COMPANY NEWS IN BRIEF

Aspen eyes Serum Institute model

South Africa’s Aspen Pharmacare wants to model itself on India’s Serum Institute by getting a licence to manufacture Johnson & Johnson’s (J&J) Covid-19 vaccine, Aspen Chief Executive Stephen Saad said on Thursday.

“At the moment, J&J could take all the product we make because it’s their product, and sell it to Europe, for example, sell it to the US or Korea, wherever they choose to. We have no say in that,” he told Reuters.

“It’s like Serum where they get the licences to manufacture. It’s not a foreign model and it’s very exciting,” he said on the licensing talks. -Nampa/Reuters

J&J vaccine shipments from SA halted

An arrangement whereby Johnson & Johnson (J&J) was shipping Covid-19 vaccine doses to Europe that had been packaged in South Africa has been suspended, African Union (AU) envoy Strive Masiyiwa said on Thursday.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said last month he was "stunned" by the arrangement, since Europe has very high vaccination rates while even the most vulnerable people in many African countries had not been vaccinated.

At the time the European Commission described it as a temporary agreement, while J&J had no comment when contacted by Reuters.

The shots packaged by J&J's South African partner Aspen that were already sent to Europe would be returned, Masiyiwa told a news briefing organised by the AU's disease control body on Thursday.

J&J had shipped less than 20 million doses to Europe, he said, and the halting of the shipments was partly due to interventions by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. -Nampa/Reuters

GM to cut North American production

General Motors Co will reduce production at most North American assembly plants this month because of the ongoing semiconductor chip shortage, hitting its profitable truck and sport utility vehicles, it said on Thursday.

The largest US automaker will halt production next week at its Fort Wayne plant in Indiana and its Silao plant in Mexico, both of which build pickup trucks. In total, GM is cutting production at eight North American assembly plants in September.

The industry wide chip shortage is causing massive auto production cuts around the globe.

Earlier this week, Ford Motor Co said it will also cut truck production next week because of the chip’s shortage, while Toyota Motor Corp said last month it will slash global production for September by 40% from its previous plan. -Nampa/Reuters

BMW to reduce carbon emissions

BMW plans to reduce carbon emissions across the life cycle of its vehicles - including the production process at least 40% from 2019 levels by 2030, the carmaker said on Thursday, up from a previous target of a third.

In order to achieve this, the Munich-based automaker intends to increase the proportion of recycled and reusable materials used in manufacturing its vehicles from 30% to 50%, it said in a statement released ahead of the IAA Mobility conference in Munich next week.

"We are committed to a clear course to achieve the 1.5-degree target," CEO Oliver Zipse said, referring to the Paris Agreement.

BMW has been reluctant to set a hard deadline for phasing out fossil-fuel cars, pointing out limitations to the expansion of electric vehicles including the sore lack of charging infrastructure across the EU and elsewhere.

Still, the automaker has set a range of sustainability targets in the past, including generating at least half of BMW Group sales from electric vehicles by 2030 and reducing CO2 emissions per vehicle and kilometre driven by at least half from 2019 levels in the same time frame. -Nampa/Reuters

Walmart bumps up hourly wages

Walmart said on Thursday that it plans to raise wages for more than 565 000 store workers by at least US$1 an hour, as the all-important holiday shopping season is set to kick off in the middle of a desperate labour crunch across the country.

With its third wage investment over the past year, Walmart's US average hourly wage is now US$16.40, Walmart US Chief Executive John Furner said in a memo to staff.

Workers in Walmart's frontend, food & consumable and general merchandise departments will receive the higher wages, effective Sept. 25, Furner said.

The holiday season worth nearly US$800 billion last year marks the busiest time of the year for retailers, making up a majority of their annual sales. It includes Black Friday, Christmas and the New Year.

But a nationwide worker shortage due to the Covid-19 pandemic has retailers concerned they will not have enough workers in stores and warehouses to handle to extra sales online and in stores.

Walmart, which raised pay for more than 425 000 stocking and digital associates earlier this year, said on Wednesday it plans to hire 20 000 workers at its supply chain division. In July, the company said it would pay 100% of college tuition and book costs for its associates. -Nampa/Reuters