Struggling Singapore...
Mexico, threatening it with tariffs. Hiroshimabased Mazda has no plants in the US.
But Trump welcomed the announcement of the new US factory on Twitter. “A great investment in American manufacturing!,” he tweeted. In 2015, Toyota and Mazda signed a memorandum of understanding to explore collaboration. Toyota and Mazda said yesterday that they would combine forces on key nextgeneration technology.
The pair will invest US$1.6 billion to build a factory in the US to produce cross-over models and Toyota’s Corolla sedan starting from 2021.
The US plant will have the capacity to produce approximately 300,000 vehicles a year and create up to 4,000 jobs.
As they enhance collaboration, Toyota will take a roughly five percent stake in Mazda, which in turn would invest in Toyota.
Toyota has sold more than 10 million hybrid gasoline-electric vehicles globally, including the Prius, since 1997. But it is struggling to develop electric vehicles as several countries announce plans to clamp down on petrol and diesel cars.
France and Britain have both said they will end sales of petrol and diesel vehicles by 2040.
Also yesterday, Toyota -- which lost its crown as the world’s top-selling automaker in 2016 to German giant Volkswagen -- said its latest quarterly net profit jumped 11 percent to US$5.6 billion with vehicle sales up in Japan and the US, while it also lifted its annual earnings forecast. alternative fuels grew 52.9 percent, BMI Research said.
The court also deemed unconstitutional a clause that would let tax authorities share information with the state attorney general to be used in criminal prosecutions.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has long pushed for a reform of the country’s tax system and Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera was hoping for the bill to be approved this month. There was no immediate comment from the finance ministry on the court decision. The IMF in 2016 agreed to lend Sri Lanka US$1.5 billion spread over three years following a balance of payments crisis. Last month, the IMF released the third installment of the loan after holding up the payment for months over Colombo’s failure to meet its bailout conditions.
“Having temporary surpluses or deficits of cabin crew is not unusual due to the nature of our business, and this voluntary scheme over a specific period of time is to ensure that we efficiently manage crew resources and operational requirements,” a spokesman said.
The spokesman added the airline now plans to offer the option from time to time in the future.
Singapore Airlines did not say how many of its 8,200 crew members had so far taken up the offer or how many staff they hoped would choose to partake in the scheme. It last resorted to the measure in 2009, after the global financial crisis. Aviation analyst Shukor Yusof of Endau Analytics told AFP it showed “legacy carriers” were finding it harder to survive. “(Singapore Airlines’s) business travel segment has been hit hard and more are turning to low cost carriers,” he said.