China’s world-leading train maker CRRC has gained control of one-quarter of the European diesel-locomotive market in a single purchase costing less than 10m euros.
All shoppers are familiar with the offer of a discount at checkout in exchange for taking out a store credit card. Their wallets may already be stuffed with plastic bearing the names of retailers including Amazon.com, Gap, JC?Penney, and Lowe’s — but there’s often one company behind all of them.
Chinese factories are normally at their busiest during the third quarter, cranking out production of everything from Barbie dolls to miniature trucks in time to ship them over the ocean to the U.S. ahead of the all-important holiday shopping season. This year’s different.
Conditions for the cotton crop in the U.S., the world’s biggest exporter, are deteriorating as dry weather erodes planting prospects in Texas, the top state grower.
India is considering relaxing local sourcing norms for foreign companies that sell only their own brand, a move that is likely to encourage Apple Inc. to set up stores.
Beyond an unsustainable pension system Brazil is working to fix, there’s a vast web of smaller bureaucratic hindrances holding back Latin America’s largest economy.
