CEO of Supermicro Charles Liang speaks during the Reuters NEXT conference in New York City, U.S., December 10, 2024.
Mike Segar | Reuters
PARIS — Super Micro plans to increase its investment in Europe, including ramping up manufacturing of its AI servers in the region, CEO Charles Liang told CNBC in an interview that aired on Wednesday.
The company sells servers which are packed with Nvidia chips and are key for training and implementing huge AI models. It has manufacturing facilities in the Netherlands, but could expand to other places.
“But because the demand in Europe is growing very fast, so I already decided, indeed, [there’s] already a plan to invest more in Europe, including manufacturing,” Liang told CNBC at the Raise Summit in Paris, France.
“The demand is global, and the demand will continue to improve in [the] next many years,” Liang added.
Liang’s comments come less than a month after Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang visited various parts of Europe, signing infrastructure deals and urging the region to ramp up its computing capacity.
Growth to be ‘strong’
Super Micro rode the growth wave after OpenAI’s ChatGPT boom boosted demand for Nvidia’s chips, which underpin big AI models. The server maker’s stock hit a record high in March 2024. However, the stock is around 60% off that all-time high over concerns about its accounting and financial reporting. But the company in February filed its delayed financial report for its 2024 fiscal year, assuaging those fears.
In May, the company reported weaker-than-expected guidance for the current quarter, raising concerns about demand for its product.
However, Liang dismissed those fears. “Our growth rate continues to be strong, because we continue to grow our fundamental technology, and we [are] also expanding our business scope,” Liang said.
“So the room … to grow will be still very tremendous, very big.”
Customers shop at a supermarket in Qingzhou City, East China’s Shandong Province, Aug 9, 2023.
Costfoto | Nurphoto | Getty Images
China’s producer prices plunged 3.6% in June from a year earlier, marking its largest decline in nearly two years, as a deepening price war rippled through the economy that’s already grappling with tepid consumer demand.
The consumer price index edged 0.1% higher in June from a year ago, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics Wednesday, returning to growth after four consecutive months of declines.
Economists had forecast a flat reading compared to the same period a year earlier, according to a Reuters poll.
Core CPI, stripping out food and energy prices, rose 0.7% from a year ago, the biggest increase in 14 months, according to NBS.
The drop in producer prices, however, came worse than the expected 3.2% in a Reuters poll and marked its biggest fall since July 2023, according to LSEG data. The PPI has been mired in a multi-year deflationary streak since September 2022.
Mainland China’s CSI 300 index rose 0.19% following the release.
“It is too early to call the end of deflation at this stage [as] the momentum in the property sector is still weakening [and] the ‘anti-involution’ campaign is still at its early phase,” said Zhiwei Zhang, president and chief economist at Pinpoint Asset Management. Involution, known colloquially as “neijuan” in China, refers to the price wars plaguing some consumer sectors.
Last week, Chinese policymakers, in a top economic policy meeting chaired by President Xi Jinping, criticized the excessive price competition by Chinese companies to entice consumers and clear excess inventory, as the U.S. tariff onslaught has threatened the viability of selling to the world’s largest consumer market.
Beijing pledged to tighten regulations on such aggressive price-cutting that has been unable to influence consumer behavior while biting into businesses’ profitability. Profits at industrial firms plunged 9.1% in May from a year earlier, marking the steepest fall since October last year.
“Businesses should be guided to improve product quality and support the orderly phasing out of outdated production capacity,” a Chinese state-backed newspaper said, citing the meeting.
The rebound in consumer prices last month was helped by a consumer goods trade-in scheme, that offers subsidies for household appliances, electronics and electric vehicles, said Zichun Huang, China economist at Capital Economics.
That boost, however, will likely diminish in the second half of this year, Huang noted, denting the underlying inflation if the oversupply issue persists.
“With goods supply continuing to outpace demand, persistent overcapacity means price wars among manufacturers are likely to continue,” Huang added.
“Without a strong policy stimulus, it’s hard to escape the ongoing deflationary spiral,” said Larry Hu, chief China economist at Macquarie, adding that the momentum in China’s exports in recent months has partly pared back Beijing’s desire to stimulate consumption in any meaningful way.
“Policymakers will keep waiting until exports fall sharply,” Hu added.
China’s export growth has shown some resilience in recent months, even as the erratic U.S. tariff policies disrupted global trade. Chinese overall exports rose 4.8% in May and 8.1% in April, thanks to a surge in shipments to the Southeast Asian nations that largely offset the shrinking U.S.-bound goods.
On Wednesday, the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) set the USD/CNY central rate for the trading session ahead at 7.1541 as compared to the previous day’s fix of 7.1534 and 7.1806 Reuters estimate.
PBOC FAQs
The primary monetary policy objectives of the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) are to safeguard price stability, including exchange rate stability, and promote economic growth. China’s central bank also aims to implement financial reforms, such as opening and developing the financial market.
The PBoC is owned by the state of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), so it is not considered an autonomous institution. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Committee Secretary, nominated by the Chairman of the State Council, has a key influence on the PBoC’s management and direction, not the governor. However, Mr. Pan Gongsheng currently holds both of these posts.
Unlike the Western economies, the PBoC uses a broader set of monetary policy instruments to achieve its objectives. The primary tools include a seven-day Reverse Repo Rate (RRR), Medium-term Lending Facility (MLF), foreign exchange interventions and Reserve Requirement Ratio (RRR). However, The Loan Prime Rate (LPR) is China’s benchmark interest rate. Changes to the LPR directly influence the rates that need to be paid in the market for loans and mortgages and the interest paid on savings. By changing the LPR, China’s central bank can also influence the exchange rates of the Chinese Renminbi.
Yes, China has 19 private banks – a small fraction of the financial system. The largest private banks are digital lenders WeBank and MYbank, which are backed by tech giants Tencent and Ant Group, per The Straits Times. In 2014, China allowed domestic lenders fully capitalized by private funds to operate in the state-dominated financial sector.
For scientist Sara Mikaloff-Fletcher, the news that a methane-tracking satellite was lost in space last week left her feeling like the air had been sucked from her lungs.
It happened just days before New Zealand was due to take control of the spacecraft, known as MethaneSat, which was designed to “name and shame” the worst methane polluters in the oil and gas industry.
“It was a pretty challenging moment in my career,” says Mikaloff-Fletcher, the Wellington-based lead of New Zealand’s part of the mission. “I was anticipating until a couple of days before this news that this would be a healthy mission that would last three to five years.”
The satellite was New Zealand’s first publicly funded space mission. Yet the project had been plagued with issues and delays, and last week officials confirmed that after only 15 months in orbit the satellite had lost contact with the ground and was likely unrecoverable.
The loss of the satellite dealt a heavy blow to the country’s fledgling government-funded space sector. New Zealand initially invested NZ$29m in MethaneSat, a project led by the US non-profit Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) with other finance coming from the Bezos Earth Fund, the Audacious Project and the Valhalla Foundation.
The satellite’s primary goal was to detect methane leaks from oil and gas production worldwide. But in New Zealand, Mikaloff-Fletcher leads a complementary project to explore if the satellite could also track the release of the potent greenhouse gas from agriculture. Methane from livestock accounts for almost half of New Zealand’s greenhouse gas emissions.
The project was years in the making and some experts have criticised New Zealand’s involvement. In 2019, the government agreed to invest in the mission but the satellite’s launch was delayed until March 2024. Almost NZ$12m of the funding was used to build a mission control centre at Rocket Lab, a private space company with a launchpad on the remote east coast of New Zealand and also operating from the US.
The University of Auckland was to take over mission control last year but problems led to further delays. They included the satellite going into safe mode due to intense solar activity, and issues with operating its thrusters. The university never took control because the satellite stopped responding on 20 June. By this point New Zealand’s total investment had risen to NZ$32m, according to the New Zealand Space Agency, because of additional funding allocated to maintain capability to take over operations.
Judith Collins, minister for space in the New Zealand government, declined to comment on the loss of MethaneSat. The deputy head of the New Zealand Space Agency, Andrew Johnson, described it as “clearly a disappointing development”.
But Johnson says involvement in the mission has strengthened New Zealand’s expertise and space capability, and the mission control centre at the University of Auckland’s Te Pūnaha Ātea Space Institute will continue to be used as a training facility to position the country for future missions.
However, Richard Easther, a University of Auckland physicist who is not involved in the project, says it was a mistake for New Zealand to invest in MethaneSat. He was initially excited about the mission, but says it’s become “clear they haven’t been able to keep to schedule and deliver a functional spacecraft”.
While the mission was deploying new methane-detecting sensors, the design of the spacecraft itself was not as well defined as it should have been when New Zealand invested in it and parts of it “haven’t been tested in space”.
The MethaneSat under construction. Photograph: 2024 Ball Aerospace/BAE Systems
MethaneSat’s mission lead and chief scientist for EDF Steve Hamburg says the mission was “technologically ambitious” and the team that developed the satellite “includes some of the world’s most seasoned professionals in both public and private sector space flight”.
Johnson says the providers of the satellite’s structural and functional components, as well as the sensor, were selected before New Zealand joined the mission, but given the expertise of the professionals involved, “we had no reason to doubt their judgement.”
Jon Coifman, a spokesperson for MethaneSat, says it was unclear what caused the loss of contact, but an expert panel had been set up to investigate. The existing datasets would remain accessible “for the foreseeable future” and more data would be released over the next few months. The team remains “undeterred in our efforts to drive down methane pollution”.
“No other satellite could match the ability to detect changes in methane levels with such high resolution and high sensitivity over such wide areas,” Coifman says.
Mikaloff-Fletcher says there have been other missions that have faced similar challenges.
“A great example is Nasa’s Orbital Carbon Observatory mission, meant to deliver the most precise measurements of carbon dioxide ever made from space. It was launched in 2009 and fell into the ocean without making a single measurement,” Mikaloff-Fletcher says, though she notes further satellites were launched to achieve the mission.
She says MethaneSat did record data that will be useful in tracking agricultural emissions, and her work in the field will continue despite the setback.
Preliminary analysis shows the satellite’s observations over agricultural targets in New Zealand line up well with modelling and measurements collected by aircraft-borne instruments, suggesting “we will be able to quantify agricultural emissions in a wide range of different farming systems from existing data”.
“The satellite’s life may be shorter than hoped, but the project will go on to shed new light on agricultural emissions from the data we have.”
Leading global law firm Baker McKenzie announced today that the New York office represented The Republic of Peru (the Republic) in both a Peruvian Soles-Denominated Sovereign Bond Offering and a Registered US Dollar-Denominated Bond Offering (both offerings totaling approximately USD 5.8 billion) and a related liability management transaction for several series of outstanding bonds.
The Soles-Denominated Sovereign Bond offering involved the issuance of S/10,000,000,000 (approximately USD 2.8 billion) of 6.850% Sol-Denominated Bonos Soberanos due 2035 (the Sovereign Bonds). S/1,205,456,000 (approximately USD 334 million) of the Sovereign Bonds were delivered in the form of Global Depositary Notes.
Concurrently with offering of Sovereign Bonds, the Republic conducted a liability management transaction in which it offered holders of four series of existing sovereign bonds the opportunity to exchange their existing bonds for the newly issued Sovereign Bonds or to tender their existing bonds for cash. The aggregate principal amount of sovereign bonds validly tendered and accepted in the exchange offers was approximately S/9.4 billion (approximately USD 2.6 billion) and the aggregate principal amount of sovereign bonds validly tendered and accepted in the cash tender offers was approximately S/2.8 billion (approximately USD 770 million). Due to significant interest in the exchange offer and cash tender offer, the actual amount of existing sovereign bonds validly tendered was subject to proration by the Republic, as a result of the tenders exceeding the maximum exchange amount and maximum purchase amount determined by the Republic.
Shortly following the conclusion of the offering of Sovereign Bonds, the Republic issued USD 1.6 billion of 5.500% US Dollar-Denominated Global Bonds Due 2036 and USD 1.4 billion of 6.200% U.S. Dollar-Denominated Global Bonds Due 2036 (the “US Dollar-Denominated Bonds”), each of which were registered with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
Concurrently with offering of US Dollar-Denominated Bonds, the Republic conducted a liability management transaction in which it offered (i) holders of five series of existing US dollar-denominated bonds the opportunity to exchange their existing U.S. dollar-denominated bonds for the newly issued US Dollar-Denominated Bonds or to tender their existing US dollar-denominated bonds for cash and (ii) holders of two series of existing Euro-denominated bonds the opportunity to tender their existing Euro-denominated bonds for cash. The aggregate principal amount of outstanding US dollar-denominated bonds validly tendered and accepted in the exchange offers was approximately USD 516.7 million and the aggregate principal amount of outstanding US dollar-denominated bonds validly tendered and accepted in the cash tender offers was approximately USD 433.9 million. The aggregate principal amount of outstanding Euro-denominated bonds validly tendered and accepted in the cash tender offers was approximately EUR 229.8 million.
The transactions represent an important step in the Republic extending its debt maturity profile. BNP Paribas, Citigroup, HSBC and Santander acted as the underwriters and dealer managers.
Transactional Practice Group partners Mike Fitzgerald, Arturo Carrillo, Joy Gallup and Steven Sandretto led the Baker McKenzie team, which also included associates Alejandra Cuadra and Diego Aznar and Tax partners Thomas May and Kia Waxman.
Other law firms participating in this transaction included Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP (as counsel to the underwriters and dealer managers), J&A Garrigues Perú S. Civil de R. L. (as Peruvian counsel to the Republic) and Estudio Rubio, Leguía, Normand y Asociados S. Civil de R. L. (as Peruvian counsel to the underwriters and dealer managers).
It’s a question many are asking after June’s devastating Air India crash, which killed at least 270 people. The London-bound Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner went down less than a minute after taking off from Ahmedabad airport in western India on 12 June.
“India’s skies have always been safe – in the past and even today,” said Faiz Ahmed Kidwai, the chief of Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) – India’s aviation safety regulator – in an interview with the BBC.
“If you look at global safety metrics, such as those published by International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), which track the number of accidents per million flights, India consistently performs better than the world average,” he said.
“There were only two years within the 2010–2024 period where we exceeded the global average – those were the years when major accidents occurred.”
In August 2020, Air India Express Flight 1344 crashed after skidding off a rain-soaked tabletop runway in Kozhikode, killing 21 people. A decade earlier, in May 2010, Flight 812 from Dubai overshot the runway in Mangalore and plunged into a gorge, leaving 158 dead. June’s Air India crash was the third such accident in the country in 15 years.
While such major accidents remain rare, recent headlines have raised fresh concerns. From a Delhi-Srinagar flight that hit severe turbulence, to growing reports of maintenance oversights and training shortfalls, questions around aviation safety are once again in focus.
The latest involved SpiceJet, India’s fourth-largest and longest-running low-cost airline.
The Economic Times newspaper found that the aviation regulator had recently summoned the airline’s leadership after a series of alarming findings – not from routine audits, but triggered by a British aviation firm.
The newspaper reported that it began earlier this year when two of SpiceJet’s De Havilland Q400 turboprops showed premature propeller failures. The airline alerted Dowty Propellers, a GE Aerospace-led UK manufacturer, which found damage to the internal bearings of the propellers.
Each propeller has bearings with two races, or rings or tracks. In this case, the inner race was damaged. Instead of addressing the root cause, SpiceJet “reportedly kept applying more grease to the [entire] unit instead of addressing the root cause”. Frustrated by the lack of corrective action, Dowty escalated the issue directly to India’s aviation regulator, the newspaper reported.
The DGCA’s own audit in April “revealed even more deficiencies, including snag occurrences”, the report said.
Mr Kidwai told the BBC that the “turboprop propeller issue came to our attention through one of SpiceJet’s maintenance organisations”.
“We took it up with SpiceJet and we ensured they took corrective action. We also found out that the senior management was not fully aware of the situation. We took action against the various post holders who were supposed to ensure compliance with the original equipment manufacturer and other regulations. We directed SpiceJet to remove them and suspend a few of them which they did,” he said.
More recently, Reuters reported that the aviation watchdog reprimanded Air India’s budget carrier in March for delaying mandatory engine part replacements on an Airbus A320 and falsifying records to show compliance.
Air India Express told the news agency it acknowledged the error to DGCA and undertook “remedial action and preventive measures”.
Mr Kidwai told the BBC that the information in this case came through “self-reporting by the airline”.
“I would not condone it [the lapses]. But [at least] we have started getting these reports. This came from the airline. Action has been taken in this case. In our audits we have mandated our people to be more alert and see whether there is any lapse and bring it to our attention.”
In May, an IndiGo flight from Delhi to Srinagar faced severe turbulence and hail about 45 minutes after takeoff.
The Airbus A321, carrying 222 passengers, reportedly encountered extreme vertical air currents – updrafts followed by downdrafts – that dislodged overhead bins and caused nose damage. The crew declared an emergency and safely landed at Srinagar with no injuries. The regulator launched an investigation, during which two pilots were grounded.
Mr Kidwai told the BBC that the regulator had now “refined” its guidelines for pilots flying in turbulent conditions.
For instance, if there’s significant cloud cover or any weather pattern that poses a risk – and “we’ve clearly defined what constitutes such a risk” – pilots are now required to take specific action a set number of nautical miles before reaching it, he said.
“This could include diverting, going around, or taking other appropriate steps.”
Since 2020, Indian domestic carriers have reported 2,461 technical faults, according to the federal civil aviation ministry data. IndiGo accounted for over half (1,288), followed by SpiceJet with 633, and Air India and its subsidiary Air India Express with 389 cases, as of January 2025.
“Reporting of snags by airlines has gone up. This is good,” Mr Kidwai said.
“I wouldn’t say I’m pleased about it. But I do see value in the growing culture of reporting [snags]. It’s far better for every snag to be brought to the attention of the authorities than keeping quiet and operating the aircraft.”
Mr Kidwai said with the number of flights increasing, it’s important to “see whether the turnaround time for flights is adequate for [maintenance] checks or not”.
To be sure, demands on the regulator have grown: India has emerged as the third-largest passenger aviation market in the world. Yet, over the past two years, the ministry of civil aviation has faced budget cuts, reflecting a reduced financial priority for the sector.
Today, the country’s scheduled carriers operate nearly 850 aircraft – a significant increase from around 400 just a decade ago.
The number of air passengers has more than doubled since 2014–15 – from 116 million to 239 million.
The number of commercial aerodromes has also seen a substantial rise – from around 60-70 a decade ago to nearly 130-140 today.
“In total, including both scheduled and non-scheduled operators, we now have 1,288 aircraft in operation. By the end of the decade, we are projected to operate over 2,000 aircraft,” Mr Kidwai said. (Non-scheduled operators include charter airlines, private jet operators, air taxis and helicopter services.)
So had the latest Air India crash dented the reputation of air travel in India? Mr Kidwai said the data didn’t point to that.
“We looked at the data to assess whether it had any impact on domestic or international operations. There was no significant drop in traffic. At most, we observed a very marginal dip for a short period, affecting both domestic and international flights, along with a few cancellations,” he told the BBC.
“It’s natural for people to feel anxious after such incidents. But over time, as more clarity emerges and the situation is better understood, that anxiety tends to subside. Time is a great healer.”
It’s a question many are asking after June’s devastating Air India crash, which killed at least 270 people. The London-bound Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner went down less than a minute after taking off from Ahmedabad airport in western India on 12 June.
“India’s skies have always been safe – in the past and even today,” said Faiz Ahmed Kidwai, the chief of Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) – India’s aviation safety regulator – in an interview with the BBC.
“If you look at global safety metrics, such as those published by International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), which track the number of accidents per million flights, India consistently performs better than the world average,” he said.
“There were only two years within the 2010–2024 period where we exceeded the global average – those were the years when major accidents occurred.”
In August 2020, Air India Express Flight 1344 crashed after skidding off a rain-soaked tabletop runway in Kozhikode, killing 21 people. A decade earlier, in May 2010, Flight 812 from Dubai overshot the runway in Mangalore and plunged into a gorge, leaving 158 dead. June’s Air India crash was the third such accident in the country in 15 years.
While such major accidents remain rare, recent headlines have raised fresh concerns. From a Delhi-Srinagar flight that hit severe turbulence, to growing reports of maintenance oversights and training shortfalls, questions around aviation safety are once again in focus.
The latest involved SpiceJet, India’s fourth-largest and longest-running low-cost airline.
June’s devastating Air India crash killed at least 270 people in Ahmedabad [Getty Images]
The Economic Times newspaper found that the aviation regulator had recently summoned the airline’s leadership after a series of alarming findings – not from routine audits, but triggered by a British aviation firm.
The newspaper reported that it began earlier this year when two of SpiceJet’s De Havilland Q400 turboprops showed premature propeller failures. The airline alerted Dowty Propellers, a GE Aerospace-led UK manufacturer, which found damage to the internal bearings of the propellers.
Each propeller has bearings with two races, or rings or tracks. In this case, the inner race was damaged. Instead of addressing the root cause, SpiceJet “reportedly kept applying more grease to the [entire] unit instead of addressing the root cause”. Frustrated by the lack of corrective action, Dowty escalated the issue directly to India’s aviation regulator, the newspaper reported.
The DGCA’s own audit in April “revealed even more deficiencies, including snag occurrences”, the report said.
Mr Kidwai told the BBC that the “turboprop propeller issue came to our attention through one of SpiceJet’s maintenance organisations”.
“We took it up with SpiceJet and we ensured they took corrective action. We also found out that the senior management was not fully aware of the situation. We took action against the various post holders who were supposed to ensure compliance with the original equipment manufacturer and other regulations. We directed SpiceJet to remove them and suspend a few of them which they did,” he said.
More recently, Reuters reported that the aviation watchdog reprimanded Air India’s budget carrier in March for delaying mandatory engine part replacements on an Airbus A320 and falsifying records to show compliance.
Air India Express told the news agency it acknowledged the error to DGCA and undertook “remedial action and preventive measures”.
Mr Kidwai told the BBC that the information in this case came through “self-reporting by the airline”.
“I would not condone it [the lapses]. But [at least] we have started getting these reports. This came from the airline. Action has been taken in this case. In our audits we have mandated our people to be more alert and see whether there is any lapse and bring it to our attention.”
Since 2020, Indian domestic carriers have reported nearly 2,500 technical faults [Getty Images]
In May, an IndiGo flight from Delhi to Srinagar faced severe turbulence and hail about 45 minutes after takeoff.
The Airbus A321, carrying 222 passengers, reportedly encountered extreme vertical air currents – updrafts followed by downdrafts – that dislodged overhead bins and caused nose damage. The crew declared an emergency and safely landed at Srinagar with no injuries. The regulator launched an investigation, during which two pilots were grounded.
Mr Kidwai told the BBC that the regulator had now “refined” its guidelines for pilots flying in turbulent conditions.
For instance, if there’s significant cloud cover or any weather pattern that poses a risk – and “we’ve clearly defined what constitutes such a risk” – pilots are now required to take specific action a set number of nautical miles before reaching it, he said.
“This could include diverting, going around, or taking other appropriate steps.”
Since 2020, Indian domestic carriers have reported 2,461 technical faults, according to the federal civil aviation ministry data. IndiGo accounted for over half (1,288), followed by SpiceJet with 633, and Air India and its subsidiary Air India Express with 389 cases, as of January 2025.
“Reporting of snags by airlines has gone up. This is good,” Mr Kidwai said.
“I wouldn’t say I’m pleased about it. But I do see value in the growing culture of reporting [snags]. It’s far better for every snag to be brought to the attention of the authorities than keeping quiet and operating the aircraft.”
Mr Kidwai said with the number of flights increasing, it’s important to “see whether the turnaround time for flights is adequate for [maintenance] checks or not”.
To be sure, demands on the regulator have grown: India has emerged as the third-largest passenger aviation market in the world. Yet, over the past two years, the ministry of civil aviation has faced budget cuts, reflecting a reduced financial priority for the sector.
Today, the country’s scheduled carriers operate nearly 850 aircraft – a significant increase from around 400 just a decade ago.
The number of air passengers has more than doubled since 2014–15 – from 116 million to 239 million.
The number of commercial aerodromes has also seen a substantial rise – from around 60-70 a decade ago to nearly 130-140 today.
“In total, including both scheduled and non-scheduled operators, we now have 1,288 aircraft in operation. By the end of the decade, we are projected to operate over 2,000 aircraft,” Mr Kidwai said. (Non-scheduled operators include charter airlines, private jet operators, air taxis and helicopter services.)
So had the latest Air India crash dented the reputation of air travel in India? Mr Kidwai said the data didn’t point to that.
“We looked at the data to assess whether it had any impact on domestic or international operations. There was no significant drop in traffic. At most, we observed a very marginal dip for a short period, affecting both domestic and international flights, along with a few cancellations,” he told the BBC.
“It’s natural for people to feel anxious after such incidents. But over time, as more clarity emerges and the situation is better understood, that anxiety tends to subside. Time is a great healer.”
Labor is making urgent representations to the White House about Donald Trump’s threat to impose 200% tariffs on drug imports to the US, an announcement Jim Chalmers says is very concerning for the Australian economy.
The US president said on Wednesday that the punishing new border levies would come with a transition period that could last more at least a year, after sustained pressure from the US pharmaceutical industry over price controls on common drugs in countries like Australia.
“We’ll be announcing something very soon on pharmaceuticals,” Trump said.
“We’re going to give people about a year, year and a half to come in, and after that they’re gonna be tariffed if they have to bring the pharmaceuticals into the country at a very high rate, like 200%.”
Trump, who this week delayed the lifting of a pause on his so-called “retaliatory tariffs” against more than 100 countries until 1 August, also announced a plan to hit copper imports into the US with a 50% tariff.
Australia’s copper exports to the US are worth about $50m annually and make up less than 1% of total sales of the metal.
But Australia exports about $2.5bn in pharmaceutical (mainly vaccines and blood products) as well as healthcare products to the US each year – a share of about 40% of medicines exports across the globe annually.
Rare earths: how these critical minerals impact Australian industry and global politics – video
This week Guardian Australia reported some of the most influential lobby groups in Washington were pushing the US to retaliate against Australia’s treatment of US exporters under the $18bn pharmaceutical benefits scheme, pointing to drug approvals and domestic manufacturing incentives as proof of unfair “freeloading”.
The PBS keeps prices for nearly 1,000 commonly used medicines capped, with supply deals negotiated with drug companies to ensure access to life-saving drugs.
The treasurer said the plan to impose tariffs on foreign pharmaceuticals and copper were “very concerning developments”.
“Our pharmaceuticals industry is much more exposed to the US market, and that’s why we’re seeking, urgently seeking, some more detail on what’s been announced,” Chalmers told ABC radio.
“But I want to make it really clear once again, as we have on a number of occasions before, our pharmaceutical benefits scheme is not something that [we are] willing to trade away.”
Lobby groups including the US Chamber of Commerce and the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America have told the US trade representative, Jamieson Greer, that the system is discriminatory and “socialised medicine”.
skip past newsletter promotion
after newsletter promotion
Chalmers said growing global trade tensions linked to Trump’s unpredictable and expanding tariff regime were a “substantial concern” to Australia.
“It does pose a risk to the progress that the world has been making in our economies after Covid,” he said.
“We’ve made it really clear on a number of occasions, these tariffs are bad for Australia. They’re bad for the US. They’re bad for the global economy.
“These developments, they are sometimes unpredictable. There’s been an element of volatility and uncertainty injected into the global economy.”
Trump this week sent letters of demand to 14 US trading partners, including Japan and South Korea, warning them of the 1 August deadline.
Australia had not received a letter as of Wednesday, though Trump flagged then that additional letters would be sent in the next “short period of time”.
“As per letters sent to various countries yesterday, in addition to letters that will be sent today, tomorrow, and for the next short period of time, TARIFFS WILL START BEING PAID ON AUGUST 1, 2025,” he said.
“There has been no change to this date, and there will be no change. In other words, all money will be due and payable starting AUGUST 1, 2025 – No extensions will be granted. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
The US commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, told CNBC he expected the copper tariffs to be put into place as soon as the end of July or sometime in early August.
