logo
China's BYD to start assembling electric cars in Brazil

China's BYD to start assembling electric cars in Brazil

Yahoo07-07-2025
By Luciana Magalhaes
SAO PAULO (Reuters) -China's BYD is poised to start assembling electric vehicles at a new factory in Brazil as early as this month, a top executive said, reducing imports as tariffs start to rise in its largest foreign market.
Alexandre Baldy, senior vice president for BYD in Brazil, said the goal is to assemble 50,000 cars this year at the plant in Bahia state from imported kits, adding that he is negotiating a lower tax rate on those vehicles.
"We should inaugurate in the coming days," Baldy said in an interview late on Friday, without specifying a date, as final regulatory approvals are still pending. "We've already completed this year's imports, taking advantage of the period before the import tax increase that took effect on July 1."
BYD had sent a surge of finished cars into Brazil this year to take advantage of temporarily lower tariffs, shipping some 22,000 from China in the first five months, according to Reuters calculations.
That stirred complaints in Brazil's auto industry that BYD was privileging Chinese manufacturing over production from Bahia, where a labor probe and heavy rains have disrupted plans. A state labor secretary said in May that the plant would only be "fully functional" at the end of 2026.
However, Baldy said it would begin full production in July 2026, after assembling vehicles from "complete knock down" (CKD) kits for the next 12 months.
Once fully operational, he said, the complex in Camacari is likely to generate up to 20,000 direct and indirect jobs.
Expectations for the operation, on the site of a former Ford plant taken over in 2023, suffered in December when labor inspectors leveled accusations of labor abuses involving Chinese contractors hired to build the complex.
Brazilian prosecutors filed a lawsuit in May holding BYD responsible for human trafficking and submitting workers to "slavery-like conditions," after talks on a settlement fell through.
"BYD has always sought to respect Brazilian law and human dignity in all operations," Baldy said, adding that the company wanted to reach a resolution. He did not say why efforts to negotiate a settlement had fallen through.
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

An Amazon seller who earns seven figures is starting to make her product in the US due to tariffs. It'll cost more, but it's worth it after 'many sleepless nights.'
An Amazon seller who earns seven figures is starting to make her product in the US due to tariffs. It'll cost more, but it's worth it after 'many sleepless nights.'

Yahoo

timean hour ago

  • Yahoo

An Amazon seller who earns seven figures is starting to make her product in the US due to tariffs. It'll cost more, but it's worth it after 'many sleepless nights.'

Lisa Harrington is shifting 80% of her product catalog to a US-based manufacturer. The move is a response to Trump's tariffs on goods from China. It'll cost her more to produce in the States, but she says it's worth it for the peace of mind. As a full-time Amazon seller, Lisa Harrington relies heavily on her manufacturer. "They can make or break your business in terms of really producing something that's high quality," the founder of Purrfect Portal told Business Insider. Harrington, who started selling dog harnesses and, eventually, interior cat doors, found her first manufacturer through Alibaba, a popular online platform for sourcing products. She worked with them for about four years before pivoting to a different factory in China that her mentor referred her to. That switch happened nearly 10 years ago, and she wasn't planning to make any changes to her supply chain — until President Donald Trump announced tariffs on all imports from China to the US in early 2025. Moving 80% of her catalog to a US-based manufacturer Trump's flip-flopping on tariffs has left business owners feeling uncertain and vulnerable. "I've honestly just had so many sleepless nights over the tariffs," said Harrington, "I've been doing this for 10 years. I've never been in a scenario where my cost of goods could double overnight or triple overnight, and I just couldn't handle that stress anymore." The only solution to alleviate her stress was to onshore a number of her products. "Starting in October, 80% of our catalog is going to be made in the USA," she said, adding that the move "was not on my bingo card, but things are changing quickly." Producing in the States — specifically, in a factory she found in Rhode Island — is "definitely going to cost more," she said. But, it's peace of mind she's after. "Not having to obsessively look at Truth Social or The Wall Street Journal to see what's happening overnight with my business costs, it's just worth it." Harrington, who is a member of various e-comm networks, including the exclusive Million Dollar Sellers community, says most business owners she's spoken to don't have the option of switching manufacturers. "I'm one of the few people who can actually onshore," she said. "There are just so many people I know who can't. They just can't because the numbers just still don't make any sense." Transitioning to a new manufacturer is expensive and time-consuming. E-commerce entrepreneur Shan Shan Fu, who sells over 100 products on Amazon in the women's clothing and accessory space, told BI in May that switching suppliers isn't feasible for her. "The 100 products come from all different factories, so to change and have another factory in, say, Vietnam, replicate what many, many factories are already making, and making it at the same quality and level, is going to take years and years and years, and it would cost more money," she said. She added that most factories require a minimum order quantity: "So they'll say, 'We can't custom-make anything for you unless you order 2,000 pieces.' But if you're a small business, often you can't buy 2,000 pieces right away; you might buy 200, then 500, then 1,000, and you scale up slowly." For many small businesses, suddenly having to place a large order with new suppliers "just isn't doable," she said. "So, we don't have a lot of flexibility to leave China." Harrington, whose closable, plastic cat doors bring in seven figures in annual revenue, said she feels extremely lucky that the economics are working out for her. "I suspect it's because it's plastic. I suspect it's because I have good margins. I suspect it's because I found a really good factory. I feel like a lot of things aligned to make it possible for me to move over," she said. "But I don't know another single person who's doing this because either they can't find a factory or they've gotten prices from American factories, and it's still much more expensive to make it here than it is to deal with the tariffs." Read the original article on Business Insider Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data

Oil Prices Caught Between a $70 Summer and Growing Surplus Fears
Oil Prices Caught Between a $70 Summer and Growing Surplus Fears

Yahoo

time2 hours ago

  • Yahoo

Oil Prices Caught Between a $70 Summer and Growing Surplus Fears

(Bloomberg) -- Oil traders are grappling with a tension — there's a growing chorus of warnings about the market weakening later this year and into 2026, but for now prices are holding strong near $70 a barrel. The High Costs of Trump's 'Big Beautiful' New Car Loan Deduction Can This Bridge Ease the Troubled US-Canadian Relationship? Trump Administration Sues NYC Over Sanctuary City Policy France's TotalEnergies SE last week warned the market is facing abundant supply as the OPEC+ group unwinds output curbs, even as slowing global growth weighs on demand. Norway's Equinor ASA said its new Johan Castberg field is operating at full pelt, with a Brazilian offshore asset starting soon, a reminder of additional barrels expected from outside the producer group. Both the International Energy Agency and the US Energy Information Administration earlier this month bolstered their estimates for the surplus they see next year. The two widely-followed forecasters expect supply to eclipse demand by the most since the pandemic, with the IEA's projection at 2 million barrels a day. A surplus that pushes prices lower will help tame inflation, hurt high-cost producers and likely please US President Donald Trump who has called for lower prices since taking office. It's a stark contrast with the here and now, where inventories at key storage hubs remain low, reflected in a bullish market structure that indicates tight supplies. Profits from turning crude into fuels are also far above seasonal norms, underpinning demand for crude. 'One of the issues that has been supporting oil has been the seasonal strength of the summer months,' Francisco Blanch, head of commodities and derivatives research at Bank of America Corp. said in a Bloomberg TV interview. 'Second half of the year the surplus is going to be close to 200 million barrels,' which will ultimately weigh on prices, he added. While most of the IEA's revision of next year's outlook centered on output additions by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies, who will meet to discuss output levels in early August, there were also some less obvious drivers. Forecasts for the supply of biofuels, which compete with conventional oil, are about 200,000 barrels a day higher than two months ago in the agency's estimates. The US government now sees global oil supplies about 2.1 million barrels a day higher in the fourth quarter of this year than the first, the biggest increase it has seen over the period since February. The two bodies' forecasts constitute an important element in traders' evaluations of how the market will unfold. For now, signs of robust demand remain. Leading oil trader Vitol Group said last week that jet fuel demand has been steadily climbing, with flight numbers reaching all-time highs. US weekly oil-demand figures are the highest this year. That data has been revised higher in final monthly readings for four of the last five periods where complete figures are available. And while the global trade war offers reason to be concerned about consumption, historically demand estimates have tended to be revised higher too, suggesting that the currently-expected surplus could narrow. From 2012 to 2024, the IEA's demand forecasts have ended up being on average close to 500,000 barrels a day higher than when the estimate was first issued, as more data became available. That excludes 2020, when the global pandemic transformed consumption patterns. Still, once the summer's strength wanes, a global surplus is likely to emerge, according to Natasha Kaneva, JPMorgan Chase & Co.'s head of global commodities strategy. 'Supply is increasing,' Kaneva said in a Bloomberg TV interview. 'At some point this inventory build will start showing up in visible inventories in OECD countries like the United States. At the moment it's not priced in.' --With assistance from Julian Lee, Grant Smith, Kari Lundgren, Lisa Abramowicz, Scarlet Fu and Romaine Bostick. Burning Man Is Burning Through Cash It's Not Just Tokyo and Kyoto: Tourists Descend on Rural Japan Confessions of a Laptop Farmer: How an American Helped North Korea's Wild Remote Worker Scheme Elon Musk's Empire Is Creaking Under the Strain of Elon Musk A Rebel Army Is Building a Rare-Earth Empire on China's Border ©2025 Bloomberg L.P.

Toyota's Internal Inertia Stifles Digital Transformation Effort
Toyota's Internal Inertia Stifles Digital Transformation Effort

Bloomberg

time2 hours ago

  • Bloomberg

Toyota's Internal Inertia Stifles Digital Transformation Effort

Inside Toyota Motor Corp., a group of employees are worried about the company's future in an era when a car's software matters just as much as its sheet metal. The world's biggest automaker is known for churning out reliable cars like clockwork, but it's been struggling to keep up with Elon Musk's Tesla Inc., China's BYD Co. and other frontrunners in the industry's shift toward electric vehicles with sophisticated software.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store