Latest news with #JapanInc
Bloomberg
16-07-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
Japan Inc. Takes Global Bond Market by Storm With Record Sales
Debt bankers and investors are bracing for what is shaping up to be the next big trend in the global credit market: Japan Inc. raising billions abroad. A string of recent megadeals is setting the tone. A giant sale by telecom giant NTT Inc. has already driven Japanese non-financial corporate issuance in euros and dollars to a record this year, based on data compiled by Bloomberg. One Morgan Stanley banker in London has even come up with a nickname for such bonds: reverse Samurai.
eNCA
20-06-2025
- Business
- eNCA
Rice prices double as Japan's core inflation hits 3.7%
TOKYO - Japan's core inflation rate accelerated to 3.7 percent in May, posing a threat to Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba's leadership ahead of July elections. Rice prices were more than twice as high as they were a year previously, despite the government releasing its emergency stockpile of the staple grain. Frustration over inflation threatens to deal a blow to Ishiba's ruling Liberal Democratic Party next month, when an election for parliament's upper house is due. Friday's data, which excludes volatile fresh food prices, beat market expectations and was up from the 3.5 percent year-on-year rise logged in April. Prices rose for a variety of food products, including non-fresh items, ranging from coffee to chocolate. Electricity bills were 11.3 percent more expensive, and gas fees rose 5.4 percent. Ishiba has pledged cash handouts of 20,000 yen ($139) for every citizen -- doubling it for children -- to help households combat inflation ahead of the July elections. The race is crucial to Ishiba after public support for his government tumbled to its lowest level since he took office in October, which observers say was partly caused by a surge in inflation and soaring rice costs. Rice shortages, caused by a supply chain snarl-up, mean the price of the grain was up 101 percent in May, compared to the eye-watering 98 percent rise seen in April. The government began releasing stockpiles in February in an attempt to drive down prices -- something it has only previously done during disasters. A mosaic of factors lies behind the rice shortages, including an intensely hot and dry summer two years ago that damaged harvests nationwide. Since then some traders have been hoarding rice in a bid to boost their profits down the line, experts say. The issue was made worse by panic-buying last year prompted by a government warning about a potential "megaquake" that did not strike. Going forward, US tariffs are expected to weigh on Japan Inc, with economists predicting a slowdown ahead. Intensifying fighting between Iran and Israel was also adding pressure for energy prices to head north, posing a further risk to the Japanese economy. Earlier this week the Bank of Japan kept its interest rates unchanged and said it would taper its purchase of government bonds at a slower pace, as trade uncertainty threatens to weigh on the world's number four economy.
Economic Times
11-06-2025
- Business
- Economic Times
We got rare in abundance
Go forth and stumble on it The physicist Homi J Bhabha, the father of India's nuclear program, sought to extract power from the beach sands along India's vast coastline. Eighty years later, Bhabha's foresight might help India and the world break free of a crippling dependence on China for rare earth the height of the arms race during the Cold War, Bhabha switched to using thorium, which is in abundant supply in India, when the US restricted the enrichment of uranium for nuclear energy. The hunt for thorium led to the finding and extraction of neodymium as well. Kerala, Orissa or Tamil Nadu are rich in monazite, a key mineral source for both thorium and neodymium. With estimated reserves of 11.93 million tonnes of monazite which in turn contains ~1.07 million tonnes of thorium, a fourth of world's known thorium reserves are in India, making us the top source for the radioactive resource. Compared to rare earth magnets like samarium cobalt, neo or neodymium magnets are far more powerful with the highest energy product of all the magnet materials. They are high in magnetic strength, more versatile and less brittle than samarium cobalt, thereby most cost effective. Even without any heavy rare earth elements like dysprosium, terbium which we have no access to, a neodymium iron boron (NdFeB) magnet, will only be 10-15% weaker but fully functional and will be able to handle 95% of all applications, Vivek Vikram Singh, Group CEO of Sona Comstar -- among the biggest importer of rare earth magnets into India at ~200 tons/year estimated for FY26 – told me. By adding copper further improvements is also possible, he added. But unlike China, we never really took the next step forward – converting neodymium oxides to metal. Neither did we process that metal to make permanent magnets out of it, for modern manufacturing usage. They are called so since they don't lose their magnetic property once decades back, Beijing had the strategic vision to figure out that heavy rare earth magnets will one day run every motor in the world. By curbing its exports, China has brought the whole world to a grinding halt. This is not the first time. Back in 2010, following a spat with Japan over the East China Sea, Beijing used a similar strategy and weaponized rare earth exports. But what's worse, since we failed to see the future, Japan Inc came piggybacking on our critical minerals. Hitachi Metals and TDK joined forces and sourced neodymium from Indian Rare Earth Limited (IREL) -- a sarkari monopoly similar to Coal India of the past – for sourcing. That seeded Japan's own magnet manufacturing and were soon stockpiling to insulate their domestic industries from future supply shocks. Today 94% of the world's rare earth magnet capacity may well be in China, but Japan has managed to eke out a 4% share. The rest is scattered worldwide. If necessity made Japan wiser and innovative, it's high time India – that got 53,700 tonnes of rare earth magnets shipped for multiple industry usage -- starts focussing on investing in these critical building blocks. China has exposed global vulnerabilities to retaliate against President Trump's Liberation Day tariff announcements. We should liberate ourselves too from such of anything that needs a high temperature motor, very high torque and is confined in a small space, heat resistant magnets are a must. From wind turbines, space, smartphones, robotics, fighter jets, even the missiles used in Operation Sindoor to pinpoint enemy targets inside Pakistan or domestic appliances, much of the world's modern technology relies on these magnets. Electric vehicles alone have 33% of total usage of these rare earth magnets that allow their motors to function at high speed. But they are also used in less exotic, though no less critical, functions performed by such parts as windshield wipers, headlights, starters, speedometers, speakers and seat belt are no cars in the world – electric or ICE – where usage of these magnets is zero. It may weigh just 200 grams and cost $2, but just one small component can shut down entire production. Being the 3rd largest automobile market, we are among those hardest-hit as suppliers of OEMs are staring at the last leg of their inventory that may last till mid-July. Maruti Suzuki, the country's largest automaker, is slashing the production forecast for its upcoming electric SUV did we land up on such a brink of chronic shortage? Raw materials or rare earth mining has not been the bottleneck. Value addition has. Without economies of scale, massive subsidies were essential for sustaining commercial developments and China hammered prices to such low levels that Make in India would have needed massive cash support both capex and operating quick fix workarounds like temporarily relocating the entire component supply chain and manufacturing to the Mainland will only make us fall into their hands further. This is exactly what China is hoping for. Currently, it's a Rs 1800 crore problem. Killing the homegrown components industry will have a multi-billion dollar impact jeopardising both employment and what to do about magnets? The solution may involve three stages: One, in the short run, hammer out a diplomatic solution with China to save the domestic auto-component industry. But fundamentally, we cannot shy away from developing indigenous magnets making capacities of at least 5000 tonnes. Neodymium oxides are in abundance – IREL's annual production is estimated at 1200 tonnes -- and can easily be stepped up. Step two therefore means working with domestic miners like Hindalco, Vedanta or Tatas to help with the intermediary steps. If there was ever a strong economic case for production-linked incentive, then this must be it. Three: Any component manufacturer with knowledge of metallurgy and is familiar with processes like pressing, sintering, coating and forging can then step in to work with the metal powder and finish making the final product. With domestic capacity, heavy rare earths like dysprosium and terbium – currently on the ban list – can be imported from countries like Australia and other friendly nations that have massive untapped reserves of rare earths. A step-by-step approach will also be a tribute to Bhabha, who also conceived India's nuclear power program in three stages. However, some caution is warranted. Rare earth mining is a highly polluting activity. Ruining our coastal ecology for the sake of a magnet in electric vehicles will involve costly trade offs. They need to be thought through. If rare earths extraction comes at the planet's expense, EV solutions will become part of the problem. Elevate your knowledge and leadership skills at a cost cheaper than your daily tea. Benchmarked with BSE 1000, this index fund will diversify your bets. But at a cost. Yet another battle over neem; this time it's a startup vs. Procter & Gamble Warren Buffett-fan Pabrai is betting big on Edelweiss' Rashesh Shah. Will it pay off? Move over tariffs, China wields rare earths in an economic war of a different kind Stock Radar: MGL trades above upwards sloping trendline, reclaims 100-EMA; check target & stop loss F&O Radar | Deploy Bull Call Spread in GAIL to play a bullish bet These 7 banking stocks can give more than 20% returns in 1 year, according to analysts Being an Amul shareholder is not possible; the next best dairy sector bets: 4 stocks, different market caps, upside potential is incidental
Mint
15-05-2025
- Business
- Mint
Business bestsellers survive but where did management gurus go?
Once upon a time, a best-selling book would grant its author guru status. Having your name embossed on the hardback cover was an unofficial badge of expertise, whether you were an aspiring management thinker, a boardroom sage or a speaker-circuit regular. Unlike keynote invitations, books delivered credibility and had intellectual cachet. Not anymore. In an era where everyone seems to have published something, has the gold standard of thought leadership lost its lustre? To understand how this happened, flashback to 1982, when In Search of Excellence by Tom Peters and Robert Waterman hit retail shelves with evangelical zeal. American businesses, battered by stagflation, oil crises and the rise of Japan Inc, were in search of reassurance. The book offered exactly that: proof that US companies could still thrive, and more importantly, a codified playbook for success: eight easy-to-recall traits, apparently data-driven and actionable enough for managers to feel empowered. Also Read: When will business books focus more on corporate failures than successes? Critics later pounced on its methodological flaws and Peters allegedly even confessed to having 'faked the data" in retrospect. But the damage was done. A new genre was born: the business bestseller. And with it, a new mantle: of the business thought leader. From that point on, books were no longer just idea containers. They became platforms for corporate wisdom. Successful authors got lucrative speaking engagements, management consultancy gigs, corporate board seats and media publicity. Business books became business. High stakes meant new tactics. Michael Treacy and Fred Wiersema, authors of The Discipline of Market Leaders, reportedly spent over $250,000 buying their own books across the US to get into the New York Times bestseller list. It could let them hike their speaking fees and get bigger consultancy and book deals. In India, many business authors, especially those who were already well known for their professional success, have become public figures. Gurcharan Das's India Unbound transformed him from a former CEO into a public intellectual. Nandan Nilekani's Imagining India served not just as commentary, but as a policy guide. Raghuram Rajan's Fault Lines earned him stardom beyond the field of economics. Also Read: The best business books tend to be about music and sports Today, the business book has become something of a glorified business card. Many are padded essays stretched to 200 pages, bloated with anecdotes, loaded with buzzwords and dressed in covers screaming for attention. With an estimated 12,000 business books published every year, the genre is suffering a global glut. Few books offer a breakthrough idea. Many are simply checklists. And in a world of digital content overload, thought leadership is shifting to more dynamic platforms. Podcasts, newsletters, X threads, LinkedIn posts and short videos are shaping professional discourse faster than traditional publishing cycles can churn out books. A book can take two years to write and publish. A podcast can go live right away and viral soon after. Publishers are adapting: Simon & Schuster recently announced it will reduce reliance on expert reviews on back covers. This isn't merely administrative; it's an acknowledgment that curated praise doesn't drive sales. Another brutal reality for authors is that a book that takes four years to write can vanish in four months, even before it gets a chance to appear in a cheaper paperback edition. This doesn't mean books are obsolete. They allow for depth, with slowly built and layered arguments. Jonathan Haidt's The Anxious Generation, which explores the profound impact of digital life on young people, is a case in point. The book format allowed him to explore a cultural phenomenon in a way no blog post or tweetstorm ever could. Books are also timeless. They endure in libraries, sit on shelves and signal intellectual gravitas. But their monopoly over idea dissemination is over. Today, thought leadership is an ecosystem. Books are part of it, but so are newsletters with subscriptions, viral LinkedIn posts, Substack essays, X threads and, yes, 30-second videos on Instagram or YouTube Shorts. Political influence has gone the same way. Also Read: From stock market advice to the Medimix story, business books to add to your TBR So, what should a would-be thought leader do? Write that book with a big idea, yes. But don't stop there. Treat it as one gear in a larger machine. Build an audience through diverse platforms that use voice, video and short-form text. Share ideas in real-time. Experiment. Engage. Books are for depth. Podcasts are for reach. Newsletters are for loyalty. Tweets are for traction. Master the digital mix. Books will still matter especially in policy, academia and legacy media, but they no longer offer an automatic key to the kingdom of influence. In a world oversaturated with information, clarity is currency, velocity is value and reach is power. So, have we reached 'peak book' point à la 'peak oil'? Quite possibly. The hardcover may no longer be the sovereign badge of authority it once was. But in the age of agile content and restless attention, thought leadership is no longer about a singular polished manuscript. It's about being present, persistent and plural. Anyone who writes a book now to get an important idea across must also embrace digital channels. Because in the new world of ideas, it's not just about being read. It's about being ubiquitous—heard, shared, seen and of course remembered. The authors are, respectively, professor at Columbia Business School and founder of Valize; and Fortune-500 advisor, startup investor and co-founder of the non-profit Medici Institute for Innovation. X: @MuneerMuh
AllAfrica
28-03-2025
- Automotive
- AllAfrica
Trump's tariffs won't save Musk from China's BYD
No one wins in a trade war, as economists have insisted for decades. Yet Elon Musk sure does seem to be blowing this maxim to smithereens. In January 2024, the Tesla billionaire warned that America's electric vehicle industry had no chance of beating China's without massive tariffs. Fast forward 14 months and Musk finds himself in the winner's circle as Trump hits the global car industry with 25% tariffs. As Musk told shareholders back then: 'Our observation is generally that Chinese car companies are the most competitive car companies in the world. If there are no trade barriers established, they will pretty much demolish most other car companies in the world,' he continued. Though China has many EV success stories, Musk clearly had BYD in his sights. At the end of 2024, just as Trump was gearing up for another stint in the White House, China's EV juggernaut leapfrogged Tesla on revenue as BYD sales topped the US$100 billion mark. BYD, backed in its early days by Warren Buffet, did so by wooing customers with a savvy high-tech fleet of EVs and hybrid vehicles, leaving Japan Inc in the dust. Case in point: BYD's recent disclosure of a new charging system, powered by an enviable ecosystem, giving drivers 400 kilometers of range in five minutes. Commenting on BYD's 100% stock surge over the last 12 months, Michael Dunne, CEO of Dunne Insights, credits BYD with 'achieving the most explosive growth we've seen in the auto business in a hundred years' while noting that 'this thing has been on fire.' Yet Trump's auto tariffs have Musk getting some of his best headlines in years. Musk's EV giant has enormous factories in Texas and California that produce all the cars it moves in the US market. This mostly protects Tesla from Trump's new taxes on autos and parts. By very sharp contrast, carmakers from Germany's Volkswagen AG to South Korea's Hyundai Motor to US giant General Motors are all in the collateral damage zone. Goldman Sachs analyst Mark Delaney thinks Trump just upped the price of imported cars by between $5,000 and $15,000. Thanks to supply-chain arrangements, the cost of locally manufactured automobiles could surge by as much as $8,000. This 'hurricane-like headwind,' as analysts at Wedbush Securities describe it, is compounded by Trump choosing 25% rather than, say 20% or 30%. The levy Trump settled on, they argue, is 'almost an untenable head-scratching number for the US consumer.' To be sure, says Wedbush analyst Daniel Ives, 'we continue to believe this is some form of negotiation and these tariffs could change.' But for now, he added, the industry is in quite a whirl. Tesla, says Garrett Nelson, analyst at CFRA Research, is the 'least exposed' auto giant. Musk's company, it's worth noting, is already touting itself as making the 'most American-made cars.' TD Cowen's Itay Michaeli agrees that Tesla is a 'relative winner' in the tariff wars. 'Tesla a relative beneficiary given 100% US production footprint, substantial US sourcing and with Model Y competing in a midsize crossover segment where close to 50% of vehicles could be subject to tariffs,' Michaeli says. Analysts at Deutsche Bank, note that 'Tesla and Ford appear to be the most shielded [from tariff impacts] given location of vehicle assembly facilities although Ford does face incremental exposure on imported engines. GM has the most exposure to Mexico.' Nor is Tokyo happy. Toyota Motor, the globe's biggest automaker, exports roughly half the vehicles it sells to the US market. This is despite Toyota running sprawling factories in Indiana, Kentucky, Mississippi and Texas and large engine plants in Alabama and West Virginia. It's also despite Japan's 100% compliance with the free-trade agreement Trump 1.0 negotiated with former Japanese leader Shinzo Abe. One question is the impact on US consumer sentiment. Even if one can argue, as Trump World does, that these tariffs will boost investment in US manufacturing that increase auto-industry efficiency, the disorientation factor could matter more. 'For consumers navigating higher prices in the short term, the promise of future gains may feel distant – at least for now,' says Jessica Caldwell, head of insights at advisory Edmunds. Then, there are the retaliation risks. As Robert Habeck, Germany's economic affairs minister, warned Thursday (March 27): 'It needs to be clear that we will not take this lying down.' European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen called Trump's tariff escalation 'bad for businesses, worse for consumers.' The stories analysts like to tell about the global car industry are rarely straightforward. Musk, for example, didn't found Telsa – he bought the company from Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning. Nor is it clear Tesla would've survived without a ginormous $465 million federal loan from US President Barack Obama's administration. Would BYD, meantime, be where it is today without the role German design veteran Wolfgang Egger, an Alfa Romeo veteran, played in helping to create the brand? Or the role Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway played as an early marquee-caliber cash infuser and the 'halo effect' it imparted? Then there's China's own efforts to keep global auto companies at bay. 'It is no secret that President Donald Trump loves tariffs,' Dunne of Dunne Insights explains. Trump, Dunne notes, says 'I'm the Tariff Man' and 'with zero trace of inhibition.' But 'what's less well known,' Dunne says, 'is that China embraces tariffs in a big way, too. And China's love affair with tariffs – quiet, almost clandestine – has been going on for decades. A tall, imposing brick wall of taxes on imports, blended with targeted industrial investments, have played a pivotal role in China's rise as a manufacturing powerhouse. How powerful? In 2024 alone, China ran a one trillion-dollar trade surplus with the world.' When Dunne started his first company in Beijing in 1990, 'China was an automotive weakling. Annual production was less than 500,000 cars; thin wood shavings compared to more than 13.5 million that Japan produced.' To 'gain industrial traction,' he adds, 'regulators in Beijing slammed the door shut on imports. They set tariffs at 100%. They also strictly limited the number of import licenses granted each year. It was a double layer of protection – non-tariff barriers on top of tariffs.' Ultimately, 'China's message to global automakers was crystal clear,' Dunne notes. 'If you want to sell cars in China, you will need to manufacture them inside China. And to secure an approval to manufacture inside China you must first marry up with a Chinese partner. And, by the way, the Chinese partner will own no less than 50% of the joint venture.' In 2024, China produced 31 million vehicles, three times more than the US, where the automobile was invented. Beijing's tariff and non-tariff barrier matrix largely remains intact. In the 35 years that China spent becoming an auto manufacturing superpower, Dunne notes, 'China never permitted car imports to exceed 6% of the total market.' Even so, Trump's tariffs are testing the global economy's shock absorbers as rarely before. And they're causing Musk's EV company some serious agita. Tesla is facing backlashes around the globe over Musk's outsized and controversial role in the Trump White House. In February alone, Tesla registrations in European Union countries fell 47%. Trump's Attorney General Pam Bondi went so far as to call acts of arson of Tesla cars and showrooms 'domestic terrorism.' Analysts at William Blair & Co write that 'pushback from Musk's foray into politics' has led to 'brand damage and even vandalism,' for Tesla at a time when the company's supply has been impacted by its pivot to the Model Y and 'Chinese competition continues to heat up.' This latter point is worth remembering, though. The surge in BYD's stock relative to Tesla's 40%-plus plunge since mid-December is a reminder that the China EV threat isn't a passing one. The irony is that BYD is arguably the hottest car company in the world and yet consumers still can't buy one in the US. Former US President Joe Biden, for example, slapped 100% taxes on Chinese EVs. Yet Musk's problem is no longer just the Buffett favorite BYD. It's an entire fleet of EV upstarts clogging the commercial roads in Asia's biggest economy. And increasingly, Global South nations where lower-cost Chinese EVs are thriving. The shares of mainland EV startup Xpeng jumped 85% since the start of the year. Nio and automotive conglomerate Geely — which runs EV startup Zeekr and others — are seeing double-digit share price gains, too. It doesn't mean the rallies will continue, but it does mean that the future isn't necessarily Tesla's to lose. No matter how close Musk sits to Trump's Oval Office. Follow William Pesek on X at @WilliamPesek
