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02/12/2019

Factbox – The world’s biggest electric vehicle battery makers

(Reuters) – Asian companies dominate the market for electric vehicle (EV) batteries and they are expanding their production capacity in Europe, China and the United States in a fight to win lucrative contracts from global automakers.

Some carmakers worry, however, there won’t be enough batteries for all the EVs they plan to launch in the coming years and a bitter row between South Korea’s SK Innovation and LG Chem risks exacerbating the potential shortfall.

Below are details of the world’s leading EV battery makers with details of their customers and expansion plans:

CATL

China’s Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL), the world’s biggest EV battery maker, counts BMW (BMWG.DE), Volkswagen (VOWG_p.DE), Daimler (DAIGn.DE) – which makes Mercedes cars – Volvo, Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T) and Honda Motor Co (7267.T) among its customers.

The company emerged as a major force partly thanks to Beijing’s policy of only subsidising vehicles equipped with Chinese batteries in the world’s biggest EV market. Beijing is phasing out EV subsidies next year.

CATL, which operates factories in China, is building its first overseas plant in Germany and is considering a U.S. factory.

PANASONIC CORP (6752.T)

Japan’s Panasonic, a supplier of U.S. EV pioneer Tesla (TSLA.O), said it has installed equipment to ramp up production at Tesla’s Nevada plant to 35 GWh from its current production of around 30 GWh as of late October. Panasonic has said it is investing about $1.6 billion in the factory.

Panasonic also produces EV batteries in Japan, China and plans to shift some of its plants to a new joint venture with Toyota. Panasonic’s clients also include Honda and Ford Motor Company (F.N).

For a graphic of expansion plans: tmsnrt.rs/35tFmOL

BYD CO LTD (002594.SZ)

China’s BYD, which is backed by U.S. investor Warren Buffett, is also one of the world’s biggest EV battery makers. It mainly uses them in-house for its own cars and buses. BYD said last year it is was considering cell production in Europe.

LG CHEM LTD (051910.KS)

The South Korean firm was an early industry mover, winning a contract to supply General Motor’s (GM.N) Volt in 2008. It also supplies Ford, Renault (RENA.PA), Hyundai Motor (005380.KS), Tesla, Volkswagen and Volvo.

It is investing 3.3 trillion won ($2.8 billion) to build and expand production facilities near Tesla’s plant in Shanghai. It has a joint venture (JV) in China with Geely Automobile Holdings (0175.HK), which makes Volvos, and is in talks with other carmakers about JVs in major markets.

The firm is considering building a second U.S. factory in addition to its facility in Michigan and is expanding its plant in Poland.

SAMSUNG SDI CO LTD (006400.KS) Samsung SDI an affiliate of South Korean tech giant Samsung Electronics (005930.KS), has EV battery plants in South Korea, China and Hungary, which supply customers such as BMW (BMWG.DE), Volvo and Volkswagen. Samsung SDI is investing about 1.2 billion euros ($1.3 billion) to expand its factory in Hungary though the EU is investigating whether Budapest’s financial support complies with the bloc’s state aid rules.

Samsung started production last year on the Hungary plant, which will produce batteries for 50,000 EVs a year.

SK INNOVATION CO LTD (096770.KS) LG Chem’s cross-town rival SK Innovation supplies batteries to Volkswagen, Daimler and Kia Motors (000270.KS), as well as Jaguar Land Rover [TAMOJL.UL] and Ferrari (RACE.MI).

An oil refiner that came to the battery industry late, SKI is investing about $3.9 billion to build three plants in the United States, China and Hungary, with a goal of expanding its annual production capacity to 33 GWh by 2022.

SKI currently operates one battery factory in South Korea, with a capacity of 4.7 GWh annually.

It set up a joint venture with Beijing Automotive Industry Corporation (BAIC) of China in August 2018 and another Chinese partner. It is in talks with Volkswagen about another battery JV and is building a $1.7 billion factory in the U.S. state of Georgia, not far from Volkswagen’s Chattanooga plant.

Source: Reuters

Posted in automakers, batteries, battery, Beijing Automotive Industry Corporation (BAIC), Beijing’s, biggest, BMW, BMW (BMWG.DE), Budapest’s, BYD, BYD CO LTD (002594.SZ), Chattanooga, China alert, Chinese, Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL), contracts, Daimler, Electric vehicle, equipped, Europe, EV pioneer, Factory, Ferrari (RACE.MI), firm, Ford, Ford Motor Company (F.N), Geely Automobile Holdings (0175.HK), General Motor’s (GM.N), Georgia, Germany, global, Honda Motor Co (7267.T), Hungary, Hyundai Motor (005380.KS), industry mover, Japan, Japan’s, Kia Motors (000270.KS), LG Chem, LG CHEM LTD (051910.KS), Makers, Mercedes, Michigan, Nevada, Panasonic, PANASONIC CORP (6752.T), Plant, Poland, policy, Renault (RENA.PA), Rover [TAMOJL.UL], Samsung Electronics (005930.KS), SAMSUNG SDI CO LTD (006400.KS), Shanghai, SK Innovation, SK INNOVATION CO LTD (096770.KS), South Korea, South Korean, subsidising, Tesla (TSLA.O), Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T), U.S., U.S. investor, Uncategorized, United States, vehicles, Volkswagen, Volkswagen (VOWG_p.DE), Volt, Volvo, Warren Buffett, world's | Leave a Comment »

08/11/2019

Jackie Chan cancels Vietnam charity visit after South China Sea backlash

Chan is accused of supporting Beijing’s so-called nine-dash line, which is its historical justification for its territorial claims in the resource-rich sea
Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Brunei all have competing claims in the waterway that overlap with China’s

Film star Jackie Chan. Photo: Reuters

Martial arts film star Jackie Chan’s planned visit to Vietnam for a charity has been cancelled following an online backlash related to Beijing’s expansive claims in the disputed South China Sea.

The Hong Kong-born actor was set to visit Hanoi on November 10 to support Operation Smile, a charity that gives free surgery to children with facial disfigurements.

Jackie Chan says he wants to make films in Saudi Arabia

But the plans were scrapped after thousands of angry Facebook users flooded the charity’s official page when his visit was announced last week.

Some of their comments claimed Chan had spoken in support of China’s so-called nine-dash line – its historical justification for its territorial claims in the resource-rich sea.

A map showing claimant countries’ exclusive economic zones in the South China Sea.

However, Chan has not explicitly expressed public support for the controversial maritime assertion.

Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Brunei all have competing claims in the waterway that overlap with China’s – long a source of tension in the region.

Issuing a mea culpa on Friday for failing “to predict the reaction” of the Vietnamese public, the charity asserted that their work is “non-political”.

“We are very sorry … Operation Smile will not organise any activities with [Chan’s] involvement” in Vietnam, they said.

A Chinese coastguard ship sails by a Vietnamese vessel off the coast of Vietnam in 2014. Photo: Reuters

Vietnam is one of Beijing’s most vocal critics over the flashpoint South China Sea issue.

The foreign ministry on Thursday repeated its usual proclamation on the sea, citing the country’s “full legal basis and true evidence to affirm Vietnam’s sovereignty”, deputy spokesperson Ngo Toan Thang said.

Chan has in the past been accused of siding with China over Hong Kong’s democracy protests after calling the unrest in his hometown “sad and depressing”.

The comment sparked ire in Hong Kong but was warmly received by many in China where he has a massive fan base.

Abominable has been criticised for a scene showing the nine-dash line. Photo: DreamWorks

Earlier this month Hanoi pulled the DreamWorks film Abominable from theatres over a scene featuring a map showing the nine-dash line.

Beijing claims most the South China Sea through the vague delineation, which is based on maps from the 1940s as the then-Republic of China snapped up islands from Japanese control.

Abominable is not being shown in Malaysia either

after its distributor refused to cut the offending scene, while the Philippines also filed complaints.

The US this week accused Beijing of intimidating smaller countries in the South China Sea, a key global fishing route.

China has built military installations and man-made islands in the area, and for several weeks earlier this year sent a survey ship to waters claimed by Vietnam.

Source: SCMP

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19/10/2019

China expected to ramp up South Pacific push at economic forum in Samoa

Vice-Premier Hu Chunhua will lead delegation at two-day summit that is expected to be attended by 400 officials and 200 businesspeople
Observers say it is Beijing’s latest effort to regain momentum in the region and will be closely watched in the US

Samoan capital Apia will host the third China-Pacific Island Countries Economic Development Cooperation Forum, which begins on Sunday. Photo: Alamy

China will seek to expand its economic and diplomatic influence in the South Pacific at a forum this weekend, amid growing concern from the US and its allies over Beijing’s push in the strategically important region.

Vice-Premier Hu Chunhua will lead the Chinese delegation at the third China-Pacific Island Countries Economic Development Cooperation Forum in the Samoan capital Apia, which begins on Sunday. It is expected to be attended by 400 officials and more than 200 businesspeople.

Hu, the former Communist Party chief of China’s manufacturing powerhouse Guangdong who now overseas commercial and agricultural affairs, is expected to deliver a keynote speech at the opening ceremony.

Beijing sees the two-day forum as “timely” and “a good opportunity to deepen mutually beneficial cooperation between China and the Pacific”, a commerce ministry spokesperson told the official Economic Daily newspaper.

Trade, agriculture and fisheries, as well as tourism, infrastructure and climate change were at the top of the agenda for the forum, the spokesperson said.

Leaders of all the Pacific nations – except the four that do not have formal diplomatic ties with Beijing – are expected to attend the forum. Australia, which has “observer status” at the summit, will send Ewen McDonald, deputy secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the head of its Pacific office.

Vice-Premier Hu Chunhua will lead the Chinese delegation at the forum. Photo: EPA-EFE

The forum comes after China hailed a “new breakthrough” in the region following the decision last month by the Solomon Islands and then Kiribati – despite warnings from the US – to cut diplomatic ties with Taipei and switch to Beijing.

They are the latest of Taipei’s allies to be poached by Beijing as it ramps up pressure on the self-ruled island that it sees as a renegade province to be reunited with the mainland, by force if necessary.

Observers said this weekend’s forum was Beijing’s latest effort to regain momentum in the Pacific.

“Having one of China’s top 25 officials visit the region so soon after [Chinese President] Xi Jinping spent close to three days in Papua New Guinea last November is certainly significant,” said Jonathan Pryke, director of the Pacific Islands programme at the Lowy Institute in Sydney, referring to Hu’s position in the 25-member Politburo.

“It shows clearly China’s attempt to recapture momentum after the West, and in particular Australia, have redoubled their efforts in maintaining and building relationships in the Pacific,” he said.

Papua New Guinea’s Prime Minister Peter O’Neill (second from left) and Chinese President Xi Jinping (second from right) pose for a photo during Xi’s visit in November. Photo: AFP

First held in Fiji in 2006, the forum is part of China’s efforts to expand its reach in the resource-rich region.

Back then, premier Wen Jiabao announced 3 billion yuan of concessional loans to Pacific nations and promised to facilitate more trade, medical aid and tourism with the countries. Chinese capital has been pouring into the region – particularly from the mining and fisheries sectors – ever since.

Of note was a 440 million yuan investment, supported by loans from the Export-Import Bank of China, to build a central business centre at Nuku’alofa, the capital of Tonga.

US and allies sideline China in PNG’s Bougainville by helping fund independence vote

As China’s influence grows, the South Pacific – a region traditionally under US hegemony, and on Australia’s doorstep – has “increasingly become a major power that cannot be neglected” and “an important part of China’s greater strategic landscape”, according to Shi Chunlin, an associate professor at Dalian Maritime University.

Trade has increased between China and the eight Pacific nations that have diplomatic ties with Beijing, rising to a combined US$4.32 billion last year – up 25 per cent from 2017.

China has also become the largest trading partner of new ally the Solomons, the second-largest to Papua New Guinea and Fiji, and the third-largest to Samoa.

China’s direct investment in the region has also jumped, reaching US$4.53 billion last year, a more than fourfold increase from the US$900 million of 2013.

Pryke said Beijing was expected to offer new support and loans to the Pacific nations.

“But the Pacific are much more picky about how they want to engage with all partners than they were a decade ago,” he added.

Returning from a trip to China earlier this month, Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare confirmed Beijing would provide a US$74 million grant to build a new stadium for the 2023 Pacific Games in the capital Honiara – something its former ally Taipei had committed to fund.

China Sam Group also reportedly signed an agreement on September 22 to lease the island of Tulagi in the Solomons, the site of a former Japanese naval base. The agreement mentioned the development of a refinery on the island, but critics said it could also potentially be used as a military base.

China is now the second-largest donor in the region, only after Australia, which has viewed Beijing’s financial largesse with suspicion.

Last year, in an apparent effort to counter China’s rising influence in the region, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced that Pacific countries would be offered up to US$2.18 billion in grants and cheap loans to build infrastructure.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison last year announced up to US$2.18 billion in grants and cheap loans for infrastructure in Pacific nations. Photo: EPA-EFE

The US, meanwhile, has also been wary of China’s push in the Pacific, amid an escalating geopolitical competition between the world’s two largest economies across many fronts – from trade to tech supremacy and security. The US has long maintained exclusive defence access in the region through its Guam military base and security pacts with the Federated States of Micronesia, the Marshall Islands and Palau.

Derek Grossman, a senior defence analyst with the US-based Rand Corporation, said this year’s forum in Samoa was likely to be higher profile than previous years after Beijing lured away two more diplomatic allies from Taipei.

He said it would be “closely watched in the US for how Beijing continues to leverage sweet economic deals via its Belt and Road Initiative to potentially entice others to switch”.

“The US, along with close friends Australia, Japan and New Zealand, are becoming increasingly concerned over the prospects for China to one day curry enough influence in these small island states to gain port access that could be used for new naval bases,” he said.

The most important issue at the forum, he said, would be “whether the West assesses that China is making further inroads with these states”.

“The likely answer will be that it is, suggesting that the US and its partners will have to compete with China in this region to ensure that it remains ‘free and open’, per the US Indo-Pacific strategy,” he said.

Source: SCMP

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19/10/2019

Trump hopes U.S.-China trade deal will be signed by middle of November

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday said he thinks a trade deal between the United States and China will be signed by the time the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meetings take place in Chile on Nov. 16 and 17.

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China says will work with the U.S. to address each other’s core concerns

Chinese Vice Premier Liu He will provide Beijing’s perspective on the progress of the talks in a speech on Saturday, according to a tweet from editor-in-chief of the Global Times, a tabloid published by the People’s Daily of China’s ruling Communist Party.

“I think it will get signed quite easily, hopefully by the summit in Chile, where President Xi and I will both be,” Trump told reporters at the White House, without providing details.

“We’re working with China very well,” Trump also said.

The White House has announced that China agreed to buy up to $50 billion of U.S. farm products annually, as part of the first phase of a trade deal, although China seems slow to follow through.

The so-called phase 1 deal was unveiled at the White House last week during a visit by vice premier He as part of a bid to end a tit-for-tat trade war between Beijing and Washington that has roiled markets and hammered global growth. U.S. officials said a second phase of negotiations could address thornier issues like forced technology transfer and non-financial services issues.

Source: Reuters

Posted in Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), Beijing’s, Chile, Chinese Vice Premier Liu He, Global Times, hopes, People’s Daily, perspective, phase 1 deal, President Trump, President Xi Jinping, ruling communist party, signed, U.S. farm products, U.S.-China trade deal, Uncategorized, Washington, White House | Leave a Comment »

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Factbox – The world’s biggest electric vehicle battery makers

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Jackie Chan cancels Vietnam charity visit after South China Sea backlash

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