Overcapacity Japanese manufacturers merging to build more legacy cars?

 Merging and hoping to win the EV war is already a lost cause. Japanese carmakers are making cars using expensive imported energy, high labor costs and a dwindling Chinese market. This is made worse by the falling Japanese Yen, which means imported energy cost are also escalating.

Japanese cars are also not going to sell well in the Global South countries competing with China. They will have to sell their cars at huge losses. Does that make any difference with what they are going through today?

Merger may allow the cutting of some jobs, sharing of machinery and savings on wages to cut cost. If that is the intention, why not do it separately, which achieves the same objective. Or is the move just to make the Chinese EV makers shiver in their pants by creating another mega car maker? Just look at Volkswagen and learn its lesson first. The Germans are as innovative as the Japanese and yet find it extremely difficult to compete globally, having to close factories. It was a hard pill to swallow. Big and intimidating means nothing but being competitive is something. And who can compete with Chinese EV makers in terms of pricing? China has the cheap energy, the supply chain, the head-start and innovative ideas and above all the market to boast of.

I think China has the best of both worlds. The ability to leverage on its over-capacity and the advantage of having a ready big domestic market to compete in are what makes China unique. Where else and who has that kind of advantage to speak off. Those that have the capacity to produce lacks the domestic market to sell to and have to rely on exporting. And which is the biggest market for most of their products? China of course.

Anonymous

Boeing - The number one killer commercial aircraft

9 minutes clip on Indian talents in American companies and with special reference to large number of Indian engineers in Boeing involved in hardware and software engineering. Also note the number of parts being subcontracted to Indian companies to produce landing gears doors, vertical tails, wing panels, fuselages, etc.

The latest Jeju Airline crash, another Boeing 737-800 send chills to all air travellers flying Boeing. The 737 series is looking like a death machine. Within the last 10 years, more than 10 deadly crashes involving Boeing 737 aircraft are not simply due to accidents. It is manufacturing defects. More than a thousand lives had been taken by Boeing 737 aircraft. What is there more to say about the safety of Boeing aircraft in general and Boeing 737 in particular? They keep failing in one way or another, with parts falling from the sky and landing gears malfunction.

Boeing has started to blame the Indians and to fire Indian executives and engineers and checks on their works, especially on safety. Indian software codes are full of bugs that posed high risk to the aircraft. The Indians in return blamed Boeing for its poor quality control systems and standards. The blame game can go on for a long time, but this would not solve the safety issues of Boeing aircraft. More passengers are going to die flying Boeing aircraft. Until Boeing gets it right in producing safe aircraft, no one is going to buy Boeing or fly in Boeing aircraft. Walking into and sitting in a Boeing aircraft is becoming a frightening experience and to be avoided at all costs.

Good luck to Boeing's marriage with Indian engineers and executives. Cheap and good? Nearly a century of reputation going down the drain and Boeing heading towards bankruptcy...and more retrenchment if not closing down altogether.

Nord Stream pipeline bombing, the Europeans believe the Americans are innocent!

 So many European countries did the investigating of the Nord Stream bombing, and none even dare to name the culprit. Does that tell us something?

Now it seems that most have to agree that it was six men in a boat that did it. No more speculating or trying to blame the angelic USA. Therefore, the USA is in the clear and is not involved in the bombing. Dementia Joe only said that the USA has ways and means to take out the Nord Stream pipelines. And the USA did nothing about it after years of coveting the sale of energy to the EU? The only way to do that was put Russia out of the equation. Can you honestly believe the shit that the USA is not involved?

Now we are beginning to see the horse hidden behind the screen showing its legs. The USA is now threatening the Europeans with tariffs if they do not buy more USA oil and gas. Now, isn't that telling us something even more revealing as well? Can't the Europeans be left alone to buy from other sources? This also shows that the USA is selling more expensive energy to Europe than what the Europeans can buy cheaper from other sources. A three-year old can put two and two together and see the hypocrisy.

Anonymous

American terrorists sending the world on a wild goose chase

 Now the focus is on the plane crash in Azerbaijan, with investigations hardly started and conclusive, with the two black boxes just recovered and not yet analyzed, and already being blamed on Russia, based on holes on the body of the crashed plane. Whether it was brought down by Russia is still not an open and shut case, but the planting of the seed of demonization against Russia is really fast and furious.

When USA fighter jets were brought down, they were all blamed on friendly fire, not giving any possibility of the enemy getting the real credit. But when civilian planes were shot down, Russia gets all the unwanted credits. Strange world indeed! You can therefore see the difference in how they can make use of the MSM to overturn facts with fiction. Two such incidents were all blamed on friendly fire. Their missiles and those launching such missiles must be really friendly.

Following this, there was another submarine cable cut and, as expected also blamed on a Russian vessel now targeted for investigation. It seems that anything happening anywhere that is bad can conveniently be blamed on China and Russia, the perennial punching bags. So many ships sailing on the ocean, but it must always be Chinese and Russian ships committing all the crimes. Their satellites must be on 24-hour watch concentrating on monitoring Russia and Chinese ships sailing on the high seas, thousands of them. If such Russian or Chinese just happens to pass the area that the cable cut was committed, they are suspected of committing the crime.

By the way, they have not yet exhausted their fabrication of who really blew up the Nord Stream pipelines. As those fabrication loses credibility, I wonder whether there will be an 'insider' coming out to accuse either Russia or China behind it. Yes, Russia sabotaging their own pipelines was what they did try to fabricate in the early stages. Now, with all the focus on Ukraine and Middle East wars, the semiconductor wars, the EV war, let us just believe it was six men in a boat (or five depending on which country did the investigation) that did it. Like the John F. Kennedy assassination, new clues and insiders are coming out periodically with new 'revelations' to muddy the waters. The Nord Stream bombing will follow the same pattern. Just muddy the waters and no one will be the wiser.

Anonymous

Transportation blues in an overcrowded island

 Some areas in Punggol are served by only one bus. They tried to force commuters to use the LRT. However, if you live between LRT stations, the walk is quite tiring, and the trains are overcrowded during peak hours. My two kids live in Punggol, and I know the situation.

The thinking seems to be that by building many MRT lines and stations, the crowds will be dispersed island-wide and underground, and the situation will appear less critical. But for most, what is important is just the MRT line that gets them to work and back being less crowded, not meandering around the island switching trains.

The LTA will be releasing 20,000 more COEs in February 2025. Is this good news or bad? Good news for the Government undoubtedly, but bad news for those driving as more congestions and jams will be the result.

Ten million population they were gloating. Now at about six million and already we are finding it hard to breathe. I live in the North-East and I honestly hate travelling on the overcrowded MRT trains. I think the situation is the same with the North-South line that I have also used. And that must be the norm with all the other lines.

Anonymous