Tag: Supply Chain

U.S. Car Brands Will Benefit Most From Electric Vehicle Tax Breaks

Chin@Strategy

American brands like Tesla and General Motors will benefit most from rules that determine which electric vehicles qualify for tax credits starting on Tuesday. Foreign carmakers like Hyundai will be at a significant disadvantage because of restrictions aimed at cutting China out of the supply chain. Only 10 vehicles will initially qualify for tax credits of $7,500, less than a quarter of the battery-powered cars on sale in the United States. But those 10 include many of the most popular models and accounted for two-thirds of electric vehicle sales before…

Why ‘Made in China’ Is Becoming ‘Made in Mexico’

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Peter S. Goodman contributed reporting. The Daily is made by Lisa Tobin, Rachel Quester, Lynsea Garrison, Clare Toeniskoetter, Paige Cowett, Michael Simon Johnson, Brad Fisher, Chris Wood, Jessica Cheung, Stella Tan, Alexandra Leigh Young, Lisa Chow, Eric Krupke, Marc Georges, Luke Vander Ploeg, M.J. Davis Lin, Dan Powell, Dave Shaw, Sydney Harper, Robert Jimison, Mike Benoist, Liz O. Baylen, Asthaa Chaturvedi, Rachelle Bonja, Diana Nguyen, Marion Lozano, Corey Schreppel, Anita Badejo, Rob Szypko, Elisheba Ittoop, Chelsea Daniel, Mooj Zadie, Patricia Willens, Rowan Niemisto, Jody Becker, Rikki Novetsky, John Ketchum, Nina…

Why Chinese Companies Are Investing Billions in Mexico

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Bill Chan had never set foot anywhere in Mexico, let alone the lonely stretch of desert in the north of the country where he abruptly decided to build a $300 million factory. But that seemed a trifling detail amid the pressure to adapt to a swiftly changing global economy. It was January 2022, and Mr. Chan’s company, Man Wah Furniture Manufacturing, was confronting grave challenges in moving sofas from its factories in China to customers in the United States. Shipping prices were skyrocketing. Washington and Beijing were locked in a…

Russia Sidesteps Western Punishments, With Help From Friends

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WASHINGTON — A strange thing happened with smartphones in Armenia last summer. Shipments from other parts of the world into the tiny former Soviet republic began to balloon to more than 10 times the value of phone imports in previous months. At the same time, Armenia recorded an explosion in its exports of smartphones to a beleaguered ally: Russia. The trend, which was repeated for washing machines, computer chips and other products in a handful of other Asian countries last year, provides evidence of some of the new lifelines that…

Tesla’s Profit Jumped 12% in Fourth Quarter

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Tesla said Wednesday that profit in the fourth quarter of 2022 rose 12 percent from the previous quarter, above Wall Street expectations, capping a tumultuous year that included intensifying competition, supply chain disruptions and concerns about the behavior of its chief executive, Elon Musk. Net profit for the quarter was $3.7 billion, up from $3.3 billion in the third quarter, Tesla said. For the full year, Tesla’s profit more than doubled to $12.6 billion from $5.5 billion in 2021. Sales for the year, including revenue from solar panels and other…

How a Texas Border City Is Shaping the Future of Global Trade

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The teeming warehouses carved into the desert surrounding Laredo, Texas, attest to an explosion of trade between the United States and Mexico. On a recent morning, 55-gallon drums full of chemicals concocted in Ohio awaited trucks that would haul them across the Rio Grande, for use as raw materials at a paint factory in Mexico’s industrial city of Monterrey. Destined northbound, brake pads manufactured in Mexico were headed to trucking firms as far away as South Dakota. The more trade expands, the greater the opportunities for Laredo, a sprawling city…

‘OK, Mexico, Save Me’: After China, This Is Where Globalization May Lead

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As American companies recalibrate the risks of relying on Chinese factories to make their goods, some are shifting business to a country far closer to home: Mexico. The unfolding trend known as “near-shoring” has drawn the attention of no less than Walmart, the global retail empire with headquarters in Arkansas. Early last year, when Walmart needed $1 million of company uniforms — more than 50,000 in one order — it bought them not from its usual suppliers in China but from Preslow, a family-run apparel business in Mexico. It was…

Global Car Supply Chains Entangled With Abuses in Xinjiang, Report Says

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Many of those suppliers run through China, which has become increasingly vital to the global auto industry and the United States, the destination for about a quarter of the auto parts that China exports annually. Xinjiang is home to a variety of industries, but its ample coal reserves and lax environmental regulations have made it a prominent location for energy-intensive materials processing, like smelting metal, the report says. Chinese supply chains are complicated and opaque, which can make it difficult to trace certain individual products from Xinjiang to the United…

NATO Nations Grow More Receptive to U.S. Pleas to Confront China

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The discussion on China marked a shift toward a harder line on the challenges and threats it represents, especially among foreign ministers from previously more ambivalent countries, like Italy, Belgium, Spain and Portugal, some of whom called for less talk and more action to build a China strategy. Areas of concern included investment screening to protect key industries, infrastructure, cyber, technology and intellectual property, especially as countries are feeling the reach of China domestically and fear the West may be falling behind in important areas like artificial intelligence. The focus…

Chinese Unrest Over Lockdowns Upends Global Economic Outlook

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The swelling protests against severe pandemic restrictions in China — the world’s second-largest economy — are injecting a new element of uncertainty and instability into the global economy when nations are already struggling to manage the fallout from a war in Ukraine, an energy crisis and painful inflation. For years, China has served as the world’s factory and a vital engine of global growth, and turmoil there cannot help but ripple elsewhere. Analysts warn that more unrest could further slow the production and distribution of integrated circuits, machine parts, household…