Tag - manufacturing

 
 

MANUFACTURING

A Nissan plug-in hybrid truck at the Shanghai Auto Show last month. Nissan is looking to invest in its China operations and use the nation’s intensely competitive market to accelerate its development of electric vehicles.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 9, 2025
Nissan drops plan for Fukuoka battery plant to focus on recovery
The carmaker has abandoned plans to build a battery plant in Fukuoka Prefecture to focus on rescuing itself from a deepening financial crisis.
Toyota vehicles bound for shipment at the Port of Nagoya. Japan’s 3-year-old corporate governance campaign has more room to grow and unlock value in Japan’s industrial heartland of Aichi Prefecture.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 9, 2025
Japan’s corporate governance wave reaches the industrial heartland in Nagoya
The city of Nagoya and the area around it are home to manufacturing giants including Toyota and Toyota group auto parts maker Denso.
The global shipping industry is also contending with U.S. measures beyond the barrage of levies.
BUSINESS / Markets
May 7, 2025
World’s trade superhighway feels strain from U.S.-China decoupling
Among signs of disruption are plunging fees, fewer services and a pall of uncertainty over what for decades has been one the main maritime highways of the global economy.
Workers operate sewing machines at a Thai Son S.P.  garment factory in Binh Thuan province, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, on April 10. For more than 70 years, many emerging nations, especially in Asia, have become the low-cost manufacturer to the U.S., the world’s biggest consumer.
BUSINESS / Economy
May 5, 2025
Global factories struggle to overcome Trump tariffs and uncertainty
Purchasing manager indexes across Asia, along with revised numbers in Europe, showed new or persisting contractions in factory activity in April.
U.S. President Donald Trump's 100th day rally in Warren, Michigan, on April 29
BUSINESS
May 4, 2025
Auto workers welcome Trump tariffs, no matter the fate of Wall Street
According to some autoworkers, the tariffs are their best chance of restoring American manufacturing might.
A Honda vehicle is assembled at a plant in Lincoln, Alabama. Despite concerns about U.S. President Donald Trump's economic policies, around half of Japanese firms remain committed to the American market, according to a recent survey.
COMMENTARY / Japan / Geoeconomic Briefing
May 2, 2025
Japan Inc. cautiously optimistic despite rising uncertainty
Trump’s economic policies and geopolitical risks are front of mind for many Japanese companies. But many remain committed to staying in the U.S. and China, says a recent survey.
While the results were better than analysts had expected, investors are focused on how tariff concerns will play out in the coming quarter.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 2, 2025
Tim Cook says unchanged U.S. tariffs could dent Apple’s next-quarter margins
Apple Q2 beats expectations but warns that unchanged tariffs could cost the company $900 million and requires drastic supply-chain realignment.
Industrial production dropped 1.1% in March compared with the previous month, according to the industry ministry.
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 30, 2025
Japan’s factory output falls in sign of frailty before tariffs
Industrial production dropped 1.1% in March compared with the previous month, the industry ministry reported Wednesday. Economists had forecast a 0.4% drop.
A Nucor steel factory in Blytheville, Arkansas. Foreign competition isn't the biggest challenge for steel companies — it's finding workers.
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 24, 2025
Steelmakers already short-staffed as Trump pushes for U.S. factory revival
The U.S. stopped training factory workers decades ago, and retirements and immigration crackdowns are draining the pool of labor available.
The United Steelworkers union headquarters in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 23, 2025
Union tells Bessent risks of Nippon Steel deal are too great
The United Steelworkers said the risks cannot be overcome in any scenario in which Nippon Steel exercises influence over U.S. Steel’s decision-making.
The Japanese economy remains on a gradual recovery trend, the Finance Ministry said, while leaving its economic views unchanged for all of the country's 11 regions.
BUSINESS / Economy
Apr 22, 2025
Japan’s Finance Ministry maintains economic view while warning of risk
Many manufacturers expressed concern about the impact of U.S. President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs on production, according to the ministry.
Ryosei Akazawa (third from right), Japan's tariffs negotiator, in a meeting with U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent (second from right) and other senior government officials on Wednesday in Washington
BUSINESS
Apr 18, 2025
Trump reiterates opposition to Nippon Steel’s purchase of U.S. Steel
Whether there is interplay between the tariff negotiations and the Nippon Steel-U.S. Steel deal has never been made clear.
U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House in Washington on Thursday
BUSINESS
Apr 18, 2025
Trump’s tariff policies are hurting the businesses he’s trying to help
Some firms are putting hiring and expansion plans on hold while they come up with short-term plans to cope with the tariffs.
Workers iron items of clothing at a Thai Son S.P. Co. garment factory in Binh Thuan province, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, on April 10.
BUSINESS / Markets
Apr 17, 2025
Vietnam’s factory-based growth model at risk in global trade war
For factory owners, what happens beyond a 90-day pause in tariffs announced by U.S. President Donald Trump is a big question mark.
Production of Honda’s five-door hybrid Civic is set to be relocated to the firm’s plant in Indiana in June or July.
BUSINESS
Apr 16, 2025
Honda to shift production of Civic from Japan to U.S. due to tariffs
Production of the five-door hybrid model will be relocated around June or July to Honda’s plant in Indiana.
Toyota and Lexus cars and sport utility vehicles unloaded from car carrier ships to the Toyota Logistics Services automotive processing terminal at the Port of Long Beach in Long Beach, California, on Thursday
BUSINESS / Economy
Apr 15, 2025
Trump floats temporary reprieve for autos as parts tariffs loom
The president said he is exploring exemptions to his tariffs on imported vehicles and parts to give auto companies more time to set up manufacturing in the U.S.
The U.K. government rushed urgent legislation through Parliament on Saturday to stop the Scunthorpe plant's blast furnaces from turning off.
WORLD
Apr 13, 2025
‘Naive’ to trust Chinese firm with British Steel, U.K. minister says
The government rushed urgent legislation through parliament on Saturday to stop the Scunthorpe plant’s blast furnaces from turning off.
Shoppers outside an Apple store in New York on April 7
BUSINESS / Economy
Apr 13, 2025
U.S. exempts tech imports in tariff backpedal
President Donald Trump’s move offers relief to U.S. tech firms and partially dials down a trade war with China.
Machineries seen at a factory in Binh Duong, Vietnam
BUSINESS / Economy / ANALYSIS
Apr 12, 2025
What Samsung and Vietnam stand to lose in Trump’s tariff war
Trump’s punishing potential 46% tariff has exposed the vulnerability of the Southeast Asian country’s export model.
U.S. President Donald Trump wants Apple to begin building iPhones in the United States. But Apple is unlikely to move production to the country in the foreseeable future for a variety of reasons.
BUSINESS / Tech / FOCUS
Apr 12, 2025
Why Trump’s dream of made-in-the-USA iPhones isn’t going to happen
Apple is unlikely to move production to the U.S. in the foreseeable future for a variety of reasons, including a shortage of facilities and labor.

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The Terasaka Rice Terraces are seen with Mount Buko in the background.
What Yokoze can teach Japan about rural revival