The Don Mueang–Suvarnabhumi–U-Tapao high-speed railway, officially known as the High-Speed Rail Linking Three Airports Project, is in progress and expected to be completed by 2029, government deputy spokesperson Tipanan Sirichana said on Sunday.

Ms Tipanan said Gen Prayut, as chair of the Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC) Committee, had expedited the construction of the project to ensure a modern, convenient, fast and seamless transport system linking the three airports.

The State Railaway of Thailand (SRT) and the EEC Committee have entered a contract with a private consortium to build the 220-kilometre railway at a cost of 224,544 million baht and operate the system for 50 years. After the end of the 50-year concession, the property – worth about 300 billion baht – would be handed over to the state.

The railway, with the 1.435-metre standard gauge, will be based mainly on the existing airport rail link and SRT rail route. From the airport rail link, the railway will be extended on one side from Phayathai station to Don Mueang airport and on the other side from Lat Krabang station to Suvarnabhumi and U-tapao airports.

Trains will run at a maximum speed of 250 kilometres per hour. The entire route will span five provinces – Bangkok, Samut Prakan, Chon Buri, Rayong and Chachoengsao – with a total of nine stations: Don Mueang, Bang Sue, Makkasan, Suvarnabhumi, Chachoengsao, Chon Buri, Si Racha, Pattaya and U-tapao.

According to Ms Tipanan, the land for construction of the project between Suvarnabhumi and U-tapao was handed over to the private consortium in June 2022. The area between Phayathai and Don Mueang will be handed over to the concessionaire in October this year.

It is believed the entire project will be completed by 2029, she said.

“Apart from linking the three airports and serving as major infrastructure for the EEC, the high-speed railway is intended to attract more foreign investment and create about 100,000 jobs in the industrial sector.

There will be smart cities along the rail route, which can be further connected with other parts of the Asean region,” Ms Tipanan said.

Source: Bangkok Post

TOKYO: Japan’s Toyota was the world’s top-selling automaker in 2022, retaining its lead over German rival Volkswagen for the third year, company data showed Monday.

Despite the chip shortage and Covid-related supply chain disruption, Toyota and its subsidiaries sold nearly 10.5 million vehicles last year, around the same as in 2021.

In comparison, Volkswagen Group — which held the top spot until 2020 when it was overtaken by Toyota — sold 8.3 million units last year, an annual drop of seven percent.

“Despite the impact of production constraints caused by the spread of Covid-19, increased demand for semiconductors, and other factors, global sales were at the same level year-on-year as a result of solid demand centered around Asia,” the Japanese car giant said.

In 2022, Toyota sold 2.7 million electrified vehicles, around five percent more than the previous year. The vast majority of those — 2.6 million — were hybrid models.

Toyota pioneered hybrid cars, but some critics say the company has been slow to make the shift to battery-powered engines even as demand soars for low-emission automobiles.

A year ago, Toyota hiked its targets for the sector and announced it would roll out 30 battery-powered electric models by the end of the decade.

Mio Kato, an analyst at Lightstream Research who publishes on Smartkarma, told AFP that Toyota was likely to keep its top-selling crown in the near term.

“In terms of the actual volumes, it will still be difficult for Volkswagen or General Motors to surpass Toyota easily because both are under more pressure in China with their internal combustion engine business,” he said.

Electric-only carmakers like
China’s BYD will one day pose “a genuine threat” to Toyota, he said, because they have strong battery technology and “more experience and better branding” with EVs.

But electric-only automakers are still too small to have a realistic chance of competing with legacy carmakers for several years at least, Kato said.

Last week Toyota named Koji Sato its new president and CEO, replacing third-generation chief executive Akio Toyoda in a surprise reshuffle of the company’s leadership.

Source: AFP

US trade flows are realigning on the back of pandemic shocks and tensions with China, but efforts to reduce interdependence between the superpowers have not brought a swift decoupling.

While security concerns have escalated and US imports from China fell after Washington and Beijing imposed tit-for-tat tariffs, trade has since climbed again.

The numbers could rise further when 2022 trade data is released next month, pointing to how interlaced the world’s two biggest economies are.

But experts say tensions have left their mark in other ways.
“US imports from China are well below the trend that they were on before the trade war started,” said Mary Lovely, senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE).

“There is definitely a turn away from China in US imports, especially or primarily in those goods on which the US raised tariffs,” she told
AFP.

After the trade war started, the value of America’s goods imported from China dropped from $506 billion in 2017 to around $450 billion in 2019.
Bilateral relations are not the only factors affecting trade. The pandemic taook a heavy toll as well.

Last November, China saw its sharpest drop in exports since the start of Covid-19, with business activity slammed by a strict zero-Covid policy.

Also weighing on imports is an “ongoing shift in the US away from spending on goods,” said Ryan Sweet of Oxford Economics.

Americans spent heavily on imported products during the pandemic, but “people are going back out and spending on services” as virus concerns ease, he said.

This cuts into demand for goods and can help explain why numbers have not surged more.

– Diversification, not decoupling –

For now, US government figures through to November show total US-China trade could approach or hit a high in 2022.

“Going forward, you’re going to see more diversification,” as opposed to a complete cut-off of shipments from
China, said Sweet.

Auto manufacturers, for example, experienced supply chain problems during the
pandemic.

Increasing climate-related disruptions are also “raising the risks of overconcentrated supply chains in one firm or one geographic area,” said Robert Koopman, a lecturer at American University and a former World Trade Organization chief economist.

Meanwhile, the US is trying to be more self-reliant in specific sectors like semiconductors.

“The recent (Inflation Reduction Act) and Chips Act, and related sanctions are clear indicators of the Biden administration’s efforts to decouple from China” in these
areas, said Koopman.

Emily Benson, senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), added: “As companies reassess risk and review the current state of their supply chains, one consistent outcome is movement… away from China to other countries.”

Source: AFP