TOKYO — There’s no shortage of reasons to worry “irrational exuberance” is coursing through Japan’s stock market. They include the high odds Japan entered 2024 in recession, fallout from China’s economic slowdown, reforms failing to keep pace with investor enthusiasm and a dearth of confidence at Bank of Japan headquarters that the economy is ready […]

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Moody’s Investors Service was something of a thorn in global policymakers’ sides in 2023. From Beijing to Washington, the ratings giant fired any number of shots across the bows of the biggest economies. In mid-November, it lowered America’s credit outlook to "negative” from "stable", pointing to political polarization in Congress as the US national debt […]

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Volkswagen Group China is turning to local procurement to reduce costs as it accelerates a multi-year investment plan aimed at becoming one of China’s leading electric vehicle producers. The automaker’s new “in China for China” strategy encompasses R&D, a substantial expansion of manufacturing capacity and a wider scope for collaboration with local partners. Once known […]

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The startling divergence between China’s 5.2% growth and cratering stock market is putting Asia’s biggest economy in global headlines for all the wrong reasons.

Given the chaos of 2023 — a massive property crisis, record youth unemployment, trade headwinds from Washington and deflationary pressures — China’s ability to top 5% growth year on year is impressive indeed. But the stock market continues to stumble, a rout that shows few signs of slowing.

So how bad could things get? In the first two weeks of 2024, global funds sold more than US$1.1 billion of mainland stocks. China’s CSI 300 index this week fell to its lowest levels since 2019, losing more than 25% over the last year. That’s the mirror image of the 24% rally in the S&P 500 over the same period.

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If there’s any surprise over the fact that China dethroned Japan in 2023 to become the world’s top automaker it relates to how fast that happened. Overall, auto exports jumped 58% last year from the prior one, topping 4.91 million units, says the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers. Along with deploying its increasing strength in […]

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Samsung Electronics is planning to fully automate its semiconductor factories by 2030, with “smart sensors” set to control the manufacturing process, according to South Korean media reports.

The world’s largest maker of memory chips aims to create an “artificial intelligence fab” that operates without human labor, the reports said. The ground-breaking project is reportedly already underway, the same reports said.

Samsung has signaled since last summer it aims to AI to optimize integrated circuit (IC) design, materials development, production, yield improvement and packaging. Identifying the cause of defects in the production process is reportedly a top priority of the AI plan.

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As 2024 gets underway, reasons to worry about China’s economy are almost too numerous to count: sub-trend growth, a deepening property crisis, falling exports, record youth employment and deflationary pressures. As investors try to control the inclination to panic, it’s quite striking who isn’t: People’s Bank of China Governor Pan Gongsheng. One expression of this […]

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TOKYO — For the Bank of Japan and US Federal Reserve, what a difference a week makes. As 2023 ended, the BOJ was almost universally seen as “tapering” on the way to exiting quantitative easing (QE). Governor Kazuo Ueda’s team was viewed as setting the stage for a pivot that would send the yen skyrocketing. […]

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China, Taiwan, South Korea and Japan will all have more semiconductor production capacity than the United States at the end of 2024, according to the latest World Fab Forecast released by SEMI, the global semiconductor industry association.

Semiconductor fabrication facility construction data shows that more than 80% of the world’s fab capacity is still located in Asia, with this year’s estimated percentage slightly higher than last year’s.

China’s share of worldwide capacity is forecast to rise from 26% to 27% in 2024, while America’s remains slightly below 10% and Europe’s under 9%. US and EU efforts to rebuild their domestic chip supply chains are unlikely to bear much fruit until 2025 at the earliest.

Total worldwide fab capacity is expected to rise by 6.4% to exceed 30 million wafers per month (WPM) in 2024, marking a new record high. Calculated in terms of 200mm (8-inch) wafer equivalents, global capacity rose 5.5% last year to 29.6 million wafers per month.

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TOKYO — In the closing weeks of 2023, US Republicans ratcheted up demands that President Joe Biden keep a hard line on China. Biden, of course, is way ahead of the party that his predecessor Donald Trump hopes to lead to victory in November. Since January 2021, Biden has limited Beijing’s access to technology vital […]

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TOKYO – For all the questions surrounding the US Federal Reserve, the real drama this year concerns the People’s Bank of China and Bank of Japan. It falls to PBOC Governor Pan Gongsheng in Beijing to stabilize Asia’s biggest economy and battle deflationary forces without re-inflating asset bubbles. Over in Tokyo, BOJ Governor Kazuo Ueda is under […]

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Chinese electric vehicle maker NIO and smart phone maker Xiaomi have ended the year with the announcement of new products challenging NVIDIA and Apple. This marks yet another advance in China’s efforts to develop its own semiconductor technology and eliminate dependence on imports.

On December 23, NIO revealed its first autonomous driving chip, which it claims is superior to the NVIDIA Drive Orin chips it is using now. The Shenji NX9031 SoC (System-on-Chip) will be used in the company’s new ET9 executive sedan, which was also presented at NIO Day 2023. Held in Xi’an, the event attracted more than 10,000 participants and attendees.

The ET9 is a long-wheelbase, four-door luxury EV priced at about 800,000 yuan, or $113,000 at the current exchange rate. Orders for the ET9 can be placed in China now, but deliveries are not scheduled to begin until the first quarter of 2025.

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The large waves of foreign capital suddenly racing China’s way are raising a vital question for 2024: is sentiment toward Asia’s biggest economy swinging back toward positivity? Investors will be and already are debating this very question now that China has racked up a nearly six-fold increase in foreign buying of bonds in November from […]

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Nippon Steel’s plan to acquire US Steel has triggered an uproar among the US Congress, the United Steelworkers and economic nationalists alarmed by the buyout of an American icon and the US$14.9 billion deal’s potential implications for US employment and the economy. The reaction has been particularly strong in President Joe Biden’s birth state of […]

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Today’s extreme focus on the Bank of Japan is pivoting to how the People’s Bank of China plays the economic minefield that lies ahead in 2024.

Over the next 12 months, China will stress test Asian economies as rarely before. Beijing’s dueling priorities of stabilizing growth and reducing the frequency of boom/bust cycles will center on the actions of Governor Pan Gongsheng at PBOC headquarters.

Since taking the PBOC’s reins in July, Pan has been a study in monetary restraint. Even as the all-important property sector stumbles, Pan’s team has avoided channeling giant waves of liquidity into the market. Targeted blasts, yes. But Team Pan is foregoing the powerful easing moves that traders came to expect from previous PBOC leaders.

One reason is that the yuan is under growing pressure in global markets. Nothing would get China closer to this year’s 5% growth target faster than a lower exchange rate. Pan, though, is prioritizing yuan stability over stimulus in ways that continue to confound hedge funds betting on a weaker currency.

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The Bank of Japan’s decision to leave interest rates unchanged on Tuesday (December 19) has more to do with events in 1999 than 2023.

Twenty-four years ago, the BOJ became the first major central bank to slash borrowing costs to zero. Over the next two years, in 2000 and 2001, it pioneered quantitative easing (QE).

Two-plus decades of free money has a way of warping economic dynamics. Over time, Japan gave new meaning to the concept of “economic capture” as the public and private sectors grew dependent upon QE.

The post Bank of Japan’s Ueda can’t quit QE, either appeared first on Asia Times.

Japan’s new Hyper-Kamiokande neutrino detection site is ready for the installation of sensors and other equipment and international partners are signing up to participate. The excavation of the underground chamber where the facility will be sited was completed in October 2023. Observations and experiments are slated to begin in 2027. On December 1, it was […]

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TOKYO – That loud ticking sound emanating from the Japanese capital is Fumio Kishida’s political clock counting down toward zero.

Approval ratings in the neighborhood of 30% tend to spell the end of Japanese governments. Prime Minister Kishida's is now below 20% – and dropping as the economy sinks into recession and inflation outpaces wage growth.

The rising odds that Kishida will soon be shown the door is stellar news for Xi Jinping’s China and a dismal turn of events for Joe Biden’s White House.

Since grabbing the premiership in October 2021, Kishida has been as close an ally to US President Biden as any. And a pivotal one, representing a key pillar of Biden’s “Indo-Pacific strategy” to encircle an ascendant China.

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Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party plans to include 10 years of incentives for the semiconductor and other industries in a tax reform package that is likely to take effect next year. In the meantime, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) has decided to subsidize semiconductor makers Rohm and Toshiba’s collaborative investment in power […]

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Amid considerable doom and gloom in China’s economy, President Xi Jinping has at least one 2023 milestone to celebrate: a near-doubling of the yuan’s role in global payments. The yuan’s 3.6% share might not sound too impressive considering the US still commands 47% of payments. But the rate of increase from 1.9% over the last […]

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