Howdy, that is Kenji in Tokyo, the place US President Donald Trump simply swept by means of this week as a part of his tour of east Asia. The go to put fairly a little bit of stress on odd folks as 18,000 cops had been mobilised and main highways closed off within the nation’s capital throughout his three-day keep.
When this article comes out, Trump can be on his manner again to the US, having wrapped up his tour with probably the most anticipated occasions: a face-to-face assembly with Chinese language President Xi Jinping in Seoul. The US president informed reporters that the hour-and-40-minute speak had yielded agreements on fentanyl, soybeans and rare earths, which ought to assist soothe investor nerves.
The US chief’s journey, which kicked off in Malaysia on Saturday, has produced quite a lot of headlines, together with the signing of a peace accord between Thailand and Cambodia. A number of agreements on commerce, tariffs and enterprise had been additionally made, and particulars of the $550bn investment deal between the US and Japan began to emerge, together with the joint improvement of uncommon earth mines.
Across the time Trump was leaving Tokyo’s Haneda Airport on board Air Drive One, the Japan Mobility Present was kicking off at Tokyo Huge Sight, only a few kilometres away. Journalists acquired an advance take a look at the occasion, which opens its doorways to most of the people on Friday.
One among Trump’s main grievances towards Japan has been over cars, as he claims that numerous non-tariff measures are blocking American vehicles from coming into the Japanese market.
Whereas not going into depth concerning the causes for that, no US automakers — like Normal Motors, Ford Motor or Stellantis-owned Chrysler — had been right here presenting new fashions or sharing their advertising and marketing methods at Japan’s most eye-catching auto exhibit. However auto producers from different nations, together with BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Hyundai and Kia, held press conferences on Wednesday.
Amongst these non-Japanese names, BYD has grabbed an excellent quantity of media consideration. The Chinese language automaker, which is making its second look on the Tokyo present, launched two new fashions for subsequent 12 months — a T35 small truck and the Racco, an electric kei-style minicar — each tailor-made for the Japanese market.
Liu Xueliang, BYD’s Asia Pacific common supervisor for auto gross sales and president of its Japan operation, informed reporters that the brand new fashions are a transparent sign of how the Chinese language firm is “absolutely dedicated to Japan”.
Based on Liu, BYD offered 7,123 passenger vehicles in Japan over the last two years and 500 buses during the last decade. Whereas the numbers don’t look so substantial, its efficiency is one thing to control, as Japan is simply the newest market the place Chinese language automakers are making nice leaps towards the backdrop of overcapacity and fierce value wars at residence.
Major American automakers are beginning to categorical concern concerning the progress of Chinese language automobile producers, regardless of the US just about shutting them out of its personal market. “Competitors is getting harder, specifically the Chinese language [automakers] are increasing globally,” Ford CEO Jim Farley has warned.
Revving up
Whereas BYD and international automakers are selling themselves on the Tokyo Mobility Present, different Chinese language friends are increase their battle chests in Hong Kong. Nikkei Asia’s Kenji Kawase has been following a collection of latest shares listings on town’s bourse, the place 4 mainland Chinese language auto sector firms on Monday and Tuesday introduced plans to lift as much as a complete of $3.5bn.
The biggest was by Seres Group, a Chinese language electrical automobile maker partnering with Huawei Applied sciences, which intends to lift 13.17bn Hong Kong {dollars} ($1.69bn), if the pricing is ready on the prime quality.
Following Seres, robotaxi companies Pony.ai and WeRide stated they want to absorb as a lot as HK$7.55bn and HK$3bn, respectively, to spend money on enhancing their self-driving expertise.
All of them, together with clever auto components supplier Ningbo Joyson Digital, are already listed both on the Nasdaq or in Shanghai. They’re benefiting from market situations and filling up their coffers by fairness financing in Hong Kong, amid ongoing tectonic shifts within the trade over electrification, sensible vehicles and autonomous driving. Nvidia, for instance, is planning to roll out 100,000 robotaxis with ride-hailing firm Uber beginning in 2027, in accordance with Nikkei Asia’s Yifan Yu.
Accelerated ambitions
Silicon Valley traders, together with Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund, have invested greater than $100mn in a secretive US start-up with a daring plan to problem the dominance of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co and ASML in cutting-edge chipmaking.
San Francisco-based Substrate, based in 2022 by James Proud and his youthful brother Oliver, plans to use particle accelerators to make chips rather more cheaply than at present’s state-of-the-art gear, writes the Monetary Instances’ Tim Bradshaw.
The beginning-up has attracted funding from big-name traders together with Founders Fund, Normal Catalyst and Valor Fairness Companions, regardless of the large logistical and monetary challenges Substrate faces to achieve probably the most technically complicated industries on the earth. Its fundraising valued the corporate at greater than $1bn, Substrate stated.
Proud, who was born in London however is now an American citizen, stated he was pushed by a want to assist the US beat China within the race for international technological dominance.
“The corporate itself may be very ideological,” Proud stated. “The US must have superior semiconductor manufacturing and we have to do it at excessive quantity.” He stated “overseas monopolies” holding “the 2 important choke factors” on chip manufacturing was a “manifestly scary dependence”. Substrate is aiming to provide chips “with a price construction that permits [the US] to compete towards China,” he added.
Ups and downs
Issues that Trump’s “reciprocal” tariffs would take a heavy toll on the export-dependent financial system of Vietnam are starting to fade. The US tariff charge on Vietnamese imports is 20 per cent — down from an initially threatened 46 per cent — whereas the levy for transshipments stands at 40 per cent, with a purpose to shut a loophole for Chinese language items destined for the US to keep away from increased tariffs.
General exports from the south-east Asian nation have remained sturdy, although a better take a look at the information since August 7 by Nikkei Asia’s Mai Nguyen and Atsushi Tomiyama reveals that the outcomes are blended.
Merchandise in decrease value-added sectors, comparable to textiles and footwear, have been hit arduous, together with Nike and Adidas merchandise. In the meantime, increased value-added manufacturing of products comparable to computer systems, equipment, optical merchandise, automotive components and photo voltaic panels has been thriving.
That is “precisely the place Vietnam as a rustic needs to be”, stated John Campbell, director of business providers at actual property firm Savills’ Vietnam workplace. He seen a “large uptick in inquiries once more” for firms in search of manufacturing websites in September.
Nice mines . . .
One of the crucial notable highlights of President Donald Trump’s go to to Japan from a #techAsia perspective was an settlement on uncommon earths.
Earlier than Trump’s arrival, US Ambassador to Japan George Glass on Saturday revealed that a part of Japan’s $550bn funding dedication “can be directed to revive and develop America’s mining and ore processing”, Nikkei Asia’s Jada Nagumo and Kenji Kawase reported. This adopted China’s transfer to sharply tighten export restrictions on uncommon earths and associated merchandise, an space of the provision chain the nation has lengthy dominated.
And one of many tangible outcomes of the primary face-to-face assembly between Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is a deal that included an settlement for the 2 nations to mobilise private and non-private sector help of their efforts to “speed up the safe provide of essential minerals and uncommon earths”, Shotaro Tani and Mitsuru Obe write.
Individually, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan lately introduced that his nation probably has 12.5mn tons of rare-earth reserves, which could possibly be a possible sport changer in makes an attempt to interrupt China’s maintain on the supplies, Nikkei Asia’s Sinan Tavsan experiences. If this discover is confirmed, Turkey would have the world’s third-largest reserves after China and Brazil, in accordance with knowledge from america Geological Survey.
Urged reads
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#techAsia is co-ordinated by Nikkei Asia’s Katherine Creel in Tokyo, with help from the FT tech desk in London.
Enroll here at Nikkei Asia to obtain #techAsia every week. The editorial crew might be reached at techasia@nex.nikkei.co.jp
