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Philippine table tennis team eyes Paris slot at Southeast Asia Olympic Qualifying in Thailand

UNSPLASH

A crack, four-strong Philippine table tennis team seeks to defy overwhelming odds as it shoots for Paris Olympics berths in the Southeast Asia Olympic Qualifying tilt set May 8 to 10 in Thailand.

John Mari Nayre, John Russel Misal, Kheith Rhynn Cruz and Angel Joyce Laude will try to thread the proverbial eye of the needle as they will be gunning for the lone spot each in the men’s and women’s divisions in the three-day meet.

Accompanying the four are coaches Lauro Crisostomo and Johanne Remaneses.

“Only the champion in the men’s and women’s events will qualify to the Olympics,” Philippine Table Tennis Federation, Inc. Secretary-General Pong Ducanes yesterday told The STAR.

Mr. Ducanes said they’re pinning their hopes on the training of the national team abroad would produce desired results.

Mr. Nayre and Ms. Cruz have seen action and trained in the United States and Europe while Mr. Misal has trained for a month in Indonesia.

Ms. Laude trained locally because she had to say due to academics.

“The team will do their best to qualify for the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris,” said Mr. Ducanes. “Hopefully, joining tournaments and training internationally the past few months will pay off.” — Joey Villar

Man Utd wins FA Cup thriller against Coventry on penalties

LONDON — Manchester United survived one of the most astonishing Football Association (FA) Cup semifinal comebacks ever to beat second-tier Coventry City 4-2 on penalties after a chaotic clash ended 3-3 following extra time at Wembley Stadium on Sunday.

United were cruising to a record 22nd FA Cup final and a repeat clash with Manchester City thanks to goals by Scott McTominay, Harry Maguire and Bruno Fernandes with Coventry barely laying a glove on their opponents for 70 minutes.

But Coventry, playing in their first FA Cup semifinal since they won the Cup for the only time in 1987, were not about to go down without a fight and exposed United’s soft center.

Goals by Ellis Simms and Callum O’Hare gave them hope and with United rocking, Haji Wright stroked home a stoppage-time penalty after an Aaron Wan-Bissaka handball.

Both sides hit the woodwork in a nerve-shredding extra 30 minutes — Mr. Fernandes with a curler for United and Mr. Simms for Coventry, his angled effort bouncing down off the underside of the crossbar with minutes left.

Coventry’s 36,000 fans were then sent into delirium when substitute Victor Torp poked home with almost the last kick of the game for what would have been a deserved winner, only for Wright to have been adjudged fractionally offside by VAR when he played the ball across the face of goal.

Casemiro’s weak opening spot kick for United was saved by Bradley Collins but Mr. Onana saved Mr. O’Hare’s kick and Ben Sheaf fired his effort over the crossbar to leave Rasmus Hojlund with the job of sending United through and he coolly sent his effort past Collins to break Coventry’s hearts.

United celebrated but they know they came within a whisker of a calamitous defeat and it was a performance that will heap further scrutiny on manager Erik ten Hag.

United will now face neighbours City in the showpiece final on May 25 — the first time the same two clubs have contested the FA Cup final in consecutive years since 1885 when Blackburn Rovers beat Queens Park Glasgow both times.

They will have to improve dramatically, however, if they are to avenge last season’s loss and win the Cup for a 13th time.

While United’s erratic display typified their season, Coventry showed huge character having looked down and out and but for a cruel VAR check would have been celebrating one of the greatest days in their history.

United went ahead in the 23rd minute when Mr. McTominay tapped home from Diogo Dalot’s cross and Mr. Maguire’ thumping header put them 2-0 ahead on the stroke of halftime. Some Coventry fans left when Mr. Fernandes scored from close range just before the hour but those that stayed were treated to something truly astonishing.

Mr. Simms stroked home in the 71st minute and suddenly all United’s earlier poise evaporated. When Mr. O’Hare’s shot took a freakish deflection and ballooned up and over Mr. Onana into the net the comeback looked well and truly on.

Mr. Onana made a sensational save from Jake Bidwell but Coventry kept pressing and when a cross hit the arm of Wan-Bissaka, Mr. Wright blasted home a 95th-minute penalty. — Reuters

Clippers’ defense holds Mavericks in check in Game 1 win

James Harden scored 28 points and Ivica Zubac set his playoff career high with 20 while adding 15 rebounds as the Los Angeles Clippers made a statement in Game 1 of a first-round Western Conference series with a 109-97 victory over the visiting Dallas Mavericks on Sunday.

The fourth-seeded Clippers were playing without star Kawhi Leonard because of knee inflammation, but they had plenty to get past the Mavericks, getting 22 points from Paul George and 13 apiece from Terance Mann and Russell Westbrook. Mr. Mann had nine rebounds while Harden had eight assists.

Los Angeles’ high-level defense was present from the start, holding Dallas to just eight points in the second quarter and 30 in the first half. The Clippers led by as many as 29 points in the third quarter.

Luka Doncic scored 33 points to go along with 13 rebounds and Kyrie Irving added 31 points for the Mavericks. Dallas had an impressive end to the regular season, as it won 16 of 18 games before using mainly reserves over the final two games, both defeats, after its playoff seed was determined. — Reuters

PHL stocks inch higher amid thin trading volume

COURTESY OF PHILIPPINE STOCK EXCHANGE, INC.

STOCKS inched up on Monday amid thin trading volume and as investor sentiment improved following an order from President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. to ease the import process for agricultural products.

The Philippine Stock Exchange index rose by 0.01% or 1.08 points to end at 6,444.08 on Monday, while the broader all shares went up by 0.12% or 4.16 points to close at 3,425.71.

“The local bourse inched up by 1.08 points (0.01%) to 6,444.08 after the strong sell-off last week,” Philstocks Financial, Inc. Research Analyst Claire T. Alviar said in a Viber message. “President Marcos’ directive to ease the im-portation process of agricultural products provided a boost to market sentiment. This change is anticipated to ease short-term supply issues, which in turn should help reduce inflation caused by supply shortages.”

Mr. Marcos ordered the Department of Agriculture (DA) to ease the importation process of agricultural products, including allowing industrial users to directly import sugar.

Administrative Order No. 20 signed on April 18 directed the DA, in coordination with the Departments of Finance and Trade, to “undertake measures to further streamline administrative procedures and policies on the importation of agricultural products and remove non-tariff barriers.”

Non-tariff barriers are policy measures that restrict trade such as quotas, import licensing systems, regulations and red tape, among others.

“Philippine shares started the week quietly on thin volume as the market awaits further updates on the geopolitical front,” Regina Capital Development Corp. Head of Sales Luis A. Limlingan added in a Viber message.

“In the United States, on Wednesday, durable goods data is expected with a consensus estimate of 2.5%. Following that, on Thursday, the gross domestic product growth rate is anticipated to be released with an estimate of 2.5%. On Friday, two crucial indicators will be released namely core personal consumption expenditures with an estimated increase of 0.3%, and personal income and personal spending, both with estimated increases of 0.5% and 0.6%, respectively,” he added.

Value turnover dropped to P3.64 billion on Monday with 564.35 million shares changing hands from the P5.44 billion with 703.78 million issues traded on Friday.

Sectoral indices were mixed on Monday. Mining and oil rose by 3.09% or 254.53 points to 8,477.15; property climbed by 1.66% or 40.14 points to 2,458.37; and industrials gained by 0.28% or 23.87 points to end at 8,399.44.

Meanwhile, services fell by 0.66% or 12.16 points to 1,809.90; holding firms went down by 0.59% or 35.34 points to 5,917.02; and financials dropped by 0.06% or 1.33 points to close at 2,035.23.

Advancers outnumbered decliners, 96 versus 82, while 47 names ended unchanged.

Net foreign selling increased to P795.73 million on Monday from P651.52 million on Friday. — Revin Mikhael D. Ochave

EU aims to increase food exports to China despite trade tensions

REUTERS

SHANGHAI – On a visit to China this week, EU Agriculture Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski said his focus will be on increasing agri-food exports to the world’s second largest economy and keeping food above the fray of rising tensions in China-EU trade.

“In the food trade, there are no barriers for Chinese imports,” Mr. Wojciechowski said in an interview in Shanghai on Monday.

“My intention is to avoid as much as possible that agriculture pays the costs of the problems in other sectors, which sometimes can happen,” he added.

The commissioner’s visit, which runs until Friday, comes as China and Europe face a “slow motion train accident” as a rising tide of protectionism threatens to become a full trade war, Jens Eskelund, president of the European Chamber in China, warned last week.

Unlike sectors such as solar panels or new energy vehicles (NEVs) the European Union’s agri-food sector runs an export surplus in its trade with China.

Also unlike other sectors, the open trade of food remains a “very important instrument to ensure food security everywhere”, which is why Western sanctions on Russia following its incursion into Ukraine were not levied on agri-food products, Mr. Wojciechowski said.

Last year, the EU’s exports to China were worth 14.6 billion euros ($15.57 billion), down 8% from 2022, while imports from China to the EU fell 15% to 8.3 billion euros.

Mr. Wojciechowski said there is room for exports from the EU to China to grow across a range of agri-food sectors, from poultry to pork, beef and even dairy, a segment that is already relatively advanced in terms of penetration into China.

“We can observe the increase of middle class consumers who are looking for good, high quality food. This is a chance for European Food to increase our exports,” he said. – Reuters

Europe’s bank earnings to offer interest rate reality check

US dollar and euro banknotes are seen in this illustration taken on July 17, 2022. — REUTERS/DADO RUVIC/ILLUSTRATION

LONDON/FRANKFURT/MADRID – Investors should get a clearer picture this week of whether higher interest rates are still boosting European bank profits or if a year-long share price rally will run out of steam.

Britain’s Lloyds Banking Group is the first of the big European lenders to report its first quarter earnings on April 24, before BNP Paribas, Deutsche Bank and Barclays publish theirs the following day.

After years of low interest rates, a surge in borrowing costs has been a game changer for bank profits in Europe, whose shares have soared on the resulting shareholder payouts.

“What is fundamentally different is that we are out of negative rates. That has had a fundamental impact on the outlook (for banks) and it still does,” said Christian Edelman, Co-Head of Europe at consulting group Oliver Wyman.

The full picture will not become clear immediately as European bank earnings stretch over several weeks, with Spain’s BBVA and Santander reporting at the end of April and France’s Societe Generale and Switzerland’s UBS in the first week of May.

Earnings last week from Finland’s Nordea and Spain’s Bankinter signal that earnings growth is holding up well, despite expectations that the European Central Bank (ECB) will cut rates in June.

But Oliver Wyman’s Edelman cautioned that falling margins and weak loan demand were causes for concern.

JP Morgan analysts admitted last week their caution on European banks had “not been the right decision”, with a 15% jump in European bank shares since the start of 2024 beating U.S. banks and lower valuations suggesting there was more upside, even if earnings growth weakens as expected.

The picture in the US so far is mixed. While net interest income, the difference between what banks earn on loans and pay out on deposits, disappointed at JP Morgan, investment bank revenues helped Goldman Sachs beat forecasts.

 

MORE PROFITS

The tailwinds of higher rates and contained bad loans are expected to help most European banks to a strong start to 2024.

Deutsche is expected to disclose a 15th consecutive quarter of profit after years of hefty losses. Germany’s largest lender should post around 1.2 billion euros in profit, according to a consensus it published, up from 1.16 billion euros in 2023 and helped by revenue gains at its investment bank.

BNP Paribas, which saw its shares slide at its full-year results after it delayed a key profit target, should have a better first quarter, as it tends to be seasonably strong, UBS analysts said.

The recent drop in expectations for a series of rate cuts this year could also give an unexpected boost, analysts say.

Santander and BBVA are forecast to report higher net profit and NII, helped by their Spanish, Brazilian and Mexican businesses.

Still, investors will be keeping a close eye for signs that the underperformance of European economies versus the U.S., and the likelihood of rate cuts coming sooner in Britain and the euro zone, is beginning to weigh.

Last week, Deputy Bank of Spain Governor Margarita Delgado said the rise in banks’ NII “cannot be considered sustainable” as the repricing of loan portfolios was almost done.

UBS, which is integrating Credit Suisse and assessing Swiss plans for it to hold more capital, will be closely watched. KBW analysts said comments on the proposals would “sway sentiment”.

Oliver Wyman’s Edelman said higher rates for longer and a weakening economy could worsen problems in commercial real estate (CRE), a sector in the midst of a downturn but which is yet to lead to much pain for the big European and U.S. banks.

“If rates stay high for much, much longer and there is a slowing of the economy, expect some significant losses in the CRE book.” – Reuters

Deepfakes of Bollywood stars spark worries of AI meddling in India election

REUTERS

MUMBAI – In fake videos that have gone viral online, two of India’s A-lister Bollywood actors are seen criticizing Prime Minister Narendra Modi and asking people to vote for the opposition Congress party in the country’s ongoing general election.

In a 30-second video that shows Aamir Khan and another 41-second clip of Ranveer Singh, the two Bollywood actors purportedly say Modi failed to keep campaign promises and failed to address critical economic issues during his two terms as prime minister.

Both AI-generated videos end with the Congress election symbol and slogan: “Vote for Justice, Vote for Congress”.

The two videos have been viewed on social media more than half a million times since last week, a Reuters review shows.

Their spread underlines the potential role such AI (artificial intelligence)-generated content can play in the mammoth Indian election that started on Friday and will continue until June. AI and AI-generated fakes, or deepfakes, are being increasingly used in elections elsewhere in the world, including in the US, Pakistan and Indonesia.

Campaigning in India has long focused on door-to-door outreach and public rallies, but extensive use of WhatsApp and Facebook as campaigning tools started in 2019. This year’s general election – in which Modi is expected to secure a rare third term – is the first in which AI is being used.

A Congress spokesperson, Sujata Paul, shared actor Singh’s video with her 16,000 followers on X on April 17 and by Saturday afternoon, her post had been re-shared 2,900 times, liked 8,700 times and received 438,000 views.

Paul told Reuters by telephone she was aware the video was marked “manipulated media” by X, but she did not want to delete it as, while posting, she thought the person was a look alike of Singh and “it has creativity for sure”.

The post was no longer visible on X on Sunday, hours after Reuters sent a request for comment to Congress’ head of social media cell, who did not respond.

Both actors have said the videos are fake. Facebook, X and at least eight fact-checking websites have said they are altered or manipulated, which the Reuters digital verification unit has also confirmed.

Reuters could not ascertain who created the videos. Khan was “alarmed” by the viral “fake” video and Singh’s team was looking into the matter, according to a spokesperson for both actors. Singh wrote on X on Friday: “Beware of deepfakes, friends”.

Modi’s office, and the IT head of his Bharatiya Janata Party, did not respond to requests for comment.

 

POLICE PROBE

Nearly 900 million people in India have access to the Internet and a survey conducted by research organization Esya Centre and the Indian Institute of Management business school showed an average Indian spends over three hours a day on social media. The country has nearly one billion voters.

Some versions of the videos have been blocked on social media but at least 14 were still visible on X on Saturday. Facebook deleted two videos Reuters flagged to the company but one other was still visible.

Facebook in a statement said it has “removed the videos” for violation of its policies. X did not respond to Reuters queries.

The videos have sparked one police investigation with Khan registering a case in Mumbai against unnamed persons on April 17 for alleged impersonation and cheating for creating the fake video.

Mumbai police did not return a request for comment, but two officers working on Khan’s case, who declined to be named, said they wrote to Facebook and X to take down the video and the companies had said it was done.

The officers said they were up until 2 a.m. on Friday, refreshing pages to check if Khan’s online videos were removed. Asked about progress in the case, one of them said: “Such technical investigations take time.”

 

AI VIDEO OF DEAD FATHER

In this year’s election, politicians are using AI in other ways.

In southern India, Congress leader Vijay Vasanth’s spokesperson said his team has created a 2-minute audio-video clip using AI that was shared on social media platforms and shows his now dead but more popular politician father, H. Vasanthakumar, seeking votes for him.

The late politician is seen saying “even though my body left you all, my soul is still around.”

In videos put out on YouTube by the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM), Samata, an AI-generated anchor dressed in a traditional sareeand speaking in a style that mimics regular news channels, criticizes the ruling party in West Bengal state.

In one clip, the anchor alleges the party does not care about the environment as many water bodies have vanished due to illegal construction.

A spokesperson for the ruling party denied the allegation and said the state government has ensured no such construction takes place. The CPM did not respond to requests for comment.

In the video, which has been seen 12,000 times, anchor Samata declares: “These are questions that we the citizens of this city need to ponder over.” – Reuters

 

Health-harming heat stress rising in Europe, scientists say

STOCK PHOTO | Image by un-perfekt from Pixabay

BRUSSELS – Europe is increasingly facing bouts of heat so intense that the human body cannot cope, as climate change continues to raise temperatures, the EU’s Copernicus climate monitoring service and the World Meteorological Organization said on Monday.

In a report on Europe’s climate, Copernicus and the WMO noted last year’s extreme conditions, including a July heatwave which pushed 41% of southern Europe into strong, very strong or extreme heat stress – the biggest area of Europe under such conditions in any day on record.

Extreme heat poses particular health risks to outdoor workers, the elderly, and people with existing conditions like cardiovascular diseases and diabetes.

Parts of Italy recorded 7% more deaths than normal last July, with victims including a 44-year-old man painting road markings in the northern town of Lodi who collapsed and died.

Heat stress measures the impact that the environment has on the human body, combining factors like temperature, humidity and the body’s response, to establish a “feels like” temperature.

Parts of Spain, France, Italy and Greece experienced up to ten days of extreme heat stress in 2023, defined as a “feels like” temperature of more than 46 degrees Celsius, at which point immediate action must be taken to avoid heat stroke and other health issues.

Deaths related to heat have increased by around 30% in Europe in the last 20 years, the report said.

The EU’s environment agency urged governments last month to prepare healthcare systems for climate change and called for EU rules to protect outdoor workers from extreme heat.

Last year was the world’s hottest since records began. Europe is the world’s fastest-warming continent.

Greenhouse gas emissions were the biggest cause of last year’s exceptional heat, the report said. Factors including the El Nino weather pattern also played a role.

The heat fueled extreme weather including flooding, since the warmer atmosphere can hold more moisture, causing heavier downpours when it is released.

Floods in Slovenia last year affected 1.5 million people. Greece suffered the EU’s biggest wildfire on record which, at 960 square km, was twice the size of Athens. Alpine glaciers lost 10% of their remaining volume during 2022 and 2023.

“Some of the events of 2023 took the scientific community by surprise because of their intensity, their speed of onset, extent and duration,” said Carlo Buontempo, director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service. – Reuters

Philippines, US troops begin annual combat drills

FILE PHOTO | PHILIPPINE STAR/WALTER BOLLOZOS

MANILA – Nearly 17,000 Filipino and American troops will begin a three-week joint combat training exercise in the Philippines on Monday involving maritime drills in the South China Sea where Manila and Beijing have sparred over maritime borders.

France and Australia, which have ramped up defense ties with Manila in the face of China’s aggressive behavior in the South China Sea, will join the maritime exercises to be conducted for the first time outside Philippine territorial waters.

The annual Balikatan or “shoulder-to-shoulder” drills, which will run from April 22 to May 10, come amid an escalating diplomatic row and maritime encounters between the Philippines and China including the use of water cannon and heated verbal exchanges.

Beijing’s increasing pressure in the South China Sea has alarmed Manila, rival claimants to disputed maritime territory, and other states operating there, including the United States which has reaffirmed its commitment to defend the Philippines against armed aggression in the South China Sea.

China claims most of the South China Sea, which is a conduit for more than $3 trillion of annual ship-borne commerce. Beijing has criticized the joint drills, saying they aggravate tensions and undermine regional stability.

The Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague ruled in 2016 that Beijing’s expansive claims to the sea had no basis under international law. China rejects the ruling and has built military facilities on disputed atolls to back up its claims.

During joint exercises, US troops and their Manila counterparts will simulate retaking enemy-occupied islands in the northernmost islands of the country close to Taiwan, and in western Palawan province facing the South China Sea.

The drills, which the Philippines said were not targeted against any country, will involve 16,700 troops from both sides, slightly less than last year’s 17,600, which were the largest Balikatan exercises since they started in 1991.

“While we remain vigilant in the face of regional challenges, the exercise is not explicitly tied to any particular country’s actions,” Philippines military spokesperson Colonel Francel Margareth Padilla said on Sunday. – Reuters

China’s steel sector has bigger worries than Biden tariff hike

BEIJING/SINGAPORE – US President Joe Biden’s push to triple tariffs on Chinese steel imports strikes a mostly symbolic blow on an industry facing bigger concerns over faltering local demand and threats of even stronger blowback against China’s surging exports.

Steel consumption in the world’s second-largest economy is poised to shrink again this year as a protracted property crisis has yet to find bottom and as infrastructure demand growth slows after 12 indebted regions were ordered to halt certain projects.

The state-backed China Metallurgical Industry Planning and Research Institute (MPI) forecasts a 1.7% drop in China’s steel demand this year, following a 3.3% decline in 2023.

While China’s steel exports last year climbed more than a third to their highest since 2016 at 90.26 million metric tons, about 9% of its total crude steel output, just 598,000 tons of the shipments went to the United States. That was down 8.2% from volumes shipped to the US the previous year and less than 1% of total Chinese steel exports worth $85 billion in 2023.

China, the world’s biggest producer and exporter of steel, is just the seventh-largest shipper of steel to the US, softening the blow of Biden’s proposal to raise to 25% the tariffs imposed by his predecessor Donald Trump on certain steel and aluminum products.

“We do not think there will be any big impact as the main destinations for China’s steel exports are Japan, South Korea, and Middle East countries,” said an analyst at a China-based steel trader who declined to be named as he was not authorized to speak with media.

Spurred by low local prices, Chinese steelmakers and traders are on track to match or surpass last year’s exports, with domestic information provider Lange Steel lifting its forecast to more than 100 million tons for 2024 after March shipments beat expectations.

China’s cheap steel products are also stoking complaints from beyond the United States.

Late last year, India imposed anti-dumping duties on some Chinese steel imports while Mexico announced a nearly 80% tariff. Thailand has launched a probe into Chinese rolled steel imports, and Brazilian steelmakers are urging their government to impose a 25% tariff on imports.

A report from a Chinese state-backed research agency identified a total of 112 statements from countries regarding anti-dumping and anti-subsidy moves on Chinese steel products in 2023, a rise of around 20 from 2022.

“We are expecting more trade frictions this year,” said David Cachot, research director at consultancy Wood Mackenzie.

 

DOMESTIC DOLDRUMS

Beijing’s latest support for the sector, a plan to back equipment upgrades in the industrial and farm sectors and speed consumers’ replacement of cars and home appliances, is unlikely to fully offset reduced steel consumption from the property sector.

Consultancy CRU Group forecast that an additional 8 million to 9 million tons of steel demand will be created over the next four years thanks to the policy. In comparison, the state metallurgical institute expects construction demand to decline 20 million tons, or 4%, this year.

Some analysts said they expect infrastructure-led steel consumption this year to grow just 1% to 2%, from previous expectations of 7% to 8%, after Beijing’s demand that a dozen regional governments delay or halt some state-funded infrastructure projects prompted other regions to follow suit.

In recent years, Beijing has imposed caps on steel production both to reduce supply and curb carbon emissions, and industry watchers and insiders say further output cuts are needed to curtail overcapacity.

“The steel industry faces a conspicuous contradiction -strong supply capability and dwindling demand,” Luo Tiejun, vice chairman of state-backed China Iron and Steel Association (CISA), told an industry event this week in southern China.

“The key to address this is that leading producers take the lead in reining in production pace based on demand,” Luo said, according to the group’s WeChat account.

 

EXPORTS TO THE RESCUE?

In March, Chinese steel exports climbed to 9.89 million tons, the highest for a month since July 2016, bringing the first-quarter total to 25.8 millions even as overall exports in the world’s second-largest economy contracted sharply.

Valued at $20.3 billion, China’s first quarter steel exports averaged $789 per ton, far above local prices averaging 4,145 yuan ($572.30), data from customs and consultancy Mysteel show.

A weaker-for-longer yuan against the U.S. dollar, partly due to delayed U.S. Federal Reserve interest rate cuts, is also expected to facilitate steel exports.

But exports are susceptible to uncertainty stemming not only from trade frictions but also growing overseas supply and the potential for Beijing to mandate output limits.

To be sure, global steel demand is expected to rise 1.7% to 1.793 billion tons this year, the World Steel Association said.

“Although some countries are building their own capacity to fulfil the increase in local demand, this cannot meet the demand quickly enough, which means that there is still room for steel from China,” said Kevin Bai, a Beijing-based analyst at CRU Group. – Reuters

 

Tesla cuts prices in China, Germany and around globe after US cuts

ROBERTO NICKSON-UNSPLASH

BEIJING/FRANKFURT – Tesla has cut prices in a number of its major markets, including China and Germany, following price cuts in the United States, as it grapples with falling sales and an intensifying price war for electric vehicles (EVs), especially against Chinese EVs.

The price cuts come after Tesla, led by its billionaire CEO Elon Musk, reported this month that its global vehicle deliveries in the first quarter fell for the first time in nearly four years.

“Tesla prices must change frequently in order to match production with demand,” Mr. Musk posted on X on Sunday.

Tesla, the EV market leader, ignited an EV price war over a year ago by aggressively cutting prices at the expense of profit margins.

Tesla cut the starting price of the revamped Model 3 in China by 14,000 yuan ($1,930) to 231,900 yuan ($32,000), its official website showed on Sunday.

In Germany, the price of the Model 3 rear-wheel-drive was trimmed to 40,990 euros ($43,670.75) from 42,990 euros, where the price had been since February.

There were also price cuts in many other countries in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, a Tesla spokesperson said.

US prices of the Model Y, Model X and Model S vehicles were cut by $2,000 on Friday. On Saturday Tesla slashed the price of its Full Self-Driving driver assistant software to $8,000 from $12,000 in the United States.

Tesla has been slow to refresh its ageing models as high interest rates have sapped consumer appetite for big-ticket items, while rivals in China, the world’s largest auto market, are rolling out cheaper models.

This weekend, Mr. Musk postponed a planned trip to India, where he was to have met Prime Minister Narendra Modi, citing obligations at Tesla. The trip was to have included the announcement of plans for Tesla to enter the South Asian market, Reuters reported on Saturday.

Mr. Musk said last Monday that Tesla will lay off more than 10% of its global workforce as the automaker braces for its first annual drop in deliveries.

The announcement came after Reuters reported on April 5 that Tesla had scrapped plan to develop its long-awaited affordable EV in favor of robotaxis. Mr. Musk posted that “Reuters is lying” after the report, without citing any inaccuracies. He has not spoken further about the model, leaving investors clamouring for clarity.

Tesla shares have fallen 40.8% so far this year. – Reuters

US commerce secretary downplays chip in advanced Huawei phone

REUTERS

WASHINGTON – The chip powering the Mate 60 Pro phone of sanctioned Chinese company Huawei is not as advanced as American chips, US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said on Sunday, arguing that it shows US curbs on shipments to the telecoms equipment giant are working.

Huawei, which has been on a trade restriction list since 2019, surprised the industry and the US government when it released a new phone powered by a sophisticated chip last August. The Huawei Mate 60 Pro was seen as a symbol of China’s technological resurgence despite Washington’s ongoing efforts to cripple its capacity to produce advanced semiconductors.

It was also seen by many as a slight for Ms. Raimondo, who was visiting China when it was released. But in an interview with CBS News’ “60 Minutes,” Raimondo pushed back against that view.

“What it tells me is the export controls are working because that chip is not nearly as good, … it’s years behind what we have in the United States, she said. “We have the most sophisticated semiconductors in the world. China doesn’t.”

Washington has been locked in a years-long effort to deprive Beijing of advanced semiconductor chips and the tools needed to make them over concerns they would be used to strengthen China’s military capabilities.

Huawei, a symbol of that tech war, was added to the so-called entity-list in 2019 amid fears it could spy on Americans, forcing its US suppliers to seek a difficult-to-obtain license to ship to it.

But its suppliers, including Intel, have received licenses worth billions of dollars to keep selling to the company. Huawei’s revelation of its first AI-enabled laptop powered by an Intel chip this month has fueled anger among Republican China hardliners.

When asked if she was tough enough on big business, Ms. Raimondo was emphatic.

“I hold businesses accountable as much as anyone,” she told Lesley Stahl on “60 Minutes.” “When I tell them they can’t sell their semiconductors to China, they don’t love that, but I do that,” she added.

The Huawei phone also prompted a review by the Biden administration to learn the details behind the chip that powers it, the most advanced semiconductor China has so far produced. But details of the review have been scant. – Reuters

 

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