
Financial Times (December 23)
“The UK economy shrank slightly in the third quarter.” Revised figures “highlight the country’s struggle to shake off its low-growth performance and raise the risk of a technical recession…. The UK economy is stuck in a lacklustre state as it struggles with high borrowing costs and the legacy of the worst inflationary upsurge for a generation.”
Tags: Borrowing costs, Economy, Growth, Lacklustre, Q3, Revised, Risk, Struggle, Technical recession, UK
South China Morning Post (September 13)
“Even as they struggle with one of the world’s worst Covid-19 outbreaks, nations across Southeast Asia are slowly realising that they can no longer afford the economy-crippling restrictions needed to squash it…. Regulators are pushing forward with plans to reopen, seeking to balance containing the virus with keeping people and money moving.”
Tags: Afford, Balance, COVID-19, Crippling, Economy, Outbreaks, Regulators, Reopen, Restrictions, Southeast Asia, Struggle, Virus
The Economist (January 23)
“Today about a trillion chips are made a year, or 128 for every person on the planet.” With uses burgeoning in applications from EVs to AI, “demand will soar further,” especially as IoT connects machines and other things. In contrast, the industry is experiencing profound consolidation. As chip generations become more challenging and costly, “the number of manufacturers at the industry’s cutting-edge has fallen from over 25 in 2000 to three.” The “grueling 60-year struggle for supremacy is nearing its end.”
Tags: AI, Applications, Burgeoning, Challenging, Chips, Consolidation, Costly, Cutting edge, Demand, EVs, Generations, Grueling, IoT, Manufacturers, Struggle, Supremacy
Orange County Register (December 2)
“Disney will lay off more than 11,500 Disneyland and Disney California Adventure employees as the company continues to struggle with the effects of the coronavirus pandemic and the eight-month closure of its Anaheim theme parks.” Even with the approaching vaccine, “the 11,572 Disneyland layoffs add to a grim and growing tally that last stood at 10,000 terminations.”
Tags: Anaheim, Closure, Coronavirus, Disney, Disneyland, Employees, Layoffs, Pandemic, Struggle, Theme parks
WARC (July 21)
“High levels of concern over COVID-19 come as countries struggle to contain virus outbreak in tandem with the slow reopening of their economies. While 77% of respondents in China were worried, 90% of respondents were also confident about their country’s ability to deal with the virus compared the global percentage of 36%. In India, 53% of respondents were confident, down from a high of 64% in previous surveys, while Japan had the lowest confidence level at 19% but was up from a low of 11%.”
Tags: China, Concern, Confident, Contain, COVID-19, India, Outbreak, Reopening, Struggle, Virus, Worried
The Economist (March 14)
“All governments will struggle” with Covid19. “As they belatedly realise that health systems will buckle and deaths mount,” how well the governments and their leaders cope will be determined by “their attitude to uncertainty; the structure and competence of their health systems; and, above all, whether they are trusted.”
Tags: Attitude, Buckle, Competence, COVID-19, Deaths, Governments, Health systems, Struggle, Trust, Uncertainty
