JULYASIA BUSINESS OUTLOOK8BYD TO INVEST $620 MILLION IN BRAZIL TO IMPROVE LOCAL PRODUCTIONCHINESE SMARTPHONES DOMINATE RUSSIAN MARKET WITH 70 PERCENTAGE MARKET SHAREBYD, a Chinese automaker, announced on Tuesday that it will invest 3 billion reais ($620.17 million) in a new industrial complex in northeastern Brazil, with the goal of increasing local production and offering more competitive prices. The three-plant complex will be built in the Camacari industrial park in the northeastern state of Bahia, on land previously occupied by a Ford plant that will close in 2021.The announcement follows a reported government push to incentivize BYD to build a new electric car hub in the state after Ford closed its plant there. The plants are expected to begin operations in mid-2024.One of the plants will be dedicated to production of chassis for buses and electric trucks, BYD said in a statement. The second plant will be focused on hybrid and electric cars with an initial production estimated at 150,000 cars per year, while the third will process lithium and iron phosphate for the foreign market.The complex would generate over 5,000 jobs, the company added. In accordance with prominent consumer electronics shop M.Video-Eldorado, Chinese smartphones dominated the Russian market in the first half of 2023, accounting for more than 70 percentage of all sales, up from approximately 55 percentage the previous year.After Samsung and Apple reduced sales in the nation due to the conflict in Ukraine, Chinese manufacturers like Xiaomi and Realme have become the country's top sellers of smartphones.With nearly 13 million units sold, overall smartphone demand in Russia is up 17percentage from the same time last year.Since the majority of Western brands left the Russian market, Beijing has become more and more Moscow's go-to source for everything from gadgets to automobiles."Brands from China systematically continue to strengthen their presence," M.Video said in a statement on Tuesday (Jul 4), adding that flagship models and foldable smartphones from Chinese brands were seeing particular demand.Eight out of the 10 best-selling smartphones in Russia in the first six months of this year were Chinese, M.Video said. The Kremlin has told officials to stop using Apple iPhones, saying that Western intelligence agencies have compromised them using surveillance software. Apple has denied those claims. NEWSROOMJUNEASIA BUSINESS OUTLOOK8
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