26/07/2017 Asia Business Report

version of the Mini in the UK as a vote

Now on BBC News, all the latest business news live from Singapore.

US President Donald Trump says Apple has pledged to build three big

manufacturing plants in America. And hybrid car manufacturers are worried

that a new government 's tax will drive away customers. -- government

tax. Welcome to Asia Business Report. President Trump says Apple's

chief executive is committed to building three plants in the United

States. The investment would help the administration follow through on

a big campaign promise, revising the country's manufacturing industry.

Earlier, I spoke to our North American business correspondence

about how significant this move would be for US manufacturing. This

was in an interview with the Wall Street Journal. Donald Trump came

out and said that Tim Cook had committed that the tech giant would

yield three big, beautiful plants in America. We reached out to Apple,

they would not comment at this point. We are left wondering how

much of this is true. Did the conversation take place? One must

assume that it did. We am not sure of the nature of the conversation.

One thing is clear. Ever since the President came to power, he has

talked about America first, a policy of bringing manufacturing and jobs

back to America, making that point. We have seen companies court favour

by trying to do more in terms of manufacturing in America, whether

that was part of the conversation we don't know. We have an Apple but

fall, they have signalled that they want to start a billion dollar fund

to promote manufacturing jobs in the US. How might this be carried out?

Obviously, costs will spike. Where will they be passed on to?

Consumers? That is the fear, that if you start making in America, is it

more expensive to manufacture here? There are reasons when companies are

making decisions about where their customers are, where the biggest

profits while. Those are the considerations that go into planning

the location of a factory. The horizons for business leaders are

not usually just the next year, but five or ten years, given the scale

of investment required. We have already heard that one of the parts

suppliers for the iPhone has talked about opening a plant in the US. How

much of that is driven by business, how much is driven by considerations

elsewhere, political concerns and so on, we are not quite sure. It is

worth noting that, if we look at the iPhone, and the US is certainly one

of the biggest markets, China being an Ottawan, but there are concerns

in China that it is perhaps starting to fall behind. Gambling in Macau

has helped to lift revenue at resorts, however the US's company 's

revenues were down slightly. One company rose at 7% to -- compared to

last year. They are the largest casino hub in the world. We also

have quarterly earnings being released later from Nintendo. The

question is what the moneyspinner will be for Nintendo. They launched

a new day in in March, and they have sold 2.7 million units worldwide. In

comparison, Xbox sold over 3 million, that was in the first month

of their launch. Nintendo says they hope to sell 10 million more

switchers in March. They are having some issues with production. Earlier

I spoke to an analyst in Taipei and I asked whether that will impact

earnings. They are in a great place, revenue and earnings will be up.

They had big losses in 2013. Why? They had a product that was a big

failure. In contrast, the Switch is doing quite well. We heard earlier

that demand and supply for the switch could not quite meet up with

production. What could that effect in terms of revenue? They have a

contract manufacturer for their products, last year, they based

their demands on numbers that were quite low. Right now they have a

good problem, to manage demands, not enough supply. Next quarter, they

will try to build up inventories, and they will also build sales in

the lead up to Black Friday and Christmas. Now, the shoe company

Jimmy Choo has been purchased by Michael Kors. Jimmy Choo has been

purchased by many celebrities, however is struggling after Ray

series of heavy discounts. We got more information on the deal. It may

have an impact on the company, Michael Kors. The main point is that

Michael Kors wants to sell more in Asia. European brands have a lot of

cachet in Asia. If you have a European brand that is associated

with luxury, that is one way of expanding your sales. In Europe,

they are perhaps not quite as ship as they were. European brands in

China, the big growth market with a rising middle class, that is where

it is that. They want to double sales in Asia. Britain is hitting

the brakes on petrol and diesel vehicles. The government plans to

introduce new cars powered by fossil -- wants to ban cars powered by

fossil fuels by 2040 in an attempt to reduce pollution. It follows an

announcement earlier this month by the French government. Staying with

that topic, we have got carmakers who are rethinking their strategy on

hybrid cars after the introduction of the GST. Hybrid vehicles are

being charged as high as 43%, compared to an earlier rate of 29%.

Many companies are worried that the tax will drive hybrid cars out of

the market altogether. We spoke to one of the biggest carmakers,

Siddiqi, to get an opinion on the matter. I think it is something

which requires less tax -- Suzuki. We need a new policies for hybrid

cars. At this point in time, electric cars don't have customers

to purchase them. The movement towards electric cars and the

electric -- electrification of transport makes a lot of sense. But

we need customers who are willing to buy them. Global alliances between

Suzuki and Toyota, how is this going to play out, particularly in India?

They want to access the Indian market, which gives them the

potential for using these new technologies. On a much larger scale

than it would be possible anywhere else. The Toyota partnership with

Suzuki is going to be of great interest and value to us here,

because I think that helps both Suzuki and Toyota. Looking ahead,

how do you see the Indian car market panning out? I think not the major

towns, but the slightly smaller towns, they are very underserviced

in terms of cars. You would not get to the level of China, 24 million

cars in China, I don't think we have the infrastructure to support that.

And I think we should get to 10 million cars and. Do you think that

is good enough to sustain the market? You have more than ten

manufacturers in the country, and no foreign manufacturers. People make

investments in India. Creating a market, which allows long-term

investments to grow. I think people can still succeed here. It can be

treated as a short term quarterly result market. A quick look at the

markets. And that is it for this edition of World -- Asia Business

Report.