Vietnam's VinFast to open India factory Jun 30, Indonesia plant in October
[HANOI] Vietnamese electric vehicle maker VinFast Auto is pushing expansion into Asian markets instead of North America and Europe, founder Pham Nhat Vuong said during a Hanoi shareholders' meeting for parent Vingroup.
VinFast has no current plans to boost sales in North America and Europe due to high logistic fees and will instead focus on India, Indonesia and the Philippines, as well as the Vietnam market, said Vuong, who is also the company's chief executive officer.
VinFast expects to open its India manufacturing plant Jun 30, followed by an Indonesia plant in October, he said.
The strategy shift follows the delayed the opening of a factory in North Carolina by three years to 2028.
VinFast expects to deliver over 200,000 vehicles in Vietnam this year, Vuong said. He said the company will be close to reaching a break-even point in the Vietnam market in 2025.
The company has been bleeding cash since it shipped its first vehicles to the US in late 2022.
VinFast's billionaire founder poured about 27.3 trillion dong (S$1.4 billion) into the company in 2023 and 2024 from his personal wealth, according to Vingroup's audited financial report released late last month.
In November, he committed to give about US$2 billion from his personal wealth to the company through 2026 and said last year that he was willing to bet all his money on the company's growth.
Meanwhile, Vingroup said in November it would loan VinFast as much as US$1.38 billion. BLOOMBERG
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Straits Times
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- Straits Times
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The global average is 2.5 per cent. Mr Hegseth at the Shangri-La Dialogue urged countries in the region to take a leaf from the Europeans and pledge defence budgets of 5 per cent of GDP. 'His suggestion is tone deaf and not in line with the realities on the ground,' Dr Collin Koh, a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) in Singapore, told The Straits Times. Emerging economies in South-east Asia are already stretching their limited fiscal resources to meet urgent needs in infrastructure, healthcare and education. Most do not feel they have the luxury to splurge on defence, he noted. 'Most countries in the region would rather spend on socio-economic priorities, because that's what wins votes,' said Dr Koh. 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It also hopes Washington can exempt its automakers from a 25 per cent tariff on automobiles, Japan's biggest industry. Still, Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and Defence Minister Gen Nakatani have both rejected the idea of setting defence spending targets at the behest of another country, reiterating that Japan will determine its own budget independently. But Japan's chief tariff negotiator, Mr Ryosei Akazawa, who was in Washington on June 5-8 for a fifth round of talks, have suggested leaving that option open. Amid perceptions that the US commitment to its security alliance with Japan was wavering, senior fellow Ippeita Nishida of the Tokyo-based Sasakawa Peace Foundation think-tank told ST that Japan would likely raise its defence spending beyond 2 per cent. This was a figure that Mr Ishiba himself has previously said might not be enough to defend the country. In the case of Australia, when Mr Hegseth met his Australian counterpart on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue, he told the Pacific nation to boost its defence spending to 3.5 per cent of its GDP 'as soon as possible'. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese responded by saying his country would spend based on its defence needs. His government has previously set a defence budget goal of 2.3 per cent of GDP by 2033-2034. Mr Albanese had won a general election in May, in which the message of standing up for Australia against America proved popular among voters. Mr Hegseth's sales pitch for Asian nations to spend more on US arms may sound compelling to the hawks in Washington. But in the diverse political and economic landscape of the Indo-Pacific, his message risks being dismissed as out of touch. National interests here are shaped less by ideological rivalry and more by domestic imperatives and long-term pragmatism. For many countries in the region, development still trumps deterrence. Yew Lun Tian is a senior foreign correspondent who covers China for The Straits Times. Walter Sim is Japan correspondent at The Straits Times. Based in Tokyo, he writes about political, economic and socio-cultural issues. Wahyudi Soeriaatmadja has been Indonesia correspondent at The Straits Times since 2008, and is based in Jakarta. Join ST's WhatsApp Channel and get the latest news and must-reads.
Straits Times
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International Business Times
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Asia's Markets Slide as Trump-Musk Clash Rattles Tech Stocks, All Eyes Now on US Payrolls
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