Manufacturing - whatsonpenang.com

Volvo to take control of manufacturing and sales operations in China

July 22, 2021 By Keith Leave a Comment

An informative article on Penang.

Volvo Cars has acquired its parent company, Geely Holding’s, share in the joint ventures between the two companies in China, with the intention of taking full ownership of manufacturing and sales operations in the country.

“With this agreement, Volvo Cars will become the first major non-Chinese automaker with full control over its Chinese operations,” said Volvo Cars, CEO, Håkan Samuelsson.

Volvo confirms next-gen XC60 to be fully electric, expected to launch around 2026! Find out more here!

This follows after an agreement was made to acquire an additional 50% of Daqing Volvo Car Manufacturing and Shanghai Volvo Car Research and Development.

Following the acquisition, Volvo Cars will now have full ownership of its manufacturing plants in Chengdu and Daqing, its national sales company in China, and its R&D facility in Shanghai. Before this, all Volvo operations were executed under joint ventures with local companies.

“The agreement will create a clearer ownership structure within both Volvo Cars and Geely Holding,” said Geely Holding, CEO, Daniel Donghui Li.

The deal is said to be formally completed by 2023, once the joint-venture requirement for automotive manufacturing is lifted in China next year. The initiative was previously laid down by the Chinese government to encourage technology and information transfer to local car manufacturers.

Geely demonstrates its 60-second battery-swapping process for electric cars in real-time! Check it out!

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BNM likely to maintain OPR at 1.75%

May 4, 2021 By Keith Leave a Comment

An informative post about Malaysia.

HSBC Global Research expects Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) to keep the Overnight Policy Rate at 1.75% at its third Monetary Policy Committee meeting on Thursday.

In a research note yesterday, its chief economist for ASEAN, Joseph Incalcaterra, said despite downside risks to BNM’s economic growth forecast, there was a high bar for further monetary policy accommodation.

“BNM can count on manufacturing growth to provide support to the economy and employment.

“The government has also secured enough vaccine doses to enable the country to achieve some form of herd immunity by end-2021, despite supply challenges and signs of vaccine hesitancy in the short term,” he added.

He pointed out that despite a slow start to vaccinations, Malaysia was one of only a few Asian economies that might reach herd immunity this year.

Incalcaterra said HSBC Global Research expected the upward momentum for export to be sustained after the country recorded a 31% year-on-year increase in March, which was driven by a 47.1% jump in electronics exports.

He added that activity in Malaysia’s manufacturing and export sectors continued to roar, in line with the expectation that export growth would accelerate due to soaring demand for Malaysia’s semiconductor exports.

He attributed this in part to a large share of automotive chip production, coupled with higher commodity export volumes.

Moreover, Incalcaterra said headline inflation was likely to continue rising in 2021 due to base effects and higher energy prices.

“While BNM can look through this volatility, it would reduce the likelihood of further easing as the real policy rate buffer evaporates.

“BNM also remains focused on elevated household debt growth and can rely on still-expansionary fiscal policy to provide targeted support to the economy,” he added.

He noted that Malaysia appeared to be in the midst of a worrying fourth wave of Covid-19 infections, with daily new cases now exceeding 3,000 and hospital occupancy rates around Kuala Lumpur being alarmingly high.

“Some degree of further restrictions appears likely, and mobility and consumer spending may soften further in the coming weeks.

“This could significantly derail the pace of the recovery in the second quarter,” said Incalcaterra.

Source: Bernama

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Thailand phasing out combustion engines, pushing to have only EVs as new cars in 2035

April 25, 2021 By Keith Leave a Comment

A great post on Penang Malaysia.

Thailand, the largest automotive market in the ASEAN region with Indonesia a very close second, is setting up an ambitious plan to only offer electric vehicles (EV) as new vehicles from 2035, completely phasing out the internal combustion engine, five years earlier than Singapore!

The report from Bloomberg highlights now that the country has set a target for phasing out vehicles with combustion engines, the next step for the government will be to facilitate the transition.

Kawin Thangsupanich, an adviser to Energy Ministry’s national policy committee, said the government must press hard on the development of strategies to build more charging infrastructure, implement favourable tax incentives, regulations as well as promote manufacturing of EVs.

The target, that is only 14 over years away, is incredibly ambitious for the nation that registers over 1 million units of new vehicles annually, of which, half are commercial vehicles such as pick-up trucks powered by diesel engines.

MG is aggressive with its EV plans in Thailand

Battery EVs currently make up less than 1% of cars in Thailand, with just 2,202 units sold last year. Hybrid vehicles, both self-charging and plug-in charging, fare much better, registering over 178,000 units in 2020, a growth in sales given the disruption following the global pandemic.

By the end of 2025, Thailand hopes to have 25% of new vehicles sold are zero local emissions, with the figure increasing to 50% by the end of this decade, up from 30% previously proposed.

Both Mercedes-Benz and BMW have facilities to assemble PHEV batteries in Thailand

In a separate report by the Bangkok Post, total production of EVs consisting of both cars and pick-up trucks is estimated to be 400,000 units by 2025, and see an exponential jump to under 3 million units in just five years, supporting the plan to have 50% of new cars to be EV in 2030.

With the idea of 100% of new vehicles sold being an EV, the automotive industry in Thailand expects to have produced a cumulative of 8.6 million cars and pick-ups by 2035.

As the supply of many components and sub-assemblies of vehicles come from Thailand, this bold plan will surely affect us all in the ASEAN region. Could this also mean the first electric-powered pick-up truck could be released as soon as 2025?

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Penang CM’s new RM458,000 Mercedes-Benz draws criticism

April 9, 2021 By Keith Leave a Comment

Some interesting news on Malaysia.

This video clip was published here.

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