International News

Bloomberg BMW AG’s South Carolina SUV factory, one of the last US auto assembly plants still operating, will be idled early next month. The factory, which makes the brand’s lucrative X3, X5 and X7 sport utility vehicles, will shut down starting April 3 for more than two weeks, the German company said in a statement, confirming an earlier Bloomberg News ...

Bloomberg Jack Ma, Asia’s richest man, pledged 1.8 million face masks and 210,000 coronavirus test kits to some of the continent’s poorest nations, the latest step in an ongoing effort from his foundation to push back against what’s become a global pandemic. Ma joined Twitter on March 16 to announce that the Jack Ma Foundation and Alibaba Foundation were shipping ...

Bloomberg India’s economy, already in the grip of a slowdown, is in for more pain after Prime Minister Narendra Modi appealed to citizens to stay at and work from home to curb the coronavirus outbreak. The services sector, which accounts for about 55% of India’s gross domestic product, is poised to be the worst hit after Modi, in an address, ...

Bloomberg Thailand’s capital imposed a partial shutdown from Sunday after novel coronavirus cases surged past 400 with a rising number of people in critical condition. Malls in Bangkok will be closed, and shops offering food and essential services will be among the few that can remain open, Bangkok Governor Aswin Kwanmuang said in a briefing. The restrictions will last from ...

Bloomberg Even as its neighbours and countries around the world are aggressively shutting down restaurants, theatres and other non-essential businesses to contain the spread of the coronavirus, Singapore is boldly resisting that move. The city-state — seen as a litmus test for containing the spread of the coronavirus — is “doing its utmost” to prevent the spread without having a ...

Bloomberg Palm oil dropped to a five-month low on concern about poor purchases by top buyer India, Malaysia’s move to allow the industry to operate during a nationwide lockdown and an overnight slump in petroleum. The world’s most-consumed edible oil fell 1.3% to close at its lowest level since October as a rout in crude oil prices to an 18-year ...

Bloomberg As a 17-year-old trainee bellboy, Kuok Meng Xiong spent a summer opening doors at his family’s Island Shangri-La hotel in Hong Kong. It was here, sweating through back rooms and service corridors, that he started to learn the hard truths of running a business. Now, after more than 20 years and a career spent helping run the family’s operations ...

Bloomberg Microsoft Corp. unveiled new features for its Teams corporate-chat software, timed to the product’s third anniversary and arriving amid a surge of interest in digital workplace communications tools spurred by the Covid-19 outbreak. Several of the tools may be especially useful for employees in the new world of work from home. Real-time noise suppression should block out the sounds ...

Bloomberg The economic impact of the growing coronavirus outbreak is shifting from service-driven industries like hotels and restaurants to the manufacturing sector on both sides of the Atlantic, leading to a synchronized shutdown of heavy industry that historians and industry experts say is unlike any seen since the 1940s. Automakers in the US and Europe are idling plants in response ...

Bloomberg Tesla Inc. will hand out masks and take workers’ temperatures before they enter the carmaker’s California factory, according to an internal email laying out measures being taken while production keeps going. The company also is adding more hygiene stations and rearranging parts of the plant to promote social distancing, Valerie Workman, the carmaker’s head of human resources for North ...