China's Insta360 targets US growth after $270m IPO despite trade war
PALO ALTO, California -- Chinese panoramic camera maker Insta360 is eying further growth in the U.S. after raising 1.94 billion yuan ($270 million) in its market debut in Shanghai on Wednesday.
Specializing in 360-degree filming devices, Insta360 surged on its first day of trading on the Shanghai Stock Exchange Science and Technology Innovation board on Wednesday, opening 285% above its IPO price. It is the largest listing on the Nasdaq-like STAR market year to date.
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Nikkei Asia
7 hours ago
- Nikkei Asia
US-China trade truce leaves businesses still facing daunting tariffs
NEW YORK -- The trade deal the U.S. and China hammered out in London this week still leaves American importers saddled with heavy tariff burdens and uncertainty on how to conduct their business, after President Donald Trump said levies of up to 55% would continue to be charged on Chinese goods. Trump on Wednesday also said he will be sending letters informing other countries of unilateral tariff rates in the next couple of weeks.
Yomiuri Shimbun
8 hours ago
- Yomiuri Shimbun
Mid-Year Gift Sales Campaigns Begin at Department Stores; Rice Dishes among Bonuses Offered to Shoppers
The Yomiuri Shimbun Customers examine products at a corner for mid-year gifts at the Nihombashi Takashimaya department store in Chuo Ward, Tokyo. Department stores have now started their mid-year gift sales campaigns. As consumers have become tighter with money due to surging prices, these stores have begun to offer a greater variety of food sets that allow consumers to enjoy the taste of luxury hotels and restaurants at home. With the recent trend of rice prices spiking, some stores are also offering various rice dishes, including ones served at long-established ryotei Japanese-style restaurants, and giving away rice as a bonus to customers who purchase summer gifts. Products at affordable prices Nihombashi Takashimaya department store in Chuo Ward, Tokyo, opened a corner for mid-year gifts on June 5. As a special feature called 'Puchi Zeitaku,' (Petit luxury), it is offering limited products, such as the popular dim sum served at the Chinese restaurant of high-class hotel The Peninsula Tokyo, priced at ¥8,640 after tax; and chirashizushi, a kind of sushi including with various ingredients, from a long-established sushi restaurant, priced at ¥5,940 after tax. In celebration of the 2025 Osaka-Kansai Expo, it is also offering Osaka foods, such as a set of takoyaki and okonomiyaki. 'We want people to enjoy cuisine from famous restaurants at affordable prices despite the current uncertain economic situation,' said an official in charge. The Nihombashi Mitsukoshi Main Store in Chuo Ward, Tokyo, opened a gift center on June 4. Among the gifts on display is a boxed lunch containing snow crab prepared by the long-established ryotei restaurant Nadaman Co. The store also has a variety of dishes from around the world, such as wines and cheeses imported from France, Italy and other countries, so that customers can enjoy a taste of the feeling of traveling abroad. These products can be purchased at physical Mitsukoshi and Isetan stores as well as online. Products for personal use In the past, it was common for company employees to send mid-year gifts to their superiors and others. However, as growing numbers of people are abandoning traditions like this which they see as empty formalities, the market for mid-year gifts has been shrinking. According to the Yano Research Institute, the market for mid-year gifts in 2025 is expected to be ¥580 billion, down ¥39 billion from the previous year and a nearly 20% decrease from 2020. On the other hand, people tend to spend more money on gifts for close friends and relatives, so there is high demand for luxury gifts. In particular, Western confectionary, such as ice cream and cakes made by famous patissiers which can be purchased only during this time of the year, are popular even for people to buy for themselves. 'Department stores are strengthening their lineups of high-end items — Some of these products are priced at over ¥10,000 yen each,' explained a member of the research institute. Giving away rice to customers Department stores have also started offering products and services in response to this year's rise in rice prices. Matsuya Ginza in Chuo Ward, Tokyo, opened a mid-year gift corner on Wednesday. Anticipating high demand for rice dishes, the department store prepared a lineup of 'Gohan Gourmet' rice products from a Kyoto-based long-established ryotei restaurant, including okowa, or glutinous rice steamed with red beans or other ingredients, and ankake-don, or rice covered in a thick starchy sauce. Sogo & Seibu Co. is offering two cups, or about 300 grams, of vacuum-packed Koshihikari rice from Nagano Prefecture to the first 10,000 customers who purchase products worth a total of ¥15,000 or more after tax at its mid-year gift centers in all stores. This is the first time that the company has given rice as a present to its customers. 'We hope to please those who will give gifts to others,' said an official of the company.
Japan Today
8 hours ago
- Japan Today
Critical minerals give China an edge in trade negotiations
A town is built among the hills near Ganzhou in southern China's Jiangxi province on March 19. By SIMINA MISTREANU China's dominance over critical minerals in global supply chains was a powerful bargaining chip in trade talks between Beijing and Washington that concluded with both sides saying they have a framework to pursue a deal. China has spent decades building the world's main industrial chain for mining and processing such materials, which are used in many industries such as electronics, advanced manufacturing, defense and health care. Mines and factories in and around Ganzhou, a key production hub for rare earths, underpin China's control over the minerals. Many residents grew up collecting rocks containing the valuable minerals from the forested hills surrounding the southern city and today make a living from mining, trading or processing them. Responding to ever higher tariffs and other controls on advanced technology, China told exporters of certain key rare earths and other critical minerals to obtain licenses for every shipment abroad. Approvals can take weeks, leading to supply chain disruptions in the U.S. and other countries. President Donald Trump said Wednesday that China would make it easier for American industry to obtain much-needed needed magnets and rare earth minerals, clearing the way for talks to continue between the world's two biggest economies. In return, Trump said, the U.S. will stop efforts to revoke the visas of Chinese nationals on U.S. college campuses. But details remain scarce. Beijing has not confirmed what the negotiators agreed to, and Chinese President Xi Jinping and Trump himself have yet to sign off on it. The Chinese Commerce Ministry said Saturday it had approved a 'certain number' of export licenses for rare earth products, apparently acknowledging Trump's personal request to Xi during a phone call last week. And on Wednesday, the Ganzhou-based rare-earth conglomerate JL MAG Rare-Earth Co. confirmed it had obtained some export licenses for shipments to destinations including the U.S., Europe and Southeast Asia. Experts say, however, Beijing is unlikely to do away with the permit system enabling it to control access to those valuable resources. The only scenario in which China might deregulate its critical minerals export is if the U.S. first fully removes tariffs imposed on Chinese goods as part of the trade war, said Wang Yiwei, a professor of international affairs at Renmin University, echoing the Chinese government's earlier stance. 'Without that,' he said, 'it will be difficult to blame China for continuing to strengthen its export controls.' In 1992, Deng Xiaoping, the leader who launched China's ascent as the world's biggest manufacturing power, famously said 'the Middle East has oil, China has rare earths,' signaling a desire to leverage access to the key minerals. Several generations later, Beijing has made its rich reserves of rare earths, a group of 17 minerals that are abundant in the earth's crust but hard, expensive and environmentally polluting to process, a key element of China's economic security. In 2019, during a visit to a rare earth processing plant in Ganzhou, Xi described rare earths as a 'vital strategic resource.' China today has an essential monopoly over 'heavy rare earths,' used for making powerful, heat-resistance magnets used in industries such as defense and electric vehicles. The country also produces around 80% of the world's tungsten, gallium and antimony, and 60% of the world's germanium -– all minerals used in the making of semiconductors, among other advanced technologies. The risks of dependency on Chinese suppliers first came into focus in 2010, when Beijing suspended rare earths exports to Japan due to a territorial dispute. The ban was lifted after about two months, but as a precaution, Japan invested in rare earths processing plants in other countries and began stockpiling the materials. Beijing's across-the-board requirement for export licenses for some critical minerals has put pressure on world electronics manufacturers and automakers. Some auto parts makers in Europe have shut down production lines due to delays in supply deliveries, according to the European Association of Automotive Suppliers. In the U.S., Tesla CEO Elon Musk said a shortage of rare earths is affecting his company's work on humanoid robots. In the drab industrial hub of Ganzhou, cradled by the scenic Dayu Mountains, the U.S.-China trade war is still a distant stressor. Miners and small mineral traders interviewed by The Associated Press said they are more concerned about depleting the mountains' once-abundant resources. Zhong, a tungsten factory manager in Ganzhou who would only give his last name, worked his way up to manager from a miner, but he's unsure there is a future for him and others in the industry. 'I find growing difficulties to source tungsten these days,' he said, adding that smaller mines and trading companies are slowly disappearing as the resources are dwindling. Tungsten is an ultra-hard metal used in armor-piercing ammunition, nuclear reactors and semiconductors. At least five tungsten mines have closed in the area in recent years, according to state media. Remaining reserves are deeper and harder to extract and process after decades of exploitation, said Li Shangkui, chairman of the Ganzhou-based Jiangxi Yuean Advanced Materials Co., Ltd. Processing factories in Ganzhou now routinely source materials from other provinces or other countries. Zhong's plant imports some raw materials from places like Africa and Cambodia. Major state-owned and private companies in Ganzhou are also ramping up investments abroad. Tungsten producer Ganzhou Haisheng, for instance, announced last year a $25 million investment in a new tungsten plant in Thailand. Whatever the challenges in procuring raw materials, China likely will seek to maintain its dominance in critical minerals, said Fabian Villalobos, an engineer and critical minerals expert at the RAND think tank. Between 2020 and 2023, the U.S. imported at least 70% of the rare earth compounds it used from China, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. It has diversified its sources in recent years, but still mainly relies on China. Since beginning his second term in office, Trump has made improving access to critical minerals a matter of national security. But the U.S. has an incredibly long way to go to catch up with China, experts say. The sole operational U.S. rare earths mine, in Mountain Pass, California, is unable to separate heavy rare earths. It sends its ore to China for processing. The U.S. Defense Department has provided funding to the mine's owner, MP Materials, to build new separation facilities. It will take months to build and still only produce a fraction of what is needed. Friction over the issue has opened the way for government-backed financing that was unavailable before, said Mark Smith, who ran the Mountain Pass mine in the early 2010s and now leads NioCorp. It's seeking about $780 million in financing through the U.S. Export-Import Bank to build a processing facility in Nebraska for critical minerals including rare earths. The Defense Department has committed $439 million to building domestic rare earth supply chains, but building a complete mining and processing industrial chain like China's could take decades. 'There are going to be some real issues here unless we can figure out how to get along with China for a period of time while we're developing our own resources and our mainstream processing,' Smith said. The spotlight on critical minerals also provides opportunities for smaller miners to invest in extracting and processing some critical minerals, such as tungsten, considered 'niche' because they are needed in relatively small amounts in key industries, said Milo McBride, an expert on sustainability and geopolitics at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. 'For many of these companies, the business strategy hedges on a scenario where the U.S. and China become more confrontational and where trade relations become more uncomfortable,' McBride said. 'And all of a sudden, what was once an uneconomic project somewhere outside of China starts to make more sense.' Associated Press news researcher Shihuan Chen contributed to this story. © Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. 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