The world economy is on the brink of a second cold war that could “annihilate” progress made since the collapse of the Soviet Union, a senior International Monetary Fund official has warned. Gita Gopinath, the IMF’s first deputy managing director, said the accelerating fragmentation of the world economy into regional power blocs – centred around the US and China – risked wiping out trillions of dollars in global output. “If we descend into cold war two, knowing the costs, we may not see mutually assured economic destruction. But we could…
Tag: Manufacturing sector
EU expected to issue veiled warning to China over supply of cut-cost goods
The EU is to tell China that its €400bn (£343bn) trade deficit is not sustainable long term amid fears that it will flood the bloc with subsidised electric cars, solar panels and medical devices, threatening European manufacturing and jobs. Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission chief, and Charles Michel, the European Council president, will meet Xi Jinping at a summit on Thursday, the second of its kind this year. They are expected to issue the Chinese president with a veiled warning that unless China does something about the supply…
Chinese prisoner’s ID card apparently found in lining of Regatta coat
An ID card that appears to belong to a Chinese prisoner was found inside the lining of a coat from the British brand Regatta, raising concerns that the clothing was manufactured using prison labour. The waterproof women’s coat was bought online by a woman in Derbyshire in the Black Friday sale. When it arrived on 22 November, she could feel a hard rectangular item in the right sleeve, which restricted the movement of her elbow. After cutting into the coat to remove the item, she discovered what looked like a…
The advanced silicon chips on which the future depends are all made in Taiwan – here’s why that matters | John Naughton
When the history of our time comes to be written, one thing that will amaze historians is how an entire civilisation managed to impale itself on its worship of optimisation and efficiency. This obsession is what underpinned the hubris of globalisation. Apple’s famous slogan “Designed by Apple in California, manufactured in China” became its guiding light. So long as products could be made available to consumers everywhere, it no longer mattered where they were made. Until it did. We first twigged this when the pandemic struck, and we became suddenly…
Youth review – heart-stopping stories in China’s sweatshop capital
Charlie Chaplin’s frantic production-line factory worker in Modern Times is a ghostly presence in this giant, immersive documentary from Chinese director Wang Bing, the movie equivalent of a wall-sized tapestry; it is about the sweatshop capital of China, the northern town of Zhili in Huzhou, Zhejiang province, known as the “city of children’s clothing”. Thousands of workshops turn out mountains of cheap garments and every year vast numbers of young people from about 16 to 22 come from outlying cities to do a season of brutally hard work in return…
Bike maker Brompton to source fewer parts from China and Taiwan
Brompton, the UK’s largest bicycle maker, has said it is planning to reduce its dependence on China and Taiwan for parts, amid fears of a growing military threat to the island from Beijing. The company known for its folding bikes is among various western firms hoping to ensure they can source supplies from other countries, as concerns mount over rising geopolitical tensions, and even a possible future invasion of Taiwan by China, which considers the island to be a breakaway province. “I think it’s pretty prudent because there are risks…
Star-crossed: Mercedes faces dilemma over dependence on Russia and China
A brand new, gleaming Mercedes vehicle rolls off the production line roughly every three minutes at the carmaker’s Rastatt plant in south-western Germany. A total of 185,000 of its upmarket A-Class, B-Class and all-electric EQA cars were assembled here last year in the factory, close to the French border. They are then taken by road, rail and ship to their new owners, perhaps to zip through European capitals, Chinese cities, or along California’s coastal roads. Mercedes-Benz Group (MBG) produces hundreds of thousands such vehicles a year from eight German factories:…
Zero-Covid policy is costing China its role as the world’s workshop
The anti-lockdown unrest gripping China has forced the authorities in Beijing to respond by easing some restrictions in big manufacturing centres, as they map out a “new stage and mission” in the country’s deeply unpopular zero-Covid policy. There are concerns that more freedom of movement could allow the virus to rip through a population where immunity is lower than in the west. Those health risks mean the “world’s workshop” is heading for a difficult winter, casting a shadow over the prospects for international trade. Western companies have learned lessons from…
Newport semiconductor factory: ‘Losing these jobs would be devastating’
The clean room in Newport, south Wales, is the size of a football field, but in the industry they call it a ballroom. Workers in full bodysuits move silicon wafers from one end to another in a series of careful steps. The 20cm slices of silicon are rigorously cleaned in chemical baths before light is used to draw precise patterns that are then etched out. It all takes place in an orange gloom to prevent light-sensitive chemicals from reacting. After robots and people test for defects, the owner Nexperia ships…
Rise in Covid cases slows manufacturing in China to weakest in two years
Output from China’s manufacturing sector slowed to its weakest in almost two years in January as the country’s tough anti-Covid measures forced factories into temporary shutdowns. A monthly snapshot of industry in the world’s second biggest economy showed production being hard hit by Beijing’s zero-tolerance approach to the pandemic. The Caixin/Markit purchasing managers’ index dropped from 50.9 in December to 49.1 in January – putting pressure on China’s policymakers to step up support for the flagging economy. A reading below 50 suggests output is contracting rather than expanding, with January’s…