Businesses making everything from chips to steel reported downbeat results on Wednesday, with U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade war inflicting damage even as Japan’s deal lifted stocks and hopes that Europe can clinch a similar agreement.
Japanese shares surged to a one-year high on Wednesday as the country struck a trade deal with the United States that lowers tariffs on its autos, while also reviving hopes for a EU-US agreement that boosted European stock futures.
China’s hardened rhetoric against price wars among producers is raising expectations Beijing may be about to kick off industrial capacity cuts in a long-awaited, but challenging, campaign against deflation that carries risks to economic growth.
China’s cabinet on Wednesday pledged to regulate what it called “irrational” competition in the country’s electric vehicle industry, vowing to strengthen cost investigation and price monitoring, according to state broadcaster CCTV.
Chinese automakers are pushing to unlock Africa’s underdeveloped potential, with a focus on electric and hybrid vehicles, as restrictions on exports to the United States and Europe send them on a global quest for new markets.
China’s auto industry has inflated car sales for years through a burgeoning government-backed grey market that registers new cars right off the assembly line and then ships them overseas as “used” vehicles.
China’s overseas shipments of rare earth magnets halved in May from April, tumbling to their lowest levels in more than five years due to export curbs.
Swedish premium carmaker Polestar will start delivering its electric vehicles in France this year with the goal of making it one of its three main European markets, its top executive for the country told Reuters.
