BERLIN, March 17 (Reuters) – Volkswagen (VOWG_p.DE) plans to invest in mines to bring down the cost of battery cells, meet half of its own demand and sell to third-party customers, the carmaker’s board member in charge of technology said.
Europe’s biggest carmaker wants its battery unit PowerCo to become a global battery supplier, not just produce for Volkswagen’s own needs, Thomas Schmall told Reuters in an interview.
PowerCo will start by delivering cells to Ford (F.N) for the 1.2 million vehicles the U.S. carmaker is building in Europe on Volkswagen’s electric MEB platform, he said.
Long-term, Volkswagen plans to build enough cells to meet half its global battery needs, with most production capacity located in Europe and North America, according to Schmall.
“The bottleneck for raw materials is mining capacity – that’s why we need to invest in mines directly,” he said.
The carmaker was partnering on supply deals with mining companies in Canada, where it will build its first North American battery plant.
Schmall declined to comment on further locations under consideration or where or when Volkswagen might invest directly in mines, saying the company would not disclose that information until the market was more settled.
“In future, there will be a select number of battery standards. Through our large volume and third-party sales business, we want to be one of those standards,” he said.
AMBITIOUS ROADMAP
Making or sourcing batteries at a reasonable cost is a key challenge for carmakers like Volkswagen, Tesla (TSLA.O) and Stellantis (STLAM.MI) as they seek to make electric vehicles (EVs) affordable.
Only Tesla has pledged more investment into battery production than Volkswagen, according to a Reuters analysis – though even the U.S. EV maker is struggling to ramp up production and is recruiting Asian suppliers to help.
Few carmakers have disclosed direct stakes in mines, but many have struck deals with producers to source materials like lithium, nickel and cobalt and pass them onto their battery suppliers.
PowerCo, set up last year, is targeting 20 billion euros ($21.22 billion) in annual sales by 2030.
It’s an ambitious roadmap for a unit not yet producing at scale. Production will start in 2025 at PowerCo’s plant in Salzgitter, Germany, 2026 in Valencia, Spain and 2027 in Ontario, Canada.
Still, Schmall is confident the carmaker can expand quickly – and must do so if it wants to build an affordable EV, in which 40% of the costs come from the battery.
Volkswagen released on Thursday the details of a 25,000-euro EV it aims to sell in Europe from 2025.
China’s BYD, which also produces batteries, is far ahead of Volkswagen in the affordable EV race and outsold the German carmaker for the second time in four months in China in February.
REDUCING COSTS
In Volkswagen’s 180-billion-euro five year spending plan, up to 15 billion is earmarked for its three announced battery plants and some raw material sourcing.
The carmaker has so far nailed down raw material supply until 2026 – by which time the German and Spanish plants will be in operation – and will decide in the next few months how to meet its demand from then on, Schmall said in the interview.
It has also ordered some $14 billion in batteries from Northvolt’s Swedish plant.
“Bringing down battery costs further is a challenge,” Schmall said. “We’re using all the instruments with PowerCo.”
Asian producers like CATL, LG Chem and Samsung SDI dominate global cell production, with almost half of planned battery cell capacity in Europe by Asian players.
Half the staff at Volkswagen’s PowerCo are industry veterans from Asia, Schmall said, enabling the battery unit to enter the industry at the top of the learning curve.
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Reporting by Victoria Waldersee; Editing by Susan Fenton
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HONG KONG, March 7 (Reuters) – Hong Kong, one of the world’s top luxury shopping destinations, is losing its lustre as high-end retail properties go vacant and famous foreign brands reduce exposure to the city in favour of opening new outlets in mainland China.
Glitzy Hong Kong shopping streets once packed with luxury stores that attracted 56 million visitors in pre-pandemic 2019 now have about half of their shop units sitting vacant, according to property management companies.
Rents in Tsim Sha Tsui are down 41% from pre-pandemic levels, according to property firm Cushman & Wakefield (CWK.N), and last year the retail district was displaced as the world’s most expensive shopping real estate by New York’s Fifth Avenue.
Canton Road, the most famous shopping street in Tsim Sha Tsui, has a vacancy rate of about 53%, according to global property company Savills (SVS.L).
“Most luxury retailers don’t think Hong Kong will return to the dizzy levels of 2014 when the market here peaked,” said Simon Smith, Savills’ senior director of research and consultancy in Hong Kong.
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“If you walk around the major shopping areas you won’t see the queues outside luxury boutiques or if you do they are very short,” Smith said.
In place of stores shut by Tiffany, Valentino, Burberry (BRBY.L) and other big brands over the last three years, including in Tsim Sha Tsui, Central and Causeway Bay shopping districts, pharmacies and sports apparel outlets for brands like Adidas (ADSGn.DE) and Sweaty Betty have moved in.
Luxury and big brand retail companies mentioned in the story did not respond to requests for comment.
The store closures came after pro-democracy protests and the crackdown that followed pushed sales into a slump which worsened under nearly three years of stringent COVID rules.
Over that period, Hong Kong suffered around a 30% plunge in overall retail sales compared to 2018 levels, largely due to a tumble in mainland visitors because of travel restrictions. Tourists from greater China are the main driver of Hong Kong’s branded retail and luxury goods market.
Hong Kong retail data doesn’t break out luxury goods separately but the sector was hit hard as China accounted for almost 80% of inbound tourists in 2019. Jewellery, watches, clocks and valuable gifts sales in 2022 at HK$38.8 billion ($4.9 billion), for instance, were less than half their 2018 value.
And while inbound travellers in January tripled from December as COVID restrictions were lifted and travel resumed, arrivals were still only about 10% of 2019 levels.
Morgan Stanley (MS.N) forecast Hong Kong visitor numbers this year will reach just 70% of 2018 arrivals. It estimates retail sales will grow 15%, holding at around 80% of retail trade from the pre-COVID year.
MANY MORE ALTERNATIVES
Many luxury brands expanded in mainland China during the pandemic, opening stores in far-flung locations to reach consumers unable to travel. Tourist destinations such as resort island Hainan and Macau also have become popular alternatives as China sought to develop multiple duty and tax free destinations.
Visitors to Macau in January more than tripled from December, hitting 40% of the level of January 2019. Hainan, which reported visitor growth even during the pandemic, saw arrivals rise 11% between Jan. 8 and Feb. 15 compared to the same period a year earlier, according to the government.
“(Hong Kong) will never be back to the level it was, like a decade ago, when it was the only, I would say, duty free location where Chinese would go,” L’Oreal (OREP.PA) CEO Nicolas Hieronimus told Reuters.
“Now they have many more options.”
Duty free malls in Hainan, where tourists are the main customers, reported an 84% jump in sales in 2021, the latest data from consultancy Bain & Co showed, outpacing the mainland’s average growth rate of 36% in luxury sales for that year.
Hainan also accounted for 13% of China’s domestic luxury spend in 2021 versus 6% pre-pandemic, and tax regulations are set to ease further, allowing more duty-free stores to open.
That helped China’s domestic luxury sales double to 471 billion yuan ($68.8 billion) in 2021 from 2019, according to Bain. That outstripped total Hong Kong retail sales from a peak hit in 2013 at HK$494.5 billion ($63.0 billion), according to the city’s statistics department.
This imbalance in favour of increasing sales in China had big luxury brands opening stores across the country over the last few years, according to filings and company websites.
Hermes (HRMS.PA), with 27 stores in the mainland, opened a new, enlarged store in Nanjing in January, relocating to upscale mall Deji Plaza. It first opened a store in 2010 in the eastern city.
Gucci owner Kering (PRTP.PA) opened nine boutiques in Greater China in 2021; upscale men’s suit maker Brioni opened stores in Chengdu, Wuhan and Shenzhen; jeweller Boucheron opened two mainland stores.
Saint Laurent, another Kering brand, opened its first flagship stores in Shanghai and Beijing in 2019. The group’s jeweller Qeelin has also been expanding in the mainland and opened its largest flagship store in China in Shanghai in 2021.
Despite the increasing investment in the mainland, some are still hopeful about the long-term outlook for Hong Kong as global economies and holiday travel recover.
“Macau is another tax free destination and Hainan is duty free. Yet, you don’t find the breadth and depth of mono-brand stores in Hainan that you can find in Hong Kong,” Luca Solca, managing director for luxury goods at investment management firm Sanford C. Bernstein, told Reuters.
“Hong Kong remains very attractive for Chinese consumers.”
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Reporting by Farah Master, Jessie Pang, Anne Marie Roantree, Angel Woo and Donny Kwok in Hong Kong, Sophie Yu in Beijing, and Mimosa Spencer in Paris; Writing by Miyoung Kim; Editing by Tom Hogue
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Feb 24 (Reuters) – A California federal judge on Thursday dismissed antitrust claims against commercial real estate information services company CoStar Group Inc (CSGP.O), in a feud with an industry rival platform that alleged it was unlawfully boxed out of competition.
U.S. District Judge Consuelo Marshall in Los Angeles found CoStar’s commercial real estate listing practices and contracting terms were not anticompetitive and that allegations in the case failed to show the company held monopoly power.
The order addressed counterclaims against CoStar in its intellectual property lawsuit against rival Commercial Real Estate Exchange Inc (CREXi).
CREXi had alleged CoStar “spent billions of dollars buying up and elbowing out competitors.” CREXi competes with industry leader CoStar, which saw $2.1 billion in revenue last year, for online commercial real estate data and technology services.
In the counterclaims, CREXi claimed CoStar was abusing its power in an effort to stop brokers from working with it.
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The court’s ruling said CREXi could not refile antitrust claims. Los Angeles-based CREXi still has a pending trademark infringement claim against CoStar.
A representative from CREXi and lawyers for the company at Keker, Van Nest & Peters did not immediately respond on Friday to messages seeking comment.
Washington, D.C.-based CoStar in a statement said CREXi’s “competition claims were long on bombastic hyperbole, but utterly devoid of substance.”
CoStar’s lawsuit alleged CREXi was attempting to use stolen content from CoStar and unauthorized use of its services to build a competing platform.
CoStar said last week in an updated complaint it had “identified more than 50,000 CoStar-copyrighted photographs copied, displayed, or reproduced by CREXi without permission.”
A trial in the underlying copyright case is set for next year.
The case is CoStar Group Inc v Commercial Real Estate Exchange Inc, U.S. District Court, Central District of California, 2:20-cv-08819-CBM-AS.
For plaintiff: Nick Boyle and Jessica Stebbins Bina of Latham & Watkins
For defendant: Elliot Peters and Warren Braunig of Keker, Van Nest & Peters
Reporting by Mike Scarcella; editing by Leigh Jones
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KAMPALA, Jan 24 (Reuters) – Uganda will commission on Tuesday the first of its four planned oil drilling rigs and start drilling the first production well, its petroleum agency said, a key milestone as the country races to meet its target of first oil output in 2025.
The East African nation discovered commercial reserves of petroleum nearly two decades ago but production has been repeatedly delayed by a lack of infrastructure like a pipeline.
“Today we mark another milestone and move a step closer to first oil with the launch of the drilling of development and production wells for the Kingfisher oil fields,” government-run Petroleum Authority of Uganda (PAU) said on Twitter.
PAU, which regulates the petroleum sector, said President Yoweri Museveni was due to officiate “at the Spudding (drilling) campaign launch” at a site in Kingfisher project area, one of the country’s two commercial oil development areas.
Kingfisher, located near the southern flank of Lake Albert in the country’s west, is operated by China’s CNOOC (0883.HK). Uganda’s second project area, Tilenga, located north of Lake Albert astride River Nile, is operated by France’s TotalEnergies (TTEF.PA).
The two firms co-own all of Uganda’s existing oilfields alongside the state-run Uganda National Oil Company (UNOC).
At peak, Uganda plans to produce about 230,000 barrels of crude oil per day.
The rig due to be launched on Tuesday, will be used to drill a total of 31 wells in Kingfisher while three rigs to be deployed later in Tilenga project area will drill a total of 426 production wells, according to the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development.
Uganda’s crude reserves are estimated at 6.5 billion barrels, of which 1.4 billion barrels are recoverable.
The country will export its crude through an electrically heated, 1443-kilomtere pipeline from the oilfields to neighbouring Tanzania’s Indian Ocean seaport of Tanga.
Reporting by Elias Biryabarema; Editing by George Obulutsa and Rashmi Aich
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Nov 30 (Reuters) – Johnson & Johnson’s (JNJ.N) Janssen unit has sued Amgen Inc (AMGN.O) over its plan to market a drug for ulcerative colitis and other conditions similar to J&J’s top-selling Stelara, saying it would infringe two patents in a lawsuit made public on Wednesday.
Stelara accounted for $9.1 billion of J&J’s $52 billion in global drug sales last year. Sales for the first nine months of this year were $7.3 billion, up 7.9% over the same period last year.
The drug is also approved to treat Crohn’s disease, the skin condition psoriasis and a related form of arthritis. It is a biologic drug, meaning it is made inside living cells.
A 2009 law allows companies to make so-called biosimilar versions of biologic drugs that can be substituted for them, much like generic versions of conventional drugs. However, J&J alleges that Amgen failed to follow the legal process required by that law for the companies to litigate any patent disputes.
If Amgen launches its drug, J&J said it would infringe J&J’s patent on the drug’s active ingredient and on its use for treating ulcerative colitis.
J&J told the court that an Amgen filing indicates the U.S. Food and Drug Administration could approve its biosimilar in the second or third quarter of 2023, and that Amgen intends to start selling it as early as next May.
Amgen did not immediately respond to a request for comment. J&J said in a statement that Janssen is “confident in its intellectual property and has filed suit to protect its rights.”
Reporting by Brendan Pierson in New York and Blake Brittain in Washington; Editing by Lisa Shumaker
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Nov 22 (Reuters) – Japan’s Mazda Motor Corp (7261.T) will invest about 1.5 trillion yen ($10.58 billion)to electrify its vehicles, including boosting production of battery EVs, and aims to increase their share in the company’s overall global car sales by 2030.
Mazda’s senior managing executive officer Akira Koga said the investment would be made along with its “partners”, without elaborating, and will be used for research and development. The news was first reported by the Nikkei business daily.
The ratio of electric vehicles (EVs) in global sales is expected to rise to between 25 percent and 40 percent as of 2030, from 25% previously, the company said in a statement.
Mazda CEO Akira Marumoto also told a news conference that the company had reached an agreement with Envision AESC, the battery business of Chinese renewable energy group Envision, to procure batteries for EVs produced in Japan.
The automaker also said it had agreed to work with seven companies, including electric component manufacturer Rohm Co (6963.T), to jointly develop and produce electric drive units.
Automakers worldwide are spending billions of dollars to ramp up battery and EV production in the face of tougher environmental regulations.
In August, Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T) said it would invest up to 730 billion yen in Japan and the United States to make batteries for fully electric vehicles as opposed to hybrid gasoline-electric cars like the Prius.
Its rival Honda Motor Co (7267.T) also said in the same month it would build a new $4.4 billion lithium-ion battery plant for EVs in the United States with Korean battery supplier LG Energy Solution Ltd (373220.KS).
Mazda is aiming for about 4.5 trillion yen in net sales for the business year ending March 2026, a jump of about 45% from the financial year ending March 2022, the company said.
Shoichi Matsumoto, Envision AESC chief executive, told Reuters last month it was in talks with automakers in Japan, Europe, the United States and China for new supply deals.
Envision AESC, based in Japan, was originally established as a joint venture between Nissan Motor Co (7201.T), NEC Corp (6701.T) and its subsidiary NEC TOKIN Corporation.
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Reporting by Tokyo Newsroom; Editing by Christopher Cushing, Kenneth Maxwell and Ana Nicolaci da Costa
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Nov 8 (Reuters) – Electric-truck maker Nikola Corp (NKLA.O) said on Tuesday it will partner with charging company ChargePoint Holdings (CHPT.N) to speed up the deployment of the required infrastructure for commercial EVs.
Many fleet operators are inclined to use more electric vehicles as they aim to reduce carbon emissions and meet sustainability targets, however, the lack of proper infrastructure has been a deterrent.
Nikola said with access to ChargePoint’s products it will be able to reduce the time required to build infrastructure projects that will help its customers manage charging of their vehicles, plan schedules and streamline delivery routes.
The companies, however, declined to provide the financial details of the partnership.
The announcement of the deal comes a week after Nikola said that scaling up charging infrastructure for fleets was a hurdle, exacerbated by end-customers’ reluctance to spend capital for the development.
Nikola expects such challenges to continue and limit uptake of its Tre battery electric semi truck.
It said the company would miss its target of delivering at least 300 vehicles this year and declined to issue fresh forecasts, citing macroeconomic uncertainty clouding visibility of its future.
Phoenix, Arizona-based Nikola has placed orders for ChargePoint’s fast charging solution, E-Skids, and deliveries are expected to begin as early as this month.
(This story has been refiled to remove extraneous text from headline)
Reporting by Akash Sriram in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli
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HONG KONG/BEIJING, Nov 2 (Reuters) – Chinese policymakers pledged on Wednesday that growth was still a priority and they would press on with reforms, helping further boost stock markets buoyed by hopes that Beijing will ease off on its strict COVID-19 measures.
The policymakers’ comments came in an apparent bid to soothe fears that ideology could take precedence as Xi Jinping began a new leadership term and strict COVID curbs exact a growing toll on the world’s second-largest economy.
Even though case numbers are rising and disruptive lockdowns continue with no clear exit strategy in sight, investors latched on to hope that China may ease its strict COVID policy in the coming months.
“We believe China could soon fine-tune its COVID restrictions, with a more targeted approach, less restrictive quarantine guidance and the more balanced assessment of the virus,” Morgan Stanley analysts said in a note.
China and Hong Kong stocks ended higher for a second session on Wednesday, and U.S.-listed Chinese stocks rose in premarket trading.
On the ground, however, there were no signs of an ease up. Renewed COVID lockdowns are weighing heavily on China’s business activity and consumer confidence.
In the latest fallout, electric vehicle maker NIO said it suspended production in the eastern city of Hefei amid rising COVID-19 cases and Yum China , operator of the KFC and Pizza Hut chains, said it was temporarily closing or reducing services at over 1,000 of its restaurants in China.
Luxury goods companies Estee Lauder Cos Inc (EL.N) and Canada Goose Holdings Inc (GOOS.TO), also cut their full-year forecasts, blaming a hit from persistent COVID-19-related lockdowns and store closures in China.
Xi secured a third term as general secretary at the ruling Communist Party’s twice-a-decade congress last month, when he urged the party to brace for hardship and strengthen national security, and renewed his support for the zero-COVID policy, despite the fragile economy.
In pre-recorded interviews for the Global Financial Leaders’ Investment Summit in Hong Kong, senior officials from China’s central bank, securities and banking regulators assured their audience via a video link that China would keep its currency and property markets stable, and remained committed to a pro-growth economic strategy.
“International investors should read more carefully about the work report that President Xi delivered” at the congress, said Fang Xinghai, vice chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC).
“There, he re-emphasized the centrality of economic growth in the entire work of the Party and the country, and that’s very significant,” showing China is fully focused on growth, he said.
Fang also criticised international media coverage, saying that a lot of reports “really don’t understand China very well” and had a short-term focus.
As foreign funds head for the exits, Chinese investors have been snapping up cheapened shares of mainland firms, betting that outside views of China have been excessively negative. read more
OPEN-DOOR POLICY
Yi Gang, governor of the People’s Bank of China (PBOC), said China will continue to deregulate its markets.
“Reform and open-door policy will continue,” Yi said.
Apparently seeking to ease worries over the impact of COVID lockdowns and a property market crisis, Yi said “the Chinese economy has remained broadly on track despite some challenges and downward pressure.”
“I expect China’s potential growth rate to remain in a reasonable range,” Yi said, citing the country’s “super large” market, a rising middle-class, technological innovation and a high-quality infrastructure network.
Separately, in a book entitled “A Supplementary Reading of the 20th Communist Party Congress Report” and cited in local media on Wednesday, Yi said China is in a position to maintain “normal” monetary policy and “positive” interest rates.
Global interest rate hikes have pressured yuan assets, and it is impossible for China to keep cutting interest rates in the long run, Wang Jun, director at China Chief Economist Forum, told Reuters.
While other countries have been tightening policy to battle rising prices, China has implemented an accommodative monetary policy to shore up sputtering growth, raising concerns about capital flight. The yuan has weakened roughly 13% against the dollar this year.
But Yi said the yuan has appreciated against other major currencies, “maintaining its purchasing power and keeping its value stable.”
CRISES
Noting China’s property crisis, and the sector’s links to other many other industries, Yi said, “We hope the housing market can achieve a soft landing.”
With China’s zero-COVID policy expected to remain in place through at least the winter, or longer, its near-term growth outlook is bleak.
Fears of renewed disruptions to global supply chains are resurfacing.
On Wednesday, a Chinese industrial park that hosts an iPhone factory belonging to Foxconn (2317.TW) announced a fresh lockdown.
“We expect Beijing to maintain its zero-Covid strategy at least until March 2023,” according to Nomura.
After surprisingly high gross domestic product growth of 3.9% in the third quarter, Nomura expects growth to drop again, with zero or even negative sequential growth from the previous quarter.
“We maintain our GDP growth forecast of 2.8% year-on-year for the fourth quarter with a corresponding sequential growth forecast at 0.0%.”
Reporting by Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing and Bengaluru newsrooms; Writing by Samuel Shen, Ryan Woo and Paritosh Bansal; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore and Kim Coghill
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MEXICO CITY, Oct 27 (Reuters) – Auto manufacturing companies Volkswagen and Continental both pledged major investments in Mexico on Thursday totaling nearly $1 billion, one of the biggest sums for the sector to be announced in a single day during the current government.
Volkswagen (VOWG_p.DE) said it will invest $763.5 million between 2022 and 2025 at its complex in the central state of Puebla, one of Volkswagen’s largest facilities globally, to build a new paint plant and start production of a new gasoline-powered car.
The company, which currently makes Jetta, Taos and Tiguan models at the plant, did not detail which car it would add to the line-up.
It added that the paint plant would be powered by wind turbines, becoming the carmaker’s first to run exclusively on clean energy
.
Earlier in the day, fellow German auto parts maker Continental AG (CONG.DE) said it would invest around 210 million euros ($209.16 million) to open a new automotive electronics factory and expand capacity at an existing brake components plant in the central state of Guanajuato.
Both projects are nearly completed, with openings expected early next year, it said in a statement.
Continental said it expects to generate more than 1,500 new jobs over the next three years through the expansion.
Among the other large auto companies pumping money into the country is General Motors, which last year announced a $1 billion investment at its Ramos Arizpe complex, where it will begin making electric vehicles in 2023.
Nissan in May announced a $700 million investment over the next three years.
Jeep maker Stellantis is also reported to be looking to invest billions to make electric vehicles in Mexico, while Tesla chief executive Elon Musk is considering investing in the north of the country, sources told Reuters this week.
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Reporting by Isabel Woodford; Editing by Christian Plumb and Jonathan Oatis
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Oct 18 (Reuters) – Amazon Web Services (AWS),the cloud computing division of Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O), said on Monday it plans to invest $5 billion in Thailand over the next 15 years to strengthen its infrastructure in the country.
The investment would include construction of data centers and purchase of goods and services from regional businesses, AWS said in a statement.
It also plans to set up an infrastructure hub in Thailand’s Bangkok to help customers in the region securely store data, and serve end users better.
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“AWS’ plan to build data centers in Thailand is a significant milestone that will bring advanced cloud computing services to more organizations and help us deliver our Thailand 4.0 ambition to create a digitized, value-based economy,” Thailand’s Deputy Prime Minister Supattanapong Punmeechaow said.
AWS’ cloud platform offers more than 200 services, including storage, robotics and artificial intelligence.
AWS last month opened its first cloud data center in UAE and announced plans to setup a local hub in Mexico to boost bandwidth for clients.
Since 2020, AWS has launched 10 Amazon cloudfront edge locations in Bangkok. The edge locations help to deliver data, videos and applications at higher speeds to end users.
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Reporting by Kanjyik Ghosh and Ann Maria Shibu in Bengaluru; Editing by Dhanya Ann Thoppil
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