20/05/2025

BIZ & FINANCE TUESDAY | MAY 20, 2025

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Nissan said to be mulling plant closures in Japan, overseas o Workforce reduction, factory shutdown part of aggressive cost-cutting plan Shatai Kyushu plants in southern Fukuoka prefecture – would be more than enough to service the domestic market and maintain exports from Japan, one source said. Nissan said it had previously announced it would consolidate production of Nissan Frontier and Navara pickups from Mexico and Argentina into a single production hub centralised around the Civac plant in Mexico.

TOKYO: Nissan is considering plans to shut two car assembly plants in Japan and overseas factories, including in Mexico, sources said, as part of a cost-cutting plan the company flagged last week. The automaker is mulling closing Japan’s Oppama plant, where Nissan started production in 1961, and the Shonan plant operated by Nissan Shatai, in which Nissan is a 50% stakeholder, the sources said, which would leave it with just three vehicle assembly plants in Japan. Overseas, Nissan is considering ending production at plants in South Africa, India and Argentina, and cutting the number of factories in Mexico, one of the sources said. Japan’s third-biggest automaker unveiled sweeping new cost cuts last Tuesday, saying it would reduce its workforce by around 15% and cut production plants to 10 from 17 globally as it seeks to push through a turnaround. The Yomiuri newspaper, which first reported the automakers’ possible closing of plants in Japan and overseas, said two factories in

Trump Organisation explores plan for tower in Vietnam HANOI: The Trump Organisation and a local partner are exploring plans to build a skyscraper in Vietnam’s business hub of Ho Chi Minh City with Eric Trump expected to visit this week, a Vietnamese government document seen by Reuters shows. The visit by the son of US President Donald Trump comes just after Vietnam gave the Trump Organisation the green light for a separate US$1.5 billion (RM6.4 billion) golf project as the export-reliant nation is in talks with Washington to avoid punitive trade tariffs. Ho Chi Minh City officials are invited to “attend a dinner party with Eric Trump, senior vice-president of the Trump Organisation” set for Thursday evening at a central hotel in the city, according to the internal document. The May 15 document, signed by a senior Foreign Ministry official, said representatives of the Trump family business would visit an upscale central area. There they would “survey the proposed location of the Trump Tower building and hope to have a working session with the city’s leaders about this project”, it added, inviting local authorities to cooperate with the business delegation. The Trump Organisation is run by Trump’s children after he stepped down from its leadership after winning his first term as American president. – Reuters A number of Chinese firms are racing to develop their own chips with the aim of freeing themselves from reliance on foreign suppliers in the face of that rivalry. “Xiaomi has always had a‘chip dream’,” Lei wrote, adding: “I earnestly request everyone to give us more time and patience to support our continued exploration on this road”. – AFP The Oppama plant has annual capacity of around 240,000 cars and employed about 3,900 workers as of end-October. In 2010, it became Nissan’s first plant to start producing the Leaf, widely considered the world’s first mass-market electric vehicle. The Shonan plant, which produces commercial vans, has an annual capacity of around 150,000 units and employs about 1,200 people. – Reuters

Mexico are under consideration. Nissan said in a statement on its website that reports on the potential closure of certain plants were speculative and not based on any official information of the company. “At this time, we will not be providing further comments on this matter,” Nissan said in the statement. “We are committed to maintaining transparency with our stakeholders and will communicate

any relevant updates as necessary.” The more aggressive turnaround steps unveiled by new CEO Ivan Espinosa mark a sharp break with Nissan’s strategy under his predecessor Makoto Uchida, who had high hopes of expanding global production and had refused to close domestic plants. The automaker’s fiscal 2024 sales stood at 3.3 million vehicles, down 42% since the 2017 business year. In its statement on Saturday,

the path we have travelled,” wrote Lei. Since 2021, Xiaomi’s chip development programme has already received 13.5 billion yuan in research and development funds for a team of more than 2,500 employees, said the entrepreneur. The announcement comes in the face of heightened tensions between Beijing and Washington as both seek to ensure access to the most advanced components. It also said that it had announced in March that French alliance partner Renault would buy out its stake in their joint Indian business, Renault Nissan Automotive India Private Ltd. The domestic plant closures would mark Nissan’s first since closing its Murayama factory in 2001. Keeping just three home plants open – its Tochigi factory and the Nissan Motor Kyushu and Nissan

Xiaomi to invest 50 billion yuan in high-end chips BEIJING: Chinese tech giant Xiaomi will invest 50 billion yuan (RM29.6 billion) in developing high end smartphone chips, the firm’s founder said yesterday. Xiaomi, which sells goods from smartphones to vacuum cleaners and EVs, is one of China’s most prominent consumer electronics firms. company’s establishment, Lei Jun said: “Chips are the underlying core track for Xiaomi to break through in cutting-edge technology, so we will definitely make an all-out effort.” Xiaomi took initial steps into semiconductors for smartphones with the launch of the firm’s first in-house chip – the Surge S1 – in 2017.

But the group was forced to halt production of the chip due to technical and financial obstacles, and has since refocused on other components as well as a move into the electric vehicle sector. “That is not our ‘dark history’. That is

In pursuit of Xiaomi’s semiconductor ambitions, the firm has developed an investment plan involving “at least 10 years of investment and at least 50 billion yuan”, Lei added.

Writing on social media platform WeChat to mark the 15th year since the

Staff members serving customers inside a Yoshinoya restaurant in Tokyo yesterday. – REUTERSPIC

Yoshinoya bets big on ramen noodles for next phase of expansion

TOKYO: Japan’s Yoshinoya said yesterday it was betting on ramen noodles for its next phase of growth, looking to turn it into a third business pillar along with gyudon beef bowls and udon noodles. Announcing a growth plan for the next five years, the fast-food chain operator best known for its gyudon, or stewed beef over rice, said it would

target a 10-fold jump in operating profit from the ramen business to ¥4 billion (RM120 million). By the financial year ending in February 2035, it hopes to become the world’s top seller of ramen, it said. The new business plan comes as Japanese restaurant chains struggle from higher food prices – particularly of domestic rice and US beef – and

the difficulty of raising product prices in a country just emerging from years of deflation. “I see significant potential for ramen,”incoming CEO Tetsuya Naruse told a press conference. Yoshinoya expects its ramen business to garner revenues of ¥40 billion by 2029 and account for 13% or total sales, versus 4% last year.

Setting the stage for growth, Yoshinoya bought two Kyoto-based ramen shop operators, Takara Sangyo and Kiramekino Mirai, last business year, adding to its portfolio of ramen brands including Withlink in Hiroshima and Setagaya in Tokyo. Yoshinoya said its ramen expansion would involve further inorganic growth with more acquisitions. – Reuters