Macau revenue soars in first half MACAU H1 Gaming Revenue
Analysts expect pace of growth to ease
Macau is red hot again.
But no one knows for how long. The Chinese gaming peninsula just posted its best first half since 2014 as housing prices sizzle and corruption crackdown concerns ease, driving more people to the enclave’s casinos.
New resorts and better access to loans have also boosted gaming revenue over the first six months.
Wynn Resorts and Las Vegas Sands have been big beneficiaries of the Macau revival. Wynn generates more than 60 percent of its revenue from Macau, while Sands is a close second at more than 50 percent. Shares of both companies have more than doubled the performance of the S&P 500 this year.
Macau June gross gaming revenue surged 26 percent to $2.5 billion. That lifted first-half gross gaming revenue to $15.7 billion, a 17 percent increase over the same period last year. Growth over the past few months has mainly been driven by high rollers, analysts say.
The first-half numbers have
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has faced delays in getting vehicles to market. The Palo Alto, California-based company aims to make 10,000 Model 3s per week in 2018. Battery production in Nevada According to the news site Electrek, which follows the electric car industry, Tesla started its production of the Model 3 battery cell at its Nevada gigafactory in mid-june.
Tesla started battery production at the factory in the Tahoe Reno Industrial Center east of Reno in January, but those were for their energy-storage products, the site reported recently.
The production of the new cells is key to the Model 3 production.
Tesla’s co-founder and chief technology officer, JB Straubel, confirmed the start of the production during a presentation at the Midwest Renewable Energy Association’s
28th Annual Energy Fair in Wisconsin.
Electrek reported that Straubel said that they were “right now” starting the production lines for the new Model 3 battery cells and preparing to ramp then up as needed for the production of the car.
Simpler to make?
Tesla hasn’t said how many people have put down $1,000 refundable deposits for the Model 3, but Musk has said people who put down a deposit now won’t get a car until the end of 2018, suggesting it could be close to 500,000.
Tesla’s last new vehicle, the
Model X SUV, was delayed nearly 18 months. Musk says the Model 3 is much simpler to make, but 14-yearold Tesla has no experience producing and selling vehicles in high volumes. Tesla made just 84,000 cars last year. Bigger rivals such as General Motors, Volkswagen and Toyota routinely sell around 10 million vehicles per year.
Even if the Model 3 is on time, servicing all those vehicles will still be a challenge. Model S and Model X owners are already worried about having to share Tesla’s company-owned charging stations with an influx of new cars. And while Tesla is promising to increase its network of stores and service centers by 30 percent this year, it began 2017 with just 250 service centers worldwide. That leaves many potential owners miles from a service center.
Musk has said a new fleet of mobile service trucks will be deployed to help customers who are far from service centers. Tesla also plans to double its global high-speed charging points to 10,000 by the end of this year and increase them by another 50 percent to 100 percent in 2018.