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We have put together stories from our coverage on electric and new energy vehicles from the past two weeks to help you stay informed. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing. 1. BYD, Geely bank on big discounts to set record car sales, dent smaller rivals China's leading electric vehicle (EV) makers from BYD to Geely Auto sustained their strong sales last month as big price cuts lured new buyers, helping boost their market share and heaping pressure on......

China's dominance of global shipbuilding appears to have been eroded over the past six months, according to the latest industry data, suggesting that US efforts to rein in the country's shipyards may be starting to bite. China has been by far the world's largest shipbuilder for years, but its shipyards saw new orders plunge 68 per cent year on year to 26.3 million deadweight tonnes in the first half of 2025, according to a Monday report from maritime consultancy Clarksons Research. South Korea,......

Hong Kong stocks fell by the most in nearly three weeks as China's deflationary trend became more entrenched, deepening concerns about the nation's growth prospects. The Hang Seng Index dropped 0.8 per cent to 23,943.42 at 10.13am local time on Wednesday and the Hang Seng Tech Index retreated 1.3 per cent. On the mainland, the CSI 300 Index climbed 0.2 per cent and the Shanghai Composite Index added 0.3 per cent. Henderson Land Development slumped 8.3 per cent to HK$26 after raising HK$8 billion......

Hong Kong's stock exchange had its busiest day of the year for new listings on Wednesday as five mainland Chinese companies made their debuts, cementing the city's position atop the global ranking for initial public offerings (IPO). Wuhan Dazhong Dental Medical (2651) was the biggest winner of the day, when its shares jumped 20 per cent at the open to HK$24, from its IPO price of HK$20. The shares of Apple supplier Lens Technology (6613) began trading at HK$18.88, a premium of 3.8 per cent from......

Luxury home sales in Shanghai are defying a nationwide slump, as wealthy buyers snap up “safe haven” assets amid expectations of further price gains – a trend likely to continue given scarce inventory and rising land costs. In the first half of this year, the mainland's financial capital led in transactions of premium homes, accounting for sales of 482 new homes priced above 50 million yuan (US$7 million), more than 80 per cent of the total across 30 cities, according to data compiled by China......

China has ramped up offshore wind energy development, as the form of renewable energy aligns with Beijing's goals of carbon neutrality, energy security and developing the marine economy to boost economic growth. China added more than 4.4 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind capacity in the first six months of the year, the same amount it added in all of 2024, according to a report by the non-profit Global Energy Monitor (GEM) on Wednesday. The report said the country was expected to add at least 9GW......

Digital colleagues will be a part of everyday life in the next five years, according to an artificial intelligence (AI) expert from Alibaba Group Holding's cloud computing unit, who envisions an ecosystem of application developers creating AI agents to cater to consumer and business demands. “Agentic AI is very popular in the industry right now,” said Huang Fei, vice-president of Alibaba Cloud and head of the company's Tongyi Natural Language Processing Lab. Speaking at the China Conference 2025......

Writer Ernest Hemingway is believed to have said that the first draft of anything is bad. The first step to writing is often being brave enough to write badly. But in today's world of generative artificial intelligence (AI), the manuscript often writes itself without fear or reluctance. With the advent of generative AI tools, such as ChatGPT and DeepSeek, academia stands at a historic crossroads. The way we read, write and think is changing in major ways, from junior to graduate school and......

Hong Kong's status as an international financial centre gives it an edge in artificial intelligence (AI) development in spite of rising geopolitical tensions, according to experts, as the city boosts computing power resources to support companies involved in the vital technology. “For AI companies, having easy access to capital is extremely important,” SenseTime chief financial officer Wang Zheng said in a panel discussion at the South China Morning Post's China Conference 2025 on Tuesday. “Hong......

Hong Kong's insurance business may expand by a compounded 55 per cent over the next eight years, driven by the so-called silver economy serving senior citizens and growth in the Greater Bay Area, industry experts said on Tuesday. Gross insurance premium in the city may jump to US$127 billion by 2032 from last year's US$82 billion, said Steve Finch, Manulife Financial's Asia president, citing industry forecasts. That growth is enabled by the “depth and sophistication of Hong Kong's insurance......

Facebook parent Meta Platforms is adding another Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) expert to its newly established research facility, underscoring how researchers from China are increasingly sought after in the competitive global race for top tech talent. The social media giant has recruited Pang Ruoming, who held the title of distinguished software engineer at Apple and was leading its foundation models team, according to a Bloomberg News report on Tuesday that was confirmed by Meta. Neither......

Hong Kong's stock exchange could experience a surge in new listings in the second half of the year, with proceeds estimated to more than double from the preceding six months, following efforts to promote the city's capital markets, according to KPMG. Between 100 and 230 companies were expected to launch initial public offerings (IPOs) and raise between HK$200 billion (US$25.5 billion) and HK$250 billion from investors, said Irene Chu, a partner and head of new economy and life sciences at KPMG......

TikTok owner ByteDance has denied a recent report that it agreed to sell its US operations to a consortium led by Oracle, according to multiple Chinese media. On Monday, Chinese media GeekPark published an article saying that the Beijing-based social media giant had given the nod for a sale to a group led by Oracle, in which it would maintain a minority stake. The article has since been removed. Meanwhile, the company is reportedly working on new versions of the popular short video app, as well......

Just ahead of the July 9 deadline to reach an agreement on tariffs, US President Donald Trump announced his decision on the tariffs levels for 14 countries – including a rate of 25 per cent on Japan and South Korea – effective August 1. Trump accused Japan of not buying enough rice and cars from the US. It's worth noting that the American car industry is simply not competitive in Japan. Germany, Japan and China are the top three auto exporters. Those countries, along with South Korea, have......

Hong Kong developer Grand Ming Group warned investors that it has yet to repay a HK$4.8 billion (US$611.4 million) loan, with its gearing ratio surging past 200 per cent – another sign of the growing debt crisis among the city's small and medium developers. In a filing with the Hong Kong stock exchange on Tuesday, the company said that it had breached financial covenants under its loan facilities, according to its audited annual results for the year ended March 31. “The group has obtained......

Hong Kong is an ideal place for investors to seek stability and move resources away from riskier parts of the world, according to Alpha Lau Hai-suen, the director general of InvestHK. Speaking at the South China Morning Post's China Conference on Tuesday, Lau said that since the Covid-19 pandemic, Hong Kong's investment flows have not returned to previous levels due to global trade and tariff challenges. InvestHK is a government agency tasked with promoting the city overseas. “Despite all that,......

China expanded the scope of investors to include more mainland-based financial groups under the eight-year-old Bond Connect programme, taking a significant step to ease capital-flow restrictions and further establish Hong Kong as an international financial centre. Securities firms, fund managers, insurers and wealth management companies would be allowed to invest in offshore bonds through the southbound channel of the scheme from Tuesday, according to authorities in Beijing and Hong Kong. Only......

Climate change could disrupt a third of the world's semiconductor supply by 2035, as severe drought threatens the mining of copper – a critical material used in chip production – according to a new report from PwC released on Tuesday. The extraction of copper, essential for building the microscopic wires found on semiconductor circuits, requires substantial water resources. About 1,600 litres (423 gallons) of water were needed to obtain just 19kg of copper, the report said, citing data from the......

Eric Trump, the second-born son of US President Donald Trump, will attend next month's Bitcoin Asia 2025 conference in Hong Kong as a headline speaker, as the city strives to position itself as a leading hub for digital assets, competing with the US. Trump would discuss bitcoin's “long-term potential” and its impact on global finance, as well as “how Asia is shaping the future of bitcoin adoption,” said BTC Inc, the conference organiser, on Tuesday. Bitcoin Asia, the regional edition of the......

Hong Kong stocks rose on Tuesday, arresting a three-day decline, on optimism that the US will sweeten its tariff deals with key trading partners after the Trump administration postponed the effective date of new levies on 14 countries. The Hang Seng Index climbed 0.3 per cent to 23,960.03 as of 10.01am local time, while the Hang Seng Tech Index gained 0.5 per cent. On the mainland, the CSI 300 Index and the Shanghai Composite Index both added 0.2 per cent. Tech stocks led gains, with Baidu......