[TODAY'S TOP STORIES] from [The Japan Times]
[BUSINESS NEWS]
Thursday, Aug. 20, 2009
Toyota to buy lithium-ion batteries from Sanyo Electric for hybrids
NAGOYA (Kyodo) Toyota Motor Corp. is looking to procure lithium-ion batteries from Sanyo Electric Co. to widen the number of suppliers for its increasingly popular gas-electric hybrid vehicles, sources said Wednesday.
The quality of Sanyo's batteries is "high," a senior Toyota official said. Osaka-based Sanyo, which is scheduled to become a wholly owned subsidiary of Panasonic Corp., also supplies nickel metal hydride batteries for Honda Motor Co.'s Insight hybrid.
Toyota plans to install Sanyo's batteries, which are lighter and more powerful than the nickel metal hydride batteries currently used in the Prius and Toyota's other hybrids, in the minivan-type hybrid it is expected to launch in 2011. The company will likely procure enough supplies to make around 10,000 units per year, the sources said.
Toyota may also use them in plug-in hybrids or electric vehicles that can be charged using the household electricity grid.
Sanyo plans to produce the batteries at its new factory in Kasai, Hyogo Prefecture, which is scheduled to be completed next July, they added.
Toyota has a joint venture with Panasonic called Panasonic EV Energy Co. that produces rechargeable batteries for hybrids, but production is far behind booming orders for the redesigned Prius. If customers want to order the hybrid now, they will have to wait until after the government subsidy for energy-efficient cars expires at the end of March.
[BUSINESS NEWS]
Thursday, Aug. 20, 2009
Nissan all moved in at new HQ
Political pitchman: Former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi (center) is introduced as Nissan Motor Co. CEO Garlos Ghosn (far left), Kanagawa Gov. Shigefumi Matsuzawa (second from left), and Yokohama Mayor Hiroshi Nakada (second from right) applaud at the company's headquarters on Aug. 2. AP PHOTO
YOKOHAMA (Kyodo) About 2,800 Nissan Motor Co. employees started their first day of work Wednesday at the company's new headquarters in Yokohama's Minato Mirai district.
It's been 41 years since the automaker was last headquartered in Yokohama, the place of its birth. The company plans to sell the building that housed its previous headquarters in Tokyo's Ginza district.
The company also relocated its showroom to the new HQ.
[BUSINESS NEWS]
Thursday, Aug. 20, 2009
JAL also to resume fuel surcharges
Kyodo News
Japan Airlines said Wednesday it will resume fuel surcharges on international flights for three months from October due to a rebound in fuel prices.
For tickets issued between Oct. 1 and Nov. 30, JAL will charge a one-way surcharge of ¥10,000 on flights between Japan and Brazil, ¥7,000 on routes between Japan and North America or Europe and ¥1,500 on services between Japan and China.
The surcharges are comparable with those announced Tuesday by All Nippon Airways.
ANA said it will resume fuel surcharges for two months from October, instead of three months as in the past, in order to allow a more flexible response to market changes.
But JAL decided to reinstate three-month surcharges because more frequent changes in fares may confuse customers, the carrier said.
[BUSINESS NEWS]
Thursday, Aug. 20, 2009
Suntory to debut nonalcoholic beer
Kyodo News
Suntory Liquors Ltd. said Tuesday it will launch a nonalcoholic drink that tastes similar to beer called Suntory Fine Zero in late September, adding to the already keen competition to sell such beverages.
The new drink will hit the market Sept. 29 to compete with Kirin Brewery Co.'s Kirin Free, launched in April, and Asahi Breweries Ltd.'s Asahi Point Zero, which will debut Sept. 1.
[BUSINESS NEWS]
Thursday, Aug. 20, 2009
Sony cuts price of PlayStation 3
Pressure mounts on rivals Microsoft, Nintendo to follow suit amid slowing sales
Bloomberg
Sony Corp. has cut the price of its PlayStation 3 console by 25 percent, bowing to demands from game publishers and increasing pressure on industry leader Nintendo Co. to follow.
The PlayStation 3's price will be $299 in the United States starting Wednesday, with comparable reductions in Europe and Japan, the Tokyo-based company said at a games conference in Germany on Tuesday. Nintendo offers the Wii for $250 and Microsoft Corp. sells its Xbox 360 machine for as little as $200.
Sony Chairman Howard Stringer, who rebuffed calls for lower prices as recently as last month, reversed course after PS3 sales tumbled to a two-year low. Sales of Nintendo's market-leading Wii dropped for the first time last quarter as the global economic slump drove down consumer spending.
"The price cut may push Nintendo to lower the Wii price sooner rather than later," said Naoki Fujiwara, chief fund manager at Tokyo-based Shinkin Asset Management Co., which oversees $3.7 billion in investments. "There seems to be an increasing number of people who aren't satisfied with the Wii, so the price cut will likely help Sony entice those users."
according to Arvind Bhatia, an analyst at Sterne Agee & Leach Inc.
"We feel these hardware price cuts were much needed and are hopeful it will provide a boost to hardware and software sales this Christmas," Bhatia wrote in a report Monday.
Sony also introduced a slimmer version of the PS3 that will begin replacing current models in the first week of September. The $299 system, equipped with a 120-gigabyte storage drive and a Blu-ray player, is 32 percent smaller, 36 percent lighter and consumes 34 percent less power, the company said.
The price cut is necessary to meet sales projections of 13 million consoles worldwide in the year ending next March, Jack Tretton, head of Sony Computer Entertainment America, said in an interview Monday.
"The new PlayStation 3 pricing finally makes the Sony console a much more competitive product," Jesse Divnich, a game analyst with researcher Electronic Entertainment Design & Outreach, said in an e-mail message.
Bobby Kotick, chief executive officer of top game publisher Activision Blizzard Inc., said in June the developer of the "Guitar Hero" games may shift away from making products for Sony. Daniel DeMatteo, head of GameStop Corp., the largest video-game retailer, said in May that console prices are "too high."
Stringer, who's also Sony's chief executive officer, last month at an Idaho conference referred to Kotick as a person who "likes to make a lot of noise" and spurned calls for price cuts because PlayStation consoles are unprofitable.
"We believe this is a great price," Tom Aiello, a spokesman for Sears Holding Corp., which is taking orders for the new PS3 at Kmart and Sears outlets, said in an e-mail message.
U.S. sales of video-game hardware, software and accessories tumbled for a fifth-straight month in July, led by declines in sales of the PS3 and the Wii, according to Port Washington, N.Y.-based researcher NPD Group Inc.
Sony has sold about 24 million PS3s worldwide since it debuted, the company said. Kyoto-based Nintendo leads with sales of 52.6 million Wii consoles through June, according to company reports, while Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft has sold more than 30 million Xbox 360s, according to filings.
The unit that makes the PlayStation machines posted a \39.7 billion loss last quarter after sales fell 37 percent. The Networked Products & Services Group, led by Kazuo Hirai, 48, recorded the biggest loss among the company's divisions.
Sony also announced it will start a movie store in November for the PlayStation and mobile devices. The download service will compete against Microsoft's Xbox Live, which offers movies through a partnership with NetFlix Inc.
The online services are part of Sony's plan to keep the PS3 on the market for at least 10 years.
"We are not exactly looking at a price war, but the pressure on the rivals to cut prices is rising," said Mitsushige Akino, who oversees $624 million in assets at Ichiyoshi Investment Management Co. "Wii's large sales volumes give it breathing room to cut prices, but Sony should really be more concerned about its profit margins."
[BUSINESS NEWS]
Thursday, Aug. 20, 2009
SMFG, Daiwa in talks on JV stake
Bloomberg
Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc., Japan's second-largest bank by market value, is in talks with Daiwa Securities Group Inc. to raise its stake in their investment banking joint venture, two sources said.
Sumitomo Mitsui is negotiating to raise its stake from 40 percent to a majority position, said the sources, who declined to be identified because the matter is private.
Chika Togawa, a spokeswoman for Tokyo-based Sumitomo Mitsui, declined comment, as did Daiwa spokesman Yukiko Kishino.
Sumitomo Mitsui is seeking to increase its stake in Daiwa SMBC to as much as 67 percent, the Yomiuri newspaper reported earlier Wednesday, without saying where it obtained the information.
[BUSINESS NEWS]
Thursday, Aug. 20, 2009
Toyota to buy lithium-ion batteries from Sanyo Electric for hybrids
NAGOYA (Kyodo) Toyota Motor Corp. is looking to procure lithium-ion batteries from Sanyo Electric Co. to widen the number of suppliers for its increasingly popular gas-electric hybrid vehicles, sources said Wednesday.
The quality of Sanyo's batteries is "high," a senior Toyota official said. Osaka-based Sanyo, which is scheduled to become a wholly owned subsidiary of Panasonic Corp., also supplies nickel metal hydride batteries for Honda Motor Co.'s Insight hybrid.
Toyota plans to install Sanyo's batteries, which are lighter and more powerful than the nickel metal hydride batteries currently used in the Prius and Toyota's other hybrids, in the minivan-type hybrid it is expected to launch in 2011. The company will likely procure enough supplies to make around 10,000 units per year, the sources said.
Toyota may also use them in plug-in hybrids or electric vehicles that can be charged using the household electricity grid.
Sanyo plans to produce the batteries at its new factory in Kasai, Hyogo Prefecture, which is scheduled to be completed next July, they added.
Toyota has a joint venture with Panasonic called Panasonic EV Energy Co. that produces rechargeable batteries for hybrids, but production is far behind booming orders for the redesigned Prius. If customers want to order the hybrid now, they will have to wait until after the government subsidy for energy-efficient cars expires at the end of March.
[BUSINESS NEWS]
Thursday, Aug. 20, 2009
Nissan all moved in at new HQ
Political pitchman: Former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi (center) is introduced as Nissan Motor Co. CEO Garlos Ghosn (far left), Kanagawa Gov. Shigefumi Matsuzawa (second from left), and Yokohama Mayor Hiroshi Nakada (second from right) applaud at the company's headquarters on Aug. 2. AP PHOTO
YOKOHAMA (Kyodo) About 2,800 Nissan Motor Co. employees started their first day of work Wednesday at the company's new headquarters in Yokohama's Minato Mirai district.
It's been 41 years since the automaker was last headquartered in Yokohama, the place of its birth. The company plans to sell the building that housed its previous headquarters in Tokyo's Ginza district.
The company also relocated its showroom to the new HQ.
[BUSINESS NEWS]
Thursday, Aug. 20, 2009
JAL also to resume fuel surcharges
Kyodo News
Japan Airlines said Wednesday it will resume fuel surcharges on international flights for three months from October due to a rebound in fuel prices.
For tickets issued between Oct. 1 and Nov. 30, JAL will charge a one-way surcharge of ¥10,000 on flights between Japan and Brazil, ¥7,000 on routes between Japan and North America or Europe and ¥1,500 on services between Japan and China.
The surcharges are comparable with those announced Tuesday by All Nippon Airways.
ANA said it will resume fuel surcharges for two months from October, instead of three months as in the past, in order to allow a more flexible response to market changes.
But JAL decided to reinstate three-month surcharges because more frequent changes in fares may confuse customers, the carrier said.
[BUSINESS NEWS]
Thursday, Aug. 20, 2009
Suntory to debut nonalcoholic beer
Kyodo News
Suntory Liquors Ltd. said Tuesday it will launch a nonalcoholic drink that tastes similar to beer called Suntory Fine Zero in late September, adding to the already keen competition to sell such beverages.
The new drink will hit the market Sept. 29 to compete with Kirin Brewery Co.'s Kirin Free, launched in April, and Asahi Breweries Ltd.'s Asahi Point Zero, which will debut Sept. 1.
[BUSINESS NEWS]
Thursday, Aug. 20, 2009
Sony cuts price of PlayStation 3
Pressure mounts on rivals Microsoft, Nintendo to follow suit amid slowing sales
Bloomberg
Sony Corp. has cut the price of its PlayStation 3 console by 25 percent, bowing to demands from game publishers and increasing pressure on industry leader Nintendo Co. to follow.
The PlayStation 3's price will be $299 in the United States starting Wednesday, with comparable reductions in Europe and Japan, the Tokyo-based company said at a games conference in Germany on Tuesday. Nintendo offers the Wii for $250 and Microsoft Corp. sells its Xbox 360 machine for as little as $200.
Sony Chairman Howard Stringer, who rebuffed calls for lower prices as recently as last month, reversed course after PS3 sales tumbled to a two-year low. Sales of Nintendo's market-leading Wii dropped for the first time last quarter as the global economic slump drove down consumer spending.
"The price cut may push Nintendo to lower the Wii price sooner rather than later," said Naoki Fujiwara, chief fund manager at Tokyo-based Shinkin Asset Management Co., which oversees $3.7 billion in investments. "There seems to be an increasing number of people who aren't satisfied with the Wii, so the price cut will likely help Sony entice those users."
according to Arvind Bhatia, an analyst at Sterne Agee & Leach Inc.
"We feel these hardware price cuts were much needed and are hopeful it will provide a boost to hardware and software sales this Christmas," Bhatia wrote in a report Monday.
Sony also introduced a slimmer version of the PS3 that will begin replacing current models in the first week of September. The $299 system, equipped with a 120-gigabyte storage drive and a Blu-ray player, is 32 percent smaller, 36 percent lighter and consumes 34 percent less power, the company said.
The price cut is necessary to meet sales projections of 13 million consoles worldwide in the year ending next March, Jack Tretton, head of Sony Computer Entertainment America, said in an interview Monday.
"The new PlayStation 3 pricing finally makes the Sony console a much more competitive product," Jesse Divnich, a game analyst with researcher Electronic Entertainment Design & Outreach, said in an e-mail message.
Bobby Kotick, chief executive officer of top game publisher Activision Blizzard Inc., said in June the developer of the "Guitar Hero" games may shift away from making products for Sony. Daniel DeMatteo, head of GameStop Corp., the largest video-game retailer, said in May that console prices are "too high."
Stringer, who's also Sony's chief executive officer, last month at an Idaho conference referred to Kotick as a person who "likes to make a lot of noise" and spurned calls for price cuts because PlayStation consoles are unprofitable.
"We believe this is a great price," Tom Aiello, a spokesman for Sears Holding Corp., which is taking orders for the new PS3 at Kmart and Sears outlets, said in an e-mail message.
U.S. sales of video-game hardware, software and accessories tumbled for a fifth-straight month in July, led by declines in sales of the PS3 and the Wii, according to Port Washington, N.Y.-based researcher NPD Group Inc.
Sony has sold about 24 million PS3s worldwide since it debuted, the company said. Kyoto-based Nintendo leads with sales of 52.6 million Wii consoles through June, according to company reports, while Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft has sold more than 30 million Xbox 360s, according to filings.
The unit that makes the PlayStation machines posted a \39.7 billion loss last quarter after sales fell 37 percent. The Networked Products & Services Group, led by Kazuo Hirai, 48, recorded the biggest loss among the company's divisions.
Sony also announced it will start a movie store in November for the PlayStation and mobile devices. The download service will compete against Microsoft's Xbox Live, which offers movies through a partnership with NetFlix Inc.
The online services are part of Sony's plan to keep the PS3 on the market for at least 10 years.
"We are not exactly looking at a price war, but the pressure on the rivals to cut prices is rising," said Mitsushige Akino, who oversees $624 million in assets at Ichiyoshi Investment Management Co. "Wii's large sales volumes give it breathing room to cut prices, but Sony should really be more concerned about its profit margins."
[BUSINESS NEWS]
Thursday, Aug. 20, 2009
SMFG, Daiwa in talks on JV stake
Bloomberg
Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc., Japan's second-largest bank by market value, is in talks with Daiwa Securities Group Inc. to raise its stake in their investment banking joint venture, two sources said.
Sumitomo Mitsui is negotiating to raise its stake from 40 percent to a majority position, said the sources, who declined to be identified because the matter is private.
Chika Togawa, a spokeswoman for Tokyo-based Sumitomo Mitsui, declined comment, as did Daiwa spokesman Yukiko Kishino.
Sumitomo Mitsui is seeking to increase its stake in Daiwa SMBC to as much as 67 percent, the Yomiuri newspaper reported earlier Wednesday, without saying where it obtained the information.
※コメント投稿者のブログIDはブログ作成者のみに通知されます