Posts Tagged ‘Japan’
Update to Tanger Med Auto development in Morocco
An update to a post last July 2008. Nissan have had suspend development of the Tanger Med terminal development in Morocco, but their partner Renault appear to remain in. It is noted that this is a suspension, not withdrawal, and partnet Renault is still in.
This development is significant, and is in the same vein as the Gwadar development in Pakistan being mde by China. The shape of world commerce is changing, and the current economic crisis just means those changes themselves are changing.
As I asked in July 2008 – where is the Tanger Med for banks – that new beachead, real or virtual that will reshape banking?
Nissan pulls out of Tangier-Med car manufacturing project
As part of a large-scale programme of cutbacks due to the global economic crisis, the Japanese carmaker Nissan decided on Monday (February 9th) to suspend its involvement in the project to build a plant jointly with French firm Renault in the Tangier-Med free zone.
… …
The aim of the Renault-Nissan Alliance project at the Melloussa site at Tangier-Med is to build a car assembly plant with an output of 200,000 vehicles per year from 2010 onwards, with the option of scaling up output to 400,000 vehicles per year in the long term. Measuring 300 hectares, the site is located within the Special Economic Zone at the Tangier-Med port complex.
The industrial super-project is expected to attract a total investment of 600m euros and create over 6,000 direct jobs and 30,000 indirect jobs for component-makers and subcontractors. The forecasts announced by Renault-Nissan managers are based on the expectation that the plant will manufacture cars that will be competitive in external markets.
Retail banking: Concerted effort to engage with the customer | Japan
It is interesting to watch how banks are looking to move beyond the banking crisis. Here is an example in Japan, which is already highly focussed on their customers. Sumitomo Mitsui Bank is initiating new processes and methods to generate even better customer focus.
Retail banking: Concerted effort to engage with the customer | FT
Loiter in a Tokyo branch of the Sumitomo Mitsui Bank and you will notice some changes. There is still a large closed-off area of bank officers shuffling documents, but there are now two counters, a high one at which to make deposits and transfer money, and a more appealing line of low desks, behind which staff wait to discuss your financial needs.
“In the eyes of our customers, we wanted clearly to separate payments from consultation about things like a new account,” says Takashi Yamashita, a senior vice president in SMBC’s retail bank.
A lesson from Japan in management of toxic assets planning
Christian Caryl points out just how little Japan is both misunderstood and underestimated, particularly with regard to the 1989 bubble economy. Feel free to read at your leisure.
Mr Koizumi government too charge in getting the banks to clean up their act, and after that the economy responded with remarkable speed. By contrast, the present U.S. slump is the result of a culture of financial profligacy that enmeshed consumers and homeowners as well as major financial institutions
This lesson is one that must be considered as the PPPIP (Geithner) plan is implemented in the US, and European governments should take note as they waffle on the point.
Think Again: Japan’s Lost Decade | Foreign Policy
Policymakers hobbled by a dysfunctional political system dawdled for years when it came to cleaning up “zombie” companies (bankrupt in all but name) and getting financial institutions to dispose of toxic assets. That failure to take decisive action may have shaved points off Japan’s overall growth rates and ended up leaving the country saddled with enormous public debt (peaking at 175 percent of GDP by one recent measure). Yet, a push to force banks to shed their nonperforming loans under the government of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi starting in 2001 had notably positive effects on growth.
Nikkei slides impact Japan megabank equity position
The global economy is impacting Japanese banks in a different way. Due to the practice of holding stock in their clients the reduction in the stock market is impacting their balance sheet values and driving them to raise additional capital.
Nikkei slides | Reuters
TOKYO (Reuters) – As Japanese stocks slide toward a 26-year low, the country’s big banks may soon need to raise more capital and could go cap in hand to the companies whose weak shares triggered the problem in the first place.
Tokyo’s three “megabanks” — Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Mizuho Financial Group and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group — dodged much of the subprime damage that leveled New York and London, but have been whiplashed by losses on massive stock holdings and a deep recession.
Unlike their Western rivals, Japanese lenders take stakes in their corporate clients to cement business ties, making bank profits sensitive to swings in equity prices.
For the record – State Leader interviews before G20 – Financial TImes
Transcript: FT interview with Manmohan Singh – India
Transcript: Stephen Harper interview – Canada
Transcript: FT interview with Lee Myung-bak – South Korea
Transcript: FT Interview with Sergei Lavrov – Georgia
Transcript: FT Interview with Barack Obama – US
Transcript: FT interview with Taro Aso | G20
The FT is interviewing many of the G20 leaders this week. Taro Aso of Japan makes a point here that is, so far, lost on the other leaders. He is reflecting on the Japanese bubble of 1989, exemplified by a drop in land prices of 87%.
He makes the point that dropping interest rates to zero will not bring back investment by itself while people and businesses are pre-occupied with reducing debt.
Transcript: FT interview with Taro Aso | Financial Times
It was back in [the early 1990s] that the Japanese bubble economy collapsed. At that time, land prices in six major cities in Japan dropped by 87 per cent. The government at that time strove to reduce interest rates; in fact the Bank of Japan dropped interest rates to close to zero in order to stimulate the economy – but to no effect. That was because falling land prices and equity prices caused businesses to go into insolvency. As a result, businesses were forced to switch their management policy from maximising profits, to minimising debt.
He is very focussed on stimulus packages as the solution and obliquely criticises Germany for not following that approach.
This gets interesting because US, Japan, UK, and Germany represent a large proportion of the world economy, and one of the four is focussed on regulation not stimulation.
In this case the banking model is broken, and more broken than Japan experienced in 1989, nonetheless the bubble aspects of the economy are identical with asset values falling dramatically.
This sets the stage for an interesting outcome this week in London.
Other interviews so far:
Transcript: FT interview with Manmohan Singh – India
Transcript: Stephen Harper interview – Canada
Transcript: FT interview with Lee Myung-bak – South Korea
Transcript: FT Interview with Sergei Lavrov – Georgia
Transcript: FT Interview with Barack Obama – US
