16/09/2026

BIZ & FINANCE WEDNESDAY | SEPT 16, 2026

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Tech boom powers China’s factories

Republicans retaining control of the chamber, said she had specifically raised the impact of tariffs on road salt and cement to the federal government. The duties mark the latest salvo in an escalating trade war between the North American neighbours. President Donald Trump slapped a 50% tariff on US$20 billion (RM81 billion) in imports from Canada in August after trade talks collapsed, triggering Ottawa’s counter-tariffs on a similar value of goods. The White House pushed back against Canada’s retaliation last week by announcing a ban on some alcoholic beverages and dairy goods, effective Sept 29, while making changes to its tariff list. Trump tapped a little-known legal provision for the latest tariffs affecting Canada, Section 338 of the Tariff Act of 1930. The new duties apply to goods covered under the US-Mexico-Canada free trade deal, and come in addition to Trump’s sector-specific tariffs. And temperatures could rise further. A senior US official told reporters last week that Trump’s earlier threat to hike tariffs on Canadian autos from 25% to 50% come January remains in effect. – AFP property and bolster technological self-sufficiency, but the surge in high tech investment has yet to translate into stronger household incomes or greater job security. The nationwide urban surveyed unemployment rate came in at 5.3% for August, edging up from 5.2% the previous month. Factory activity improved last month, but it remained in contraction and services activity stayed sluggish. Weak domestic demand also weighed on credit growth, as new bank loans returned to positive territory but fell well short of analysts’ forecasts after a record contraction in July. Extreme weather likely remained a drag on activity. Four typhoons made landfall in China during August, disrupting operations in the east-coast manufacturing and logistics belt. Growth also faces mounting external headwinds, including the Middle East conflict, elevated oil prices and a global tightening cycle that is keeping borrowing costs high. “The external environment is complex and challenging, while domestic structural adjustment pressures persist, meaning sustained efforts are still needed to put the economy on a firmer growth trajectory,” Fu Linghui, a spokesman at the statistics bureau, told a briefing. Beijing has responded to the challenges with faster government bond issuance and expanded loan interest subsidies for small private firms and consumers, while the central bank has pledged additional policy support without signalling explicit cuts to policy rates or banks’ reserve-requirement ratio. “Policymakers’ reluctance to deploy a more forceful consumption focused stimulus is likely to prolong the adjustment process,” analysts at Barclays said in a note to clients. – Reuters

WASHINGTON: Key changes to US tariffs on Canadian goods took effect yesterday, with cheeses and motorboats among products added to the list of affected items while toilet paper, fishing rod parts and cement are now exempt. The move comes weeks ahead of US midterm elections, as households and businesses grapple with high costs of living – while recent tariffs on Canadian products threatened to hike costs further for some groups. The latest amendments change the mix of Canadian products impacted by 50% US duties, and senior US officials maintained that the tariffs only apply to a small amount of overall bilateral trade. Various cheeses, motorboats, papers and aluminum and steel products were added to the list, as were mattresses and certain types of furniture. But toilet and facial tissues, fishing gear and whiskies in containers exceeding four liters are now exempt from the 50% duty. Also excluded are road salts, needed in states experiencing harsher winter weather, and cement key to construction projects. Senator Susan Collins of Maine, whose reelection will be key to remain sluggish in the third quarter,” said Lynn Song, ING’s Greater China chief economist. Oxford Economics lowered its 2026 growth forecast by 0.1 percentage point to 4.7% and cut next year’s to 4.3%, from 4.6%, “reflecting a more prolonged property downturn which is likely to keep growth subdued despite stronger public investment,” senior economist Sheana Yue said. The data barely moved China’s markets, leaving the key stock benchmarks down roughly 0.3% while the yuan weakened slightly against the dollar. The latest data underscored the scale of the challenge facing policymakers as businesses remain reluctant to commit new capital and the property market continues to sap consumption and restrain growth. Fixed-asset investment, which includes infrastructure and property investment, declined 7.2% in the first eight months, marking the steepest drop since April 2020. Property investment dived 19.9% in the first eight months from the same period last year, and new home prices extended declines from the previous month, signalling a housing market still trapped in a prolonged downturn. Against that backdrop, strong exports driven by AI infrastructure spending and demand for advanced technology products are providing a critical buffer for growth. Investment in high-tech industries expanded 5.2% in the January-to-August period, in keeping with the global AI boom. Output of lithium-ion batteries and industrial robots, for example, soared 57.2% and 34.6% year-on-year, respectively. Behind the divide is a government push to guide resources to the advanced manufacturing sector to reduce the economy’s reliance on

from a 4.5% increase in July and beating expectations for a 4.8% rise, figures released by the National Bureau of Statistics showed. Strong expansion in equipment and high tech manufacturing underpinned the production upturn. Retail sales, a gauge of consumer activity, rose 0.4%, slowing from a 0.6% gain in July and below an expected 0.8% rise. Weak consumption and the real estate market crisis dragged second quarter GDP growth to 4.3%, the slowest pace in more than three years and below the lower end of China’s 4.5-5% annual target. “Barring an unexpectedly strong September, GDP growth will likely

o Weak consumption and deepening investment slump raise concerns over increasingly uneven economic recovery

BEIJING: China’s industrial sector showed renewed strength in August as the AI-driven tech boom fuelled factory output, though sluggish consumption and a worsening investment slump reinforced concerns over deepening economic imbalances. Yesterday’s data highlighted a familiar fault line in the world’s second-largest economy, where

resilient manufacturing and exports are sustaining growth even as weak household spending and a property market downturn weigh on domestic demand. The divergence is likely to intensify pressure on Beijing to roll out more support measures as policymakers seek a more balanced recovery. Industrial output grew 5.2% from a year earlier in August, quickening

Strong factory output and exports are providing a critical buffer for China’s economy amid sluggish household spending and falling investment. – PEXELS PIX

LNG demand to rebound in China, India after Mideast war ends: Industry execs

New US tariffs, exemptions on Canadian goods take effect

BANGKOK: China and India’s LNG imports are likely to rebound from multi-year lows once the Middle East supply crunch ends and prices ease, industry executives expect, reversing a pick-up in coal and oil use to generate power due to the US-Iran war. The conflict has prevented Qatar and the United Arab Emirates from exporting most of their LNG via the Strait of Hormuz, where a fifth of global supplies used to pass, driving up prices and curbing demand in Asia. Shell, the world’s biggest LNG trader, estimates the world has lost about 36 million tons of LNG from the Middle East so far this year, president for integrated gas Cederic Cremers said. Asia’s spot prices have surged to nearly US$30 (RM122) per million British thermal units, from a pre-war range around US$10 per MMBtu, as the region is competing with Europe for limited supplies ahead of winter. “The prices have hit through the roof, and that is definitely impacting the demand insofar as India is concerned because there are a lot of sectors which are price sensitive,“ GAIL

buy LNG from elsewhere. Exxon Mobil, GAIL and PCI executives expect the Middle East conflict to have a temporary impact on demand, with consumption to rebound once prices fall and global supply recovers. “We are hoping that all this is very short term, and in the coming days, in mid-term and long-term, things will become normal,“ Gupta said, adding that there may be about 150 million to 200 million tons of LNG coming online in the next four to five years which could cool prices. “The sectors like the power sector in our country, like the various industries, they are going to go for more gas ... because it’s a cleaner fuel,“ he said. In China, PCI’s Luo expects demand from gas-fired power plants to rebound once LNG prices return to a “normal” range of US$7 to US$9 per MMBtu, citing strong growth in electricity consumption even as LNG imports have fallen. “I think it is due to the temporary suppression of the demand faced by high price,“ Luo said. “I don’t think it will kill the demand in China.” – Reuters

chairman Deepak Gupta said at the Gastech conference in Bangkok. “There are many industries which switch over to different fuels in case gas is not viable for them,“ said Gupta, who heads India’s top natural gas distributor by market share. Both GAIL and PetroChina, China’s top LNG importer, have deployed their trading teams to scour for alternative cargoes to replace Qatari and Emirati supplies since the war broke out. Luo Yizhou, CEO of PetroChina International (PCI), the trading arm of the state energy major, said the company was working on the Sunday of Feb 28 in lieu of the Lunar New Year holiday when the US and Israel launched attacks on Iran. “We had a meeting for something else, planning for this year, and then suddenly we saw the news, and then we switched the topic to how to secure supply,“ Luo said. “We were probably one day ahead of the market because most of the other companies start to work on Monday.” GAIL’s Gupta said India had to limit gas consumption initially but resumed supplies to almost 90% to 95% as it ramped up its trading capability to