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Tag: Production facilities

  • TSMC to make advanced AI semiconductors in Japan in boost for its chipmaking ambitions

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    TOKYO — Taiwan’s chipmaker TSMC said Thursday it will be manufacturing some of the world’s most cutting-edge semiconductors in Japan to meet booming artificial intelligence-related demand, in a boost for the country’s chipmaking ambitions.

    Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp., a major chip supplier to companies such as Nvidia and Apple, said Thursday it plans to make 3-nanometer semiconductors — advanced chips that are used in areas such as AI products and smartphones — at its second factory in Japan’s Kumamoto Prefecture, which is under construction.

    The decision by TSMC, the world’s largest contract chip maker, was a coup for Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi ahead of a general election on Sunday, where she hopes to secure the public’s mandate for her policies riding on high approval ratings.

    The announcement came while Takaichi was meeting with TSMC’s CEO and Chairman, C.C. Wei, in Tokyo.

    “It is very meaningful from the perspective of Japanese economic security, and I would like the project to move forward as proposed, by all means,” Takaichi said during the meeting.

    The advanced chips set to be made in Kumamoto will be used in AI, robotics and autonomous driving, sectors that Takaishi’s cabinet has designated as strategically important fields.

    TSMC’s first Kumamoto plant started mass production in late 2024 and makes less advanced chips. The company also is building new plants in Arizona in the U.S. to create a fabrication plant cluster and meet growing demand from customers building on the global AI frenzy.

    TSMC said in a separate emailed statement that Wei believes Japan’s “forward-looking semiconductor policy will deliver significant benefits to the semiconductor industry.”

    As Japan looks to gain ground in global advanced chipmaking competitiveness, it is also providing huge subsidies for its domestic chipmaker Rapidus, which is advancing towards mass producing cutting-edge chips.

    “There is a huge significance to have the world’s most advanced semiconductor factory in Japan from the perspective of economic security,” the Prime Minister’s Office said in a message posted on X on Thursday.

    Despite growing concerns over a potential AI-related bubble where massive investments may not pay off, TSMC’s Wei said last month he was confident the growing AI demand from its customers is “real.”

    Last month, TSMC said it plans to increase capital spending by up to nearly 40% this year as AI-related demand lifted its profits. It plans to raise its capital spending for 2026 to $52 billion-$56 billion, up from last year’s $40 billion.

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    Chan reported from Hong Kong.

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  • In a warming world, freshwater production is moving deep beneath the sea

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    CARLSBAD, Calif. — Some four miles off the Southern California coast, a company is betting it can solve one of desalination’s biggest problems by moving the technology deep below the ocean’s surface.

    OceanWell’s planned Water Farm 1 would use natural ocean pressure to power reverse osmosis — a process that forces seawater through membranes to filter out salt and impurities — and produce up to 60 million gallons (nearly 225 million liters) of freshwater daily. Desalination is energy intensive, with plants worldwide producing between 500 and 850 million tons of carbon emissions annually — approaching the roughly 880 million tons emitted by the entire global aviation industry.

    OceanWell claims its deep sea approach — 1,300 feet (400 meters) below the water’s surface — would cut energy use by about 40% compared to conventional plants while also tackling the other major environmental problems plaguing traditional desalination: the highly concentrated brine discharged back into the ocean, where it can harm seafloor habitats, including coral reefs, and the intake systems that trap and kill fish larvae, plankton and other organisms at the base of the marine food web.

    “The freshwater future of the world is going to come from the ocean,” said OceanWell CEO Robert Bergstrom. “And we’re not going to ask the ocean to pay for it.”

    It’s an ambitious promise at a time when the world desperately needs alternatives. As climate change intensifies droughts, disrupts rainfall patterns and fuels wildfires, more regions are turning to the sea for drinking water. For many countries, particularly in the arid Middle East, parts of Africa and Pacific island nations, desalination isn’t optional — there simply isn’t enough freshwater to meet demand. More than 20,000 plants now operate worldwide, and the industry has been expanding at about 7% annually since 2010.

    “With aridity and climate change issues increasing, desalination will become more and more prevalent as a key technology globally,” said Peiying Hong, a professor of environmental science and engineering at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia.

    But scientists warn that as desalination scales, the cumulative damage to coastal ecosystems — many already under pressure from warming waters and pollution — could intensify.

    Some companies are powering plants with renewable energy, while others are developing more efficient membrane technology to reduce energy consumption. Still others are moving the technology underwater entirely. Norway-based Flocean and Netherlands-based Waterise have tested subsea desalination systems and are working toward commercial deployment. Beyond southern California, OceanWell has signed an agreement to test its system in Nice, France — another region facing intensifying droughts and wildfires — beginning this year.

    For now, its technology remains in development. A single prototype operates in the Las Virgenes Reservoir where the local water district has partnered with the company in hopes of diversifying its water supply. If successful, the reverse osmosis pods would eventually float above the sea floor in the Santa Monica Bay, anchored with minimal concrete footprint, while an underwater pipeline would transport freshwater to shore. The system would use screens designed to keep out even microscopic plankton and would produce less concentrated brine discharge.

    Gregory Pierce, director of UCLA’s Water Resources Group, said deep sea desalination appears promising from an environmental and technical standpoint, but the real test will be cost.

    “It’s almost always much higher than you project” with new technologies, he said. “So that, I think, will be the make or break for the technology.”

    Las Virgenes Reservoir serves about 70,000 residents in western Los Angeles County. Nearly all the water originates in the northern Sierra Nevada and is pumped some 400 miles (640 kilometers) over the Tehachapi Mountains — a journey that requires massive amounts of energy. During years of low rainfall and snowpack in the Sierra, the reservoir and communities it serves suffer.

    About 100 miles (160 kilometers) down the coast, the Carlsbad Desalination Plant has become a focal point in the state’s debate over desalination’s environmental tradeoffs.

    The plant came online in 2015 as the largest seawater desalination facility in North America. Capable of producing up to 54 million gallons (204 million liters) of drinking water daily, it supplies about 10% of San Diego County’s water — enough for roughly 400,000 households.

    In Southern California, intensifying droughts and wildfires have exposed the region’s precarious water supply. Agricultural expansion and population growth have depleted local groundwater reserves, leaving cities dependent on imported water. San Diego imports roughly 90% of its supply from the Colorado River and Northern California — sources that are becoming increasingly strained by climate change. Desalination was pitched as a solution: a local, drought-proof source of drinking water drawn from the Pacific Ocean.

    But environmental groups have argued the plant’s seawater intake and brine discharge pose risks to marine life, while its high energy demands drive up water bills and worsen climate change. Before the plant came online, environmental organizations filed more than a dozen legal challenges and regulatory disputes. Most were dismissed but some resulted in changes to the project’s design and permits.

    “It sucks in a tremendous amount of water, and with that, sea life,” said Patrick McDonough, a senior attorney with San Diego Coastkeeper, which has participated in multiple legal challenges to the project. “We’re not just talking fish, turtles, birds, but larvae and spores — entire ecosystems.”

    A 2009 Regional Water Quality Control Board order estimated the plant would entrap some 10 pounds (4.5 kilograms) of fish daily and required offsetting those impacts by restoring wetlands elsewhere. Seventeen years later, that restoration remains incomplete. And a 2019 study found the plant’s brine discharge raises offshore salinity above permitted levels, though it detected no significant biological changes — likely because the site had already been heavily altered by decades of industrial activity from a neighboring power plant.

    Those impacts are especially acute in California, where roughly 95% of coastal wetlands have been lost largely to development, leaving the remaining lagoons as vital habitats for fish and migratory birds.

    “When we start messing with these very critical and unfortunately sparse coastal lagoons and wetlands, it can have tremendous impacts in the ocean,” McDonough said.

    Michelle Peters, chief executive officer of Channelside Water Resources, which owns the plant, said the facility uses large organism exclusion devices and one-millimeter screens to minimize marine life uptake, though she acknowledged some smaller species can still pass through.

    The plant dilutes its brine discharge with additional seawater before releasing it back into the ocean, and years of monitoring have shown no measurable impacts to surrounding marine life, she said.

    Peters said the Carlsbad plant has significantly cut its energy consumption through efficiency improvements and operates under a plan aimed at making the facility carbon net-neutral.

    Many experts say water recycling and conservation should come first, noting wastewater purification typically uses far less energy than seawater desalination and can substantially reduce impacts on marine life. Las Virgenes is pursuing a wastewater reuse project alongside its desalination partnership.

    “What we are looking for is a water supply that we can count on when Mother Nature does not deliver,” Las Virgenes’ Pedersen said. “Developing new sources of local water is really a critical measure to be more drought and climate ready.”

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    Follow Annika Hammerschlag on Instagram @ahammergram.

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    The Associated Press receives support from the Walton Family Foundation for coverage of water and environmental policy. The AP is solely responsible for all content. For all of AP’s environmental coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment

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  • This Vietnamese town boomed as factories left China. Now it’s asking what’s next?

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    BAC NINH, Vietnam — The transformation of Vietnam’s Bac Ninh is evident in the signs above its shops and the spicy Chinese and Korean dishes on its tables.

    Once known for its rice fields and the love duets of its centuries-old Quan Ho folk songs, the city just north of Hanoi has become one of Vietnam’s busiest factory zones, reflecting a surge of investment, hastened by President Donald Trump’s tariff hikes, that are reshaping the region.

    The economy has profited from friction between Washington and Beijing as factories shifted out of China, joining earlier waves of foreign investment by the Japanese and South Koreans that have made Vietnam a global manufacturing hub. But rising labor costs, worker shortages and inadequate infrastructure are exposing the limits to its rapid rise.

    With rivals like Indonesia and the Philippines competing hard for new projects, Vietnam is trying to climb into higher-value manufacturing and expand export markets to maintain that momentum. That effort is evident in Bac Ninh.

    Traditionally a center for artisans, Bac Ninh’s first boom began around 2008 when Samsung built its first phone factory there, turning Vietnam into its largest offshore manufacturing base.

    Now, Chinese companies are pouring in as they diversify their factory locations to skirt U.S. tariffs and other trade restrictions. After Hanoi and Beijing normalized ties in the 1990s, inflows of Chinese investment began to pick up as Chinese firms in places like Bac Ninh tapped Vietnam’s electronics supply chain, labor force and supportive local governments, often aided by Chinese-speaking intermediaries who smooth paperwork and logistics.

    But Vietnam is too small to replace China, whose economy is 40 times larger, as the world’s factory floor. To try to keep up, its leaders are building new infrastructure, including a highway to the Chinese border that has cut travel time by more than an hour. A railway will connect Hanoi to Haiphong — Vietnam’s largest seaport — and then the border town of Lao Cai.

    On Dec. 19, Bac Ninh broke ground on the expansion of an industrial zone for high-tech manufacturing, including electronics, pharmaceuticals and clean energy. It’s part of a synchronized nationwide push in which Vietnam launched 234 major projects worth more than $129 billion just weeks before a pivotal National Party Congress in January, when leaders will decide the country’s political leadership and economic direction.

    In Bac Ninh’s downtown, a convenience store bears the name Tmall, after Alibaba’s flagship online marketplace. Signs in Chinese advertise services for investors. Chinese–Vietnamese language schools have opened to help locals and Chinese to learn each others’ languages.

    But as Chinese companies compete for the best labor and other resources, costs are rising for the “China plus one” strategy of moving factories out of China to other locations, for example, Apple’s shift into India.

    “It is becoming difficult to recruit workers,” said Peng, who works at a telecoms equipment company that moved from China’s southern technology hub of Shenzhen. He gave only one name because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

    Labor costs have jumped 10%–15% since 2024, he said, “And we expect them to keep rising.”

    Vietnam still need technology, equipment and expertise from China, which had created “the best manufacturing ecosystem,” said Jacob Rothman, co-founder and CEO of China-based Velong Enterprises, which makes grill tools and kitchen gadgets and has shifted some production to Southeast Asian countries including Cambodia and Vietnam.

    Supply chains and manufacturers in China have benefited from decades of government support, large-scale investment and its huge population, Rothman said. “You can’t recreate that overnight.”

    Brian Bourke, global chief commercial officer at U.S.-based SEKO Logistics, said while factories making footwear, furniture and technology are still relocating to Vietnam, it lags China in infrastructure and logistics capabilities.

    Some of those limits are surfacing in boomtowns like Bac Ninh, where firms are trying to lure workers with higher wages and bonuses, a box of instant noodles on their first day and bus fares if they commute from another city, according to state media.

    Few countries have benefitted more from Trump’s trade war than Vietnam, whose biggest export market is still the U.S. In 2024, Vietnam ran a $123.5 billion surplus with the U.S., the third largest behind China and Mexico. That irked Trump, who threatened a 46% import tax on Vietnamese goods before settling on 20%.

    The two countries are still working toward a deal to keep most tariffs at 20%. Vietnam has offered broad preferential access for U.S. products, the White House said in October. So far, it has largely absorbed the tariffs, running a trade surplus of $121.6 billion in January-November 2025.

    The agreement in October by Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping to a year-long trade truce and lower average tariffs on Chinese exports to the U.S. to about 47% helped ease some concerns. But persisting uncertainty over tariffs and other trade restrictions means companies aren’t just trying to shift factories out of China but to spread them across several countries, said Frederic Neumann, chief Asia economist at HSBC.

    Even with lower U.S. tariffs on China, the calculus still favors moving to Southeast Asia where manufacturing inefficiencies add only about 10% in cost. But while large corporations can shift production easily, smaller firms may struggle to fit a new factory with expensive equipment.

    “(The) race to move outside of China is still happening, and it’s accelerating,” Rothman said.

    Vietnam is still attracting ample foreign investment. Cumulative foreign investment topped $28.5 billion as of September, up 15% from last year. But scrutiny of Vietnam’s role as a hub for tariff-dodging transshipments has some manufacturers hedging their bets.

    One of SEKO Logistics’ customers has shifted some of its furniture making to India, not wanting to “put all their eggs in Vietnam,” Bourke said.

    Countries like Indonesia and the Philippines, which missed the early gains Vietnam captured, are promoting themselves as alternative manufacturing bases. In the Philippines, a new law allows foreign investors to lease private land for up to 99 years to attract long-term commercial and industrial investment.

    Vietnam has a goal of becoming rich by 2045. It aims to become Asia’s next “tiger economy,” following export powerhouses like South Korea and Taiwan by shifting from low-cost assembly work to manufacture higher-value products like electronics and clean energy equipment.

    It’s offering incentives like tax breaks on imported machinery and discounted rents to help factory suppliers upgrade and modernize. About a third still use non-automated equipment and only about 10% use robots on their production lines.

    The country also is trying to reduce its dependence on the U.S. market by expanding exports to the Middle East, Latin America, Africa and India. Overseas trade offices have been asked to share market intelligence and promote products made in Vietnam.

    Vietnam knows that rising costs and tougher competition will test how far it — and places like Bac Ninh — can climb. Announcing hundreds of projects in December, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh framed the stakes: Vietnam must “reach far into the ocean, delve deep underground and soar high into space.”

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    Chan reported from Hong Kong. Associated Press researcher Yu Bing in Beijing contributed.

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    The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

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  • China factory activity picks up in December as orders rebound ahead of holidays

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    BANGKOK — Chinese factory activity expanded for the first time in eight months in December, as orders picked up ahead of holidays and builders rushed to finish projects, according to surveys released Wednesday.

    The official purchasing managers index for manufacturing, a monthly survey of companies, rose to 50.1 this month, the National Bureau of Statistics reported. That was just above the 50 cut off for expansion versus contraction on a scale up to 100. Another, private sector, survey also was at 50.1 for December.

    The better-than-expected readings partly reflect easing pressure due to an extended truce in trade tensions with the U.S. They also suggest manufacturers ramped up production ahead of New Year holidays, when many companies close for days. China’s Lunar New Year falls in mid-February this year.

    In comments to a new year’s gathering carried Wednesday by China’s state media, President Xi Jinping, vowed to promote “high-quality development” and to carry out “more positive macroeconomic policies” while ensuring social harmony and stability.

    The world’s second largest economy is forecast to grow at a pace just below the official target of about 5% this year, supported by strong activity in high-tech industries and exports. The official PMI for high-tech manufacturing stood at 52.5 in December, up 2.4 percentage points from the previous month.

    The report said the PMIs for both equipment manufacturing and the consumer goods industry reached 50.4.

    The separate report by RatingDog, a Chinese credit research and analysis company based in the southern city of Shenzhen, said that despite an increase in overall orders, new export sales fell slightly and hiring weakened.

    “Overall, the manufacturing sector regained growth at the end of 2025,” RatingDog’s founder Yao Yu said in a statement. “However, the improvement was marginal, with the impact of promotions and new products appearing impulse-driven and their sustainability requiring observation.”

    The National Statistic Bureau said the PMI measures for food, textiles, clothing and electronics were above a relatively strong 53.

    However, while large manufacturers increased their output, factory activity for the small and mid-sized enterprises that account for the lion’s share of employment in China remained in contractionary territory. As consumers cut back on spending, conditions for retailers and restaurants also deteriorated, the report said.

    Some economists believe China’s economy is growing more slowly than official figures suggest. Its leaders are grappling with long-term challenges including a yearslong slump in the country’s property sector and excess capacity in many industries, including automaking, that has led to damaging price wars.

    Higher costs for raw materials, especially for metals, has put pressure on company profit margins, the RatingDog report said. It noted that exporters had raised prices for the first time in three months to help offset those higher costs.

    The upturn in activity may be short-lived as it appears to be helped by a slight increase in government spending, Julian Evans-Pritchard of Capital Economics said in a report.

    “The big picture is that the structural headwinds from the property downturn and industrial overcapacity are set to persist in 2026 and there appears to be limited appetite among policymakers for a big increase in demand-side stimulus,” he said.

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  • With the legendary Warren Buffett stepping back, Berkshire Hathaway enters a new era

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    OMAHA, Neb. — OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Greg Abel faces the challenge of taking over Berkshire Hathaway from the legendary Warren Buffettthis week.

    Many regard Buffett as the world’s greatest investor after he grew Berkshire from a struggling New England textile mill that he starting buying up for $7.60 a share in 1962, to the massive conglomerate it is today with shares that go for more than $750,000 a pop. Buffett’s personal fortune of Berkshire stock is worth roughly $150 billion even after giving more than $60 billion away over the past 20 years.

    Berkshire for decades has routinely outpaced the S&P 500 as Buffett bought up insurance companies like Geico and National Indemnity, manufacturers like Iscar Metalworking, retail brands like Dairy Queen, major utilities and even one of the nation’s biggest railroads, BNSF. Along the way, Buffett bought and sold hundreds of billions of dollars of stocks and profited handsomely from his famously long-term bets on companies like American Express, Coca-Cola and Apple.

    Berkshire has struggled to keep that pace in recent years because it has grown so huge and also struggled to find new and significant acquisitions. Even this fall’s $9.7 billion acquisition of OxyChem probably isn’t big enough to make a difference in Berkshire’s profits.

    Investors will be watching closely to see what changes Abel might make in Berkshire’s trajectory, but don’t expect any seismic shifts.

    Buffett isn’t going anywhere and Abel has already been managing all of Berkshire’s noninsurance businesses since 2018. Buffett will remain chairman and plans to continue coming into the office each day to help spot new investments and offer Abel any advice he asks for.

    CFRA Research analyst Cathy Seifert said it is natural for Abel to make some changes in the way Berkshire is run. Taking a more traditional approach to leadership with nearly 400,000 employees spread across dozens of subsidiaries makes a lot of sense, she said.

    But Berkshire operates under an extremely decentralized structure that trusts its executives with significant decisions. Everyone associated with the company has said there are no plans to change that.

    The world learned that Abel was to become the designated successor at Berkshire in 2021 when Buffett’s longtime business partner, the late Charlie Munger, assured shareholders at an annual meeting that Abel would maintain the company’s culture.

    Part of Buffett’s sales pitch to company founders and CEOs thinking of selling their companies has always been that Berkshire would largely allow them to continue running their companies the same way as long as they delivered results.

    “I think the investment community would likely applaud Greg’s management style to the degree that it sort of buttons things up,” Seifert said. “And if it helps performance, that can’t really be faulted.”

    Abel has already shown himself to be a more hands-on manager than Buffett, but he still follows the Berkshire model of autonomy for acquired companies. Abel asks tough questions of company leaders and holds them accountable for their performance.

    Abel did announce some leadership changes earlier this month after investment manager and Geico CEO Todd Combs departed, and Chief Financial Officer Marc Hamburg announced his retirement. Abel also said he’s appointing NetJets CEO Adam Johnson as manager of all of Berkshire’s consumer, service and retail businesses. That essentially creates a third division of the company and takes some work off of Abel’s plate. He will continue to manage the manufacturing, utility and railroad businesses.

    Abel will eventually face more pressure to start paying a dividend. From the beginning, Berkshire has held the position that it is better to reinvest profits rather than making quarterly or annual payouts to shareholders.

    But if Abel can’t find a productive use of the $382 billion cash that Berkshire is sitting on, there may be a push from investors to start paying dividends or to adopt a traditional stock buyback program that would boost the value of shares they hold. Currently, Berkshire only repurchases shares when Buffett thinks they are a bargain, and he hasn’t done that since early 2024.

    Still, Abel will be insulated from such pressure for some time since Buffett controls nearly 30% of the voting power in the stock. That will diminish gradually after his death as his children distribute his shares to charity as agreed.

    Many of Berkshire’s subsidiaries tend to follow the economy and profit handsomely whenever the country is prosperous. Berkshire’s utilities typically generate a reliable profit, and its insurance companies like Geico and General Reinsurance supply more than $175 billion worth of premiums that can be invested until claims come due.

    Investor Chris Ballard, who is managing director at Check Capital, said most of Berkshire’s businesses “can almost take care of themselves.” He sees a bright future for Berkshire under Abel.

    One of the biggest questions right now may be how much additional change there will be in company leadership after Combs’ departure, if any at all. The head of the insurance unit, Vice Chairman Ajit Jain, who Buffett has long lavished with praise, is now 74 and many of the CEOs of the various companies have continued working long after retirement age because they like working for Buffett.

    “As a long-term shareholder, we aren’t too concerned with Todd’s departure and don’t think this is the tip of some sort of iceberg,” said Ballard, whose firm counts Berkshire as its largest holding. “Todd’s situation is unique. It’s just a reminder that Warren’s pending departure is imminent and they’re preparing for a new phase — one that we’re still excited to see unfold.”

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  • Samsung and other South Korean firms pledge larger domestic investments after US tariff deal

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    SEOUL, South Korea — SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Samsung Electronics and other major South Korean companies on Sunday announced fresh domestic investment plans at a meeting with President Lee Jae Myung, who hopes the moves will counter concerns that the firms would prioritize U.S. investments under a trade deal.

    Lee’s meeting with business leaders came days after his government finalized a trade deal with the United States, in which Seoul pledged to invest $350 billion in U.S. industries in exchange for averting the Trump administration’s highest tariffs.

    Samsung, a global leader in computer chips, said it will invest 450 trillion won ($310 billion) over the next five years to expand its domestic operations, including building another production line at its Pyeongtaek manufacturing hub to meet surging global semiconductor demands fueled by artificial intelligence.

    Samsung said the new line, set to begin operations in 2028, is part of its broader effort to secure additional production capacity in anticipation of rising mid- to long-term demands for memory chips. The company also plans to build AI data centers in the country’s southwest South Jeolla Province and the southeastern city of Gumi to support government efforts to reduce the development gap between the greater Seoul metropolitan area and other regions.

    Hyundai Motor Group, South Korea’s largest automaker, said it plans to invest 125 trillion won ($86.3 billion) from 2026 to 2030 to expand domestic research and development and advance new technologies such as AI, robotics and self-driving cars.

    SK Group, another semiconductor powerhouse, and shipbuilders Hanwha Ocean and HD Hyundai also announced plans to increase their domestic investments. Both are central to South Korean commitments to boost the U.S. shipbuilding industry, a sector highlighted by President Donald Trump in negotiations with Seoul.

    In his meeting with the companies’ chiefs, Lee credited the business sector for helping his government negotiate the trade deal with Washington but urged the companies to maintain strong domestic investments to ease concerns they might cut spending at home to invest more in America. He said his government is exploring various policy steps, including easing regulations, to help create a more favorable business environment for the companies.

    SK Chair Chey Tae-won, whose group plans to invest at least 128 trillion won ($88.3 billion) domestically through 2028 with a focus on AI, said the finalization of trade talks with the United States eases uncertainties and paves way for bolder domestic investment.

    The two governments on Friday released the details of the trade agreement, including $150 billion in South Korean investments in the U.S. shipbuilding sector and an additional $200 billion in other American industries, which Seoul says will be capped at $20 billion per year to prevent financial instability.

    The United States agreed to reduce tariffs on South Korean cars and auto parts from 25% to 15%, and to apply tariffs on South Korean semiconductors on terms “no less favorable” than those granted to comparable competitors in the future.

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  • A crisis at chipmaker Nexperia sent automakers scrambling. Here’s what to know

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    A battle for control of a little-known chipmaker has threatened global auto production by choking off the semiconductor supply chain, though there are signs the crisis is inching toward a resolution.

    The power struggle over Nexperia, a Chinese-owned Dutch semiconductor maker, highlights how technology supply chain vulnerabilities are squeezing auto makers, most notably forcing Honda to halt production at a Mexican factory making its popular HR-V crossover for North American markets. It also exposes how Europe is caught in the middle of the wider geopolitical showdown between Washington and Beijing.

    Here’s a look at the dispute:

    The turmoil erupted into public view in mid-October, when the Dutch government announced it had invoked a rarely used World War II-era law to take effective control of Nexperia weeks earlier.

    The Dutch ministry of economic affairs said it took action because of national security concerns. Officials said they intervened because of “serious governance shortcomings” at Nexperia, asserting control to prevent the loss of crucial tech know-how that could threaten Europe’s economic security.

    Nexperia’s Chinese owner Wingtech Technology, a partially state-owned company, is at the heart of the dispute. Amid the boardroom battle, a Dutch court granted the ministry’s request to oust Nexperia’s Chinese CEO Zhang Xuezheng. American officials told the Dutch government he would have to be replaced to avoid trade restrictions, according to a court filing.

    Nexperia makes simple semiconductors such as switches and logic chips. The auto industry — one of Nexperia’s biggest markets — uses its chips for numerous functions, such as adaptive LED headlight controllers, electric vehicle battery management systems and anti-lock brakes.

    Headquartered in the Dutch city of Nijmegen, Nexperia was spun off from Philips Semiconductors two decades ago. It was eventually purchased by China’s Wingtech Technology in 2018 for $3.6 billion.

    Nexperia has wafer fabrication plants in Britain and Germany. It operates an assembly and testing center in China’s southern manufacturing heartland of Guangdong — which accounts for around 70% of its end-product capacity — and similar centers in the Philippines and Malaysia.

    The dispute is part of the broader struggle between the U.S. and China over tech supremacy, which has left Europe caught in the middle.

    It stems from Washington’s decision late last year to place Wingtech on its “entity list,” which subjects companies to export controls because of national security risks. In late September, the U.S. expanded that list to Wingtech’s subsidiaries, including Nexperia, pressuring allies to follow suit.

    After the Dutch government asserted control of Nexperia, Beijing responded soon after, blocking the export of Nexperia chips from its assembly plant in the Chinese city of Dongguan. It blamed the Netherlands for “turmoil and chaos” in the chip supply chain.

    There were signs of hope following last month’s high-profile meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping, when the White House said Beijing would ease the export ban as part of a U.S.-China trade truce.

    Despite Beijing also confirming exports would be allowed to resume, Nexperia’s Chinese unit said headquarters suspended shipments of wafers used to make chips to its Chinese factory, potentially crimping its ability to deliver finished products.

    Nexperia’s head office hit back in a statement Wednesday, saying the Chinese unit refused to pay for the wafers and accused it of “ignoring the lawful instructions” from its global management team. The company said it can’t guarantee the quality of any chips delivered from its China plant since Oct. 13.

    Modern automobiles rely on so-called discrete chips made by companies like Nexperia, which, unlike more advanced microprocessors, perform a single function. Leaders at big carmakers spelled out their worries in the latest round of earnings calls, saying that finding a replacement for Nexperia at scale in the short term will be difficult.

    “While Nexperia makes up only about 5% of the automotive silicon discrete market in term of revenue, its share is much higher in terms of discrete chip volume,” S&P Global Mobility analysts wrote in a recent note.

    Nexperia’s parts are widely used across vehicle systems — often dozens to hundreds per vehicle — and carmakers in North America, Japan and South Korea are at risk, they added.

    “It’s an industrywide issue. A quick breakthrough is really necessary to avoid fourth quarter production losses for the entire industry,” Ford CEO Jim Farley said.

    General Motors CEO Mary Barra warned that production could be hit. The company has “teams working around the clock with our supply chain partners to minimize possible disruptions,” she said.

    Nissan CEO Ivan Espinosa told CNBC that the company is setting aside a 25 billion yen ($163 million) provision for supply risks, in part to “absorb” the impact from the Nexperia crisis on production.

    Mercedes-Benz is “scurrying around the world to look for alternatives,” CEO Ola Kallenius said. The European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association said members including BMW, Renault, Volkswagen and Volvo have been forced to use their reserve stockpiles of chips and warned of assembly line stoppages if they run out.

    The European Union’s trade commissioner, Maros Sefcovic, on Saturday noted “encouraging progress,” writing on X that China’s Commerce Ministry had confirmed “further simplification” of export procedures for Nexperia chips to the EU and global customers.

    In Beijing, the Commerce Ministry also said Saturday that it agreed to a Dutch request to send representatives to China for “consultations.”

    But it noted that the Netherlands had not taken any concrete actions yet to restore the global semiconductor supply chain since the Dutch government said days earlier it would take “appropriate steps on our part where necessary.”

    Economics Affairs Minister Vincent Karremans had said in that statement that “the Netherlands trusts that the supply of chips from China to Europe and the rest of the world will reach Nexperia’s customers over the coming days.”

    Honda has received word that Nexperia’s shipments from China have resumed, Executive Vice President Noriya Kaihara told reporters Friday. He said the Japanese automaker expects to resume production during the week of Nov. 21 at its plant in Celaya, Mexico, which can make up to 200,000 vehicles a year.

    ___

    AP Business Writer Yuri Kageyama in Tokyo contributed to this report.

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  • NATO member Romania signs agreement with Germany’s Rheinmetall to build a gunpowder plant

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    BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) — NATO member Romania signed an agreement Monday with German defense company Rheinmetall to build a gunpowder factory in central Romania, as Europe races to rearm itself in the face of an increasingly provocative Russia.

    After signing the deal, Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan hailed the joint venture between the Romanian state and Europe’s largest arms producer as a sign that Romania is “emerging as a player with potential in the defense industry of Southeast Europe.”

    Construction of the 535 million-euro ($616 million) plant in the town of Victoria in Brasov County is expected to start in 2026, take three years to complete and create about 700 local jobs, he said. Romania will seek to finance part of its contributions through the European SAFE mechanism to encourage defense readiness.

    “After many years in which our defense industry was in little demand, Romania is entering a new stage because of the security situation in Eastern Europe,” Bolojan said. “I’m glad Rheinmetall sees us as an important and serious partner and is strengthening its presence in Romania.”

    Rheinmetall CEO Armin Papperger said the ammunition powder to be produced at the factory is “needed worldwide and especially in Europe,” and will make Romania a key player in the continent’s defense ecosystem.

    “The strategy is to make Romania an integral part of the European ecosystem,” Papperger said. “Romania will also be an integral part of the NATO ecosystem.”

    Since Russia launched its full invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Romania has played an increasingly prominent role in NATO. It has donated a Patriot missile system to Ukraine and opened an international training hub for F-16 jet pilots from allied countries, including Ukraine.

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  • Nigerian billionaire plans expansion of Africa’s biggest oil refinery

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    ABUJA, Nigeria — The billionaire owner of Africa’s largest refinery plans to expand its capacity to 1.4 million barrels per day to meet growing fuel needs in the continent and beyond.

    Aliko Dangote, who is Africa’s richest person, said the Dangote refinery, in Nigeria’s economic hub of Lagos, will more than double its current existing capacity of 650,000 barrels per day with the aid of external financing.

    “When it is completed, this will be the largest refinery ever built at a single site, surpassing India’s Jamnagar refinery,” Dangote told reporters on Sunday, referring to the world’s biggest refinery in India.

    Nigeria is one of Africa’s top oil producers but imports refined petroleum products for its own use. The nation’s oil and natural gas sector has struggled for many years, and most of its state-run refineries operate far below capacity because of the poor maintenance.

    The privately run Dangote refinery has helped with local and international demands since it started production in January 2024.

    The industrialist, however, said the expansion is needed to meet growing demands locally and abroad.

    The expansion reflects “confidence in Nigeria, in Africa, and in our capacity to shape our own energy future,” he added.

    The planned expansion is a laudable move but not much is known yet regarding its timeline and available finances, said Ikemesit Effiong, partner at Lagos-based SBM Intelligence research firm.

    The $19 billion refinery took nearly a decade to complete.

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  • State utility says private firm set to restart abandoned $9 billion nuclear project

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    COLUMBIA, S.C. — South Carolina’s state-owned utility is looking to a private company to revive a project to build two nuclear power plants that was abandoned eight years ago, losing more than $9 billion without generating a watt of power.

    Santee Cooper’s board agreed Friday to start six weeks of negotiations with Brookfield Asset Management that they hope will lead to a deal that lets the private company build the nuclear plants at the V.C. Summer site near Jenkinsville at their own risk to generate power that they could mostly sell to whom they want, such as energy-gobbling data centers.

    Santee Cooper said Brookfield preliminarily agreed to provide the utility with some of the power generated. But that and probably thousands of other details will have to be negotiated. In a twist, Brookfield took over the assets of Westinghouse Electric Co., which had to declare bankruptcy because of difficulties building new nuclear reactors.

    Utility officials said the agreement gives hope the state can get something out of a debacle that led to four executives going to prison or home confinement for lying to regulators, shareholders, ratepayers and investigators and left millions of people paying for decades for a project that never produced electricity.

    “The risk to the ratepayer is nil. The risk to the taxpayer is nil,” Santee Cooper Board Chairman Peter McCoy said.

    There are still too many hurdles for the project to get past to consider this a win right now, said Tom Clements, executive director of the nuclear watchdog group Savannah River Site Watch.

    After eight years in the elements, all the equipment and the structure of the plant, which was less than halfway finished, will need to be carefully inspected before it can be used. The permits to build and the licenses to operate the nuclear plants will need to be renewed, likely starting from scratch, Clements said.

    “I still believe that the cost, technical and regulatory hurdles are too big to lead to completion of the project,” Clements said, adding the agreement appears to let Brookfield walk away if it decide it’s not feasible.

    Santee Cooper heard from 70 bidders and received 15 formal proposals to restart construction of the reactors. Interest in the project has grown as power demand in the U.S. surges with the increase in data centers as artificial intelligence technology develops.

    Santee Cooper executives credited President Donald Trump’s executive order in May calling for the U.S. to quadruple the amount of power generated by nuclear plants over the next 25 years for opening the door to the potential agreement.

    “You have placed South Carolina in the epicenter of the resurgence of nuclear power in the United States,” Santee Cooper CEO Jimmy Staton said.

    Santee Cooper was the minority partner with what was then South Carolina Electric and Gas when construction on the two new nuclear plants started in 2013 at the V.C. Summer site — about 25 miles (40 kilometers) northeast of Columbia — where SCE&G was already operating a reactor.

    The project needed to be finished in seven years to get tax credits to keep the project’s cost from overwhelming the utilities, but it ended up behind schedule almost immediately.

    Executives lied about the problems to keep money coming in. Taxpayers and ratepayers ended up on the hook because of a state law that allowed the utilities to charge for costs before any power was generated.

    Two nuclear reactors built in a similar way in Georgia went $17 billion over budget before they were fully operational in 2023.

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  • In Japan and South Korea, Trump will promote big investments. But the details are still not clear

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    WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump is going to Japan and South Korea next week to promote an epic financial windfall — at least $900 billion in investments for U.S. factories, a natural gas pipeline and other projects.

    Japan and South Korea made those financial commitments in August to try to get Trump to ratchet down his planned tariff rates from 25% to 15%. But as the U.S. president is set to depart Friday night for Asia, the pledges are more of a loose end than money in the bank for American industry.

    Japan pledged $550 billion in investments, but it wants the money to benefit its own companies, making that a condition in a memorandum released in September. As of Monday, Japan has a new prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, who has expressed respect for Trump but is operating in an untested coalition government.

    South Korea offered $350 billion — but wants a swap line for U.S. dollars to facilitate its investments and seeks to fund the transactions through loan guarantees. Otherwise, the commitment could sink its own economy.

    The investment arrangements are unusual for trade frameworks, and Trump maintains that he will personally direct how the money is spent, enabling him to pick winners and losers. Weeks of talks have yet to produce any breakthroughs on how the investments would go forward even though both nations want to preserve their relationship with America.

    Still, ahead of the trip, Trump was radiating optimism that his tariffs had forced investments to fuel what he believes will be an economic boom starting next year.

    “We’ve done well, as you know, with Japan, with South Korea,” Trump told Republican senators Tuesday. “Without the tariffs, you could have never made the deal. I’ll tell you what. Tariffs equal national security.”

    For Trump, the investments are also about demonstrating America’s strength before a planned meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping while he is in South Korea. U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer on Monday described Trump’s strategy in part as “encouraging allied investment in America’s industrial future” to counter Chinese manufacturers.

    But Japan and South Korea are also competing against China — which is pivoting aggressively into electric vehicles, computer chips and other technologies. There is a risk that mandating investment in the U.S. could weaken allies that are closer geographically to China, said Christopher Smart, managing partner at the Arbroath Group, a geopolitical strategy firm.

    “They need to invest in their own countries,” said Smart, who was a senior economic aide in the Obama White House. He said Trump was “going to extract investment money” from the countries while also erecting “tariff walls” that could make it harder for them to sell goods in America, a rather lopsided view of how alliances work.

    Few experts believe Japan and South Korea would agree with the Trump administration’s framing that their U.S. investments are a way to compete against China.

    “It is really about lowering tariffs and avoiding Trump’s wrath,” said Andrew Yeo, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution’s Center for Asia Policy Studies.

    There is an expectation that Japan and South Korea both want to resolve any hurdles on the investments and will take steps to achieve “progress” in talks with Trump, said William Chou, a senior fellow focused on Japan at the Hudson Institute, a conservative think tank.

    Chou pointed to Nippon Steel’s agreement to purchase U.S. Steel this year as an example of how Japan can work with the Trump administration. The president had initially opposed the merger, but later backed it with an agreement that gave the U.S. government some control over the acquired company.

    Similarly, the memorandum of understanding on Japan’s $550 million investment would also give the U.S. government input on how the money would be spent. It provides for a committee led by Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to propose investments, giving Japan 45 days to respond, with the understanding that the deals would give preference to Japanese contractors and suppliers.

    “Japan came through with the paperwork,” Lutnick said in a September CNBC interview. “They gave us $550 billion to invest for the benefit of America, build the Alaska pipeline, build nuclear power plants, make your grid better, do generic antibiotics in America.”

    South Korea has yet to finalize a written agreement with the U.S. on the $350 billion investment, a problem as higher U.S. tariff rates still apply to its autos. South Korean officials have balked at U.S. demands for upfront payments, which they say would put the country at risk of a financial crisis. Instead, they have proposed delivering the investment through loans and loan guarantees.

    Returning to South Korea on Sunday after talks in Washington, Kim Yong-beom, presidential chief of staff for policy, told reporters there had been progress, although he declined to provide specifics.

    “We’re nearing an agreement that there should be mutually beneficial (deals) that the Republic of Korea can endure,” Kim said. “The U.S. fully recognizes and understands possible shocks on the foreign exchange market in the Republic of Korea.”

    The proposed South Korean investment represents more than 80% of its foreign currency reserves. South Korea has proposed a currency swap with the U.S. to ease potential financial instability caused by the investment, but no agreement has been reached yet.

    The Sept. 4 immigration raid by Trump’s government on a Hyundai auto plant in Georgia, causing the detention of more than 300 South Koreans, has also strained the relationship. It came less than two weeks after Trump met South Korean President Lee Jae Myung, and led to calls in South Korea to ensure that its workers operating in the U.S. have legal protections.

    Since that raid, South Korea’s Foreign Ministry has said the United States has now agreed to allow in South Korean workers on short-term visas or a visa waiver program to help build industrial sites in America.

    Lee has said South Korean companies will likely hesitate to make further investments in the U.S. unless it improves its visa system.

    “When you build a factory or install equipment at a factory, you need technicians, but the United States doesn’t have that workforce and yet they won’t issue visas to let our people stay and do the work,” Lee said last month.

    Trump has said his tariffs will spur new investments that ultimately will produce jobs for U.S. citizens.

    “Without tariffs, it’s a slog for this country, a big slog,” Trump said Wednesday.

    ___

    Kim reported from Seoul.

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  • Beyond Meat shares briefly sizzle on Walmart deal and meme stock interest

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    Beyond Meat’s shares briefly sizzled Wednesday before heading back down again.

    The plant-based meat company’s shares more than doubled early Wednesday before closing at $3.58 per share, which was down 1%. Still, it was a surprising comeback for a stock that was trading at an all-time low of 50 cents per share late last week.

    Investors cheered Beyond Meat’s announcement Tuesday that it’s increasing the availability of some of its products at U.S. Walmart stores. Beyond Meat said that its chicken pieces, Korean BBQ-style steak and burger six-packs will now be easier to find in more than 2,000 Walmart stores.

    Beyond Meat also launched a direct-to-consumer website this week, which will try to build buzz by offering limited releases of new products.

    But perhaps the biggest driver of interest in Beyond Meat is Roundhill Investments, which added Beyond Meat to its Meme Stock ETF, or exchange-traded fund, on Monday. The fund consists solely of meme stocks, which are stocks that gain popularity and trading volume based on social media hype rather than a company’s financial performance.

    Investors have been sporadically turning to meme stocks throughout 2025 in an effort to find bargains amid a very pricey stock market. The stocks are often the target of “short sellers,” or investors betting against the stock.

    Beyond Meat was the darling of the plant-based meat industry when it went public on the Nasdaq stock exchange in 2019.

    But in recent years the El Segundo, California-based company has been struggling with weak demand for its burgers, sausages, tenders and other products. Beyond Meat’s net revenue was down 15% in the first six months of this year.

    Beyond Meat’s stock price cratered last week after the company announced the expiration of lock-up restrictions on some of its 326 million shares of new stock as part of a plan to help it reduce its debt load and extend the time until its debt matures. The lock-up had prevented shareholders from selling the stock but now they were free to do so.

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  • After winning Trump’s $20 billion, President Milei must win votes as Argentine industry reels

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    BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — The factory floor used to roar.

    Walking around his textile mill in southern Buenos Aires, Luciano Galfione pointed out the up-to-the-minute machines that once whirred and clattered as 200 employees churned out fabric to be transformed into athleisure and other apparel for Argentina’s vast middle class.

    But on Monday afternoon, the factory was so quiet that Galfione’s footsteps rang clear through the compound. A handful of workers at the Galfione Group factory in Argentina’s capital spooled yarn and dyed cloth.

    Almost two years after libertarian President Javier Milei stormed to power on a promise to rescue Argentina’s crisis-stricken economy through harsh austerity and free-market reforms, falling orders and surging competition have forced Galfione to cut operations by 80%, lay off or suspend half his staff and use his own savings to keep his family’s 78-year-old firm afloat.

    Other companies have simply closed their doors. Over 17,600 businesses — among them 1,800 manufacturers and 380 textile companies — have folded in the last year and a half, according to Fundación Pro Tejer, a nonprofit representing textile manufacturers.

    “We’re seeing an industry in crisis, and it’s about to go bankrupt,” said Galfione, who also runs Fundación Pro Tejer. “Not only textiles. Textiles are just the first and fastest to fall.”

    As Argentina heads to Oct. 26 midterm elections widely seen as a referendum on Milei’s policies, Galfione’s troubles reflect bigger shocks jolting the country. The economy has sputtered. Cheap imports have gutted manufacturing. Spending has stumbled, squeezed by higher unemployment and lower wages.

    The turmoil engulfing Argentine financial markets began when voters in the manufacturing belt of suburban Buenos Aires — a region that for decades represented the dream of national industry nurtured by tariff protection — punished Milei in a provincial election last month.

    The scale of Milei’s humiliation triggered a sharp peso sell-off and sent officials scrambling to secure $20 billion in financing from a friendly Trump administration.

    President Donald Trump, who sees a kindred spirit and fellow culture warrior in Argentina’s chain saw wielding leader, shocked Argentines and Americans alike Tuesday by warning that the $20 billion was contingent on Milei’s success in what is shaping up to be a hotly contested legislative election.

    Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent went further on Wednesday, saying that the U.S. could tap investment funds to provide Argentina with up to $40 billion.

    “Just helping a great philosophy take over a great country,” Trump explained after meeting Milei at the White House.

    Thousands of miles away, many Argentines are losing patience with that philosophy.

    Those interviewed on the streets of Buenos Aires Wednesday had no illusions about Trump’s lifeline fixing their problems.

    “Let’s say they give us this money from abroad. What am I going to do with it?” asked Walter Willatt, a 56-year-old newsstand owner whose son was just laid off from a local Toyota dealership. “If the economy revives it will have to be through domestic consumption.”

    Over a year ago, markets cheered as Milei fulfilled his flagship promise to reduce the runway inflation that he inherited from his populist predecessors. Many Argentines — who had grown accustomed to supermarkets revising prices upward everyday — hailed Milei’s program as a miraculous outbreak of normalcy in a notoriously topsy-turvy economy.

    But today, price stability is old news as Argentines contend with a lengthening list of worries.

    Unemployment in Buenos Aires Province climbed to 9.8% in the second quarter of this year, compared to 7.3% during the same period in 2023, before Milei entered office. Salaries nationwide haven’t kept up with inflation. Milei’s major subsidy cuts mean that even if prices have stabilized, Argentines are paying more for bus fares, utility bills and healthcare.

    “Milei’s challenge is that the public now assumes inflation has gone down, that’s a given,” said Marcelo J. García, Director for the Americas for the Horizon Engage political risk consultancy firm. “There’s a new generation of demands. The economy needs to grow, there needs to be job creation. I’m not sure that government is prepared to meet those demands.”

    Rodolfo Núñez, a 43-year-old former factory worker in Pilar, outside Buenos Aires, said he voted for Milei in 2023 because he wanted change. Then the blows began to fall. His daughter’s epilepsy medication shot up in price. His retired parents struggled to afford groceries on their $300-a-month pension.

    On Aug. 29, the ceramic factory where he worked for the last 18 years shut down. The company, ILVA, fired all the plant’s 300 workers in a WhatsApp message that cited the economic crisis, leaving Núñez and his colleagues in limbo, without severance pay or health insurance.

    ILVA did not respond to a request for comment.

    “What Milei promised, he didn’t do. He messed with retirees, he messed with my daughter and he messed with the workers,” he said from outside the padlocked ILVA factory where dozens of dismissed employees now camp out in protest, the air filled with smoke from burning tires and roasting chicken.

    “What do I tell my landlord? That I can’t pay her next month? Where am I going to go?”

    Núñez said he voted for the opposition in last month’s regional elections.

    Government statistics show poor and middle-class households cutting back on all but essential spending. Clothing sales, for instance, fell 10.9% in September compared to the year before. The collapsed consumption reverberates down the supply chain.

    “We’re reducing costs as much as we can, trying to survive with very low production and without making money,” said Alejandro Schvartz, owner of Visuar, a household appliance vendor and producer whose sales dropped roughly 25% in the first half of this year.

    Other policies that Milei depends on to fight inflation — such as high interest rates and central bank interventions to defend the peso — further erode the competitiveness of Argentine industry.

    The peso has become so strong that shoppers now get more bang for their buck by splurging anywhere but Argentina — from Chile’s malls to Brazil’s beaches.

    Upon taking office, Milei tore down trade barriers and relaxed import restrictions, opening Argentina to an avalanche of cheaper industrial and textile products. Chinese e-commerce companies like Temu and Shein pay no import duties for products valued below $400.

    But Milei maintained sky-high taxes for Argentine manufacturers, giving local companies no choice but to pass on the cost to consumers.

    “This is not a fair playing field,” said Pablo Yeramian, director of the Argentine textile company Norfabril, who has already cut 20% of his staff.

    As scenes of Milei beaming beside Trump in Washington flashed across Argentine televisions on Tuesday, some manufacturers couldn’t help wishing that the similarity between the two presidents was, in at least one way, more than just rhetorical.

    “No developed country in the world surrenders its industrial sovereignty,” said Galfione, pointing to Trump’s “Made in America” ambitions for the U.S. “I think instead of doing what the U.S. tells us, we should do what they do.”

    ___

    Associated Press writer Andrea Vulcano in Buenos Aires, Argentina, contributed to this report.

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  • Big pharma stocks rise as Street reacts to latest presidential tariff plan

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    Shares of some big drugmakers jumped ahead of broader indexes Friday as Wall Street started sorting out President Donald Trump’s latest tariff announcement.

    The president said late Thursday that he would place 100% import taxes on pharmaceuticals starting Oct. 1, but those tariffs would not apply to companies building U.S. manufacturing plants. He defined that as either “breaking ground” or being “under construction.”

    Several big drugmakers like Merck & Co. Inc., Eli Lilly and Co. and Johnson & Johnson have announced U.S. expansion plans.

    Trump has talked about pharmaceutical tariffs for months, but he has said he would delay them for a year or a year and a half to give companies time to stockpile medicines here and shift manufacturing.

    Analysts have said companies started stockpiling medicines in the U.S. earlier this year.

    Jefferies analyst Akash Tewari said in a research note that Thursday’s announcement shouldn’t have a material impact on the big drugmakers, given their construction plans.

    Brand-name drug companies also have fat profit margins that can provide some flexibility to make investments and absorb tariff costs. Manufacturers of cheaper generic drugs — which account for most U.S. prescriptions — do not. Researchers and patient advocates have worried about the impact of any tariffs on those companies.

    David Risinger of Leerink Partners said smaller drugmakers also may be vulnerable to the new taxes, although he noted that it was hard to predict which ones.

    He said several questions remain unanswered after Thursday’s announcement. Those include whether the action will survive legal challenges and how the phrases “breaking ground” and “under construction” are defined for tariff enforcement.

    Risinger also questioned whether the new taxes might be a negotiating tactic tied to an investigation the administration launched in the spring over how importing drugs and their ingredients affects national security.

    Shares of Merck and Lilly both climbed more than 1% Friday morning, while J&J’s stock rose slightly. The S&P 500 also edged slightly higher.

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  • Jaguar Land Rover says a shutdown will continue until at least Oct 1 after cyberattack

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    LONDON — LONDON (AP) — Jaguar Land Rover said Tuesday that its production lines, shut down after a cyberattack in August, will remain at a halt until at least Oct. 1.

    Britain’s biggest automaker sent workers home from its factories in central and northwest England on Aug. 31.

    The shutdown has rippled through the U.K. auto industry. JLR, which is owned by India’s Tata Motors, employs more than 30,000 people, with its supply chain supporting tens of thousands more jobs.

    The company has disclosed limited information about the nature of the attack and says it’s investigating.

    JLR said in a statement that it had extended the pause in production “to give clarity for the coming week as we build the timeline for the phased restart of our operations and continue our investigation.”

    It said that it was working with law enforcement and the U.K. government’s National Cyber Security Center “to ensure we restart in a safe and secure manner.”

    The government said that Business Secretary Peter Kyle and Industry minister Chris McDonald will visit Jaguar Land Rover on Tuesday and talk to companies in the supply chain.

    “We are acutely aware of the difficulties the stoppage is causing for those suppliers and their staff, many of whom are already taking a financial hit through no fault of their own — and we will do everything we can to reassure them that the government is on their side,” McDonald said.

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  • It’s ‘do or die’ for electric vehicle maker Rivian as it breaks ground on a $5B plant

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    ATLANTA — It seems like a terrible time to build an electric vehicle plant in the United States, but Rivian Automotive leaders say they’re confident as the company starts long-delayed work on a $5 billion facility in Georgia.

    The money-losing California-based company breaks ground Tuesday east of Atlanta despite President Donald Trump’s successful push to roll back electric vehicle tax credits. Starting Sept. 30, buyers will no longer qualify for savings of up to $7,500 per car.

    Rivian Chief Policy Officer Alan Hoffman said the company believes it can sell electric vehicles not for environmental or tax incentive reasons, but because they’re superior.

    “We did not build this company based upon federal tax incentives,” Hoffman said. “And we’re going to prove that we’re going to be successful in the future.”

    The Georgia plant, first announced in 2021, is Rivian’s key to reaching profitability. Now the company makes the high-end R1T pickup truck and the R1S sport utility vehicle in Normal, Illinois, as well as delivery vans for Amazon and others. Its truck prices start at $71,000.

    The Illinois plant will begin making smaller R2 SUVs next year, with prices starting at $45,000. An expanded Illinois plant will be able to assemble 215,000 vehicles yearly. But if the R2 is a hit, and if Rivian successfully produces an even smaller R3, it will need more capacity. The company has said the Georgia operation will be able to make 200,000 vehicles yearly starting in 2028. It plans another 200,000 in capacity in phase two, volume that would spread fixed costs over many more vehicles.

    The projections would be a big leap from the 40,000 to 46,000 vehicles Rivian expects to deliver this year, down from 52,000 last year. The company says it’s limiting production now in part to launch 2026 models.

    “For Rivian, it’s do-or-die time,” said Alex Oyler, North American director of auto research firm SBD Automotive. “We saw with Tesla that the key to profitability is scale, and you can’t scale if your cheapest vehicle is $70,000. So they need that plant online to achieve a level of scale of R2 and ultimately R3.”

    Sales growth is slowing for electric vehicles in the United States, rising only 1.5% in 2025’s first half, according to Cox Automotive.

    Tesla accounted for almost 45% of U.S. electric vehicle sales in that period, according to Cox. But the giant is losing market share as others gain: General Motors’ slice of American EV sales has climbed to 13%. By comparison, Rivian had a 3% share in the first half of the year, behind Tesla and six traditional automakers.

    But excluding Tesla, Rivian is the most successful of the startup automakers.

    The company initially tapped a largely unfilled niche: demand for electric pickups and SUVs. But the competition now includes Ford’s F-150 Lightning and the electric Chevrolet Silverado.

    After an initial public offering in 2021, Rivian shares have fallen by more than 80%, while automaker shares overall have outpaced the broader stock market. Rivian lost $1.66 billion in 2025’s first half.

    At the same time, some automakers’ ardor for electric vehicles is cooling. Stellantis last week canceled Ram’s electric truck program. Ford has delayed production at a new Tennessee plant. And General Motors abandoned plans to build electric vehicles at a suburban Detroit plant.

    “With all the competition out there in this market and the slowing growth of EVs, it does not play in Rivian’s favor,” said Sam Fiorani, a vice president at AutoForecast Solutions. “However, there still is an EV market out there.”

    Georgia has pledged $1.5 billion of incentives to Rivian in exchange for 7,500 company jobs paying at least $56,000 a year on average. Rivian can’t benefit from most incentives unless it meets employment goals, but the state is already spending $175 million to buy and grade land and improve roads.

    Georgia Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, who has said he wants to make Georgia “the electric mobility capital of America,” acknowledges Rivian faces bumps, but says he remains confident the company can fulfill its promises.

    While Tesla has thousands of employees in California and Texas, some new electric vehicle plants have sputtered. Two separate EV makers that hoped to assemble vehicles in a former GM plant in Lordstown, Ohio, went bankrupt. Georgia’s Hyundai complex near Savannah is faring better, with production underway. However, a battery plant there has been delayed by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arresting 475 people on site, including more than 300 South Koreans.

    Rivian was supposed to be making trucks by now at the 2,000-acre (800-hectare) site near Social Circle, about 45 miles (70 kilometers) east of Atlanta. As the company burned through cash in 2024, it paused construction. But German automaker Volkswagen agreed to invest $5.8 billion in Rivian in exchange for software and electrical technology. And then-President Joe Biden’s administration in November agreed to loan Rivian $6.6 billion to build the Georgia plant.

    Despite the Trump administration’s hostility toward EVs, Hoffman said Rivian hopes the U.S. Department of Energy will distribute the loan money, arguing it will boost domestic manufacturing.

    Rivian also faces opposition from some residents who say the plant is an inappropriate neighbor to farms and will pollute the groundwater.

    “I planned on dying and retiring on the front porch and the biggest project in Georgia has to go next door to me, of all places in the country?” asked Eddie Clay, who lives less than a mile away. He says his well water turned mud-choked after excavation at the Rivian site.

    There are other challenges for Rivian, including tariffs costing $2,000 per vehicle, the Trump administration ending a tax-credit program that will cost the company $140 million in revenue this year, and long-term threats from low-priced, cutting-edge Chinese EVs. But Hoffman says Rivian is “in this for the long haul.”

    “We think that we can compete with anyone out there and that once given the opportunity, we’re going to excel,” he said.

    ___

    St. John reported from Detroit.

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  • Ukraine’s strikingly cost-efficient drones are getting the $7 billion boost they need for mass production

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    • Europe says it’s investing $7 billion into Ukraine’s increasingly famed drone industry.

    • It comes after Ukraine’s defense minister estimated that Kyiv needs $6 billion to cover drone costs.

    • It’s paid by interest on frozen Russian assets, so it’s not clear if all $7 billion is now available.

    Europe is poised to inject $7 billion into Ukraine’s drone industry, hoping to supercharge mass production for the country’s increasingly renowned low-cost weapons.

    The European Commission’s president, Ursula von der Leyen, said on Wednesday that the European Union would “frontload 6 billion euros,” or roughly $7 billion, for Ukrainian drones.

    “Ukraine has the ingenuity. What it needs now is scale,” von der Leyen said in her State of the European Union address.

    The announced $7 billion would be the biggest official tranche of funding to Ukraine’s drone industry so far.

    It’s close to the $6 billion that Ukraine’s defense minister, Denys Shmyhal, has said Kyiv needs to cover this year’s production of first-person-view drones, interceptors, long-range drones, and missiles.

    While new, Ukraine’s drone industry has increasingly been in the spotlight for producing cheap but effective weapons regularly being used to destroy Russian loitering munitions, armor, artillery, and production facilities.

    Importantly, they also allow Kyiv’s troops to harass and halt Russian ground assaults from afar, meaning additional or improved drones could further stifle Moscow’s ability to advance or attrit Ukrainian forces.

    The local drone industry is now seen as a globally leading force, driven by a wide range of domestic manufacturers and individual military units. Many of these firms and troops are often strapped for cash, partially relying on volunteer donations and crowdfunding to update their drones or stay afloat.

    Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy estimated in June that his country had the capacity to make 8 million drones a year, but lacked the funding to do so.

    In her speech, von der Leyen said that Ukrainian drones were responsible for at least 23% of Russian equipment losses. Ukrainian officials have said that at least 70% of all reported hits in the war were caused by drones.

    She also spoke of Ukraine’s need to fight Russia’s growing Shahed waves, indicating that the money could be used to fund the production of interceptor drones.

    “So we can use our industrial strength to support Ukraine to counter this drone warfare,” von der Leyen said.

    Per von der Leyen, the funding will come from interest on frozen Russian assets.

    However, it’s not immediately clear how much of the $7 billion is now ready to be used in Ukraine. Europe estimates that frozen Russian assets can, at most, generate interest of roughly $3.5 billion a year.

    Nor has the European Commission publicly detailed plans on how the money will be disbursed or monitored.

    Spokespersons for the European Commission did not respond to a request for comment sent outside regular business hours by Business Insider.

    Von der Leyen said that since 2022, Europe has contributed close to $200 billion in financial and military aid to Ukraine.

    While drones are often associated with the first-person-view, or FPV, propeller platforms used to fly into enemy targets with explosives, Ukraine has also been experimenting with a range of uncrewed aerial, naval, and ground systems in combat.

    More recently, it’s been codifying more ground-based robots to relieve human soldiers from dangerous frontline combat tasks.

    Some of Kyiv’s long-range munitions are also drones, such as the winged platforms it’s been using to strike Russia’s production facilities hundreds of miles from the border.

    Read the original article on Business Insider

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  • Toyota announces $792m expansion of Czech plant to build new electric car

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    PRAGUE — Japanese carmaker Toyota said on Wednesday it will invest 680 million euros ($792 million) on a new production line in the Czech Republic to make a battery electric car.

    The line will be built with a government incentive of up to 64 million euros ($75 million) to expand Toyota’s existing plant in Kolin, around 50 kilometers (31 miles) east of Prague, the Czech government and the company said in a joint statement.

    It will become the first Toyota plant to produce battery electric cars in Europe .

    Prime Minister Petr Fiala said the new line will create another 245 jobs at the factory that already employs 3,200 people.

    Toyota did not disclose details of when production would start or of the model.

    The world’s top automaker currently makes Aygo X and Yaris Hybrid models at the plant, which made over 225,000 cars last year.

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  • Asian shares mixed as reports show a marginally improved factory outlook for China

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    BANGKOK — Shares were mixed in Asia on Monday, with markets in China gaining after surveys showed a slight improvement in Chinese factory data, suggesting manufacturing is holding up despite higher U.S. tariffs.

    Investors were awaiting further developments after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled Friday that U.S. President Donald Trump went too far when he declared national emergencies to justify imposing sweeping import taxes on almost every country on earth.

    Hong Kong’s Hang Seng jumped 2% to 25,571.91, while the Shanghai Composite index added 0.3% to 3,869.62 in sluggish trading.

    A government survey showed China’s factory activity improved marginally in August, with the purchasing managers index issued by the National Statistics Bureau rising to 49.4 from 49.3 in July. The survey is on a scale of 0 to 100 where 50 marks the cutoff for expansion.

    Another, private sector survey called the RatingDog China General Manufacturing PMI showed the general PMI at 50.5 last month, up from 49.4 in July. Averaging the two surveys yields a PMI of 49.9, suggesting some resilience in the manufacturing sector, Zichun Huang of Capital Economics said in a commentary.

    China and the U.S. are still negotiating over a broad trade agreement that will influence how much import duty companies and consumers will pay on goods shipped to the U.S.

    “The PMIs suggest that China’s economy accelerated last month, thanks to faster growth across manufacturing and services. But we don’t see much upside over the rest of the year,” Huang said.

    Japan’s Nikkei 225 index fell 1.5% to 42,101.37, while the Kospi in South Korea shed 1.4% to 3,140.61.

    Shares also fell in Australia, with the S&P/ASX 200 losing 0.5% to 8,924.70.

    Taiwan’s benchmark lost 0.7% while New Zealand’s gained 0.5%.

    Shares fell 0.7% in Jakarta after Indonesia’s president, Prabowo Subianto, pledged Sunday to revoke lawmakers’ perks and privileges, to try to ease public fury after nationwide protests left six people dead. It was a rare concession in response to mounting public anger.

    U.S. markets will be closed on Monday for the Labor Day holiday.

    On Friday, Wall Street closed out another winning month though benchmarks ended below their latest all-time highs.

    The S&P 500 fell 0.6% a day after climbing to a record high, ending the week at 6,460.26. The benchmark index ended August with a 1.9% gain, its fourth straight month of gains. It’s now up 9.8% so far this year.

    The Dow Jones Industrial Average also came off its own record high, slipping 0.2% to 45,544.88. The Nasdaq composite closed 1.2% lower at 21,455.55.

    Losses in technology weighed on the market, offsetting gains in health care and other sectors.

    Dell Technologies slid 8.9% for the biggest decline among S&P 500 stocks a day after the company reported second-quarter revenue that exceeded analysts’ expectations, but noted that margin pressures and weakness in PC revenue.

    Among other tech companies that ended the day in the red: Tech giant Nvidia fell 3.3%, Broadcom dropped 3.6% and Oracle slid 5.9%.

    Mixed economic data gave traders an excuse to sell and pocket some profits following the market’s milestone-setting week.

    The Commerce Department said prices rose 2.6% in July compared with a year earlier, as measured by the personal consumption expenditures index. That’s the same as in June and in line with what economists expected.

    Excluding volatile food and energy categories, prices rose 2.9% last month from a year earlier, up from 2.8% in June and the highest since February.

    The most recent government data suggests hiring has slowed sharply since this spring, raising alarm over the direction of the broader economy.

    Meanwhile, the latest reading in a survey of U.S. consumers by the University of Michigan showed sentiment soured in August, hitting its lowest level since May due to concerns about prices and the economy.

    In other dealings early Monday, U.S. benchmark crude oil shed 23 cents to $63.78 per barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, fell 25 cents to $67.23 per barrel.

    The U.S. dollar slipped to 146.92 Japanese yen from 147.02 yen. The euro rose to $1.1713 from $1.1696.

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  • Tesla sales plunge again in Europe as anger at Musk keeps buyers away for 7th month in a row

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    NEW YORK — Europeans angry at Elon Musk still aren’t buying his cars months after the billionaire predicted a “major rebound” in Tesla sales, data released Thursday shows.

    Tesla sales plunged 40% in July in the 27 European Union countries compared with the year earlier even as sales overall of electric vehicle soared, according to the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association. Meanwhile sales of Chinese rival BYD continued to climb fast, grabbing 1.1% market share of all car sales in the month versus Tesla’s 0.7%.

    Tesla stock fell 1.5% in afternoon trading Thursday.

    Musk angered many Europeans by wading into politics there, embracing far-right candidates, calling a British prime minister an “evil tyrant” who belongs in prison and telling Germans “things will get very, very much worse” in their country if they didn’t vote for the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany party. Protests broke out in several cities, including a hanging of the billionaire in effigy in Milan and posters in London likening him to a Nazi.

    The company has several other problems that have hurt sales.

    The company is still awaiting European regulatory approval to allow Tesla owners there to use its most advanced driver-assistance features available in the U.S., a big appeal to buyers. Musk had predicted approval of its so-called Full-Self Driving software was going to happen by March of this year.

    Another hit came from Tesla’s decision to close down factories temporarily earlier this year to retool for a new version of its best selling Model Y sport utility vehicle

    The company is hoping the introduction of cheaper Teslas in the last three months of this year will boost sales.

    Overall, the company sold 6,600 cars in July in the EU versus 11,465 a year ago. The plunge came despite a 39% surge in battery electric vehicle sales overall.

    For the first seven months of the year, Tesla sales have fallen 44%. For that entire period, as opposed to just July, Tesla was still the EV market leader. It accounted for 1.1% of European sales of all types —- battery, hybrid and gas powered —- versus 0.9% for BYD.

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