Apple eyes Indonesia and BYD goes huge on self-driving

Good day everybody, that is Cissy in Hong Kong.

Donald Trump has signed a flurry of government orders since being sworn in as US president final month, and it’s driving many individuals all over the world loopy.

Simply up to now week, sellers on Chinese language cross-border ecommerce platforms like Temu, Shein and AliExpress had been racing into the unknown as Trump put his stamp on commerce and customs coverage. First, he eradicated the de minimis rule that allowed objects valued beneath $800 to enter the US with out tariffs, then he paused the repeal as packages piled up on the US customs.

The US Postal Service stoked additional chaos when it suspended inbound parcels from China and Hong Kong, however once more a reversal got here, this time the exact same day. A number of sellers on these Chinese language platforms instructed me they will’t consider how fickle the US authorities is changing into and that they’ve seen gross sales drop as much as 30 per cent since Trump’s actions towards these on-line retailers. Some mentioned they’re even fascinated about shifting to completely different platforms, together with Amazon.

Though Trump paused his “beautiful” tariffs on Mexico and Canada, Chinese language firms which have crossed the Pacific up to now three years to arrange factories alongside the US-Mexico border to keep away from tariffs could must rethink their provide chains as soon as once more as geopolitical tensions unfold past simply Washington and Beijing.

Provide chain relocation spurred by geopolitical tensions at all times pursuits me. It additionally jogs my memory of a humorous encounter with Terry Gou, the founding father of Foxconn, Apple’s greatest contract producer, in early 2020 once I was in Taiwan overlaying the presidential election within the self-ruled island. I doorstepped Gou at a polling station and requested him if he would take into account shifting Foxconn’s Chinese language amenities out of China amid geopolitical tensions. He didn’t reply my query and seemed indignant. “Which media outlet are you from?” he requested me. His spouse Delia Tseng was very pleasant, although, as she tried to consolation me by patting my head and saying, “It’s OK, it’s OK.”

Apple, Foxconn’s greatest consumer, is not any stranger to political tensions, having shifted a good portion of manufacturing from China to different Asian international locations in recent times. Now it’s contemplating additional diversification amid native regulatory stress.

Made in Indonesia?

Apple has been talking with suppliers in regards to the feasibility of organising iPhone ultimate meeting in Indonesia, because the US tech large works to raise a authorities gross sales ban on the iPhone 16 sequence, sources instructed Nikkei Asia’s Lauly Li and Cheng Ting-Fang.

If the transfer is realised, it might mark Apple’s first iPhone meeting within the south-east Asian nation, which at present lacks a strong provide chain for the gadget. Indonesia banned gross sales of the iPhone 16 final 12 months after Apple failed to satisfy the requirement that a minimum of 35 per cent of a smartphone’s elements be domestically made. Apple has been locked in months-long negotiations with Indonesia because the ban.

One iPhone assembler has arrange a subsidiary in Batam significantly for Apple and has began hiring engineers as a part of the preparation, in line with one supply. One other supply mentioned it might take a minimum of a 12 months to construct an iPhone facility in Batam if the choice is finalised.

Though Apple’s smartphone market share in Indonesia is just about 1 per cent, the potential for development is critical given the slowdown in world gross sales and hurdles within the Chinese language market amid tensions with the US

Memorable progress

China’s main producer of reminiscence chips is quickly gaining world market share on the expense of South Korean opponents, strengthening Beijing’s drive to cut back its dependence on overseas know-how, write the Monetary Instances’ Christian Davies, Tune Jung-a and Zijing Wu.

CXMT — ChangXin Reminiscence Applied sciences — elevated its share of the $90bn world DRam reminiscence market from near zero in 2020 to five per cent final 12 months, in line with Shenzhen-based consultancy Qianzhan.

The corporate can be spearheading China’s efforts to interrupt into the marketplace for so-called high-bandwidth reminiscence (HBM), a vital element in operating AI methods comparable to Open AI’s ChatGPT.

G Dan Hutcheson, vice chair of consultancy TechInsights, mentioned that CXMT’s fast progress within the extremely commoditised DRam sector was producing a “snowball effect”.

“The more market share you gain, the larger your volume, the higher your yields go, the lower your costs and the more market share you gain again,” mentioned Hutcheson. “That’s exactly how the Koreans pushed the Japanese out of the memory sector in the 1980s and 1990s.”

Autonomous for all

Tesla could have cause to fret once more. As approval for its FSD (full self-driving) system in China faces delays, its most formidable rival, BYD, has pledged to “democratise” autonomous driving with its newest God’s Eye system, writes Nikkei Asia’s Cissy Zhou.

In a high-profile press convention held at its world headquarters in Shenzhen on Monday evening, BYD founder Wang Chuanfu introduced the corporate would deploy its most superior self-driving system in practically all of its fashions so as to make the know-how accessible to everybody, as sensible driving is changing into a key battlefield for auto gamers.

Presently, most automobiles geared up with autonomous driving know-how are priced above Rmb200,000 ($27,300) within the nation, however most BYD fashions beneath Rmb100,000 would have the know-how.

The Chinese language EV large’s transfer is predicted to speed up a market shake-up, with smaller automakers already going through consolidation. For these nonetheless lagging in sensible transformation, this isn’t only a check of technological progress however a struggle for survival.

Rockier than feared

The newest US export controls on China’s chip sector are inflicting extra disruption than anticipated, as TSMC, the world’s high contract chipmaker, takes a strict compliance strategy, sources instructed Nikkei Asia’s Cheng Ting-Fang.

TSMC has knowledgeable Chinese language shoppers utilizing its 16nm or higher manufacturing applied sciences that it can not ship orders to them until they use chip packaging companies from a US-approved provider. Initially, the trade believed the restrictions focused solely AI chips with over 30bn transistors, however TSMC, after consulting authorized consultants and the US Commerce Division, has prolonged the coverage to all functions.

This transfer is a serious setback for Chinese language chip builders engaged on every thing from cellular units to autonomous driving. Firms now face pressing selections: change to authorised packaging suppliers or search US approval to proceed working with TSMC.

Steered reads

#techAsia is co-ordinated by Nikkei Asia’s Katherine Creel in Tokyo, with help from the FT tech desk in London.

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