Search Results for: cars

BY JONATHAN GILBERT, IN BUENOS AIRES

ARGENTINA’S protectionist economic policy and controls on imports are causing difficulties for car manufacturers across South America. Auto production is falling in the country – to a certain extent, because parts are being held up at customs – and overseas producers have taken action by cancelling exports.…

BY ALAN OSBORN, IN LONDON, AND JULIAN RYALL, IN TOKYO

EUROPE’S carmakers are setting out tough pre-conditions to anticipated negotiations between the European Union (EU) and Japan over a free trade agreement (FTA). The two sides have just finalised a "scoping exercise" setting out goals for an FTA and the EU auto sector is laying down some red lines, worried about unfair competition if European tariffs on Japanese autos are lowered or scrapped in a free trade deal.…

BY CARMEN PAUN, IN BRUSSELS; DAVID HAYHURST, IN PARIS; MICHAEL KOSMIDES; AND KEITH NUTHALL

THE DEBATE about whether compulsion or voluntarism best aids energy efficiency is one of the oldest in the electricity sectors: do we save more energy by being ordered to switch off the lights; or by being advised our bills will fall if we do?…

BY ALAN OSBORN, IN LONDON; AND KHRISTINA NARIZHNAYA, IN MOSCOW

A DEAL agreed between the 27 member countries of the European Union (EU) and Russia to help safeguard European sales of auto parts to that country is set to underpin the assault by the European motor industry on one of its biggest export markets targets.…

BY CARMEN PAUN, IN BRUSSELS

THE EUROPEAN automotive industry denounced the CO2 emissions targets for 2020 announced by Brussels yesterday as being too ambitious to be realistic. "These are tough targets – the toughest in the world", said Ivan Hodac, the secretary general of the European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA), reacting to the announcement of the European Commission, European Union’s (EU) executive body, that it would require new cars to emit on average 95g CO2 for each kilometer by 2020.…

BY NICK HOLDSWORTH, IN KALUGA, RUSSIA

CARMAKERS were celebrating on July 4 when the first of four new models rolled off a state-of-the-art production line in a 145 hectare plant in Kaluga, western Russia. The latest in an ongoing expansion of Russia’s auto sector, a bright, clean, airy and surprisingly quiet car assembly plant is surrounded by fields and forests: Peugeot Citroen’s Russian joint venture with Mitsubishi, PCMA Rus has pressed the button to start full scale production that will deliver 125,000 a year vehicles specially designed for the Russian market.…

BY ALAN OSBORN, IN LONDON; AND JONATHAN DYSON, IN LIMA

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) executive the European Commission is hoping that the negotiation of new free trade agreements (FTAs) between the EU and Colombia and Peru will be the springboard for penetration by European auto-manufacturers into markets that have been pretty well off limits to them in the past.…

BY POORNA RODRIGO, IN LONDON

THE London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games have helped to raise hopes of more joint venture deals between UK plastics recyclers and a range of food-grade plastics users keen to reduce their carbon footprints.

Management at ECO Plastics Ltd, has expanded its large and sophisticated plastics sorting facility in Lincolnshire, eastern England, through the May launch of its 10-year Continuum Recycling joint venture with Coca-Cola Enterprises Ltd (CCE), making what it claims is the world’s largest recycled plastics processing plant.…

BY MARK GODFREY, IN BEIJING

A major China food safety conference has been told that weaknesses in the country’s cold chain are undermining its already weak food safety standards.

Joaquin Pelaez, VP with responsibility for supply chain management at Yum China, was speaking at a first Focus Day for China conference, hosted by the Global Food Safety Initiative, in Beijing.…

BY CARMEN PAUN, IN BRUSSELS

THE MOMENTUM behind forging a single standard for the public charging of electric vehicles in the European Union (EU) seems to be becoming unstoppable, with the auto and electricity industries and the EU executive all backing the idea.…