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Russian Car Maker Weighs Assembling Some Models in Cuba
The Russian vehicle manufacturer GAZ “is considering” assembling some of its products in Cuba or Venezuela for distribution in Latin America, a spokesman for the company said this past weekend.
However, the use of Venezuela for the purpose is “less likely in the short run,” the unidentified spokesman told the Russian daily Izvestia. He did not say what vehicles the company might build in Cuba or when the project would take form.
Established in 1932 in Nizhny Novgorod, GAZ (Gorky Automobile Factory) is the leading manufacturer of commercial vehicles in Russia, with a 58 percent market share in medium-duty trucks and a 50 percent market share in light trucks.
The group also produces buses, vans and automobiles. Under agreements with General Motors and Volkswagen, it currently assembles Aveo and Jetta automobiles.
GAZ’s turn to Latin America is, by the company’s own admission, a result of declining sales in the domestic market. In the first half of this year, its sales of light commercial vehicles fell by 26 percent to 23,400 units. By comparison, the company expects to sell 25,000 units abroad by year’s end, mostly to neighboring republics that were part of the former Soviet Union.
This would not the first time that GAZ has cooperated with Cuba in the manufacture of vehicles. Between 1979 and 1980, Cuba built 15,000 buses mounted on the chassis Model PAZ-672, provided by PAZ (Russian acronym for Pavlov Automobile Factory), a subsidiary of the GAZ Group. Those buses were called “Girón.”
In late 2013, GAZ delivered to Cuba 210 chassis of the PAZ-32053 suburban bus called “Diana,” a 40-passenger carrier.
GAZ is also considering establishing an assembly line in Lithuania for distribution of its products in eastern Europe, the spokesman said. In the past two years, the company has reportedly invested about $500 million in expansion.
5 thoughts on “Russian Car Maker Weighs Assembling Some Models in Cuba”
Lada was actually a licenced product of Fiat, along many other brands who made their own versions of the car of the year 1967, Fiat 124: along many, Seat and Kia made their own versions of one of the finest cars in the 1960’s.
No country in the world has ever been really communistic, or capitalistic. A real communist country would have no ruler and even the poorest people would be given minimum standards for living. A real capitalistic country would completely cut off welfare and everyone should success on their own, plus the state would own nothing, all the busineses would be individual.
Although the Soviet Union never was a real communist state, the production followed pretty much the economical ideas of communism: the price of the product would almost fully consists of the material and labour expenses with minimum profit. It’s no wonder why Ladas never became popular in the richest countries. They would be have been needed to be sold extremely well, so that a capitalist could gain maximum profit out of them, and many people abandoned their Ladas only because insurances covered less than a new car’s price, if someone managed to crash a Lada, even a little bit.
In rich countries, car’s price will consist of material and labour expenses, but also of maximum profit (depending on the rank of the brand) and of the patent expenses, if the produced car contained the newest innovations, like they always do.
These two things explain why Ladas used to be so cheap. One other thing: Samaras were produced for a short time in my country, and even if they didn’t contain the newest innovations, the costs rose so high that in the Eastern countries, people could not buy Finnish Samaras. So that was the end of the story.
The durability of a car is not just about the mechanical part of it. Driver’s economical background and attitude are another aspects to be considered. I’ve been watching the Finnish Lada culture for over 30 years and I have noticed that there has been two different kind of drivers along the Lada-owners: middle-class fellows who buy Ladas just to drive them as long as they’ll get more money to buy “better cars”. They usually complain about the reliability. They treat Ladas just as objects: they don’t care about inserting extra oil, washing their cars regularly, or using a block heater in the wintertime. (It’s easy to get a Lada running in the extreme conditions, but it doesn’t mean that one should abandon the block heater because of that.) In the end, they break their Lada’s and complain about their weaknesses.
In my family, there has been a bunch of happy Lada-owners. They have treated their cars with respect and love, and followed Gordon’s Ten Commandments for owning a car. They have enjoyed decades of reliability and mailfunctions have been rare. One of the Lada of those owned by one of my family members, just hit 30 years on the run. It changed the owner about ten years ago, but has stayed in the family. Two great Ladas, one at the age of 13,5 years and one at the age of 20 were abandoned because of insurance reasons. One of my family members had owned a Lada for about 15 years, but it was sold because the owner died.
I have never heard a story about 1 000 000 km running Lada in any rich country, but you can find stories of those long-running Ladas from, for example, Bulgaria, Cuba and Russia. One other reason for this is that Ladas have always been admired by working class or lower middle class people, who can only drive ca. 5000 – 10000 kilometers a year. With that much of economic spendings, it will take ca. 100 – 200 years to run million kilometers with a Lada. (Oldest Ladas are 47 years old now.) Because Ladas have never been favoured in commercial use at the rich countries, the fact doesn’t help Lada’s reputation either.
My message is not that all Ladas are great. The fact is that Lada’s production line quality doesn’t match the one Toyota has developed. My point is that Lada’s reputation should be viewed from many different perpectives. The durability of Lada is not only tied to the emotional reasoning used against Ladas or manufacturing quality, but also on social, economical and political situations in the areas Ladas have been used.
So many of the vehicles on Cuba’s deteriorating roads belch out huge volumes of black smoke including the big Russian built trucks.
The Russian bear has an equally black history and it’s neighbours even when not occupied by Russia have invariably found that it cannot be trusted.
Who would voluntarily partner with Russia? With whom has it made a good partner? Oppression of other countries is the history of Russia and the Castro family regime merits it along with North Korea as a partner!
Like so many items found in Cuba innovation and improvements can benefit Russian manufacturers secret development of world changing designs with sustainability and enviromental advances like only Cubans could deliver would be possible.The committees can solve this equation for all interested parties.
As always Russia would make a good partner.
It’s surprising how well those Lada’s have held up in Cuba. Cuban McGuyerism aside, those were not reliable vehicles. We had them being built in Canada for a while too, and they did not last long at all. It’s virtually impossible to find one on the road here today, and if you do find one, it’s probably a Niva 4×4.
Russia has a prominent background in obtaining cheap labour for its products and of using designs produced in capitalist countries. Some might say that this reflects an admiration for capitalism. The famous Lada was produced as a copy of the Fiat with Fiat selling the Russians the plant necessary for production. To its credit, the Ladas supplied to Cuba have lasted well – the youngest now having achieved 25 years on the road. Some were named Muskovich – the showroom in Vienna on Dominikanerbastei, didn’t manage to sell one car in a whole year!
If the Russkies succeed in building a production plant in Cuba – presumably with the customary agreement with the regime to supply and pay the workers – there is some hope that tourists renting from the military owned CubaCar will get a car with some improvement compared with the Chinese Geely – which can at best be described as junk.
There is little point in constructing a plant for production of heavy vehicles as the within country demand is almost zero. Optimists can point to the “potential” of Mariel and potential need for container carrying trucks – but to date, its been all talk and no commercial activity. 53′ long trailers are the norm in the industry – and not many of those can be seen on the autopista.
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Republican Senator Rob Portman told GM chief executive Mary Barra on Monday that the company should bring a new product to the plant and he also urged GM "to at least reallocate some of the production and employees to the Toledo GM plant".
Further plants in White Marsh, Maryland, and Warren, Michigan will be "unallocated". It announced similar fates for three factories in MI and one in OH, and said it would also close two unspecified facilities outside North America.
The moves are calculated to dramatically slash costs and capital expenditures. GM said the cuts will boost automotive free cash flow by US$6 billion by the end of 2020 and result in one-time charges of up to US$3.8 billion in the fourth quarter of this year and first quarter of 2019.
GM is cutting more than 6,300 hourly and salaried workers at its plants and 15 per cent of the salaried workers in North America for a total of more than 14,000.
About 18,000 of its 50,000 salaried employees in North America have been eligible for the buyouts.
"This callous decision by GM to reduce or cease operations in American plants, while opening or increasing production in Mexico and China plants for sales to American consumers, is, in its implementation, profoundly damaging to our American workforce", said Terry Dittes, UAW vice president. GM said the closure affects a total of 2,973 assembly line jobs. It also completes final assembly of the stronger-selling Silverado and Sierra pickup trucks which are shipped from Indiana. But the automaking leader of the future may not be GM or one of its traditional rivals. Under Unifor's four-year contract signed in 2016, GM must give the union a year's notice before closing the plant. "We think it is appropriate to do it at this time while the company is strong and the economy is strong". "Obviously incentives by themselves don't keep a vehicle plant open", said the executive, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter. The company has been making cars there for 65 years, and is still pumping out models such as the Chevrolet Impala.
Most of the factories to be affected by GM's restructuring build cars that will not be sold in the US after next year.More news: Coli Outbreak has Belize concerned about Lettuce
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GM said it was ending Volt production because the vehicle was meant to be a bridge to fully electric cars when it was introduced about a decade ago.
Jerry Dias, head of the Unifor union that represents about 2,500 employees at the plants, said he does accept that the company has planned no autos for the factory beyond December, 2019.
GM's latest move includes the possible closure of seven plants worldwide, as the firm shifts its focuses from away from a stagnant sedan/saloon auto market.
Meanwhile, GM's Barra said Monday the company will be investing in autonomous and electric vehicle technology.
Interested in General Motors?
Oshawa Mayor John Henry said he hopes the news is "just a rumour", and adds that he had not spoken to anyone from GM.
Sales of Cruze, built at Lordstown, fell 27 percent through September 2018.

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Google is ready to do battle with Twitch for the video game streaming crown, with the announcement of its new streaming service YouTube Gaming featuring high FPS streams, dedicated apps, and more.
New release centers flyouts for volume and brightness, Your Phone call updates
windows 11 insider preview
Earlier this week, Amazon announced that it would be buying Twitch.tv for nearly a billion dollars and now the service is being hit with a DDOS attack much like Sony's online service a few days ago.
A new report claims that the upcoming Twitch app update for the Xbox One will stream live gameplay at a resolution of 1280x720 compared to 960x540 for the current PS4 version.
Microsoft will finally add a way for Xbox One gamers to live stream matches from the console via the Twitch.tv app sometime in March, around the time that Titanfall is released.
Microsoft has announced that the Xbox One Twitch.tv app won't allow owners to broadcast gameplay footage from their console to the online service until sometime in the first half of 2014.


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Regional telecom providers, Pacific Internet and Asia Netcom, have announced a merger under the new Pacnet brand.
The combined company, which is based out of Hong Kong, maintains offices across the region. The deal brings together Pacific Internet's range of wholesale and retail IP services, including ADSL broadband and virtual private networks, and Asia Netcom's regional network infrastructure.
Pacific Internet's Australian managing director, Dennis Muscat, said Asia Netcom's history in the large enterprise and government market was synergistic with Pacific Internet's SMB and mid-market customer heritage.
"This will be a positive change - we'll be a bigger company with more in-depth market coverage. And with 170 staff around the country we'll be strong competition for the other telcos in the Australian market," Muscat said. "The Australian market is consolidating and you've got to be more competitive. This is an example where we are strengthened by having complementary businesses."
One of Pacnet's biggest assets is its EAC-C2C cable infrastructure which can carry up to 10.24TB of capacity and is valued at $US4 billion. The company has started upgrading its networks and also flagged plans for a new Trans-Pacific cable.
"Asia Netcom offers lots of transit capacity beyond what we could do in the past and gives us the ability to provide bigger pipes to major customers," Muscat said. "In the last 12 months there's been a big increase in bandwidth usage from all levels of the market including consumers. We can now launch products which allow customers to access and filter more bandwidth and understand how their capacity is being used.
"It also gives us bigger buying power - we hope that by being a key player we can improve relationships with major suppliers in country."
Muscat said Pacific Internet's existing channel partners will also benefit from better support and Pacnet's bigger bandwidth capacity. About 30 per cent of Pacific Internet's Australian business is derived from its 400 channel partners.
"We expect to invest in our channel management structure and programs to enhance that side of the business," he said. "Partners have the ground level relationships with the SMBs we have worked with for the last 6-7 years and we have tried not to compete with them. Asia Netcom has direct enterprise relationships, so there shouldn't be conflict in terms of our channel approach.
"We'll be able to expand the product range to make it more relevant to partners, particularly to those with customers in the larger corporate sector."
As part of the deal, Asia Netcom's local boss, Deborah Homewood, will become Pacnet's managing director for Australia and New Zealand, while Muscat will be given a role overseeing south Asia including ANZ, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia. Further management changes will be announced later this month.


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After a tumultuous year, which began with the ill-advised purchase of Draw Something developer OMGPOP in April 2012, Zynga is looking to get back on its feet. Not only did the company recently open a new source of revenue in the form of real money gambling in the United Kingdom, but has now added a new member to its board that it hopes will bring come credibility back to the company.
Zynga has added John Doerr, General Partner of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers to its board of directors, it was announced Friday. He is joining Zynga's other existing members William "Bing" Gordon, Reid Hoffman, Jeffrey Katzenberg, Stanley J. Meresman, Sunil Paul, Mark Pincus, Ellen F. Siminoff and Owen Van Natta.
KPCB was a big backer of Zynga’s before it went public in December 2011, participating in a Series B funding round worth $25 million back in 2008.
"John has been a supporter of Zynga since our early days, and truly understands our core values and mission," Mark Pincus, CEO and Founder of Zynga, said in a statement. "John has worked with some of the most well-known companies in the world at every stage imaginable and his experience helping teams innovate at scale will be a tremendous asset for our leadership team. I'm personally looking forward to working closer with John, a true pioneer in the consumer internet space, and welcoming him to the board as a trusted advisor through this pivotal, transition year. John inspired us all to pursue creating Internet treasures. He is a true missionary and will deepen and strengthen our DNA."
Doerr, who began his career at Intel, has been with KPCB since 1980, and he has backed such notable companies as Google, Amazon and Intuit. In addition to Zynga, Doerr also currently serves on the boards of Coursera, Flipboard and Google.
"In just five years Zynga has connected hundreds of millions of people to their friends for fun. What's exciting is this is still day zero — just the beginning -- of social gaming's potential," Doerr said in a statement. "With its deep talent and multi-platform technology, and millions of happy customers, Zynga will engage more of us wherever we play — whether on the web, phones or tablets. I'm excited about working with Mark and the Zynga team in its next chapters of growth."
After a year that saw many key people fleeing the company, a big stock drop, studio closures and the severing of its relationship with Facebook, Zynga has to be hoping that adding a high profile figure like Doerr will help give investors the impression that the company is stabilizing. Obviously his addition will not solve all of the company’s problems, but it could be a step toward finally turning the ship around.
Zynga’s stock ended up 2.9% on Friday to $3.55 a share. Shares are down 65% since Zynga’s IPO.
(Image source: http://www.politico.com)


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Authorities seized 292 domain names for illegally selling counterfeit merchandise online, according to an Europol news release.
Europol collaborated with 25 law enforcement agencies and partners from 19 countries to closethe sites in a two-year operation dubbed ‘In Our Sites (IOS) Transatlantic V.
Most sold counterfeit products including traditional luxury goods as well as sportswear, electronics, pharmaceuticals and pirated goods such as movies and music.
“The infringements of intellectual property rights is a growing problem in our economies and for millions of producers and consumers,â€ says Rob Wainwright, Director of Europol. â€œEuropol is committed to working with its international partners to crack down on the criminal networks responsible for this illegal activity.”
Since the operation began – in November of 2012 â€“ 1,829 domains have been seized.
â€œCounterfeit products being sold online not only rip off the consumer and provide shoddy products, but also put their personal financial information at risk,â€ Europol added.
Europolâ€™s actions are part of the EU Action Plan, announced in July 2014 that focuses on addressing infringements of intellectual property rights in the EU.


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The FDA is reopening the public comment period on a proposed rule that would allow the use of ultrafiltered milk in certain cheeses and cheese products. The move will give consumers and others an additional 120 days to file comments.
Although the current comment period is set to end on March 30, the new comment period may not begin the following day. The new comment period will begin on the day the FDA’s notice is published in the Federal Register.
The public, industry and all other entities will have 120 days from the publication of the notice to file their comments with the Food and Drug Administration.
“The agency is reopening the comment period to solicit any new information on current industry practices regarding the use of fluid UF (ultrafiltered fluid) milk and fluid UF nonfat milk and on labeling of UF fluid milk and fluid UF nonfat milk when used as ingredients,” according to an FDA announcement March 26.
“The proposed rule, which was issued on Oct. 19, 2005, would amend the definitions of ‘milk’ and ‘nonfat milk’ for cheeses and related cheese products in FDA’s regulations on food standards — often referred to as standards of identity.”
Ultrafiltered milk, according to the FDA, is raw or pasteurized milk that is mechanically filtered to concentrate proteins. In the process, some of the lactose, minerals and water-soluble vitamins are lost, along with water. The resulting protein concentrate is easier and more cost effective to ship. This same process applies to UF nonfat milk, except that raw or pasteurized nonfat milk is used.
The reason behind the new comment period is to give the FDA time to solicit any new information on current industry practices regarding the use of fluid UF milk and fluid UF nonfat milk and on labeling of UF fluid milk and fluid UF nonfat milk when used as ingredients.
“In 2017, FDA issued guidance to industry indicating that it is exercising enforcement discretion regarding the use and ingredient labeling of fluid UF milk and fluid UF nonfat milk in the manufacture of standardized cheeses and related cheese products while it considers rulemaking,” according to the FDA’s announcement.
“FDA has seen the marketplace evolve and believes it is appropriate to give interested persons another opportunity to comment on the issues raised by the rulemaking.”
Written comments should be sent to:
Dockets Management Staff (HFA-305)
Food and Drug Administration
5630 Fishers Lane, Room 1061,
Rockville, MD 20852
(To sign up for a free subscription to Food Safety News, click here.)


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Pride Cymru will have its first ever city-centre festival hub in Cardiff this summer, it was announced on Monday.
The hub will be set up at a pop-up shop in the Morgan Arcade in the The Morgan Quarter and, according to organisers, it will be the central information point for visitors attending the Pride events in the city.
Cath Harrison, from Pride Cymru, said: “We’re delighted to launch the Pride Festival Hub in the Morgan Quarter this year.
“Having support from local business is important to the success of the event and this is a huge step in improving whole city engagement.”
Opening at 9am on August 6, the hub will provide a central location for people to to purchase tickets to Party in the Parc, where Years and Years are performing on August 12 in Coopers Field.
The hub, which will sit alongside various independent retailers, delis and cafes, will also sell tickets to Pride Cymru.
B*Witched, Jordan Gray and Danny Beard
That event will be graced by B*Witched, Heather Peace, DJ Lisa Lashes, Eurovision’s Joe and Jake, and Britain’s Got Talent semi-finalist Danny Beard, with the Voice’s Jordan Gray headlining the main stage for the event on August 13.
After August 6 the hub will remain open throughout the week between 10am and 4pm and all day on August 13.
Organisers think the location is perfect for visitor access as the Pride parade route, which will start at 11am on August 13 and travel down the Hayes, returning along St Mary Street, surrounds the Morgan Quarter on both sides.
Rory Fleming, the centre manager, said: “We’re excited to be part of the Pride Cymru events this year and can’t wait to see what’s in store for our pop-up shop.
“Not only will the hub be an information point, local artist and Pride Cymru youth ambassador Nathan Wyburn will be exhibiting a bespoke collection of his artwork and will also perform some live art pieces throughout the week.
“The Pride Festival Hub is easy to find for visitors and great for locals to come and find out more about the event and buy tickets.”
To buy tickets visit www.pridecymru.co.uk/tickets/


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This month, we talked to Carmen from / khar ‘ mun /, who has been with Cube Self Storage since early this year. / khar
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“How can we help?” That is the first thing Asok Nair, the Managing Director of Nurses at Home, asked when I called about in-home nursing
Matthew and Vincent’s friendship started when they met for the first time in college about 15 years ago through several classes together. Despite having different
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Fashion designer turned entrepreneur Elaine Hong shares how she founded ENYA, a pioneering digital period care company. Before ENYA, Elaine Hong studied fashion, and worked
It all started with a desire to build an eco-friendly business. In 2019, Jean Christophe Baronnet’s life went through significant changes. He got married, moved
We’re extending our FREE moving service. Now you can stay safe at home, while we send our professional movers to collect your items and move them into our facility at no extra cost.


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The Rocky Mountain Cigar Festival is located in the heart of the Colorado Rocky Mountain Front Range. The 2020 RMCF will be returning to the world-renowned Omni Interlocken Resort in Broomfield Colorado on August 29th! The festival attracts consumers that are geared toward premium high-end product – including premium cigars, hand-crafted brews, unique wine and spirits, excellent food and everything encompassing the finer things in life.
“The RMCF is still set to take place on Saturday, August 29th 2020 at the Omni Interlocken in Broomfield, Colorado. We are aware of the current situation with the COVID-19 Coronavirus locally and globally and will continue to monitor it in the coming months before the festival. With over 5 months until our event we are unsure of what the landscape will be regarding the COVID-19 Coronavirus on the day of the festival.”
“If the Rocky Mountain Cigar Festival is cancelled, all ticket sales will be refunded. Refunds will only occur if the festival is cancelled. “
Date: August 29, 2020
Time: 12pm – 6pm
Location: Omni Interlocken Resort
500 Interlocken Boulevard
Broomfield, CO 80021


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Japanese motor industry giant Toyota saw its profits fall by 21% for the last three months of 2021 as the global chip shortage hit production.
The company said that its third quarter operating profit came in at 784.4bn yen (£5bn; $6.8bn).
The world’s best-selling carmaker also cut its annual production target by 500,000 vehicles to 8.5 million.
It comes as manufacturers around the world are struggling to find enough microprocessors for their products.
“We sincerely apologise for the inconvenience caused to our customers due to the series of production volume reductions since last summer. We are working to restore full production as soon as possible,” Toyota said in a statement.
In September, Toyota slashed its worldwide vehicle production by 40% because of the chip shortage.
The company has also announced a number production suspensions in recent months due to a lack of parts as the pandemic hits supply chains.
Rival carmakers including Volkswagen, General Motors, Ford, Nissan, Daimler, BMW and Renault have also cut vehicle production in recent months.
“The chip shortage will still weigh on Toyota in 2022 but they’ll likely manage any challenges better than their peers,” Tu Le, managing director of Sino Auto Insights told the BBC.
“I think they actually see opportunity in crisis because of their confidence in managing the shortages better than GM and VW. So relatively, I see Toyota having a strong year relative to their competitors,” he added.
Last month, Toyota cemented its position as the world’s biggest car seller as it widened its lead over nearest rival VW.
Separately, in January Toyota warned customers in Japan that they would have to wait for up to four years to take delivery of its new Land Cruiser SUV.
The firm said the delay was not related to the global chip shortage or the supply chain crisis.
However, it refused to comment on the reasons behind the long delivery time.
Launched in 1951, the Land Cruiser is Toyota’s longest-selling vehicle, with a total of 10.6 million sold as of August last year.


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How is the opportunity after Covid-19 and lockdown situation?
As a result of the uncertain Covid-19 pandemic which affects the current economic situation and high fluctuation index market, how is the investment opportunity for the rest of 2020? Especially for all investors, let’s find out from the insider by Mr.Sukit Udomsirikul, Managing Director Head of Research, Siam Commercial Securities Company Limited (SCBS), Kampon Adireksombat, Ph.D., Senior Head Of Economic And Financial Market Research (SCB) and Mr.Sornchai Sunetta, Managing Director, Chief Investment Officer, Siam Commercial Securities Company Limited (SCBS).
What will the economic recovery shape be after COVID-19? Is it a V-shape, U-shape, or L-shape?
From the declining Covid-19 infections and Thailand is now starting easing lockdown. The market is already recovering from its recession from the downturn of the 2nd quarter. From now on, what will the economy look like? Will it be recovered soon? Dr.Kampon told us that there are 3 patterns of the economic recovery shape which are V-shape, U-shape, and L-shape. We have to see the rebound of economic growth compared to the loss at the crisis. For example, if +3% is a normal rate, -3% at the crisis, then recover +5% and +3% in the next year. This is called V-shape which means the return must be greater than the loss in the crisis period. If +3% is normal rate, -5% at the crisis, then +3% recovery and +3% in the next year. This is called a U-shape. And the last one, L-shape. +3% for normal, -7% for crisis, +2.8% rebound and +2.8% the next year.
In 2020, the World economy is already in a downturn period. The IMF has predicted that the economic recession will be -3% which is nearly the same as the Great Depression era. However, it will be back around +5.8% by 2021 under 3 conditions which are 1.) Covid-19 infection spreading is controlled by the first half of 2020. 2.) Most countries must reopen theirs from the second quarter to continue their economic activities and 3.) The effective Financial economy encouragement. IMF said that the rebound will be like U-shape which gradually increases, depends on those 3 factors and consumer's and manufacturer's behavior.
How do government measures alleviate the effects of the COVID-19 on the Thai Economy?
During the virus spreading, many governments have announced financial measures that would help enhance the private sectors and make the world economy become 1) High debt from fundraising bonds announcement and causing a budget deficit, 2) Low growth economy, 3) Low globalization or became more individual state policy. However, this has happened since the trade war and how do these situations affect Thai businesses?
From this point, Dr.Kampon told us that the economy will regrow but it takes time because the Covid-19 pandemic is different from other crises. The government needs to control the spreading by commanding every private sector for a sudden stop which truly affects the whole economy and world market. This reduces liquidity and makes people panic. The world bank whether FED, ECB, and BOI need to announce a liquidity enhancement policy such as interest rate reduction and unlimited quantitative easing to calm the market down by injecting a quick and large amount of money as same as the finance ministry who support the economy and remedy for salaried employees and entrepreneurs by the monetary policy that has never been announced before.
The BOT and government’s policy that helps alleviate the economy to reopen according to the business-necessary levels. Since the beginning of Covid-19 spreading, there is uncertainty and low investment and then the spreading is getting worse, the tourism has stopped, the lockdown has begun, consumption and production have also stopped. Finally, the fall in numbers of infected people in Thailand and businesses have gradually recovered. The first priority business is consumable products which are necessary things, but it has been transformed into an online platform. This is the beginning of other products for export products. Therefore, the export-business to China will recover first.
When convenient transportation operates the tourism will be back, starting from domestic than international. If there is a cure or vaccines or a certainty of no second wave, then international investment will return.
Seeing through the Thai stock market from now on
From Mr.Sukit's perspective, the Thai stock market has already passed the worst point compared to the March period in which the circuit breaker occurred. At that time, the severity of investors' fear in the Covid-19 pandemic and the contraction in the economy made them want to hold cash which had led to a 950-points downturn of market share. However, support from the government and banks across the world in the lockdown period could recover the index market by gaining trust and reduce the pressure from investors. Also, as investors believe that the index price is a bit low, so the purchasing power was increasing. These are the reasons why the market has swiftly recovered. Moreover, the hope of lockdown easing is another push that helps the market reach 1,200-points.
Although the second-quarter profit tends to be not that good, the stock price is still growing. The questions are in the price too high compared to the past? Or is the worse still going? Mr.Sukit told us that we need to separate into 2 issues which are 1) Do not think about this year's profit but let’s think about next year’s. Although the first quarter of this year is a half loss and will be worse in this second quarter, it is normal that the stock market will decrease before the actual economy happens and also before the turnover comes out. For example, if you believe that the result will decline in the second quarter then the market will be in a downturn since the first quarter and will rebound in the rest half year.
For the question that is the stock price too high? Mr.Sukit told us that comparing the profit of this year to the current price, then yes, it is too expensive. If we compare to the next 12-months profit, it is still a yes that the price is high. Nonetheless, this is what the market told us today that investors believe that the turnover will be good in the next 12-months as V-shape. This is a different opinion from Mr.Sukit’s forecast that he thinks it will be a U-shape because the market will fluctuate after reaching 1,300-points.
Notwithstanding, the market-pushing factors are 1) Investors trust and the government policy, 2) The recovery expectation 3) The actual business profit which is too soon to believe because of the Covid-19 situation, and it is just the beginning of the lockdown easing.
What is the result of high public debt?
Dr.Kampon told us that because almost every country has increased an accelerated fund injection that has never been before to remedial the effect of an insufficient income in the lockdown period. Then the government needs to issue bonds that result in higher public debt and announcing the quantitative easing program. The effects of this policy are increasing the financial liquidity and low-interest rate for a while because of a high loan of the government fund. If the interest gets higher, the government also needs to pay high interest. So, if the interest rate is low, the government does not need to pay a high rate and will encourage a growth investment. So, to judge that the public debt is high or not, we have to compare it with the GDP. If the GDP can grow fast, the public debt ratio will be low respectively.
From this point, Mr.Sukit told us that a higher debt will affect the buyer and consumer power. The higher the public debt, the lower the investment from the government however, the investment from the private sector will be placed instead. Also, a low-interest rate situation can be the undertaking strategy indicator which means that the defensive indexes are more interesting which include the consumable products and services businesses and the dividend yield indexes which are the property and fundamental businesses that surely give returns in this low-interest rate and uncertainty circumstances.
Is there any QE Tapering after the Covid-19 pandemic?
Because there is too much liquidity in the system, and after the Covid-19 pandemic, the economy will certainly be better next year, thus will the government stop or reduce the financial injection or as known as QE Tapering or not? Will this point make a contraction happen? From Mr.Sukit's point of view, the pulling-money-back can be separated into 2-dimensions which are as follows, 1) A gradual change in the business side and 2) the financial side which the QE Tapering is possibly happening as same as in 2013. The money injection from 2009 - 2013 gave benefit to the emerging marketing countries, Thai market was one of them as we received around 200 billion Baht so after the QE Tapering in 2013, the Thai market dramatically declined.
Mr.Sukit said that this injection round has not yet got into the new emerging market. Since the beginning of this year, the Thai market has had a total international net sale of around 170 billion Baht and in the bond market around 100 billion Baht. Based on this data, if the QE Tapering happens, it may not affect the Thai market that much. For the question: where will the money go? For those developed countries such as Japan, or the USA, it will be in the bond market because the central bank gives importance to the rollover of the private sector as there was a panic sell in the bond market in the previous month. In the summary, there will be the QE Tapering but not this year but maybe in the next year for the developed countries and in the bond market after the better situation of the Covid-19 pandemic.
What are economic lessons from COVID-19
Mr.Sorachai said that most of the government's economic policy in many countries emphasizes increasing the GDP number but in this Covid-19 pandemic, they have to pay attention to the deficiency of consumable and medical products. They are keen on these products greater than economic growth. Dr.Kampon told us that in the past 20 - 30 years, the international trade policy has been given priority to the efficiency and the highest profit which contributes to the Global Supply Chain that changes to be more outsource the products and services to get a lower cost. This became the Globalization. However, the western countries, especially the USA during the Trump era, there is a question that should still be this Globalization or not if it affects their local industry and subsistence? Since the prior of the Covid-19 pandemic, there already was a trade war in the High-technology business. Although there is the highest production technology, it is an international outsource production, so the supply chain was stuck. In this emergency, the sanitize mask is scarce and also every medical device.
Because of the trade war and Covid-19 pandemic, turning to full globalization status may be difficult and it tends to be more regionalization and nearly regional supply chain. Also, the government may restrict some critical supplies for only their local people in case of any emergency such as the sanitize mask and medical devices. However, the most important thing for business is also to emphasize on the cost management to get the highest possible profit.
2020 Final investment strategy
From the forecast of this year SET net profit which may decrease 30% but it is still higher than the net profit in the 1997 or Tom Yum Koong crisis and the 2008 or the Hamburger crisis which means that the registered companies in the securities market fundamentals are better than those 2 crises. SCBS expects that this year's net profit will be 21% declined from 672,953 million Baht in 2019 to be 534,565 million Baht and will be back as 668,506 million Baht in 2021 which is the U-shape recovery.
Mr.Sukit told us that to consider which the interesting business after the Covid-19 pandemic will be can depend on 2 things. The first one is the low-impact businesses which are the essential public utility such as electricity, food. The second group is the moderate-impact but fast-recovery such as retail, medical, domestic transportation, and communication businesses. The last one is a high-risk businesses such as airlines, tourism, house, and cars. In this 2020 - 2021 period, the SET range will be around 1450 - 1150 points. The highlight indexes are BDMS, CPF, BEM, BTS, and MINT which are the leader in their category with a low price but higher return than the market average.
From this unpredictable Covid-19 pandemic, we should wait and see how fast the economy will return which will surely affect the investment opportunities in the market. Click LIVE SCBTV Covid-19 pandemic opportunities EP.2: Where are the investment opportunities after the lockdown?
Reference: LIVE SCBTV Covid-19 pandemic opportunities EP.2: Where are the investment opportunities after the lockdown? broadcasted on Facebook SCB Thailand on May 15, 2020


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Nyko reveals white Modular Charge Station for PlayStation 4
During E3 this year, Nyko, a leading gaming accessories manufacturer, revealed their patent-pending Modular line of products. Today they were happy to announce the newest addition to that line of products, a special, white edition of their patent-pending Modular Charge Station.
The Modular Charge Station is completely wireless and offers a drop-and-go charging dock for your controllers that attaches to the top of your PlayStation 4. This version of the accessory will be a GameStop-exclusive item, retailing for $24.99, and those interested can see it in action at this year’s GameStop EXPO on September 10, 2014.
Chris Arbogast, Nyko’s director of marketing, explained, “When Sony announced the Glacier White PlayStation 4 earlier this year, we saw a chance to create a product that would best complement its design. GameStop is an integral partner, so we wanted to offer its customers an accessory that adds to their console’s performance and aesthetics.”
The features of the NMCS are as follows:


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Students win over Rs. 1 lakh in app contest
Datawind, the developers of Aakash tablet computer, announced the results of the software app innovation ‘AapKiApp’ contest for their Ubislate series of tablets. It had invited students in India to submit their innovative ‘software applications’ for collaboration. The five winners are: Krishi Ville, an app Indian farmers which will provide the latest agricultural market data. Created by Manav Singhal and Nishant Rai from Meerut, it will pull live data from the Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK) database. Axon, a quiz application for students with questions on maths, logic and verbal reasoning at different difficulty levels, has been created by Saurabh, Sujay Anjankar, Tanya Tiwari and Umesh Chandani from Nagpur. Release my Food is an app for children to calculate their calories and nutrients based on their daily food intake. It has been created by Kedar Radhakrishnan, Avin Agarwal, Abijeet Waghmare and Najmul Islam from Bangalore. Learn English is an app for kids to learn a new language. My Jobs, an app created by Hemen Parekh of Mumbai, uses the database of vocational jobs in India and lets people search and apply for them online. The applications will get an award of Rs. 1 lakh each, apart from a share of the advertising revenue.


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* Q2 adj EPS $1.80 vs est $1.46
* Q2 rev $1.12 bln vs est $1.01 bln
* Co may announce shr buyback and div rise
* Says cancellation rates down, retention at record high
(Recasts; adds conference call details, analyst comments)
By Nivedita Bhattacharjee
BANGALORE, May 6 Scotts Miracle-Gro Co (SMG.N)
posted better-than-expected quarterly results, and the lawn and
garden products maker said it may go for a share buyback and a
rise in dividend later this year.
The stock's trading volumes jumped to almost double its
10-day average volume Thursday noon on the New York Stock
"Our goal was to get the leverage ratio (on the balance
sheet) below 2.5 times at the end of the year. We're now
tracking ahead of that schedule," Jim Hagedorn, chief executive
officer, said on a call with analysts.
A company executive said, "We currently have a bias for
both share repurchase program and increased dividend."
BGB Securities analyst Sam Yake said with a strong business
in place, and with Scotts repaying debt to its preferred
levels, this is one of the best ways to use the extra cash.
Scotts Miracle-Gro benefitted during the recession as more
people took to stay-at-home hobbies like gardening, and
currently, the company is gaining from a peak lawn season.
S&P Equity analyst Stewart Scharf upgraded the stock to
"buy" from "hold," saying he expects the company's new products
to boost unit volume, while gross margins should benefit from
Scotts has been working on its marketing and supply chains
among other things, to ensure customer retention and growth.
The company said cancellations are down from last year and
customer retention rates are at a record high.
"April alone typically accounts for about 20 percent of
yearly point of sales, with May right behind it," said
Jefferies & Co analyst Douglas Lane, agreeing that the 2010
garden season has started out well for the company.
In the latest second quarter, the company's global consumer
segment, its biggest, posted a 21 percent rise in sales,
driving a 19 percent rise in overall sales.
Scotts, whose products include grass seeds, fertilizers,
herbicides, potting soils and related tools, also forecast
full-year earnings of at least $3.25 per share, topping
Analysts on average were looking at earnings of $3.15 a
share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
The company, which sells its products through retailers
like Home Depot (HD.N) and Lowe's (LOW.N) among others, also
said the outlook assumes sales growth of 7 to 8 percent for the
For the reported quarter, Scotts earned $118.5 million, or
$1.76 per share in the reported quarter, compared with $77.5
million, or $1.18 per share, a year ago.
Excluding items, it earned $1.80 per share, while analysts
were expecting a profit of $1.46 a share.
Revenue at the Marysville, Ohio-based company jumped 19
percent to $1.12 billion, topping estimates of $1.01 billion.
Scotts Miracle shares pared initial gains and were down 35
cents at $47.19 in midday trade on the New York Stock
(Reporting by Nivedita Bhattacharjee; Editing by Unnikrishnan
Nair and Gopakumar Warrier)


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A clothing store in Beverly Hills, Calif., has banned face masks due to difficulties identifying robbery suspects.
Kitson’s employees said they noticed an increasing number of people coming to the store looking to shoplift while wearing face masks, KTLA reported. Some people also wore masks to the store while harassing or assaulting others.
“The mask mandate may have started as a health precaution, but we believe it is now being used by some people for nefarious purposes. To that end, we enacted our own mandate of sorts,” Fraser Ross said in a statement, according to KTTV in Los Angeles. “We do not allow masks to be worn in the store during normal business hours.”
Mr Fraser added that people who want to wear masks can book an appointment for a “personal shopping experience” or can shop online.
The masks hampered the store’s ability to describe suspects when reporting crimes to police.
“We certainly have security guards in all our stores and we have installed high security cameras, but [the mask] covers their face, the most important part of their face that we have to use when we show the font,” sales associate Santos Hemenway told KTTV.
Mr Hemenway said a series of robberies at other nearby shops had forced some to close.


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(11-02-2016) Acesur will be present at Gulfood (Dubai) between 21st and 25st February, this being the most important agricultural event in the Middle East and one of the largest in the world. We will be displaying our main brands at stand SG5, namely La Española, Coosur, Al Amir Guillén, along with other established brands we have in the region, such as Al Amir and Altivo.
La Española will also display its latest products, namely its new sprays for exportation, rice oil and extra virgin olive oil for children, which has with a less intense flavour, ideal for children just beginning to try olive oil. Furthermore, our brand Emoc will have its own area in the Pavilion of Syria to display Afrinola's products
The Acesur-De Prado olives will also play an important role as these are becoming more important in international markets.
At Gulfood there will also be the biggest display of products and information related to the Halal market, with more than 800 certified providers and two days of conferences.


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It sounds like something from 80s cult classic Weird Science but next month Esquire readers and Barnes and Nobel customers will be able to ‘interact’ with a life size virtual supermodel. US lad’s mag Esquire will be giving its readers an “active and engaging experience” with its latest cover girl, Brooklyn Decker, through their iPhones. From February Barnes and Noble customers will be able interact and take pictures alongside Decker using a custom built Esquire iPhone app.
Apple and News Corporation have delayed the launch of The Daily, an iPad-only publication, that was reported to be unveiled later this month on January 19th. Now, it is believed that this launch date will be delayed, but only by “weeks, not months".


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On Thursday, I noted that the Friday before Christmas is usually when companies drop the most unflattering news. Oh boy have they. We’ve got a stocking full of diesel emissions cheats, failed ventures, and stop-sales. Yo-Ho-Ho and a bottle of rum! Wait, that’s pirates.
Apologies for the lack of TMD yesterday, but it’s been quite the month at The Autopian, and the final straw was David getting a pretty terrible case of COVID on the days he was supposed to cover for other people traveling. He’s recovering, but we decided it was probably better to take it easy as a staff.
Thanks to everyone this month for pulling together to put out a lot of great stories and thank y’all for reading. We’re going to be back up to full speed in January and have a lot of big plans, plus some big stories the last week of the month (look at one from Jason on Christmas Day).
Anywhere, here are all the people getting coal in their stockings.
Cummins Hit With $1.675 Billion Fine Over Cheat Devices
Let’s start with the biggest one. Diesel engine maker Cummins, recently on this site for some cool oil, has agreed to pay an almost $1.7 billion Clean Air Act fine for installing emissions-cheating devices on engines used by Ram for its 2500 and 3500 heavy-duty pickup trucks. That’s billion with a B.
This is the biggest Clean Air Act fine ever. Here’s what Attorney General Merrick Garland had to say about it:
“Today, the Justice Department reached an initial agreement with Cummins Inc. to settle claims that, over the past decade, the company unlawfully altered hundreds of thousands of engines to bypass emissions tests in violation of the Clean Air Act. As part of the agreement, the Justice Department will require Cummins to pay $1.675 billion, the largest civil penalty we have ever secured under the Clean Air Act, and the second largest environmental penalty ever secured.
“The types of devices we allege that Cummins installed in its engines to cheat federal environmental laws have a significant and harmful impact on people’s health and safety. For example, in this case, our preliminary estimates suggest that defeat devices on some Cummins engines have caused them to produce thousands of tons of excess emissions of nitrogen oxides. The cascading effect of those pollutants can, over long-term exposure, lead to breathing issues like asthma and respiratory infections.
The largest environmental policy fine was the approximately $30 billion in fines and other costs related to Volkswagen’s Dieselgate, I believe.
Cummins, for their part, admitted to nothing:
Cummins Inc (NYSE: CMI) has reached an agreement in principle to resolve U.S. regulatory claims regarding its emissions certification and compliance process for certain engines primarily used in pick-up truck applications. The company has cooperated fully with the relevant regulators, already addressed many of the issues involved, and looks forward to obtaining certainty as it concludes this lengthy matter. Cummins conducted an extensive internal review and worked collaboratively with the regulators for more than four years. The company has seen no evidence that anyone acted in bad faith and does not admit wrongdoing.
What’s interesting about both Dieselgate and this Cummins issue is that it’s not clear whether either would have been noticed without the work of non-federal entities. The world learned about Volkswagen’s shenanigans via the work of scientists at West Virginia University and this Cummins settlement is ultimately the result of a California Air Resources Board investigation.
All these companies bear responsibility for their actions, but it’s worth asking how everyone thought they could get away with it for so long (and did).
GM Issues A Stop Sale On Chevy Blazer EVs
I’m excited to drive the electric Chevy Blazer EV because it looks like a compelling product and it even won the MotorTrend SUV Of The Year. The rollout, though, has been consistent with other Ultium products, which is to say… not great.
Now the inevitable has happened, per Automotive News:
Chevrolet on Friday issued a stop-sale on the 2024 Blazer EV to fix a software quality problem.
The issue is not safety-related and affects “a limited number” of the electric midsize crossovers, Chevy said, without giving a specific quantity. The stop-sale covers vehicles in transit and on dealership lots.
Chevy said engineers are working on a fix for the software issues, which include sporadic problems with screens inside the vehicle and, rarely, during charging attempts at some public DC fast chargers.
It’s interesting that this isn’t an over-the-air update, but GM has also had issues with those on their EV platforms.
Hyperloop One Is Dead
Remember that brief period of time when people thought hyperloops would be the future of transportation? That’s probably over, as Hyperloop One (formerly Virgin Hyperloop) is dead and selling off assets according to Bloomberg.
I like this wrap-up from The Verge:
During the pandemic, nearly all of the top executives and founders left Hyperloop One, which also shed the Virgin from its name after the company decided to eschew passenger trips in favor of cargo.
Today, no full-scale hyperloops exist anywhere in the world. Musk’s test tunnel in California is gone.
Tesla Recalls 120,000+ Cars For Doors That Might Unlock In Crashes
Tesla, which has already been getting hit pretty hard on safety-related claims, has just issued another recall, this time for doors that might unlatch in crashes.
Tesla said in its filing on Friday with NHTSA that earlier this month it saw a cabin door unlatch after impact on the non-struck side during a routine crash test.
The test vehicle was operating without the lockout functionality, which Tesla discovered was inadvertently excluded from the software updates it began issuing starting in late 2021.
The recall impacted Model S and Model X vehicles and was fixed using an over-the-air update.
What I Listened To While Writing This TMD
The kids running around the house playing.
The Big Question
What else did I miss? I might update this post.


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An investigation into whether Google has been abusing its dominance of internet search to stifle competition in India is moving into its next phase.
The preliminary findings of the three-year-old probe have been submitted to the Competition Commission of India and to Google.
The inquiry revolved around complaints filed by several websites contending that Google has been unfairly highlighting its own services in its influential search results at the expense of its rivals.
The allegations are similar to other accusations of illegal self-promotion in the U.S., Europe and other parts of the world.
Google has until Sept. 10 to respond to the preliminary findings in India, although that deadline could be extended.
Google says it’s confident it will be cleared of wrongdoing.


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AutoGuide News Blog
The AutoGuide News Blog is your source for breaking stories from the auto industry. Delivering news immediately, the AutoGuide Blog is constantly updated with the latest information, photos and video from manufacturers, auto shows, the aftermarket and professional racing.
This newest teaser shows us a little of the headlight and grille design, but in the same fashion as the first teaser is very quick and leaves us wanting so much more. From what we have seen in all of these teasers and photo’s, the Altima looks like it is going to be quite the good looking car, adding some much needed curves and styling flair to make it stand out a little.
Watch the teaser video below.
The Altima is Nissan’s best-selling sedan, and will be getting an all-new design for the 2013 model year. Set to debut at this year’s New York International Auto Show, the Japanese autoaker has decided to release a very quick teaser on the new Altima to whet our appetite.
And by teaser, we mean a real teaser. Don’t even try to blink through the video as you’ll miss every little detail that Nissan has released on the Altima. Shot in an aerial view, it offers a glimpse into the new Altima design, revealing a low, wide stance and sculpted profile. But if this teaser just leaves you wanting for more, check out the accidental leak we saw a couple of days ago.
Watch the teaser video below:
A new continuously-variable transmission, a supercharged 2.5L four-cylinder engine and an front-drive hybrid system should all arrive on the new Nissan Altima for 2013, helping Nissan stay competitive in an increasingly tough segment.
The hybrid drivetrain will be similar to that used on the Infiniti M Hybrid, but adapted for front-wheel drive vehicles. The new hybrid system will work in concert with the new CVT gearbox, which is expected to bring a 10 percent fuel economy boost to any vehicle, regardless of whether it’s equipped with a hybrid system or not.
Finally, Nissan’s venerable 2.5L 4-cylinder engine will get a supercharger, though power figures were not released.
[Source: Automotive News]
Nissan has issued out a recall on approximately 20,000 Altima sedans for a front suspension bolt that may not have been properly tightened during assembly of the vehicle. The bolt in question is a traverse link bolt and if not properly tightened can cause a rattling noise or vibration once its loose. In the unlikely scenario that the bolt comes out completely, the driver can experience difficulty controlling the car.
Owners will begin to be notified starting immediately and dealers are currently checking the bolts on vehicles prior to selling them. The recalled vehicles were assembled at Nissan’s Canton, Mississippi assembly plant.
The Japanese earthquake disaster and the resulting supply disruption mixed up the Top 10 best-selling vehicles in June, allowing the Chevrolet Cruze compact to top the chart in the US, a spot usually reserved for the Toyota Camry.
The Camry did make the Top 10 and was the only Japanese vehicle to do so but as number eight, with sales down 27.7 percent from last June. Toyota has regained strength and production is almost back to normal so expect the Camry to move back up. Honda also took a tumble and fell to 15th place with the Civic, down 34 percent compared to this time last year. The Altima was Nissan’s top seller coming in at 11th place with sales up 22.7 percent.
Coming in first place was Ford’s F-series which improved over last year by 6.7 percent. Second place was awarded to the Chevrolet Silverado which improved by 5.1% over last year.
[Source: USA Today]
The Altima, Sentra, and Titan are getting long in the tooth, and even the Maxima and Murano. Those will get replaced with all new cars before 2014. Infiniti will get a new three-row luxury crossover, tenatively called the JX, and a front-wheel-drive hatchback to fight the Audi A3 and BMW 1-Series compacts. The NV200, now the official taxicab of New York City, will soon be available to Cash Cab enthusiasts. The popular G37 and G25 will get replaced, possibly without their manual transmissions, and an electric vehicle based on the Leaf will allow luxury drivers to assuage their financial guilt.
If you counted only 10 cars in the preceding paragraph, it shows that you’ve been paying attention (thank you!), and you would be right—there are still two surprises Nissan is holding from us. One is the return of the flagship Infiniti, for those lamenting the death of the unloved Q45. And one could be a mystery vehicle for Nissan that could be as wacky as the Murano CrossCabriolet—could it be a small sports car like the Urge concept? After all, the 240SX deserves to make a comeback.
[Source: Car And Driver]
Nissan is reportedly developing a new front-wheel hybrid drive system for the next generation Altima Hybrid that may be released as early as next year.
The system will be based on the 2012 Infiniti M Hybrid which utilized a rear-wheel drive hybrid drivetrain. The Altima will use lithium ion batteries, one motor, a two-clutch system with a four-cylinder engine and a continuously variable transmission.
According to a Nissan insider, the front-wheel hybrid drive system was chosen as the most effective way to increase mileage in larger D-segment vehicles and above. As Nissan discontinues the existing Altima Hybrid at the end of the 2011 model year, the company is looking to significantly improve the hybrid system as the competition becomes more fierce in the hybrid segment.
[Source: Automotive News]
Nissan has released full details on its 2012 Altima lineup with the Altima Hybrid notably absent. The Altima Hybrid officially launched in 2007 and featured Nissan’s first gas-electric engine, thanks to technology licensed from Toyota. It was able to achieve 33 mpg (7.1 L/100 km), which is still a respectable number. However, the Altima was only sold in a handful of states during its tenure and never quite caught on.
Nissan has planned to continue selling the Altima Hybrid inventory while they are still being produced. However, if you were thinking of buying one, you may want to hit the dealership sooner than later!
An all-new Altima is expected for 2013, and if the Ellure Concept is any indication, a hybrid version will return.
[Source: Kicking Tires]
For the Nissan Altima, NHTSA is responding to 20 complaints in regards to a possible brake issue though none of the complaints have resulted in crashes or injuries. As for the Jeep Wrangler, NHTSA has received 29 complaints (again, no injuries) in regards to the front driver’s air bag.
The Altima’s complaints consist of the brake master cylinder springing an internal leak which can cause the warning light to turn on. Those who ignore the light can eventually lose braking power.
The Jeep Wrangler is being investigated for issues where the front driver’s air bag can fail to deploy due to a broken electrical circuit. Of the 29 complaints, NHTSA has contacted 14 of those owners and six of them were right-hand-drive models, typically used by postal carriers.
[Source: Associated Press]
For the first time in its life, the Nissan Altima has outsold both the Toyota Camry and Honda Accord, taking the title of America’s Best Selling Sedan.
Altima sales were up by 27 percent compared to last year, helping Nissan achieve a record month in sales. Currently, Nissan is offering a number of incentives, including 0 percent financing for 60 months, as a means of helping move Altimas, and previous incentives surely contributed to the car’s success.
Fleet sales weren’t included in the sales breakdown, so we can’t be sure how many made it into consumers hands rather than rental car fleets. Even though the Altima is top dog for now, the spread between the Altima and the third place Camry is less than 1,000 units, so the likelihood of things changing by year’s end is quite strong.
If you’ve ever taken an auto shop class, you’ll remember the shop cars as being anything but desirable. K-Cars, T-Body GM’s and Ford Panthers involved drug related homicides often littered the garage area, while a crusty old teacher instructed you on the finer points of rebuilding a 3-speed automatic transmission.
For some lucky kids in Orange County, California, their new shop car isn’t an old junker, but a Nissan Altima heavily renowned by Nissan legend Steve Millen. Millen sold the car to the school for $1, leading us to believe that it was in no way street legal and unable to be titled. While there might not be any joyriding in the new shop car, learning to work on a modified car must be a treat for the teenagers in the auto shop class.
[Source: Orange County Register]
Nissan is debuting four new commercials designed to show off their new tag line “Innovation For All”.
Showing off a raft of future ideas, like controlling your car’s climate system with an iPhone, and some more recent (like boasting about brake over-ride systems being installed since 2004), Nissan is pushing the new campaign hard, and teasing enthusiasts with an early glimpse at the 2011 Quest minivan.
There are four ads in total, all available after the jump. We’re still partial to the Van Halen-infused 300ZX commercial though.


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Stories by Steve Agbota
DESPITE the huge investments of successive governments coupled with the current interventions of the Buhari administration, Nigeria still cannot meet the demands for local rice consumption, as poor services by government agencies have induced a noticeable decline in rice production, while importation and smuggling are on the increase.
Nigeria abandoned local rice production by focusing and spending billions of dollars importing foreign rice until it was hit by acute foreign exchange scarcity. This has given rise to the consumption of local products in the country.
The crisis has made locally produced rice to receive attention from Nigerians as the price of imported rice has gone up significantly across the country.
Last May when the Federal Government banned rice importation through land borders, in less than two months, the price of the commodity skyrocketed out of the reach of most Nigerian consumers, as a bag of rice, which sold for N9, 000 before the ban, now sells for between N15, 000 and N17, 000.
Banning rice importation was aimed at encouraging and boosting local production and also reducing high import bill of over N650 billion annually.
However, local production has not been adequate enough to meet the consumption of the rapidly growing population because farmers were not encouraged to go into local rice farming before the ban. Therefore, there exists an imbalance between rice production and consumption.
Few months later, forex scarcity forced importation of rice to be reduced drastically since they could no longer source hard currency to import rice. This left importers no choice than to patronise local rice, which led to scarcity of the commodity in the markets.
Besides Dollar crisis, Daily Sun investigation shows that part of the problems which led to the scarcity of local rice include provision of high-yielding rice varieties, fertilisers, irrigation, shortage of processing facilities, funding and agro-chemicals for the farmers in spite of Federal Government interventions.
As several African nations set target for their countries to be self- sufficient in rice production including Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara who wants his country to be self-sufficient in rice by 2017, President Muhammadu Buhari has set 2018 as a target for West Africa’s biggest producer and importer of the staple to end inward shipments. Mali, Guinea and Sierra Leone are already nearly self-sufficient, with Mali’s rice harvest covering 91 per cent of domestic demand, according to AfricaRice.
However, CBN reserved $200 million last year to provide low-interest loans to rice and wheat farmers as part of a government campaign to boost agriculture and reduce food imports, which weigh heavily on the local currency. Among large-scale rice buyers and processors is a local unit of Olam International Ltd. More than half of local demand of about six million tonnes is currently supplied by imports in a nation of 180 million people.
It was revealed that Olam Rice Farm, in Nasarawa State, which is locally produced rice is currently having good time in the market as people are beginning to appreciate the tremendous improvement in the quality of local rice.
Daily Sun learnt that few companies processing rice in the country don’t have enough paddies currently to meet their factory capacity, as they would be willing to buy the product from farmers anywhere in the country.
With the current performance of the product in the market, the processors need more paddy rice but unfortunately they cannot find paddy anywhere at the moment. The processors don’t know if there are farmers who still have the product, as they would be willing to buy from them to meet the capacity of their processing plants.
A rice farmer, Benjamin Augustus, said that Nigeria is capable of feeding its population and serve as the rice hub for Africa but laments that the major problem is the lack of political-will. He said that the relevant government agencies have not been effective and efficient in the provision of basic agricultural inputs and services.
Augustus said that the agencies’ poor service delivery has induced a noticeable decrease in rice production, while rice importation and smuggling are also major setback for local rice farmers.
He said what farmers need for the development of the sector was a public-private partnership to implement programmes, while the government provides the enabling environment for stability and growth.
According to the Chairman of All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN), Chief Femi Oke, local rice farmers are just coming on board and many farmers have been encouraged in the local rice farming activities, saying rice importation has been banned and many farmers are now interested in rice production.
He added: “There are few production end, where the paddy could be processed in Nigeria. Few years ahead, the production and the supply will be better. The Federal Government is trying under the Commercial Agriculture Department Project (CADP) and they are having pilot scheme in five states; Lagos, Kano, Enugu, Bayelsa and Kwara where they could site some of the projects in order to encourage those that are into the business.
So CADP is taking it up both at the federal and state levels and it is part of their project to assist in this area to have some locations where some of these machines could be sited for farmers to easily process their commodities. These projects will even encourage those who are not into the business to be there, hence, they can easily get where they will process on time.”
Meanwhile, the Marketing Director of Crystal Gold Mills and Agro Allied Enterprise, Adetunji Solomon, said that local rice was scarce in the markets because of the time frame given to farmers and processors such that when a farmer or a processor requests for facilities and the time frame in which such facility was processed was a major setback for rice farmers.
He explained: “Some farmers are not familiar with use of modern equipment, and majority of the farmers are not commercial farmers.
The lack of unified seed also contributes to the scarcity of local rice. Most of the farmers that are planting are based on the required seeds by their locality, which might not be accepted in other areas.
For example, Igbemo rice is planted here in Ekiti State, while in Ogun, we have Ofada rice.”
He advised the Federal Government to adopt a method of fast tracking facilities for rice farmers in order to access loans at the right time and also find a way around collateral to make it easier for farmers and processors.


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With the support of a Growing Communities grant from the Charter One Foundation, Grandmont Rosedale Development Corporation (GRDC) and the Detroit Economic Growth Corporation’s (DEGC) REVOLVE Detroit program are seeking entrepreneurs to create two new pop-up shops on Grand River Avenue in Detroit’s distinguished Grandmont Rosedale community.
Entrepreneurs selected to participate will receive assistance and resources to help create their pop-up shop as well as favorable rent terms during the pop-up. Pop-ups will also benefit from marketing and collaboration with events programming to drive awareness and customers to the spaces. The deadline for entries is Sunday, June 15. Details on how to apply are available at revolvedetroit.com/resources. Applicants with questions may email REVOLVE directly at email@example.com.
All of us here at the DEGC are excited to expand the REVOLVE program’s efforts in the Grandmont Rosedale community. This neighborhood has a thriving business community, and we’re looking forward to getting entrepreneurial, up-and-coming companies into these two pop-ups.
The two new pop-up locations are located at 19120 Grand River and 19560 Grand River in Northwest Detroit.
- 19120 Grand River is the new home for WorkPlace, a neighborhood business incubator and co-working facility. There will be a dedicated pop-up space of 300 square feet with a storefront window at the front of WorkPlace. The pop-up space aims to provide a venue for budding entrepreneurs to showcase their products and test their business plan in real-time. Pop-ups will rotate throughout the year, with the intent to build visibility and success in finding permanent locations in the business district. The remainder of the 2,800-square-foot facility will accommodate both individual enclosed offices and open shared co-working space.
- 19560 Grand River is a 1,400-square-foot storefront that is move-in ready. It features track lighting, carpeting and fresh paint. There is a storage area and restroom. The unit includes two dedicated parking spaces with ample street parking. The space is ideal for a pop-up business with permanent aspirations.
“GRDC is very excited to be working with REVOLVE and Charter One to bring new business to the Grandmont Rosedale area,” said Tom Goddeeris, executive director of GRDC. “The ‘pop-up’ strategy has proven to be a great way to connect entrepreneurs with neighborhoods around the city.”
Charter One Foundation’s Growing Communities Program is an instrumental partner in supporting the Grandmont Rosedale community. “Charter One is proud to partner with the Detroit Economic Growth Corporation to bring its REVOLVE retail growth program to Detroit’s Grandmont Rosedale community,” said Mike Dolson, senior vice president and state director of commercial lending at Charter One & RBS Citizens.
“Grandmont Rosedale has long been a proud Detroit neighborhood, and Charter One wants to help ensure that it has a bright future,” Dolson said. “This strategy is in line with Charter One’s Growing Communities program, which has a successful record of helping to revitalize and grow urban neighborhoods. Charter One has invested steadily and substantially in Detroit, and the Charter One Growing Communities initiative has invested more than $385,000 in local food businesses and the Eastern Market neighborhood since 2012.”
Business Development Manager


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Tag Archives: Vempire
Mon, Aug 24, 2009 | 17:22 BST
Update: PR added.
Original Story: The first launch title of the Minis game collection, which was announced in Cologne last week, has been confirmed as a title known as Vempire.
According to the description of the game, it’s a puzzle game, which has a hint of strategy added into the mix. Collect artefacts, collect powers and more, these are just some of the gameplay features for the title.
More at PS3Center.
The game, and more to be announced from the Minis collection, will launch alongside the PSPgo on October 1.
We’re checking with SCEE for more info.


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We may not be able to go on holiday at the minute, but that hasn't stopped many of us dreaming of what we will do once we're able to travel again.
But while the thought of sipping a pina colada by the pool is keeping several holidaymakers going through these tough times, it could soon become a mere dream, as the cost of holidays could seriously increase after the coronavirus pandemic.
Martyn James, of consumer website Resolver, told the Mirror : “It’s likely the cost of overseas package deals will double. Even when they [customers] get to their hotel, there will be no buffet and all kinds of limitations around the pool.”
Aviation expert Matt Purton said if airlines have to block middle seats for safety, consumers could expect to see a 30 per cent price rise.
Low-cost airlines could also face further woe if businesses opt for online conference calls rather than face-to-face meetings around the globe.
Paul Charles, of The PC Agency travel consultancy, said holiday prices will rise as “airlines will have to make more money from their economy passengers”. Hotels will also have to up their cleaning budgets and travel insurance premiums could rocket by 20 per cent.
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A planned 14-day quarantine for airline passengers arriving in the UK and Spain has dashed many people’s hopes for a summer holiday in the sun.
But Benidorm mayor Toni Perez still hopes to see Brits back for the summer.
Four in ten of the resort’s holidaymakers come from the UK. Ryanair and British Airways aim to ramp up flights in July. All TUI and First Choice holidays have been cancelled until at least June 11.


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TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Don't be fooled! Criminals are trying to separate you from your money by using a new multilayered scam involving skimming, spoofing and stealing financial information.
Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody is warning consumers about the tricky scam that works like this:
A scammer uses a skimmer to steal credit or debit card information and then uses spoofing technology to pose as the representative of a financial institution.
Once the scammer reaches the target, they inform the target that an account has been compromised and the card verification value, or CV2 security code, is needed to freeze the account. The scammer then uses the code to make purchases, withdraw funds or sell the stolen account information.
“This scam incorporates some of the worst uses of modern technology to drain victims’ bank accounts and ruin their credit. Floridians must arm themselves with the latest information and take steps to avoid these fraudsters to protect their hard-earned money,” Moody said.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement has been getting a growing number of reports about the multilayered scam. To protect sensitive financial information, consumers are urged to first guard against skimming by doing the following:
- Pay with cash or a credit card with chip technology instead of a debit card. Most credit cards offer additional fraud protections.
- Monitor transactions on financial accounts regularly to spot any unauthorized charges.
- Report unauthorized charges immediately and close down compromised accounts.
- Inspect card readers, especially at outdoor locations such as gas pumps and ATMs, to see if a skimming device is placed over the card reader or if the security seal is broken.
To report skimmer fraud, contact the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services at 800-HELP-FLA (800-435-7352).
The new scam also involves spoofing. Spoofing allows scammers to change the display on caller ID to make it appear as though the call is coming from a financial institution or government agency.
To prevent scams involving spoofing consumers should:
- Never automatically trust the number listed on caller ID.
- Hang up if a caller claims to be from the consumer's financial institution and asks to verify or confirm account information. Then, call the phone number listed on the back of your card or on your account statements.
- Don't provide any financial account numbers, PINS, Social Security numbers or other personal information in response to a solicitation.
- Tell the financial institution to cancel the affected card or account, if it is determined that a caller is in possession of sensitive account information.
Anyone who may be a victim of this scam should contact their local law enforcement and report the scam to the Florida Attorney General's Office website or call 866-9NO-SCAM (866-966-7226).


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Tesco-owned customer data firm dunnhumby is moving its customer insights products across to Microsoft's cloud platform Azure, in order to give more retailers and suppliers instant access to shopper and business insights.
dunnhumby analyses more than 395 million shopper baskets and nine billion data records every week, helping thousands of brands and suppliers in the grocery and drug sectors to understand how each of their individual products is performing with different types of shoppers. According to Microsoft, Azure can handle vast amounts of information securely, and can cope with large spikes in demand. The firms say that by combining dunnhumby's tools, such as its Shop on Lab, with the Azure cloud platform will allow many more retailers and suppliers to share insights into their businesses, enabling action to be taken quickly on business performance, new trends and innovation, brand switching and loyalty.
Guillaume Bacuvier (pictured), CEO of dunnhumby, comments: 'This partnership will empower more retailers and brands across the globe to more effectively compete in this expansive yet turbulent industry. By providing access to our science and technology via Azure - the most secure cloud platform, favoured by many retailers today - our goal is to fundamentally change the way data is used in retail and completely democratise customer data science across the retail industry'.
Web site: www.dunnhumby.com .
All articles 2006-22 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas unless otherwise stated.


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Bangladesh will look to arrive at solutions to the problem of delays faced by Indian barges at its ports, industry body Assocham said on Friday quoting a top official.
The India’s neighbouring nation has given a positive indication on minimising delays faced by Indian barges at its ports, the statement said.
India’s shipping secretary Gopal Krishna during an event said Bangladesh had shown a very positive frame of mind on resolving this issue which is to the benefit of both, largely Bangladesh exporters and the spinoff would be to ship lines and to Indian ports, the Assocham statement said.
Krishna said: “Let me place on record that we had flagged this issue very prominently with Bangladesh side and also mentioned that it being a very huge exporter of garments but when we are visiting our ports, the constant demand is that delays in exports is costing Bangladesh economy orders.”
The statement also said the shipping ministry is awaiting Revenue Department’s response on allowing domesticated containers to carry exim cargo for exim routes.
“We have taken this issue with Department of Revenue, generally they feel that they would also require to consult transportation stakeholders because lot of transporters use built-in containers and there could be an issue vis-a-vis that mode,” Krishna said addressing the meet.
In her address, Director General Shipping Malini V Shankar said that while India’s trade with Bangladesh has grown rapidly in the past few years, there are issues that need to be discussed so that participation of Indian ships in the coastal trade can be enhanced.
“The possibility of allowing transportation of exim and transhipment cargo under the coastal shipping agreement needs to be explored,” she said.
“Similarly, the removal of limit of 6,000 GT (gross tonnage) for operation of vessels under the agreement also needs to be explored in order to encourage more and more number of vessels to engage in coastal shipping between the two countries,” added DG Shipping.


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In the internet age, companies that can do all of their business online now have unprecedented freedom in choosing the ideal place to locate the physical part of the enterprise – offices, servers, computers and workers.
For Dutchman Pieter Kinds, that place is Ukraine.
Kinds, 40, first came to Ukraine in 1998 and served as commercial director for the Kyiv Post. Four years later, as the online business boom began, he helped rebrand his father’s old-school logistics company into a high-tech online freight auditor called ControlPay. And, taking advantage of Ukraine’s skilled yet low-cost workforce, the company located its biggest office in Ukraine.
ControlPay is a service provider in freight auditing – the bureaucratic business of tracking, processing, checking and paying invoices for cargo shipments. It offers its clients an online solution that allows the auditing to be done almost completely electronically, via the internet.
“It’s pretty much virtual,” Kinds, ControlPay’s director, told the Kyiv Post in an interview in April. “It’s like IT outsourcing. All you need is a computer and a person who knows how to use it.”
The company eliminates paper wherever legally possible, moving documentation online, and automating the freight auditing, registration and payment process. While the computers that do the work and the people that maintain them are physically located in Ukraine, ControlPay’s customers can be based anywhere in the world. And the business is growing.
“We’ve been growing in double digits for the last two years,” Kinds told the Kyiv Post, estimating revenue at $2 million a year. “That’s healthy growth.”
The bulk of his company’s employees work in its Kyiv office. ControlPay has 140 workers in Ukraine and plans to add another 60 workers by next year.
ControlPay’s customers enter their freight contracts into the company’s online repository, along with all the required data to manage their own shipment and trucking, check numbers and sums, and make sure they pay “the absolutely correct amount of money for transportation.”
The efficiencies gained from this allows companies to save up to 5 percent on transportation costs, Kinds said.
ControlPay’s customer base now includes companies such as Siemens, Bridgestone, Procter & Gamble, Johnson and Johnson, and Schlumberger.
Kinds said his company was more flexible and quality driven than its competitors, and able to provide services that are tailor-made for a particular client.
Companies "don’t need to handle this sort of thing anymore – instead, they can focus more on the optimization of their business,” Kinds said.
Based largely in Ukraine, with a mainly Ukrainian staff, ControlPay is committed to the nation, Kinds said: As Ukraine suffers almost daily attacks by Russian-backed forces in the eastern Donbas, ControlPay has become an official partner of the United Nations Children's Emergency Fund, or UNICEF, in Ukraine.
“We do feel it’s very important to give something back,” Kinds said. “We want to be affiliated with international projects. UNICEF has the kind of profile we want to be associated with.”
While it has three physical offices – in the Netherlands, the United States and Ukraine – ControlPay works only in the European and U.S. freight markets: the Ukraine office is simply the place from which the outsourcing services are provided.
According to Kinds, the Ukrainian market is still not mature enough to use the services his company provides.
“We really focus on companies that don’t just operate domestically,” Kinds said.
Instead, his clients are companies that regularly do business with up to 200 suppliers in dozens of countries. With operations as complex as that, it makes sense to outsource them to a company like ControlPay. As of yet, there are no such companies in Ukraine, Kinds said.
Key to success in Ukraine
But foreign companies who decide to set up shop in Ukraine can’t just import their own practices wholesale, Kinds warned: local conditions have to be taken into account, and worked with.
For that reason, ControlPay is an example of a “hybrid” company, exploiting a mixture of Dutch and Ukrainian know-how, Kinds said.
“You have to have the will or the knowledge to understand what part of yourself, as a foreigner, you need to leave behind or take with you,” he said. “You can’t just say ‘we’re going to westernize the whole thing.’ You need to find out how things work here.”
Need for logistics education
Kinds is also looking to set up a logistics academy in Ukraine. His experience has taught him that workers in Ukraine have a low-level of knowledge about supply chains, transport and other logistical issues.
“We give logistics courses to our employees,” Kinds said. “In general the level of logistic knowledge in Ukraine is gained by experience, not by institutes, universities or courses.”
He thinks it makes sense to set up courses for novices in logistics or for those who just want to gain more expertise. Another tendency, according to Kinds, is that people, who apply for a job in logistics after graduating from universities’ logistics departments, tend to have very poor level of knowledge.
Therefore, the plan is to offer the paid courses to companies that seek to improve the skills of their employees. There are dozens of examples of good logistics universities in Europe and America, he said.
Ukraine is ready for a breakthrough here.
“Logistics is very important in Ukraine if you want to grow an economy,” Kinds said. "If the waterways are clean, tariffs are abolished, ports are reinvigorated, agricultural exports pick up more, and there’s better transit in Ukraine, it's going to be more booming. It has a good position for logistics."
Position: Global Business Development Director at ControlPay
Family: Married with four children
How to succeed in Ukraine: “You have to have the will or the knowledge to understand what part of yourself, as a foreigner, you need to leave behind or take with you.”
Kyiv Post staff writer Denys Krasnikov can be reached at email@example.com. The Kyiv Post’s IT coverage is sponsored by Beetroot, Ciklum, Steltec Capital, 1World Online and SoftServe. The content is independent of the donors.
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The government in India’s Jammu and Kashmir state is introducing an e-commerce platform for artisans and weavers to boost export of handicrafts and handloom products and to reduce the role of middlemen in transactions that often leads to exploitation, state industries and commerce minister Chander Parkash Ganga recently informed the legislative assembly.
Under the Artisan Credit Card (ACC) scheme involving an interest subsidy of Rs 62.36 crore, 44,414 artisans have been covered, he said. Artisans received loans worth Rs 375 crore till November 2017.
ACC scheme offers convenient and soft credit facilities to artisans, weavers, members of cooperative societies and craftsmen to start their independent ventures. Out of the four lakh handicraft artisans in the state, 1,67,476 are registered and 2,32,524 un-registered., according to a news agency report.
The state government provides interest subsidy at the rate of 10 per cent on the loan over a period of five years, the minister said.
During 2017-18, allocation and targets have been enhanced to Rs 81.82 crore and 4,125 units compared to the previous year’s figures of Rs 42.52 crore and 2,127 units, he said.
To coordinate carpet design activities, a design bank would be created at a cost of Rs 1 crore.