Despite ongoing headwinds from supply‑chain disruptions, Hyundai Motor CEO José Muñoz expects China to account for 9% of the company’s global sales by 2030. He spoke to Bloomberg on the sidelines of the Beijing Auto Show. (Source: Bloomberg)
Despite ongoing headwinds from supply‑chain disruptions, Hyundai Motor CEO José Muñoz expects China to account for 9% of the company’s global sales by 2030. He spoke to Bloomberg on the sidelines of the Beijing Auto Show. (Source: Bloomberg)
India’s agreement to review Dhaka’s request for Sheikh Hasina’s extradition could hint at more flexibility over a deeply political issue, but observers warn that does not mean New Delhi is ready to hand the former Bangladesh ruler over just yet. The ex-prime minister fled to India in August 2024 after her regime fell to protesters. India’s Ministry of External Affairs confirmed on April 17 it was ...
India’s agreement to review Dhaka’s request for Sheikh Hasina’s extradition could hint at more flexibility over a deeply political issue, but observers warn that does not mean New Delhi is ready to hand the former Bangladesh ruler over just yet. The ex-prime minister fled to India in August 2024 after her regime fell to protesters. India’s Ministry of External Affairs confirmed on April 17 it was conducting a formal review of Dhaka’s extradition request. The announcement – a significant shift...
Hi, this is Josh Xiao , fresh off a visit to Kuala Lumpur, where I attended one of Asia’s biggest defense and security exhibitions. The main thing that jumped out at me was that Chinese companies were ramping up their presence like never before. This year, 192 such firms sent representatives to the event, organizer Defence Services Asia told me. That’s the biggest showing ever from China, which is...
Hi, this is Josh Xiao , fresh off a visit to Kuala Lumpur, where I attended one of Asia’s biggest defense and security exhibitions. The main thing that jumped out at me was that Chinese companies were ramping up their presence like never before. This year, 192 such firms sent representatives to the event, organizer Defence Services Asia told me. That’s the biggest showing ever from China, which is the world’s fifth-largest arms exporter in terms of percentage of global shipments. The firms had a bunch of interesting hardware on display. An amphibious transport dock equipped with surface-to-air missiles and loaded with guns. The Sky Dragon 100, a medium-to-long-range air-defense missile. Oh, and a robot dog marketed by Poly Technologies that paraded around the cavernous hall with four man-portable air-defense systems on its back. Another prominent feature of the defense exhibition was the prevalence of China Inc.’s drone and anti-drone tech . Aircohn, a Shenzhen company that makes systems to find and disrupt unwanted drones, said Mexico placed a big order for their portable UAV detection and jamming equipment this year after testing it in 2025. Chelsea Guo, a sales manager at Aircohn, said this was the company’s first appearance at the show and suggested why it was there: “Southeast Asia has a lot of potential customers that we would like to explore.” A few stalls away, the anti-drone firm Bitalltech (Beijing) was also at the exhibition for the first time. “Malaysia is a good entry point into Southeast Asia,” said Donna Du, a sales director. “You also have African and Middle Eastern customers.” The sales pitch for these companies has gotten a bit easier given how drone tech has played such a big role in the wars in Ukraine and Iran. Tehran has used its relatively cheap Shahed drones to hit targets all over the region , including oil infrastructure and US bases. That reach has forced Washington to not only deploy much more expensive defenses but also put pressure on t...
Also known as ‘dunnies’, the toilets are common in rural and remote parts of Australia, including many tourist sites What started as a routine trip to the bathroom ended in horror after a long-drop toilet collapsed in the Northern Territory, stranding a tourist waist-deep in excrement for several hours before she was ferried to safety by a tradesman. The woman, who was visiting the Henbury meteori...
Also known as ‘dunnies’, the toilets are common in rural and remote parts of Australia, including many tourist sites What started as a routine trip to the bathroom ended in horror after a long-drop toilet collapsed in the Northern Territory, stranding a tourist waist-deep in excrement for several hours before she was ferried to safety by a tradesman. The woman, who was visiting the Henbury meteorite crater about 120km south of Alice Springs with her partner and two children from Canberra, entered the long-drop toilet on Sunday afternoon and didn’t emerge until three hours later. Continue reading...
China’s BYD Co. and Geely Automobile Holdings Ltd. are poised to benefit from higher demand for electric vehicles as the Iran war drives up oil prices. “Overseas sales growth will become a bigger priority for Chinese automakers this year as higher oil prices boost EVs’ popularity, with electricity’s steadier pricing,” Bloomberg Intelligence said . On the other hand, intense competition and subsidy...
China’s BYD Co. and Geely Automobile Holdings Ltd. are poised to benefit from higher demand for electric vehicles as the Iran war drives up oil prices. “Overseas sales growth will become a bigger priority for Chinese automakers this year as higher oil prices boost EVs’ popularity, with electricity’s steadier pricing,” Bloomberg Intelligence said . On the other hand, intense competition and subsidy cuts probably dented first-quarter earnings. Chinese banks including Agricultural Bank of China Ltd. and Bank of China Ltd. , China Construction Bank Corp. and Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd. may post low- to mid-single-digit profit growth in 2026 as net interest margin pressure eases, fees recover and investment gains improve, BI said. Standard Chartered Plc faces Iran war risks given its Middle East exposure. Cambricon Technologies Corp. and Foxconn Industrial Internet Co. will also continue to offer a glimpse of how China’s hardware players are responding to the artificial intelligence boom. Highlights to look out for: Monday: Advantest ( 6857 JP ) is set to post higher sales on a strong showing from AI chip testers. It could announce a 15%-20% sales growth outlook for fiscal year 2027, BI said . Watch any financial impact from the ransomware attack disclosed in Feb., and updates on measures taken to mitigate any further incidents. Tuesday: BYD ( 1211 HK ) could regain China market share on stronger EV and battery exports, amid surging oil prices and a domestic recovery with a new model cycle. These factors also support a full-year volume rising 50% to 1.5 million units from 2025, BI said . Watch for commentary on capacity, as a price war among China EV makers weighs on industry margins. Foxconn Industrial Internet’s ( 601138 CH ) revenue growth may accelerate in 2026, driven by a new wave of robust capital expenditure from global cloud providers, BI said. Still, higher component costs could dilute gross margins. Maruti Suzuki’s ( MSIL IN ) fourth-quarter pro...
Adamant about retaining its runaway lead in supplying smart driving systems in China, Huawei Technologies plans to invest as much as 80 billion yuan (US$11.7 billion) over the next five years to boost computing power essential for training and testing semi-autonomous cars. The massive capital expenditure would enhance the reliability of cars fitted with the Huawei Qiankun ADS autopilot system, as ...
Adamant about retaining its runaway lead in supplying smart driving systems in China, Huawei Technologies plans to invest as much as 80 billion yuan (US$11.7 billion) over the next five years to boost computing power essential for training and testing semi-autonomous cars. The massive capital expenditure would enhance the reliability of cars fitted with the Huawei Qiankun ADS autopilot system, as the Shenzhen-based tech giant looked to expand its customer base, said Jin Yuzhi, CEO of Huawei’s...
jewhyte Microsoft ( MSFT ) is offering voluntary buyouts to a portion of its U.S. workforce - marking a first for the 51-year-old software giant - as the tech industry navigates significant shifts driven by the rise of artificial intelligence. According to an internal memo obtained by CNBC and Bloomberg , the company extended buyout offers to roughly 7% of its U.S. employees on Thursday. Microsoft...
jewhyte Microsoft ( MSFT ) is offering voluntary buyouts to a portion of its U.S. workforce - marking a first for the 51-year-old software giant - as the tech industry navigates significant shifts driven by the rise of artificial intelligence. According to an internal memo obtained by CNBC and Bloomberg , the company extended buyout offers to roughly 7% of its U.S. employees on Thursday. Microsoft employed roughly 228,000 people as of June 2025, and of those, 125,000 were in the U.S., according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing . Those eligible for the buyouts include workers at the senior director level and below and employees whose years of employment at Microsoft and age add up to 70 or more. Details for the buyouts will be disclosed to eligible employees and their managers on May 7, CNBC reported. The development comes as Meta Platforms ( META ) has confirmed to its employees that it will conduct job cuts next month and will close 6,000 open roles in an effort to increase efficiencies and offset heavy spending on its artificial intelligence ambitions. More on Microsoft Microsoft: The Dumbest Sell-Off In Big Tech Microsoft Stock Is Cheap Into Earnings Microsoft Q3 Preview: This Earnings Print Could Change Everything ServiceNow's historic plunge drags enterprise software sector down Microsoft to invest $18B in Australia to expand AI, cloud and digital infrastructure
Shares in Australian miner IGO Ltd. tumbled as much as 14% after the company delivered a major downgrade to production guidance for Greenbushes, the world’s biggest hard-rock lithium mine. The company slashed expectations for full-year output to between 1.38 million and 1.43 million tons, versus 1.50 million to 1.65 million tons previously. That’s a 13% reduction at the top end, and the company sa...
Shares in Australian miner IGO Ltd. tumbled as much as 14% after the company delivered a major downgrade to production guidance for Greenbushes, the world’s biggest hard-rock lithium mine. The company slashed expectations for full-year output to between 1.38 million and 1.43 million tons, versus 1.50 million to 1.65 million tons previously. That’s a 13% reduction at the top end, and the company said there were “systemic” issues at the site that would take time to address. “Performance has been challenged across a number of metrics including safety, feed grade, recoveries, maintenance execution and plant reliability,” IGO said in its quarterly earnings statement . The share slump early Friday was the biggest intraday decline since September last year. Greenbushes accounts for around a fifth of the world’s lithium output and has low costs versus other hard-rock lithium miners, according to Bloomberg Intelligence. But its ramp-up has proved unsteady in recent years, even as the global lithium market recovers from a long drop. Stronger lithium prices helped cushion the blow, and IGO’s underlying earnings before tax and other items rose to A$119 million ($85 million), from A$30 million a year earlier. “This was a Greenbushes-driven miss, and more importantly, a reset in expectations rather than a one-off shortfall,” analysts from Royal Bank of Canada wrote in an emailed note. “This is a material negative skew.” Greenbushes is owned 51% by a joint venture between IGO and China’s Tianqi Lithium Corp. , with the balance held by Albemarle Corp. Tianqi’s Hong Kong shares were little changed on Friday in Hong Kong.