German registrations plunged 31 percent last month as sales dried up following the introduction of the Worldwide Harmonized Light Vehicle Test Procedure, or WLTP, on September 1. Most mass-market brands dropped last month. Audi decreased the most, falling 78 percent, followed closely by fellow VW Group brand Porsche, with a 76 percent drop. The group’s core VW brand was next with a 62 percent fall. Seat volume was down 55 percent and Skoda 44 percent. Source Automotive News Europe
Nord Stream 2 expects regulators to decide by May whether its contested natural gas pipeline linking Germany to Russia will be able to operate as planned. Already suffering U.S. sanctions, the project led by Gazprom PJSC is pinning its hopes on German regulator Bundesnetzagentur to help it clear hurdles erected by European Union competition authorities. So-called unbundling rules rolled out by the trade bloc last year require the owners of gas and those who deliver it by pipeline or ship to be separate legal entities, even the fuel comes from outside the EU. Source: Bloomberg
- Three developments have emerged from the survey: signs that cash flows have deteriorated quickly; new orders continue to fall; and the Chinese economy saw record levels of corporate borrowing.
- The rise in business loans is in part due to the comeback of shadow financing, according to the China Beige Book survey. Source: CNBC
MyDrivers reports that China’s homegrown Zhaoxin processors are now operational with its self-developed Unity Operating System (UOS). The news come on the tail of new Chinese government restrictions that force Chinese institutions to replace all foreign-powered PC hardware and software with domestically-produced products over a three-year span. Tongxin Software, the developer behind UOS, has been able to get the KaiXian processors to work on the desktop and server versions of UOS, respectively. The Chinese CPU maker has already laid out its ambitious plans for the company’s next generation of processors. Source: Tom’s Hardware
