CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M

Top Arkansas psychiatrist accused of falsely imprisoning patients and Medicaid fraud

FOR PROFIT MEDICINE



Laura Strickler and Stephanie Gosk
Updated Sun, July 23, 2023 at 6:34 PM MDT·9 min read

William VanWhy says he was feeling emotionally overwhelmed when he checked himself into the mental health unit at Northwest Medical Center in Arkansas last year. Four days later, he was still in the locked unit but desperate to leave.

“I was not receiving any medical care at all,” VanWhy, 32, said.

Mental health patients in Arkansas can be held against their will for 72 hours if they are deemed a danger to themselves or to others. But to keep them any longer than that, a medical provider must file a court petition and get the consent of a judge.

No petition was filed in VanWhy’s case, and his partner, with the help of a lawyer, ultimately succeeded in getting a court order for his release.


A few hours later, a sheriff’s deputy walked into the hospital with the order in his hand and VanWhy’s husband at his side. In the elevator, they bumped into a nurse from his unit.

“I’m glad he’s getting out,” the nurse said, according to body camera footage obtained by NBC News. “Don’t repeat that.”

VanWhy was released about 20 minutes later. “Oh my gosh. You saved my life,” he told the deputy, the bodycam footage shows.

William VanWhy, left, and his husband, Cameron Tryon. (William VanWhy)

The man who led the unit at the time, Dr. Brian Hyatt, was one of the most prominent psychiatrists in Arkansas and the chairman of the board that disciplines physicians. But he’s now under investigation by state and federal authorities who are probing allegations ranging from Medicaid fraud to false imprisonment.

VanWhy’s release marked the second time in two months that a patient was released from Hyatt’s unit only after a sheriff’s deputy showed up with a court order, according to court records.

“I think that they were running a scheme to hold people as long as possible, to bill their insurance as long as possible before kicking them out the door, and then filling the bed with someone else,” said Aaron Cash, a lawyer who represents VanWhy.

VanWhy and at least 25 other former patients have sued Hyatt, alleging that they were held against their will in his unit for days and sometimes weeks. And Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin’s office has accused Hyatt of running an insurance scam, claiming to treat patients he rarely saw and then billing Medicaid at “the highest severity code on every patient,” according to a search warrant affidavit.

Dr. Brian Hyatt describes the additional access safety door in one of the medical psychiatric rooms at Northwest Medical Center-Springdale in 2018. (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)

As the lawsuits piled up, Hyatt remained chairman of the Arkansas State Medical Board. But he resigned from the board in late May after Drug Enforcement Administration agents executed a search warrant at his private practice.

“I am not resigning because of any wrongdoing on my part but so that the Board may continue its important work without delay or distraction,” he wrote in a letter. “I will continue to defend myself in the proper forum against the false allegations being made against me.”

Northwest Medical Center in Springdale “abruptly terminated” Hyatt’s contract in May 2022, according to the attorney general’s search warrant affidavit.

In April, the hospital agreed to pay $1.1 million in a settlement with the Arkansas Attorney General’s Office. Northwest Medical Center could not provide sufficient documentation that justified the hospitalization of 246 patients who were held in Hyatt’s unit, according to the attorney general’s office.

As part of the settlement, the hospital denied any wrongdoing.

“We believe hospital personnel complied in all respects with Arkansas law, which heavily relies on the treating physician’s assessment of the patient, including in decisions related to involuntary commitment,” Aimee Morrell, a Northwest Health spokeswoman, said in a statement.

“While it is not our practice to comment on pending litigation matters, I can share that last spring, we undertook a number of actions to ensure our patients’ safety, including hiring new providers responsible for the clinical care of our behavioral health patients in early May 2022,” Morrell added.

Hyatt, 50, has not been charged with a crime. Neither he nor his lawyer has responded to multiple requests for comment.

But his legal team provided a statement to Arkansas Business last month.

“Dr. Hyatt continues to maintain his innocence and denies the allegations made against him,” the statement said in part. “Despite his career as an outstanding clinician, Dr. Hyatt has become the target of a vicious, orchestrated attack on his character and service. He looks forward to defending himself in court.”

Dr. Brian Hyatt. (KNWA)

Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin declined to comment. “We have no additional details to provide at this time,” he said.

Charlie Robbins, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Arkansas, said the execution of a search warrant is “an important step in any lengthy, ongoing investigation.

“In light of the fact that this investigation is still ongoing, we will not be making any additional comments,” he said.
Massive Medicaid payouts

A graduate of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Hyatt was named the medical director of Northwest Medical Center’s behavioral health unit in January 2018.

The number of beds expanded from 25 to 75, and the claims to Medicaid and Medicare, as well as to private insurance, surged, according to the Arkansas attorney general’s search warrant affidavit.

Hyatt was getting paid $1,367 per day, according to a report prepared by the Arkansas attorney general’s office. And at the same time he was also running his own private practice, Pinnacle Premier Psychiatry, in the town of Rogers, about 25 miles away, according to the attorney general’s office.

The claims he submitted indicated that he conducted daily face-to-face evaluations with patients at the hospital.

But a former staff member came forward in April 2022 and told state investigators that Hyatt was only on the floor with patients “a few minutes each day and that Dr. Hyatt had no contact with patients,” the affidavit says.

Investigators reviewed 45 days of surveillance footage from the facility and concluded that Hyatt entered a patient’s room or interacted with a patient only 17 times — for less than 10 minutes in total, according to the report prepared by the attorney general.

“Dr. Hyatt never had even a single conversation with the vast majority of patients under his care,” the affidavit says.

Shannon Williams, 52, says she was one such patient.

Williams, a nurse from Harrison, was grappling with the death of her grandmother when she learned that her brother had died from Covid while overseas. The news pushed Williams, who herself worked in a Covid unit, into what she described as “crisis mode.”

She ended up in the emergency room of a hospital about 90 minutes away from Springdale in February 2021. The next morning, she was transferred to Hyatt’s unit after a physician determined that she was a danger to herself, according to medical records (Williams maintains that she was not suicidal).

Nurse Shannon Williams. (NBC News)

Upon arriving at the unit, Williams said she was stripped down and injected with a sedative against her will.

“I was terrified,” Williams said.

She was held for five days, according to her medical records, despite, she says, her requests to leave.

“It was as if I was in a prison,” Williams, a mother of three, said. “It was like a nightmare. If I cried, then I was again threatened with more time.”

According to the search warrant affidavit, Hyatt’s Medicaid claims dwarfed those of other psychiatrists in Arkansas.

From January 2019 to June 2022, Medicaid paid out more than $800,000 to Hyatt’s facility.

“Dr. Hyatt is a clear outlier, and his claims are so high they skew the averages on certain codes for the entire Medicaid program in Arkansas,” the affidavit says.

Medicaid uses a coding system to determine how much to pay providers — with the highest codes billing at the highest rates because those patients require more care.

It’s common for a newly admitted patient to come in at the highest severity code, which suggests the person is unstable and dealing with a serious issue, and then progress to a lower code before being released.

But 99.95% of Hyatt’s Medicaid claims came in at the most expensive code, the affidavit says.

“According to the claims submitted by Dr. Hyatt and the non-physician providers working under his supervision, no patient being treated in the behavioral unit located at Northwest Medical Center ever got better, at least not before the day of the patient’s release,” the affidavit says.
Mocking emails

Before he came to represent VanWhy, Cash had a bizarre interaction with Hyatt over a different patient.

In January 2022, Cash sent the hospital a fax demanding the immediate release of his client, a patient named Karla Adrian-Caceres.

Adrian-Caceres had arrived at the unit the day before and was clamoring to leave, according to a lawsuit she filed in January 2023.

Adrian-Caceres’ mother went to the hospital to pick her up but was told her daughter would not be released, the lawsuit says. The following morning Hyatt responded by email to Cash, saying he would neither confirm nor deny that Adrian-Caceres was in his unit.

“Our facility is in receipt of your silly demands and libelous commentary regarding someone you claim to represent who is purportedly within our facility,” Hyatt said in the email, which was included in Adrian-Caceres’ court filing.

Hyatt said he would only check to see if she was there if Cash got his client to sign a “release of information form.”

Cash responded four hours later with a court order demanding Adrian-Caceres’ release.

Cash gave the court order to Adrian-Caceres’ mother, and she brought it to the hospital, but the hospital still refused to release her daughter.

So Cash got a second court order, and the judge ordered the sheriff’s office to enforce it, according to her lawsuit.

A deputy went to the facility with Adrian-Caceres’ mother and secured her release, according to documentation from the sheriff’s office obtained by NBC News.

The next morning, Hyatt emailed Cash, mocking the colleges he attended.

“I guess this is what they teach at Poteau Junior College…sorry…Carl Albert State and Northeastern State University,” Hyatt said in the email.

He directed Cash to contact his attorney. “You won’t find him in your “college’s” yearbook,” he wrote.

When Cash heard from VanWhy’s husband two months later, he didn’t bother trying to get the patient released on his own.

“I went straight to the sheriff this time,” Cash said.

Cash said the patients he spoke to were adamant that they received virtually no care while they were being held in Hyatt’s unit. These were people who were vulnerable and oftentimes in need of serious support or therapy, he said.

“Some of them did need help,” Cash said. “And what they got was hurt.”

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com

China property developers' shares, bonds dive as sector worries deepen

STATE CAPITALI$M IS STILL CAPITALI$M

 Workers walk past a construction site of residential buildings by property developer Country Garden in Kunming, Yunnan
1
Updated Mon, July 24, 2023 
By Jason Xue and Tom Westbrook

SHANGHAI/SYDNEY (Reuters) -Stocks and bonds in China's real estate industry fell to around eight-month lows on Monday as repayment concerns at two of the country's biggest developers deepened a crisis of confidence in the sector.

Cash shortages at giants Country Garden and Dalian Wanda show funding issues have reached what many hoped were the largest and safest players in a business that once contributed a quarter of China's gross domestic product and is all but frozen.

Doubts are growing any official support will be forthcoming, and investors do not expect any aid to be aimed at shareholders.


Country Garden shares fell by 8.7% to HK$1.26, an eight-month low and shares in its services arm tumbled 17.9% to HK$7.4. Country Garden dollar bonds fell to less than a fifth of their face value.

Shares at rival Longfor dropped 8.5%, while an asset sale at Wanda failed to revive bond prices as investors waited on whether the cash actually reaches bondholders' pockets.

"As market sales continue to weaken and policy expectations continue to fall short, it will be difficult for real estate developers to repay bonds by their own operations," said Yao Yu, founder of credit analysis firm Ratingdog.

"Investors must become more and more pessimistic."

Property development has ground to a halt in China as a government crackdown on debts and crumbling public confidence have left builders unable to sell apartments or refinance their dues.

Guidelines promoting urban redevelopment published late on Friday were seen as small scale, leaving investors hoping for more from a Politburo meeting expected this week. That big names were struggling, however, highlighted the depth of the problems.

An index of mainland developers fell 6.4% on Monday and recorded its worst session of 2023.

"Everything is falling," said a Hong Kong debt fund manager, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

"The major thing that we see now is onshore-traded Country Garden bonds going down," he said. "That is the largest one. People get scared if that one cannot survive."

DOWNGRADES AND DEFAULTS

Country Garden is a giant with thousands of projects in nearly 300 Chinese cities. Its move to refinance a 2019 loan facility surprised and unnerved investors, and follows ratings downgrades and new defaults elsewhere.

Li Changjiang, the president of Country Garden Services, sold 3.2 million shares of the company last week, reducing his stake to 0.11% from 0.21%.

"Although this is not his first time selling shares of the company, the number of shares sold was one of the largest," said J.P.Morgan analysts in a note.

J.P.Morgan downgraded Country Garden Holdings from neutral to underweight, and cut its price target to HK$0.9 from HK$2.3. The bank also reduced the price target of Country Garden Services Holdings to HK$6.7 from HK$22.

Country Garden's onshore-traded bonds dropped to less than half of their face value on Monday and dollar bonds due in 2025 and 2031 fell below 20 cents on the dollar.

Wanda, China's largest commercial developer, was also seeking cash for one of its subsidiaries to make an already-late coupon payment due before the end of a grace period on July 30.

It sold part of another subsidiary to streaming company China Ruyi for $320 million, which a source familiar with the matter said would help it to repay a separate $400 million bond.

State-backed developer Greenland Holdings has missed repayments this month, while Sino-Ocean Group proposed extended terms for a 2 billion yuan ($278 million) bond due on Aug. 2.

The new problems have squashed a nascent rally after China lifted COVID-19 controls and opened its borders ending years of movement restrictions.

Restructuring plans at Evergrande, which was the poster-child of the sector's 2021 plunge into funding stress, are before the courts in Hong Kong and the Cayman Islands, while property sales are in a new slowdown.

"Distressed Chinese property developers’ bond restructurings can buy them some room," Fitch Ratings said in a report on Monday. "But most will continue to face repayment difficulties if home sales do not recover for a sustained period."

($1 = 7.1972 Chinese yuan renminbi)

(Reporting by Jason Xue in Shanghai and Tom Westbrook in Sydney; Additional reporting by Clare Jim, Xie Yu and Georgina Lee in Hong Kong. Editing by Kim Coghill, Jamie Freed and Barbara Lewis)

China Addresses Investor Concerns in Meeting With Global Funds

Bloomberg News
Sat, July 22, 2023 

(Bloomberg) -- Chinese regulators met with global investors on Friday, according to people familiar with the matter, stepping up the government’s bid to boost market confidence as the country’s economic recovery loses steam.

China Securities Regulatory Commission Vice Chairman Fang Xinghai met with some global venture capital and private equity firms to hear their concerns about investment in the country, the people familiar said, requesting not to be named because the matter is private. Among those present were Neil Shen, founding partner of HongShan — formerly known as Sequoia Capital China — and representatives from GIC Pte. and Warburg Pincus. Temasek Holdings Ltd.’s China head Wu Yibing also joined.

Fang was accompanied by regulators from the securities watchdog and the Asset Management Association of China, the people said. Neither agency responded to questions about the meeting outside of business hours, nor did HongShan or GIC. Temasek couldn’t immediately provide a comment while Warburg Pincus representative declined to when contacted by text message.

The rare meeting with global funds comes after Chinese President Xi Jinping’s administration voiced its strongest support in recent years for the country’s private tech enterprises just days earlier. The government’s efforts, however, have been met with skepticism, as investors call for more concrete measures and stronger stimulus to revive growth.

Topics discussed at Friday’s meeting included steps that can be taken to ensure global funds can continue to invest in China, the people said. Regulators were urged to expedite procedures for overseas initial public offering registrations, accelerate listings in mainland China and relax merger-and-acquisition rules, one of the people said.

Escalating Tensions

Escalating tensions between China and the US, Beijing’s multi-year crackdown on its private sector and the country’s weakening economy are dampening investor interest. Private equity and venture capital firms have been struggling to attract institutional money from US endowments and pensions because of these long-term concerns.

This week, a US congressional committee said it was investigating four venture capital firms for their investment in Chinese technology companies, the latest sign of Washington’s increasing scrutiny of American funds suspected of helping develop sensitive industries in China. The entities under investigation are GGV Capital, GSR Ventures, Walden International and Qualcomm Ventures.

The US Department of State also recommended in June that Americans reconsider traveling to mainland China because of arbitrary enforcement of local laws and the risk of wrongful detentions, which spooked the business community.

Concerns about regulatory crackdowns in China have also weighed on the investment community. This month the Communist Party and the government issued a rare joint statement with 31 measures to improve conditions for businesses, including pledges to treat private firms the same as state-owned enterprises.

While that move won the backing of Chinese entrepreneurs including Tencent Holdings Ltd.’s billionaire co-founder Pony Ma, foreign companies are looking for more than rhetoric after two years of crackdowns and pandemic controls. The European Union Chamber of Commerce in China said its companies have been accustomed to “sweeping pro-business statements being made with little concrete action being taken.”

The government showed support for private equity and venture capital earlier this month when Premier Li Qiang approved the final rules on the 20 trillion yuan ($2.8 trillion) private fund market almost six years after a draft was released. While penalties on irregularities were toughened significantly, the new rule sets out a special chapter for venture capital, with looser requirements. It also exempted parent funds from some restrictions, benefiting private equity’s secondary market.

China’s sputtering economic recovery has sent a chill through global markets. Beijing has opted for targeted steps — instead of a broad stimulus — pushing for lower interest rates, easier access to credit and a series of measures to kickstart the moribund housing market.

Businesses are still waiting for signals from Xi’s new economic team that the policy environment will be more transparent and predictable. The president has repeatedly insisted that economic development is the Communist Party’s top priority, even as his government makes protecting national security a central focus.

--With assistance from Amanda Wang and David Ramli.

CHINA

STATE MONOPOLY CAPITALI$M

Electric planes get big boost as leading battery maker unveils aviation division

Anthony Cuthbertson
Mon, 24 July 2023 

Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL) unveiled a condensed battery for electric aircraft on 19 April, 2023 (CATL)

China’s largest battery maker for electric vehicles has launched an aviation division in preparation to begin mass production of electric planes, according to reports.

Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL), which supplies batteries for Tesla, claims to have achieved the “holy grail” energy density required for commercial electric aircraft of 500 Watt-hours per kilogram (Wh/kg).

The company announced the feat at the Auto Shanghai trade fair earlier this year, with chief scientist Wu Kai claiming that it was poised to begin production of a commercially viable battery for electric aircraft.


“With an energy density of up to 500Wh/kg, it can achieve a high energy density and a high level of safety at the same time in a creative manner, opening up a brand-new electrification scenario of passenger aircrafts,” the company said in a statement at the time.

“CATL can achieve mass production of condensed battery for electric vehicles in a short period of time.”

CATL has now launched a joint venture with state-owned plane manufacturer Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (COMAC), Yicai Global reported, following four years of research into the technology.

The advent of electric aircraft has become a realistic prospect in recent years following several major battery breakthroughs that have the potential to overcome cost and capacity limitations.

Israel-based startup Eviation completed the first flight of an electric commuter plane last year, taking off from an airport in Washington before touching down eight minutes later.

The Alice aircraft is capable of transporting nine passengers and their luggage, or a tonne of cargo, and has been hailed as the first battery-powered plane viable for short-haul commercial journeys of up to 645km (400 miles).

Regional airlines and logistics firms in the US have already ordered more than 200 Alice planes, with Eviation aiming to fulfil the orders by 2026.

The Independent has contacted CATL for a production timeframe of its electric plane batteries.

China's economy is in trouble - and its youth unemployment crisis is at the heart of the problem

Jennifer Sor
Sun, July 23, 2023 

A woman shops at a supermarket in Beijing, China, October 15, 2015.REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon

China's youth unemployment problem is the root of its economic woes, according to economist Nancy Qian.


Unemployment among workers aged 16-24 hit a record 21% last quarter.


That's largely due to a shortage of high-skill, high-paying jobs, which will weigh on its economy.

China's economy is in crisis – and the nation's youth unemployment problem could be at the root of its current troubles, according to Northwestern University economist Nancy Qian.

"To stem the reversal of its economic fortunes, China must address the root of the problem: the lack of high-paying, high-skilled jobs," Qian said in an op-ed for Project Syndicate this week. "If the economy is going to grow (or at least avoid a contraction) in the long run, the government must create the conditions for job creation in high-productivity sectors, and for greater investment in higher education."

Qian pointed to rampant unemployment among China's younger generation, with a record 21% of workers aged 16-24 out of a job in the second quarter, according to China's National Bureau of Statistics.

That's largely been driven by the lack of high-skill and high-paying jobs in China's employment market, which have left many college graduates unable to find work.

It's also been exacerbated by a number of initiatives China has undertaken in the recent years. In 2021, the government banned online tutoring to reduce pressure on schoolchildren, but that's had the effect of reducing the number of available jobs in the tech industry, Qian said.

The government has also pushed to increase China's fertility rate, which has made employers hesitant to hire younger women.

"Young women's darkening employment outlook is just one of the many signs that the Chinese economy is headed in the wrong direction," Qian warned, noting that China is now diverging from patterns typically seen in advanced economies.

Advanced nations typically see higher education rates, smaller family sizes, and growing labor-force participation among women – trends that are now being reversed in China's socioeconomic fabric, especially as the lack of high-paying jobs in the nation lowers the cultural emphasis on education.

Meanwhile, China's economy has been slowing, with the nation seeing a disappointing economic revival since dialing back its zero-COVID policies at the start of this year. Real estate and factory activity have slowed, and the nation now risks deflation as demand fails to pick up. GDP growth has already started to decline, and accelerated just 6.3% the past quarter, well-below economists' estimates of 7.1%.

"The slowdown from 10% annual GDP growth was inevitable. But current patterns raise profound concerns for China's economic outlook, especially considering that the government's policies for addressing them have not worked," Qian said.

Other experts have said China's future could be grim if its economy doesn't pick up soon. China may be headed for a lost decade, according to one former International Monetary Fund official, and its weakening economy could end up impacting US firms that are heavily exposed to nation, experts say.

India Blocks $1 Billion Bid By China’s BYD to Set Up EV Factory

Ragini Saxena and Ruchi Bhatia
Mon, July 24, 2023 


(Bloomberg) -- India rejected Chinese carmaker BYD Co.’s proposal to build a $1 billion electric-vehicle plant in partnership with a local company, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

The Indian government dismissed the plan from BYD and Hyderabad-based Megha Engineering and Infrastructures Ltd. on national security concerns, the people said, asking not to be identified as the decision is not yet public. The use of Chinese homegrown technology is a concern, one of the people said.

Foreign direct investment in India’s automobile sector doesn’t typically require approval. Investment proposals from countries that share a border with India, however, need political and security clearance from the ministries of external and home affairs.

BYD declined to comment. Representatives for Megha, which was established in 1989 and has infrastructure projects in sectors from power to transport, didn’t return phone calls or an email seeking comment.

Spokespeople for the Finance Ministry, the Heavy Industries Ministry and the Ministry of Home Affairs, which were all assessing BYD’s proposal and vet investment coming into the country, didn’t respond to requests for comment.

New Restrictions

India is restricting Chinese investment following a number of deadly clashes along the disputed border between the two nations, which have strained relations. Great Wall Motor Co. failed in an attempt to buy a mothballed General Motors Co. plant after it couldn’t get approval to close the deal.

The Economic Times reported the Indian government’s rejection of BYD’s investment plan on Saturday.

The government was probing SAIC Motor Corp.’s local unit MG Motor India Pvt over alleged financial irregularities, Bloomberg News reported last year. MG Motor has since announced plans to dilute its 100% share of the business, and aims to have it majority-owned by an Indian firm in two to four years.

Read More: China’s BYD Plans Aggressive Expansion Into India EV Market

The latest rejection deals a blow to BYD’s ambitious plans for India. The company, which entered the South Asian nation in 2007, sought to capture 40% of the domestic EV market by 2030, Sanjay Gopalakrishnan, senior vice president of its local operations, told Bloomberg in January. It’s aiming to sell 15,000 electric vehicles in India this year.

Investment from elsewhere doesn’t seem to be at risk. After meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the US last month, Elon Musk said Tesla Inc. is likely to make a significant investment in the country.

Harley-Davidson, Triumph in first gear of challenge to Royal Enfield's India reign


A handout image of Scrambler 400 X bike

Sun, July 23, 2023 

By Indranil Sarkar and Aby Jose Koilparambil

BENGALURU (Reuters) -U.S. big-bike maker Harley-Davidson and British rival Triumph have revved up India's premium motorcycle market with aggressively priced models that analysts said could dent the over half-century dominance of local champion Royal Enfield.

The duo surprised the industry this month by unveiling their cheapest models globally in the largest motorbike market by sales, where their expensive imports have long struggled for market share. This time, they are making the bikes in India with domestic partners to bring prices below 233,000 rupees ($2,841).

"These are aspirational brands," said Kotak Securities auto analyst Rishi Vora. "For people who were thinking of buying a Harley or Triumph earlier, the price points weren't accessible. Now, they are."

The similar, near-simultaneous change in approach by two of the industry's most storied brands represents one of the biggest challenges to Royal Enfield's virtual monopoly in high-end motorcycles, coming at a time of rising spending in India in premium segments across categories as varied as mobile phones and cars.

Such is the threat, the back-to-back launches pushed Royal Enfield maker Eicher Motors' stock price down as much as 12.5% and prompted brokerages to flag earnings risk for at least two years - even though Harley-Davidson and Triumph sales currently pale in comparison to those of Royal Enfield.

The pricing and brand cachet of the Harley-Davidson X440 and Triumph Speed 400 could cut Royal Enfield's share of India's 250 cc-plus segment to 75% from over 90%, Kotak said. Royal Enfield's nearest model is the Classic 350 starting at 193,000 rupees.

Eicher declined to comment ahead of its quarterly earnings announcement. Harley-Davidson did not respond to a request for comment. Triumph said it would significantly increase its dealer network to around 100 dealers over the next 12 months.

ROYAL CHALLENGE

The new models mark a return to India for Harley-Davidson and a huge step up for Triumph, but they are up against Royal Enfield's large number of showrooms, strong after-sales service network and entrenched fan base for a 100-plus-year-old brand.

"Is there going to be a challenge to Royal Enfield? Yes. Is it going to be a major one? It can't be immediately," said Shubhabrata Marmar, co-founder of automotive content platform MotorInc.

"Royal Enfield built the community, and have been iterating their showrooms to be ever classier places that have the feel of an international, retro, cool, chic brand."

Rival heritage brands have made little inroads against Royal Enfield, such as Mahindra & Mahindra's Yezdi and Jawa or BMW's eponymous brand that the German automaker manufactures with local partner TVS Motor.

"Once you buy the vehicle, everything else disappears. The pricing and the showroom disappear. It's you, your motorcycle and those trips to the service centre," said Varun Painter, editor of motorcycle content at PowerDrift.

Harley-Davidson spent a decade importing its ultra-premium motorcycles before exiting the market and shuttering most of its dealer network in 2020. It sold fewer than 30,000 motorcycles - less than the number of bikes Royal Enfield sells each month.

It then partnered Hero MotoCorp, the world's largest motorcycle maker, to develop and sell a range of Harley-Davidson branded bikes in India, starting with the X440.

Triumph was selling about 1,200 motorcycles annually in India when, also in 2020, it tied up with Bajaj Auto to build mid-capacity bikes, with Bajaj handling distribution.

Triumph said it has received orders for over 14,000 Speed 400 bikes, exceeding its total India sales of the past decade.

ALONG FOR THE RIDE

The premium segment accounts for under 10% of sales in a country where most people opt for cheaper means of transport to navigate heavy traffic and skirt rising fuel prices. Still, the frenzy over the new models is reflected in the surge in Google searches about Harley-Davidson and Triumph in India.

"The reviews and the stunning price pushed me to make an instant decision to book the Triumph," said Sathish Rao, a software professional and member of a motorcycle club.

Improved financing options is also encouraging lower-income buyers to consider premium bikes, said HDFC Securities analyst Aniket Mhatre.

"Our starter bikes are usually like a 100 cc to 200 cc max. I think that's going to change now. I feel like people are going to go straight to a 400 cc," said motorcycle content creator Priyanka Kochhar, who has ridden both the new bikes.

($1 = 82.0073 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Indranil Sarkar and Aby Jose Koilparambil in Bengaluru; Additional reporting by Nandan Mandayam, Saumya Singh, Navamya Ganesh Acharya and Varun Hebbalalu; Editing by Dhanya Skariachan, Euan Rocha and Christopher Cushing)

China to be centre of Mercedes-Benz 2025 EV sales drive, Automobilwoche says

Reuters
Sun, July 23, 2023

The logo of Mercedes-Benz is seen outside a Mercedes-Benz car dealer in Brussels

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Mercedes-Benz is making China, the world's top auto market, central to its next electric vehicle (EV) campaign starting in 2025, its CEO told German magazine Automobilwoche.

"To do this, we must master electric propulsion just as perfectly as digitalisation. That's what our customers expect," Ola Kaellenius was quoted as saying.

From 2025, all of Mercedes-Benz's new vehicle platforms will only make EVs under a strategy the German luxury automaker outlined in 2021.

A senior executive told Automobilwoche the models the company plans to launch in China based on the upcoming MB.EA platform were being reviewed to ensure they better meet the needs of local customers, singling out space and digital content.

China remains the most relevant market for Germany's automakers, but local brands are in control with an 81% share of the Chinese EV market in 2022, Counterpoint Research found.

China also has a significant stake in Mercedes-Benz, whose top two shareholders are Beijing Automotive Group Co Ltd and Geely Chairman Li Shufu.

At the same time, Berlin is trying to reduce its exposure to China's economy as part of efforts to derisk the German economy that have intensified since Russia's invasion of Ukraine exposed German dependence on a single dominant gas supplier.

(Reporting by Christoph Steitz; editing by Barbara Lewis)

Adidas swamped with $565 million in orders for unsold Yeezy shoes- FT


Adidas terminated its partnership with American rapper and designer Kanye West

Reuters
Updated Mon, July 24, 2023 

(Reuters) -Adidas got orders worth more than 508 million euros (about $565 million) for 4 million pairs of unsold Yeezy shoes, better than the company's "most optimistic forecast," the Financial Times reported on Monday.

Strong demand for the first batch of online sales would potentially save the German sportswear company from having to take a big writedown on its remaining stock, the newspaper said.

Adidas stopped selling Yeezy shoes from its defunct partnership with Ye in October after the rapper formerly known as Kanye West made a series of antisemitic comments.

Losing the highly profitable line hit first quarter sales at the company by around $440 million.

However, robust demand for the unsold sneakers has quelled fears at Adidas' headquarters that Ye's outbursts and a drop in marketing in the recent past would have made the Yeezy brand too toxic, FT said, citing sources.

Adidas declined to comment saying it was in a "quiet period" ahead of its quarterly results due Aug. 3.

The company had said in May it would donate some of the proceeds from the sales to organisations fighting antisemitism and racism.

Discussions over how much will be donated to individual charities are ongoing, the FT reported, adding that the company has chosen five charities in the US and China as a first step.

"Making donations of more than 8.5 million euros across the five charities has been discussed but no decision has been made," FT said, citing people familiar with the matter.

The final amount donated from the sales will be much larger as the company is willing to pay a significant share of the profits from the Yeezy inventory, the report said.

Adidas had forecast a loss this year before announcing its intentions to sell leftover Yeezy stocks.

($1 = 0.8996 euros)

(Reporting by Bharat Govind Gautam and additional reporting by Juby Babu in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D'Souza and Nivedita Bhattacharjee)

Chipmakers worry about red tape as they build new US plants. Mark Kelly wants to help.

The Arizona senator says America's complex permitting process could be a significant issue for the semiconductor industry in the US the years ahead unless Congress acts.


Ben Werschkul
Washington Correspondent
Sun, July 23, 2023

Challenges are starting to pile up for chipmakers as they face slowing consumer demand and labor shortages. Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) is pressing Washington for action on another concern he predicts could hamper the industry in the near future: government red tape.

The worry is that top manufacturers from Intel (INTC) to Micron (MU) are about to run headlong into America’s oft-criticized environmental review process as they embark on ambitious US plans in the years ahead.

It could present a headwind both for the industry as well as for the Biden administration’s efforts to compete with China in the crucial semiconductor space.

"Our national security literally depends on this kind of stuff," Kelly said during an interview this week in his Capitol Hill office.

Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ). (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

The complex issues are emblematic of growing pains for a US advanced semiconductor sector that is literally starting from scratch.

In recent years, according to the Semiconductor Industry Association, 100% of the world’s most state-of-the-art semiconductors have been produced overseas. The US role in semiconductor manufacturing overall has also fallen from nearly 40% in 1990 to 12% in recent years.

'Building Chips in America Act'

These leading semiconductor companies are currently queued up for billions in government money to kick-start new advanced chip-manufacturing projects in the US, part of last year’s landmark CHIPS and Science Act that set aside over $50 billion for direct grants to the industry.

But if history is any guide, these projects could face complex permitting and legal challenges after the funding is secured.

That's where Kelly hopes his bill can help. He is leading a push this week for the Building Chips in America Act, with an aim to streamline the environmental review process for microchip projects by putting them under the purview of the Department of Commerce.

His goal is for faster reviews and more limited legal challenges without sacrificing environmental protections.

The bill is being cosponsored by a bipartisan array of senators, including Todd Young (R-IN), Bill Hagerty (R-TN), and Sherrod Brown (D-OH), along with five members of the House of Representatives.

Chip companies also appear eager for these changes. Al Thompson, Intel’s head of US government affairs, told Yahoo Finance in a statement that the bill is important legislation.

"The Building Chips in America Act will ensure these projects remain on track and on time by streamlining the review process" as the billions being invested by Intel and other companies begin to take hold, he said.

Intel is currently in the process of investing over $43.5 billion in US facilities, including a giant semiconductor hub outside Columbus, Ohio.

President Joe Biden walks with Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger as they attends the groundbreaking of the new Intel semiconductor manufacturing facility in New Albany, Ohio, in 2022. (REUTERS/Joshua Roberts)

TSMC's challenges in Arizona

One concrete example of the ongoing challenges facing the industry is playing out in Kelly's home state.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) has been building a flagship fabrication plant in Arizona since 2021. While the company appears to have largely cleared the environmental review hurdles for now, it announced this week a delay in the launch of full-scale production in Arizona to 2025 from 2024. The reason: a worker shortage.

Mark Liu, the company’s chairman, said in a conference call Thursday morning that the company faces the shortage as the project enters "a critical phase of handling and installing the most advanced and dedicated equipment."

The company also discussed plans to import workers from Taiwan to close the gap and offer training "for a short period of time."

TSMC also cut its outlook for annual revenue this week largely due to a slowdown in consumer demand. It was a clear warning for the chip industry of potentially choppy waters in the year ahead.

Senator Kelly speaks with Apple CEO Tim Cook during a ceremony for Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company's semiconductor fabrication plant in Phoenix. Apple plans use the chips built at the plant once production begins.

 (REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst)

Kelly underlined the temporary nature of these foreign workers during this week's conversation, saying he remains confident that the workforce in Arizona will be able to handle the fabrication plant once it is up and running.

He argues that existing provisions in the 2022 CHIPS law, which set aside billions for workforce training largely at universities and community colleges, will bear fruit but acknowledges it’s an ongoing challenge.

"It's a heavy lift for the community colleges, but they've been doing well so far," he said.
Can Kelly get his bill through Congress?

Kelly will have to navigate complicated politics currently playing out on Capitol Hill around China, the US military, and social issues if he hopes to get the permitting reform efforts done.

Kelly and his allies are currently attempting to get the bill attached to the annual National Defense Authorization Act. It’s a bill Congress must finish before the end of the fiscal year in September, with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer saying he hopes to pass the Senate’s version before Congress leaves for its August recess in the coming days.

"We just had to put out some fires down there on the floor of the Senate here like 10 minutes ago," Kelly said during Thursday’s interview of his ongoing efforts, expressing optimism that a bill with his permitting reform ideas can get done.

But this year’s version of the usually drama-free military appropriations bill has been caught up in an unusual level of partisan fighting.

Republicans in the House injected controversial social issues like abortion into the conversation and the Senate debate has been marked by a worry that some senators could be looking to hold up the entire process over amendments around things like credit card fees.

The bottom line for Kelly and his efforts is that if the various standoffs continue, Schumer could seek to rush the bill through the Senate without considering a second wave of amendments, including Kelly's bill and other measures aimed at taking on China.

Kelly says getting his bill attached to the NDAA would be "the ideal situation." If not, he promises to pursue it as a standalone bill.

Ben Werschkul is a Washington correspondent for Yahoo Finance.

SEE

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2023/07/tsmc-delays-arizona-factory-that-will.html

Driven by AI boom, TSMC to invest $2.9 billion in advanced chip plant in Taiwan

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2023/07/so-much-for-onshoring-driven-by-ai-boom.html

Fukushima nuclear plant water release within weeks raises worries about setbacks to businesses

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Family members enjoy at the Usuiso beach in Iwaki, northeastern Japan, Thursday, July 6, 2023. 

(AP Photo/Hiro Komae)

MARI YAMAGUCHI
Updated Mon, July 24, 2023

IWAKI, Japan (AP) — Beach season has started across Japan, which means seafood for holiday makers and good times for business owners. But in Fukushima, that may end soon.

Within weeks, the tsunami-hit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant is expected to start releasing treated radioactive wastewater into the sea, a highly contested plan still facing fierce protests in and outside Japan.

The residents worry that the water discharge 12 years after the nuclear disaster could deal another setback to Fukushima’s image and hurt their businesses and livelihoods.

"Without a healthy ocean, I cannot make a living.” said Yukinaga Suzuki, a 70-year-old innkeeper at Usuiso beach in Iwaki about 50 kilometers (30 miles) south of the plant. And the government has yet to announce when the water release will begin.

It's not yet clear whether, or how, damaging the release will be. But residents say they feel "shikataganai” — meaning helpless.

Suzuki has requested officials to hold the plan at least until the swimming season ends in mid-August.

“If you ask me what I think about the water release, I’m against it. But there is nothing I can do to stop it as the government has one-sidedly crafted the plan and will release it anyway,” he said. “Releasing the water just as people are swimming at sea is totally out of line, even if there is no harm.”

The beach, he said, will be in the path of treated water traveling south on the Oyashio current from off the coast of Fukushima Daiichi.

The government and the operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, or TEPCO, have struggled to manage the massive amount of contaminated water accumulating since the 2011 nuclear disaster, and announced plans to release it to the ocean during the summer.

They say the plan is to treat the water, dilute it with more than a hundred times the seawater and then release it into the Pacific Ocean through an undersea tunnel. Doing so, they said, is safer than national and international standards require.

Suzuki is among those who are not fully convinced by the government’s awareness campaign that critics say only highlights safety. “We don’t know if it's safe yet,” Suzuki said. “We just can’t tell until much later.”

The Usuiso area used to have more than a dozen family-run inns before the disaster. Now, Suzuki’s half-century old Suzukame, which he inherited from his parents 30 years ago, is the only one still in business after surviving the tsunami. He heads a safety committee for the area and operates its only beach house.

Suzuki says his inn guests won’t mention the water issue if they cancel their reservations and he would only have to guess. “I serve fresh local fish to my guests, and the beach house is for visitors to rest and chill out. The ocean is the source of my livelihood."

The March 11, 2011, earthquake and tsunami destroyed the Fukushima Daiichi plant’s cooling systems, causing three reactors to melt and contaminating their cooling water, which has since leaked continuously. The water is collected, filtered and stored in some 1,000 tanks, which will reach their capacity in early 2024.

The government and TEPCO say the water must be removed to make room for the plant’s decommissioning, and to prevent accidental leaks from the tanks because much of the water is still contaminated and needs retreatment.

Katsumasa Okawa, who runs a seafood business in Iwaki, says those tanks containing contaminated water bother him more than the treated water release. He wants to have them removed as soon as possible, especially after seeing “immense” tanks occupying much of the plant complex during his visit few years ago.

An accidental leak would be “an ultimate strikeout ... It will cause actual damage, not reputation,” Okawa says. “I think the treated water release is unavoidable.” It’s eerie, he adds, to have to live near the damaged plant for decades.

Fukushima’s badly hit fisheries community, tourism and the economy are still recovering. The government has allocated 80 billion yen ($573 million) to support still-feeble fisheries and seafood processing and combat potential reputation damage from the water release.

His wife evacuated to her parents’ home in Yokohama, near Tokyo with their four children, but Okawa stayed in Iwaki to work on reopening the store. In July, 2011, Okawa resumed sale of fresh fish — but none from Fukushima.

Local fishing was returning to normal operation in 2021 when the government announced the water release plan.

Fukushima’s local catch today is still about one-fifth of its pre-disaster levels due to a decline in the fishing population and smaller catch sizes.

Japanese fishing organizations strongly opposed Fukushima's water release, as they worry about further damage to the reputation of their seafood as they struggle to recover. Groups in South Korea and China have also raised concerns, turning it a political and diplomatic issue. Hong Kong has vowed to ban the import of aquatic products from Fukushima and other Japanese prefectures if Tokyo discharges treated radioactive wastewater into the sea.

China plans to step up import restrictions and Hong Kong restaurants began switching menus to exclude Japanese seafood. Agricultural Minister Tetsuro Nomura acknowledged some fishery exports from Japan have been suspended at Chinese customs, and that Japan was urging Beijing to honor science.

“Our plan is scientific and safe, and it is most important to firmly convey that and gain understanding,” TEPCO official Tomohiko Mayuzumi told The Associated Press during its plant visit. Still, people have concerns and so a final decision on the timing of the release will be a “a political decision by the government,” he said.

Japan sought support from the International Atomic Energy Agency for transparency and credibility. IAEA’s final report, released this month and handed directly to Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, concluded that the method meets international standards and its environmental and health impacts would be negligible. IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi said radioactivity in the water would be almost undetectable and there is no cross-border impact.

Scientists generally agree that environmental impact from the treated water would be negligible, but some call for more attention on dozens of low-dose radionuclides that remain in the water, saying data on their long-term effect on the environment and marine life is insufficient.

Radioactivity of the treated water is so low that once it hits the ocean it will quickly disperse and become almost undetectable, which makes pre-release sampling of the water important for data analysis, said University of Tokyo environmental chemistry professor Katsumi Shozugawa.

He said the release can be safely carried out and trusted “only if TEPCO strictly follows the procedures as planned.” Diligent sampling of the water, transparency and broader cross-checks — not just limited to IAEA and two labs commissioned by TEPCO and the government — is key to gaining trust, Shozugawa said.

Japanese officials characterize the treated water as a tritium issue, but it also contains dozens of other radionuclides that leaked from the damaged fuel. Though they are filtered to legally releasable levels and their environmental impact deemed minimal, they still require close scrutiny, experts say.

TEPCO and government officials say tritium is the only radionuclide inseparable from water and is being diluted to contain only a fraction of the national discharge cap, while experts say heavy dilution is needed to also sufficiently lower concentration of other radionuclides.

“If you ask their impact on the environment, honestly, we can only say we don’t know,” Shozugawa, referring to dozens of radionuclides whose leakage is not anticipated at normal reactors, he says. “But it is true that the lower the concentration, the smaller the environmental impact,” and the plan is presumably safe, he said.

The treated water is a less challenging task at the plant compared to the deadly radioactive melted debris that remain in the reactors, or the continuous, tiny leaks of radioactivity to the outside.

Shozugawa, who has been regularly measuring radioactivity of groundwater samples, fish and plants near Fukushima Daiichi plant since the disaster, says his 12 years of sampling work shows small amounts of radioactivity from the Fukushima Daiichi has continuously leaked into groundwater and the port at the plant. He says its potential impact on the ecosystem also requires closer attention than the controlled release of the treated water.

TEPCO denies new leaks from the reactors and attributes high cesium in fish sometimes caught inside the port to sediment contamination from initial leaks and a rainwater drainage.

A local fisheries cooperative executive Takayuki Yanai told a recent online event that forcing the water release without public support only triggers reputational damage and hurts Fukushima fisheries. "We don't need additional burden to our recovery.”

“Public understanding is lacking because of distrust to the government and TEPCO,” he said. “The sense of safety only comes from trust."