The falling Euro is making Chinese companies less competitive in Europe, one of China's most important export markets. While the falling Euro makes European exporters like Dior happy (above, a grand opening for a Dior in Shanghai), it is complicating moves by Beijing to de-couple the yuan from the U.S. Dollar, meaning that any weakening of the yuan (which in turn would help U.S. companies hoping to sell in China and make Chinese imports in the U.S. more expensive) will likely to have to wait a little longer.
Japanese cosmetic manufacturers have a strong reputation, especially in Asia and Europe. After years of trying to make inroads into the U.S., however, several are giving up and quietly pulling out of department stores. This is happening even as American and Japanese standards of beauty are converging, highlighting the difficulties foreign companies have in entering the U.S. market without a clear marketing strategy.
A few decades ago, most believed that major swaths along the Amazon river in Brazil were inhabitable. Today, shopping malls are sprouting up in the region as new cities take root, giving rise to a consumer culture that was previously absent.
Akron-based Goodyear is one of the most globalized American companies. After all, it costs a lot to ship tires around the world, so setting up tire manufacturing where ever cars and trucks are made makes sense. Decades ago, the company was so proud of its global footprint that it set up a visitor center at its Akron headquarters complete with scale models of all its factories worldwide. There was even a full-time model expert who worked to maintain and create the sets. He's now retired, and the company is moving and no one knows what to do with the miniature models, a relic of a time past when being global was something special to crow about.
Traditionally, large automakers such as GM, Ford and Volkswagen compete on the higher end in the Chinese auto market, while local Chinese manufacturers such as BYD, Chery and Geely compete on the lower price end. That situation is about to change, with the foreign carmakers getting ready to release lower-priced subcompacts and the Chinese carmakers tooling up their capability to compete in segments that are new to them. The prize? The 65 million households in China that in the next four years will achieve an annual income above the magic $9000 mark deemed necessary to afford a basic automobile.
Although ethnic Chinese can be found throughout Southeast Asia, tolerance of their presence varies widely in the region, from complete assimilation in Thailand to legal discrimination in Malaysia. Indonesia has had an uneasy relationship with the Chinese in the past, but that is changing rapidly as China expands its economic influence in the region. The rise of Mandarin-language classes in Indonesia is only one sign of this rapidly changing dynamic.
For centuries, wine bottles have been topped by cork harvested from trees, especially from Portugal. The cork is naturally spongy to permit squeezing into a bottle, and expands to form a tight but breathable seal. Scientists discovered that cork can sometimes ruin wine, and a search for alternatives was on. In the U.S., innovators have developed plastic corks that are cheaper and just as effective as natural cork, leading natural cork producers to search for a strategy to differentiate their product.
Street demonstrations continue in Bangkok, where anti-government protesters have shut down important parts of the city. The media has generally not done a great job covering this story, but this morning's WaPo has an excellent summary of what's going on here -- who the players are from the King to the Crown Prince to former PM Thaksin, to what the issues are. Highly recommended as a primer to what's going on in Thailand these days.
