Business

Trump began openly threatening Apple CEO Tim Cook.

Business

Trump threatens Apple with a 25% duty on every iPhone imported into the US

Donald Trump continues to pressure big business to move production lines from other countries to the United States. In another post on his...

ByAndrewMay 25, 2025

Breaking news Business

Trump has started a trade war with the world by attacking his neighbors and China

Trump has started a trade war with the world by attacking his neighbors and China. Who’s next? Donald Trump, after 40 days of...

ByAndrewMarch 23, 2025

Business

Trade war with the US will lead to a downturn in the EU economy

The head of the ECB Christine Lagarde warned that mutual duties of the European Union and the United States can nullify the growth...

ByAndrewMarch 23, 2025

Breaking news Business

Trump’s tariff chaos. First lessons of the US trade war with the world

Trump wants to protect the auto industry with tariffs, but even his new favorite, Elon Musk’s Tesla, has warned that tariffs will bring...

ByAndrewMarch 23, 2025

High costs undermine the competitiveness of the German car industry German automakers have been hit hard by the surge in energy prices that began after Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Giving up cheap pipeline gas, which has powered German industry for decades, is not easy. Electricity prices in Germany are now about three times higher than in the United States or China and 40 percent higher than in neighboring France, which continues to rely on nuclear power in addition to fossil fuels. The likely future chancellor Friedrich Merz has already suggested that Germany's decision to abandon nuclear power should be reconsidered. “Germany is one of the last countries in Europe that can be called fully industrialized: steel and chemicals for the country's automotive industry are supplied by local companies Salzgitter and BASF,” Matthias Schmidt, an independent automotive analyst based in Hamburg, argues in an interview with Bloomberg. - So, low energy prices or at least the stability of those prices is critical.” The German car industry is losing ground in China China is a key market for most German automakers. Volkswagen alone has three dozen plants in China. And it is not surprising: the Chinese market is the largest in the world. It is comparable in size to the US and European markets combined. However, BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen's business in China has been average lately. In 2024, their sales are down more than 10% each. At the same time, the Chinese market itself grew - by 4%, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers reported. Volkswagen VW ID.3 electric car advertisement in Shanghai Volkswagen VW ID.3 electric car advertisement in Shanghai Volkswagen VW ID.3 electric car advertisement in ShanghaiPhoto: Xing Yun/Costfoto/picture alliance The main reason for the slippage is the rapid shift of Chinese consumers to electric and hybrid cars. Their share of the Chinese market has grown from 5% in 2020 to nearly 40% in 2024. Domestic manufacturers are meeting much of the growing demand. German companies are strong in the production of traditional cars, but lag behind in the electric car segment, as success in it is determined by software and electronic components, not mechanical parts, says Stefan Bratzel, head of the Center for Automotive Management (CAM), in an interview with DW. Another factor is prices. Growing Chinese automakers can afford to stage price wars, struggling German companies can't. One such war is going on right now. BYD has announced that it will make God's Eye autopilot a standard feature for cars priced from 100,000 yuan, while competitors have models with such systems priced from 150,000. Donald Trump's duties are a new challenge Trade wars, with which Donald Trump threatens both rivals and allies, could seriously hit the German car industry. According to the Federal Statistical Office, the share of the United States in the total exports of German automakers in 2024 amounted to about 13%. The problem will be duties not only against the EU, but also against Mexico. German companies produce cars in this country. According to the VDA, they produced 716 thousand cars in 2024 - mainly for the US market. In early March, Donald Trump delayed for one month the entry into force of 25 percent duties on cars from Canada and Mexico. What will happen next is difficult to predict. US President Donald TrumpPresident of the United States Donald Trump US President Donald TrumpPhoto: Evan Vucci/AP/picture alliance Duties of 25% on “cars and all that kind of stuff” Trump announced in late February, saying that the decision had already been made. However, when exactly he wants to implement it (and whether anything can prevent it), the president did not specify. “Germany in the current situation needs alternative markets for car exports, and the biggest such market is the European market,” Brad Setser, a senior fellow at the U.S. Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), tells DW in an interview. How German automakers plan to recover from the crisis The weak results reported in the financial reports of BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen were expected. The Mercedes-Benz report even noted that the figures were in line with forecasts - though it did not specify that they had been revised several times during the year. One of the key challenges ahead for all automakers is cost reduction. Painful new decisions have already been made and are likely to be made. Late last year, Volkswagen announced the layoff of 35,000 employees by the end of 2030. Not even a few months later, Audi, a subsidiary of Volkswagen, announced that it would have to part with another 7,500 people.

Business

The crisis is intensifying: what threatens the German car industry?

The leading German automakers have significantly reduced their profits by the end of 2024. The structural crisis they are experiencing could worsen in...

ByAndrewMarch 20, 2025

The German Federal Court of Justice (BGH) has authorized the German antitrust authority to apply strict control measures to technology corporation Apple. On Tuesday, March 18, the court in Karlsruhe dismissed the US group's lawsuit against the Federal Cartel Office, confirming Apple's classification as a player of outstanding competitive importance. The court confirmed Apple's special classification The BGH explained that Apple is one of the largest companies in the world with the highest sales and profit margins, with “extraordinary financial and other resources”. The Federal Cartel Office therefore rightly considered that Apple had the strategic and competitive potential to exert significant influence on other companies and distort the competition process for its own benefit, the German Federal Court of Justice concluded. In announcing its decision, presiding judge Wolfgang Kirchhoff noted that Apple, with its App Store and smartphone operating systems, is active in so-called multilateral markets and is able to transfer its influence to other markets and industries. Translated with DeepL.com (free version)

Business

German court allows strict antitrust control over Apple

American corporation Apple has lost a court battle in Germany in an attempt to challenge its classification as a particularly significant market player...

ByAndrewMarch 18, 2025