Project Nacho theme
Have "insurance fires" started popping up among Chinese factory owners who are eager to quickly switch production to manufacturing components for the electric car industry?
Dramatically decreased ship traffic in the Strait of Hormuz. The escalation over the past few days has caused a dramatic drop in ship traffic through the Strait of Hormuz. – The number of ships that passed along the southern route monitored by the US overnight is down to single digits, says Phil Belcher from the international trade organization for tanker owners to BBC Today.
When there was peace, the number used to be 130, and a fifth of the world's oil shipments went through the strait. Watch the segment on SVT Nyheter.
Task: 120,000 jobs at risk at Volkswagen. The German car giant Volkswagen is facing tough times. According to reports in the German press, company management wants to shut down production at four German factories. Up to 120,000 jobs are reported to be in danger, according to Bild. And the model lineup could be reduced by half, according to a press release from the company.
According to Jonas Grafström, an economist, Volkswagen has bigger problems than many other European car manufacturers. In Germany, energy costs are 200 percent higher compared to China and the USA, partly as a result of phasing out nuclear power. – Wages in Germany are also high, and they haven't streamlined as much as, for example, Toyota in Japan.
– We have to remember that Volkswagen has never previously closed a factory in Germany, not since production was founded by Hitler 89 years ago. Watch the segment on SVT Nyheter.
Fire in Chinese shoe factory – 28 dead. A fire broke out in China’s 'shoe capital' on Thursday. The fire started around lunchtime, local time, in the city of Jinjiang on the country’s east coast. Videos from state media in China show black smoke and flames pouring from the shoe factory. Several people were reportedly trapped inside the building.
Reuters writes that the city is called China’s 'shoe capital' because Jinjiang is a center for shoe manufacturing. The thousand companies in the city produced over 1.2 billion pairs of shoes in 2024, according to Reuters. See the article on SVT Nyheter.