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China is 'not developing as we hoped,' says ABB CEO

The CEO of Swedish-Swiss multinational robotics firm ABB said he has been “disappointed” by the state of the Chinese market, adding he expects conditions will prove challenging for the rest of the year.

“China is not really developing as we hoped in the beginning of the year,” said Bjorn Rosengren, CEO and chairman of ABB, speaking with CNBC’s Joumanna Bercetche on Wednesday, adding ABB has been impacted by a “softening” in China’s property sector.

Rosengren said that a decline in Chinese real estate development and hefty debts faced by the sector have meant pain for its residential construction segment, which is more cyclical and therefore prone to changes in the economy.

“We are pretty pessimistic at the moment” on China, said Rosengren. “We thought in the beginning of the year that we should see some recovery from the Covid period, but I think everybody has been pretty disappointed.”

“China continues to be pretty soft. It’s a big market though, so it’s not dead. It’s still living there, but not really developing as we’d hoped. I think it will be challenging for the rest of the year.”

ABB is one of the largest companies globally operating in the realm of industrial manufacturing. With its machines embedded in so many major global companies’ factories, the company’s performance serves as something of a barometer for the health of the manufacturing sector — and the broader economy.

Notably, China, a powerhouse of manufacturing often referred to as “the world’s factory” due to the country’s influence on global trade, is the company’s second-biggest market.

ABB says it’s the leading robotics player in the Chinese market, accounting for more than 90% of sales from locally-made products, solutions and services there.

But it has been showing signs of weakness.

In the second quarter of 2023, ABB reported a 2% increase in orders on a comparable basis, to $8.7 billion. Comparable revenues were up 17%, to $8.2 billion. Income from operations, meanwhile, climbed 15.9%, to $1.3 billion. However, in China, the firm saw its order intake decline 9% on a comparable basis in the period.

Chinese property giant Evergrande has a huge debt problem – here's why you should care

More than 50 Chinese property developers have defaulted or failed to make payments in the last three years, according to credit ratings agency Standard and Poor’s.

In July, Fitch Ratings pulled its credit ratings for Central China Real Estate Limited, a Hong Kong-based investment holding company primarily engaged in property businesses.

More recently, economists have flagged concerns with structural issues in China’s economy, such as debt, an aging population and young people unable to find work, and a growing fear of a “decoupling” from the rest of the world as tensions with the United States reach boiling point.

The Chinese real estate sector has been in a state of turmoil over the last two years, most notably marked by the financial woes of heavily indebted property developer Evergrande, which earlier this month filed for U.S. bankruptcy protection.

On Monday, Evergrande’s shares lost as much as 87% of their value after the company resumed trading for the first time since March 21, 2022. The shares have struggled to recover since.

A silver lining?

Rosengren said that, despite the weakness it is seeing in China, electric mobility is proving a fast-growing area for the company globally — especially in China.

“One of the positive things is EV vehicles, which also are getting a position globally as you’ve seen also in Europe today, Chinese cars from that perspective,” said Rosengren.

“I think that’s one of the sectors which has been good, which had some positive for the robotics market. But I think actually the real estate construction part which is low and has been low for quite some time.”

ABB is currently planning an initial public offering for the e-mobility business, which in raised 325 million Swiss francs ($370.6 million) from investors in a pre-IPO placement.

Rosengren said that most businesses and governments are “aligned” on the need to push toward a green energy future, so the ceiling for growth remains high.

In Europe, especially, greater impetus has been placed on the need to accelerate the energy transition due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and resulting restrictions of natural gas supplies to the continent.

“Energy generation is of course one of the sectors that needs to go green,” Rosengren said.

“You also need to build up infrastructure, electrification infrastructure globally. And I think that is what we are feeling today and that’s what we are seeing and that’s why we see still very strong market in electrification and that’s why that is important.”

ABB has an e-mobility division responsible for developing electric charging solutions, which are the backbone of the EV industry.

Still, this part of the business has proven challenging as macroeconomic conditions have deteriorated.

In the second quarter, ABB’s e-mobility unit lost $67 million, which the company attributed to “inventory related provisions as well as technology investments triggered by a shift back to a more focused product strategy to secure a continued leading market position.”

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Renewable giants shrug off Trump’s anti-wind policies: ‘Electrification is absolutely unstoppable’

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Renewable giants shrug off Trump's anti-wind policies: 'Electrification is absolutely unstoppable'

U.S. President Donald Trump holds up an executive order after signing it during an indoor inauguration parade at Capital One Arena on January 20, 2025 in Washington, DC. Donald Trump takes office for his second term as the 47th president of the United States. 

Anna Moneymaker | Getty Images News | Getty Images

Renewable energy giants appear relatively sanguine about U.S. President Donald Trump‘s anti-wind policies, describing the process of replacing fossil fuels with electrically powered products as “absolutely unstoppable.”

Trump, who promised a new “golden age” for America in his inaugural address on Monday, swiftly took aim at low-carbon energy initiatives.

In a standalone executive order, which had been widely expected, the president temporarily suspended new or renewed leases for offshore and onshore wind projects and halted the leasing of wind power projects on the outer continental shelf.

“We are not going to do the wind thing. Big ugly windmills, they ruin your neighborhood,” Trump told his supporters at the Capital One Area in Washington on Monday. He previously described wind turbines as an economic and environmental “disaster.”

The measures formed part of a much broader energy offensive designed to “unleash” already booming oil and gas production. This included declaring a national energy emergency, promoting fossil fuel drilling in Alaska and signing an executive order to withdraw the U.S. from the landmark Paris Agreement.

Joe Kaeser, chairman of the supervisory board of Siemens Energy, one of the world’s biggest renewables players, seemed unfazed by Trump’s sweeping energy agenda. In fact, Kaeser considered the policies a “slight plus” for the German energy technology group.

Shares of Siemens Energy jumped more than 8% on Wednesday morning, hitting a new 52-week high.

“We need to see what’s behind all the executive orders and the policies. So far, I believe there are many areas where actually Siemens Energy benefits a lot,” Kaeser told CNBC’s Dan Murphy at the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland on Tuesday.

There will be uncertainty for low-carbon energy sectors, such as onshore and offshore wind, Kaeser said, before adding that Trump’s measures were unlikely to directly impact Siemens Energy. That’s partly because roughly 80% of the firm’s wind market is in Europe, Kaeser said.

European Union is not prepared for Trump 2.0, top German business executive says

“So, I believe that doesn’t move the needle. I’m much more worried about the European economies and how they deal with a very powerful nation, with a very powerful concept. We may or may not like it, because it’s got some nationalistic type of things, but if we look at it from the view of the American people, we better get something going,” Kaeser said.

Beyond onshore and offshore wind, Kaeser said Siemens Energy was well positioned to capitalize from a “booming” electrification market.

“Think about the data centers, artificial intelligence, we have waiting times now on large gas turbines. Actually, customers are coming and saying, hey can I make a reservation and I’ll pay you for a reservation? Just think about that. It hasn’t happened for a long time,” Kaeser said.

“I believe the electrification age has just begun. Whether that’s gas turbines or wind or solar or something else, we’ve got everything, and the customers decide in the end. And one thing I believe one should not underestimate, the White House is not buying much [but] the customer does,” he added.

‘Very, very optimistic’

Spanish renewable energy giant Iberdrola was similarly bullish about the road to full electrification, describing the transition away from fossil fuels as “absolutely unstoppable.”

“We are seeing that probably we are in the best moment for electrification,” Ignacio Galán, executive chairman of Iberdrola, told CNBC at WEF on Tuesday.

Galán cited soaring global demand for electrically powered data centers, low-emission vehicles as well as cooling and heating applications.

A logo on the nacelle of a wind turbine at the Martin de la Jara wind farm, operated by Iberdrola SA, in the Martin de la Jara district of Sevilla, Spain, on Friday, April 21, 2023.

Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images

“All of those things require more electricity 24 hours a day. Our business in the United States is mostly in this area, which is networks … and the regulation depends on the state authority, so I think that is not really affected at all,” Galán said.

“Depending on the legislation, we will make more or less investment in another part of our business,” he added, referring to Trump’s energy policy.

“We are very, very optimistic about the United States and the future,” Galán said.

Wind power woes

Shares of some European wind power giants fell shortly after Trump took aim at wind power plans.

Denmark’s Orsted, which recently announced a roughly $1.7 billion impairment charge on U.S. projects, dipped 4.4% on Wednesday morning, extending steep losses from the previous session.

The rapidly growing offshore wind sector has endured a torrid time in recent years, hampered by rising costs, supply chain disruption and higher interest rates.

Windmills pictured during a press moment of Orsted, on Tuesday 06 August 2024, on the transportation of goods with Heavy Lift Cargo Drones to the offshore wind turbines in the Borssele 1 and 2 wind farm in Zeeland, Netherlands. 

Nicolas Maeterlinck | Afp | Getty Images

Artem Abramov, head of new energies research at Rystad Energy, said Trump’s energy agenda essentially means the likelihood of any new offshore developments in the U.S. has fallen to zero — at least for now.

“The US currently has around 2.4 gigawatts (GW) of advanced-stage offshore wind developments that have reached final investment decision and are under construction, which are unlikely to be impacted by the order,” Abramov said in a research note published Tuesday.

“Moderate risk amid the unfavorable investment climate is present for 10.5 GW of projects which secured necessary permits but have not reached investment decisions,” Abramov said.

“The remaining 25 GW of early-stage projects are unlikely to see any progress under the current administration,” he added.

— CNBC’s Spencer Kimball contributed to this report.

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Trump’s first day, Hyundai lease deals, and Volvo’s EVs arrive in the US

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Trump's first day, Hyundai lease deals, and Volvo's EVs arrive in the US

On today’s episode of Quick Charge, President Trump has a wild first day in office, but it’s not ALL bad, either. Plus: Tesla gets diner integration, Hyundai keeps the deal train rolling, and it’s dad’s 80th birthday.

We also look ahead to some possible discounts for Tesla insurance customers, some news on the upcoming “cheap” Cybertruck, and wonder out loud if Puerto Rico’s billion dollar solar project is going to see the light of day. All this and more – enjoy!

Prefer listening to your podcasts? Audio-only versions of Quick Charge are now available on Apple PodcastsSpotifyTuneIn, and our RSS feed for Overcast and other podcast players.

New episodes of Quick Charge are recorded, usually, Monday through Thursday (and sometimes Sunday). We’ll be posting bonus audio content from time to time as well, so be sure to follow and subscribe so you don’t miss a minute of Electrek’s high-voltage daily news.

Got news? Let us know!
Drop us a line at tips@electrek.co. You can also rate us on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, or recommend us in Overcast to help more people discover the show.

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Stripe cuts 300 jobs in product, engineering and operations

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Stripe cuts 300 jobs in product, engineering and operations

The Stripe logo on a smartphone with U.S. dollar banknotes in the background.

Budrul Chukrut | SOPA Images | LightRocket via Getty Images

Stripe cut 300 jobs, representing about 3.5% of its workforce, mostly in product, engineering and operations, CNBC has confirmed.

The payments company, valued at about $70 billion in the private markets, still expects to increase headcount by 10,000 by the end of the year, which would be a 17% increase, and is “not slowing down hiring,” according to a memo to staff from Chief People Office Rob McIntosh. Business Insider reported earlier on the cuts and the memo.

A Stripe spokesperson also confirmed to CNBC that a cartoon image of a duck with text that read, “US-Non-California Duck,” was accidentally attached as a PDF to emails sent to some of the employees who were laid off. Some of the emails mistakenly provided affected employees with an incorrect termination date, the spokesperson said.

McIntosh sent a follow-up email to staffers apologizing for the “notification error” and “any confusion it caused.”

“Corrected and full notifications have since been sent to all impacted Stripes,” he wrote.

In 2022, Stripe cut roughly 1,100 jobs, or 14% of its workers, downsizing alongside most of the tech industry, as soaring inflation and rising interest rates forced companies to focus on profits over growth. The Information reported that Stripe had a few dozen layoffs in its recruiting department in 2023.

Stripe’s valuation sank from a peak of $95 billion in 2021 to $50 billion in 2023, before reportedly rebounding to $70 billion last year as part of a secondary share sale. The company ranked third on last year’s CNBC Disruptor 50 list.

In October, Stripe agreed to pay $1.1 billion for crypto startup Bridge Network, whose technology is focused on making it easy for businesses to transact using digital currencies. 

Brothers Patrick and John Collison, who founded Stripe in 2010, have intentionally steered clear of the public markets and have given no indication that an offering is on the near-term horizon. Total payment volume at the company surpassed $1 trillion in 2023.

WATCH: Early Bridge investor weighs in on $1.1 billion Stripe deal

Early Bridge investor weighs in on $1.1 billion Stripe deal

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