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SafeAI launches in Japan and India

SafeAI, a global leader in autonomous heavy equipment is expanding into Japan and India. With new offices and growing local teams in both markets, the company is poised to significantly accelerate the rollout of autonomous equipment across heavy industry, worldwide. Both Japan and India represent tremendous opportunities for growth with large heavy equipment markets. Japan, in particular, boasts a massive construction sector, recently estimated at a value of more than 530 billion U.S. dollars. Already, SafeAI has a successful year-long partnership with Japanese construction giant Obayashi. The two companies are currently retrofitting an autonomous Caterpillar 725 to complete load-haul-dump cycles, a vital function on any mining or construction site. India, meanwhile, has a construction industry worth more than 35 billion U.S. dollars and a significant mining sector that produces 95 minerals and has an export value of approximately $4 billion U.S. dollars. To support continued global growth, SafeAI also announced that four new leaders have joined the team: Dr. Ryo Hiratsuka, SafeAI’s Japan Country Head, will oversee initiatives from the new office in Tokyo. Hiratsuka brings over 20 years of experience developing Japanese markets for start-up companies, including Cisco, HP (former Colubris Networks) which deployed Wi-Fi on airplanes, trains and cruiser ships, and Hexagon (former Romax Technology) focused on the electrification of cars and trucks. Prior to joining SafeAI, he served as the Japan sales manager of Quectel for V2X, telematics and location tracking technology across a number of industries. Sudarshan Singh joins the team as the India Country Head to oversee operations at the new office in New Delhi. Singh brings over 30 years of executive leadership experience to the role, including 14 years at Caterpillar, where he launched the company’s India operations, expanded product offerings and the used machinery business and ultimately led the Asia-Pacific region. Singh also […]

Chinese startups dominate APAC VC landscape

Chinese startups continue to attract a major chunk of the venture capital (VC) investments in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region. A total of 3,012 VC funding deals were announced in China during Q1-Q3 2021; the disclosed funding value stood at US$72bn. An analysis of GlobalData’s Financial Deals Database reveals that China accounted for close to 50% of the total VC funding deals announced in the region and around 60% of the corresponding deal value. August 2021 witnessed improvement in VC funding activity, both in terms of value as well as volume, but the momentum could not be sustained. September witnessed decline in VC funding activity both in terms of value and value compared to the previous month. Aurojyoti Bose, Lead Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “The fact that the China startup ecosystem continues to dominate the APAC VC landscape despite the COVID-19 pandemic and regulatory shakeup is a testament to its potential.” Some of the notable VC funding deals announced during January to September 2021 in China include US$1.6bn raised by SVOLT Energy, US$1.5bn capital raised by Horizon Robotics, US$750m capital raised by Beijing Shihui Technology, US$700m funding raised by Abogen Biosciences, US$700m funding raised by Dingdong Maicai and US$600m raised by Qingju. Mr Bose concludes: “Despite investors adopting a cautious approach and deal activity remaining volatile for most of the period, China managed to witness the announcement of some big-ticket deals, which helped it register a sizeable cumulative funding value.”

Golden Packaging provide quality services

Located in the beautiful coastal city of Qingdao, Golden Packaging (Golden Pak) has many years of rich service experience in the ice cream industry, as well as providing all kinds of packaging equipment for many leading enterprises in the cold beverage industry such as Meiji, Wall’s, Nestle, Yili, Mengniu, Bright Dairy, Hongbaolai, and Baxi. Golden Pak’s equipment is also exported to more than 60 countries and regions including the United States, Germany, Japan and Russia. With the support of Mitsubishi Electric and Qingdao Keling, they not only develop and upgrade special equipment for horizontal feeding, organising, packaging, sorting and palletising for many industries such as food and medicine industries, but also create a comprehensive solution for the packaging process by using the e-F@ctory framework.

It’s raining tech unicorns in India

India’s tech unicorn ecosystem is the third-largest in the world, behind only the US and China. Currently, the country boasts 48 tech unicorns with a combined valuation of $137bn. The Indian unicorn ecosystem has demonstrated resilience during the Covid-19 pandemic. In 2020, there were just eight new tech unicorn formations but 2021 has broken all records, with 27 startups achieving unicorn status so far this year. In October alone five startups become unicorns. The country is also home to two decacorns (unicorns valued ≥$10bn) Byju’s and Paytm. “With a population of 1.3 billion and a smartphone penetration of 45%, India is one of the cheapest countries for mobile Internet worldwide. Digital adoption received a further boost from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. The tech startups are the biggest beneficiaries of this trend. Internet-driven themes such as e-commerce, fintech, and edtech saw strong growth amid the pandemic. Currently, 22 Indian unicorns operate in e-commerce, which is the top theme. These e-commerce unicorns are together worth a total of $52bn. Fintech is the next big theme with nine unicorns, which have an aggregate valuation of $35bn; followed by edtech with five unicorns, which are collectively worth $25bn. Cure Fit, Dunzo, Fresh to Home, Mamaearth, Xpressbees, Acko, Lendingkart, Practo, and Uable will achieve unicorn status soon. After Zomato’s successful initial public offering (IPO) on the Indian stock market, there is a crowded IPO pipeline. Paytm, Byju’s, Paytm, Oyo Rooms, Ola Cabs, and Policybazaar, Lenskart, Delhivery, Nykaa are the next big ones to watch.

Exel Composites, Kineco Group announce joint venture in Goa

A joint venture between the Kineco Group and Exel Composites creates a new composites design, engineering, and production company focused on serving the Indian market with pultruded composite solutions. The joint venture brings together two well-known names in the composites industries, Exel Composites and The Kineco Group, creating a new company called Kineco Exel Composites India (kinecoexel.com). The company and its manufacturing facility are based in Goa, India and will offer pultruded composites for markets as diverse as transportation, wind power, infrastructure, telecommunications, aerospace and defense. The Kineco Group, also headquartered in Goa, was founded in 1995 and offers a range of advanced composite products and integrated systems, and is known for its capabilities and quality, as well as its composite design know-how. Exel, founded in 1960 in Finland, is today the world’s largest pultruder; the joint venture is the latest step in the company’s global growth strategy. “Kineco has excellent brand recognition in India, and together with our pultrusion expertise we are starting from a very strong position,” says Olli Tevä, SVP Sales and Marketing at Exel Composites. “This joint venture provides immediate access into the Indian market which shows clear growth potential and demand. India has been a focus of ours for a while, and now with this ‘in India, with India, for India’ capability the team at Kineco Exel Composites India can begin to reach out to prospective customers in the joint venture’s focus market segments.” “Kineco is happy to be the partner of choice for a leading global company such as Exel, who has decided to invest in India,” says Shekhar Sardessai, Founder and Managing Director of Kineco Group and Managing Director of Kineco Exel Composites India. “Exel’s technological expertise and composites know-how, particularly in pultrusion, will enable us to bring our own, more recent pultrusion […]

BlueBotics and Planet T & S to grow Thai AGV market

BlueBotics, the global reference in natural navigation for automated guided vehicles (AGVs) and autonomous mobile robots (AMRs), has expanded its Asian footprint by signing a new distribution agreement with Thai factory automation specialist Planet T& s Co Ltd. Prior to entering into this distribution partnership, Planet T & S was a navigation customer of BlueBotics. As a result, the company has developed several ANT-driven AGVs, which it now sells into the Thai market. Found in 1997 in Bangkok, Thailand, Planet T & S. is a leading automation technology service provider whose aim is to help Thai businesses lower costs, reduce defects and increase efficiency with technology products and engineering solutions. The company has over five years of AGV experience and has commissioned more than 80 vehicles across Thailand to date. The new partnership between BlueBotics and Planet T & S is the fourth such Asian agreement that BlueBotics has signed in the past three years. The company previously signed distribution deals with MacPion in Korea, Altech Co. Ltd. in Japan, and Shanghai TONGPU Electronics Co. Ltd. in China. BlueBotics is the reference in natural navigation and has the mission to help companies meet the challenge of vehicle automation. With its 20 years of industry experience, the company provides the autonomous navigation technology (ANT) and expert support customers need to bring their AGV, automated forklift or mobile robot successfully to market.

China could surprise the world at Glasgow climate talks

Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore is hopeful China and the United States will set aside their differences at U.N. climate change talks in Glasgow, just as they came together in 2015 to help hammer out the Paris Agreement. Speaking in an interview broadcast on Monday at the Reuters Impact conference, Gore also said China could surprise the world by bringing forward one or both of its targets for reaching peak emissions and becoming carbon neutral. Gore said frictions between China and the United States, the world’s top two greenhouse gas polluters, had to be taken into account. Beijing and Washington have clashed over alleged human rights abuses in Xinjiang and Hong Kong, as well as military activity in the South China Sea. But Gore, who shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for his work on informing the world about climate change, held out hope that tensions between the two could ease at the U.N. COP26 talks in Glasgow, Scotland, which start on Oct. 31. “It’s true that in the earlier part of this year … it didn’t seem as if the stars were aligned,” he said. “Since then, we have seen a welcome pledge from (President) Xi Jinping at the U.N. General Assembly, announcing that China will halt its financing of overseas coal plants.” Xi announced last month that China would stop building new coal-fired power plants overseas after similar pledges by Japan and South Korea earlier this year. U.S. climate envoy John Kerry had urged China to follow their lead. Ahead of COP26, global business leaders and politicians are taking part in the Reuters Impact conference to discuss efforts to mitigate climate change and drive sustainable growth. Gore said he believes Xi could pull forward one or both of the climate targets that he set at last year’s U.N. General […]

Xinhua Silk Road: China Zoomlion speeds up development

The “smart industry city” project by Hunan-based Zoomlion Heavy Industry Science & Technology Co., Ltd. on Friday took off in full swing with the headquarters building, the engineering crane machinery manufacturing park, the concrete pumping machinery park, and the aerial-work machinery park kicking off construction. China Zoomlion held a ceremony on September 17, kicking off construction on the headquarters building, the hoisting machinery park, the concrete pumping machinery park, and the aerial-work machinery park of its “smart industry city” project. Eyeing for a global construction machinery cluster, the smart industry city project is expected to generate some 100 billion yuan of output value annually when put into function. The project will gear Changsha City with a high-end smart manufacturing namecard and a highland for advanced manufacturing base, said Changsha mayor Zheng Jianxin. Looking ahead, Zoomlion will accelerate intelligent and green transformation and cluster development to further contribute to building Changsha City a “capital for construction machinery”, said Zoomlion chairman Zhan Chunxin. The project mainly consists of four parks with the excavating machinery park already in operation. Annual output value of the four parks is planned to range 20-30 billion yuan each, according to Zoomlion vice president Fu Ling, noting that the project is expected to become the world’s largest construction machinery intelligent manufacturing park when completed. It is noted that more than 260 robots, 57 intelligent production lines and four “dark factories” are planned for the engineering crane machinery park. For the concrete pumping machinery park, visual recognition, AI decision-making, laser scanning, and 3D modeling will be in place to gear 32 intelligent production lines for welding, machining, painting, and assembly. For aerial-work machinery manufacturing park, 620 sets of automation equipments are planned with 27 intelligent production lines. Efficiency is another keyword, with the project expected to witness […]

Jet Aviation gains Aerospace Standards EN 9110 Certification in Singapore

Jet Aviation’s maintenance facility in Singapore has been awarded Aerospace Standards (AS/EN) EN 9110 certification in recognition of its quality management system. AS/EN certifications are based on ISO 9001 quality standards adapted for the aviation, space and defence (ASD) industry. Following Basel’s certification in January 2018, this is the company’s second MRO site to achieve this internationally recognized industry standard. Developed by the International Aerospace Quality Group (IAQG), AS/EN 9110 certification is the quality standard for repair stations, including criteria critical to the maintenance of commercial, private, and military aircraft. The only organisations eligible for this certification are those whose primary business focus is in supporting MRO (maintenance, repair, and overhaul) and CAMO (continuing airworthiness management organisation) services for civil and military aviation products of Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM). “This certification is a significant testament to our ongoing commitment to the highest industry standards and best practices,” said Louis Leong, Jet Aviation’s VP South-East Asia and GM of Singapore. “As part of the certification process, we participated in a series of demanding, independent audits by Bureau Veritas to establish our focus on continuous improvement and service excellence — from our documentation processes that improve output consistencies and our quality monitoring procedures for early defect detection and rectification, to the regular review of practices to identify obsolete or inefficient processes and our general rigor regarding proper documentation and maintenance procedures. AS/EN 9110 certification is a great achievement for Singapore, and a great credit to our team.” Located at Singapore’s Seletar Airport, Jet Aviation’s maintenance facility in Singapore is a Factory Authorised Service Center and Warranty Repair Facility for a wide range of aircraft types and models, including Gulfstream, Embraer, Daher-Socata and Boeing Business Jets. It is also the designated Maintenance Response Team for Pratt & Whitney Canada 307 and 308 series […]

Red Roulette

An Insider’s Story of Wealth, Power, Corruption and Vengeance in Today’s China In the headline-making and bestselling tradition of Bill Browder’s Red Notice comes a riveting memoir from a man who rose within the ranks of China’s ultra-rich only to see his business partner-wife mysteriously disappeared. After the Communist Revolution, Desmond Shum’s grandfather, a lawyer, had one chance to leave China, and instead chose to stay. The government shut down his law firm and seized his house. Officials marked his family as belonging to a ‘black category’ that included former landlords and rich peasants, meaning the Shums would be stigmatised and impoverished. As Desmond was growing up, he vowed his life would be different. Through hard work and sheer tenacity Shum went to college in America and returned to China to make his name in business. There, he met his future wife, the highly intelligent and equally ambitious Whitney Duan. Whitney and Desmond formed an effective team and, powered by a set of relationships they formed with top members of the Red Aristocracy, vaulted into China’s billionaire class. Soon they were developing the massive air cargo facility at Beijing International Airport, and they followed that by developing one of Beijing’s premier hotels. They were dazzlingly successful, travelling in private jets, funding multi-million-dollar buildings and endowments, and purchasing expensive homes, vehicles and artwork. But in 2017, their fates diverged irrevocably when Desmond, while residing overseas with his son, learned that his now ex-wife Whitney had been disappeared – consigned to some unknown fate – along with three co-workers. In Red Roulette Desmond Shum pulls back the curtain on China’s ruling elite and tells the story of a remarkable woman who rose to prominence in a strongly patriarchal society. Written from a desire to reveal the real truth of what is happening inside China’s wealth-making machine, this eye-opening tale […]

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