Beijing — China’s car sales fell for a sixth straight month in March as rising fuel prices hit demand for petrol models, while electric vehicle (EV) sales reeled from reduced incentives while economic recovery is sputtering.
Sales dropped 15.2% from a year earlier to 1.67-million vehicles last month, data from the China Passenger Car Association showed on Thursday.
Combustion engine car sales were down 15.7% year on year, accelerating the 13.4% drop in the first two months, though China has curbed domestic fuel price hikes to soften the impact of surging oil prices. Combustion engine cars outsold electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids for the third consecutive month. Reuters
Kia slashes EV sales target
Seoul — South Korea’s Kia on Thursday cut its 2030 target for electric vehicle (EV) sales by about 20% to 1-million, reflecting weaker demand and the scrapping of EV subsidies in the US last year.
Updating long-term business plans in a presentation to investors, Kia also trimmed its 2030 overall vehicle sales goal to 4.13-million from 4.19-million units.
Kia joined sister firm Hyundai Motor in unveiling plans to deploy Atlas humanoid robots developed by Boston Dynamics. It will use them at its Georgia factory from 2029. Reuters
Weakness in China drags down Mercedes-Benz
Berlin — Mercedes-Benz reported another drop in sales in its core car business in the first quarter of 2026 as it lost further ground in the tough Chinese market amid an overhaul of its lineup there.
Quarterly sales fell 6% to 419,400 vehicles from the same quarter a year ago, the German premium carmaker said in a statement on Thursday. While sales volumes grew 7% in Europe and 20% in the US, this was not enough to offset a 27% plunge in China.
Mercedes and rival BMW face a cut-throat price war with local brands in China, the world’s biggest vehicle market. Mercedes said 2026 will be a “transition year” for the brand in China, with the decline partly driven by the phasing out of models in its entry-level segment ahead of the launch of new models. Reuters
Whitestone Reit agrees to buyout deal
Bengaluru — Shopping centre operator Whitestone Reit said on Thursday it has agreed to be acquired by funds managed by Ares Management in an all-cash deal valuing the US shopping centre owner at about $1.7bn.
Whitestone has a portfolio of 56 convenience-focused retail properties totalling about 455,000 square metres across fast-growing US markets including Phoenix, Austin, Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston and San Antonio.
Private equity firms including Blackstone and TPG expressed interest in buying Whitestone Reit in March. Reuters
Hanwha loses interest in Poongsan defence unit
Seoul — South Korea’s Hanwha Aerospace said in a regulatory filing on Thursday it has discontinued a review of whether to acquire the defence business unit of ammunition maker Poongsan.
Hanwha, which has emerged as South Korea’s leading defence firm, was reported to have been considering the acquisition of Poongsan’s ammunition manufacturing division.
Poongsan, which specialises in copper products, said in a separate filing on Thursday it is not pursuing the sale of its ammunition manufacturing business, denying a media report on a 1.5-trillion won ($1bn) sale plan. Reuters
DAE and Blackstone start $1.6bn aircraft leasing programme
Dubai Aerospace Enterprise and Blackstone Credit and Insurance will start a joint aircraft leasing investment programme targeting annual deployment of about $1.6bn, the companies said on Thursday.
The programme, branded Equator, will build a portfolio of commercial aircraft on lease to airlines worldwide, they said in a statement. DAE will source aircraft from third parties, while its Aircraft Investor Services unit will manage the assets. Reuters
CoreWeave signs $21bn cloud deal with Meta
Bengaluru — CoreWeave said on Thursday it has reached an expanded agreement to provide Meta Platforms with $21bn in cloud capacity as the social media giant scales its infrastructure to support increasingly complex AI workloads.
Shares of CoreWeave rose nearly 8% in premarket trading, while those of Meta were up 0.6%.
The deal, which extends to end-December 2032, deepens the existing partnership between the two companies, CoreWeave said. Reuters
Lidl unveils £600m investment in 50 more UK stores
London — Lidl GB, the UK arm of the German discount supermarket group, plans to open more than 50 stores across the UK in the next year as part of a £600m investment, it said on Thursday.
The discounter said the store openings would create almost 2,000 jobs.
Lidl GB, which is owned by Germany’s Schwarz Group, has more than 1,000 stores in the UK at present.
Lidl GB is Britain’s fastest-growing bricks-and-mortar grocer and is poised to overtake Morrisons to become the fifth-biggest grocer. Reuters
Amazon Pharmacy to sell Eli Lilly’s weight loss drug
New York — Amazon.com said on Thursday its pharmacy unit will stock Eli Lilly’s new weight-loss pill at kiosks located at some of the company’s primary care clinics and offer same-day delivery of the drug.
Amazon Pharmacy began delivering GLP-1 medications in 2021, but does not stock injectable versions of the drugs in kiosks because they need to be refrigerated.
No need for cold storage is “what allows for broader access and for them to be stored safely in a kiosk for dispensing”, Tanvi Patel, a vice president at Amazon Pharmacy, said of the pills. Reuters
Nordic airlines hedged jet fuel prices
Bengaluru — Finnair has hedged 82% of its jet fuel cost for the second quarter, while Nordic rival Norwegian Air has locked in the cost for 42% of its volume for the period, the carriers said while reporting March traffic data on Thursday.
Fuel costs have soared for airlines following the war in the Middle East and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. Reuters
German output points to weak first-quarter GDP
Berlin — German industrial production fell unexpectedly in February, with economists saying the weakness pointed to a disappointing first quarter for Europe’s biggest economy, despite exports rising more than expected due to stronger European demand.
Industrial production decreased by 0.3% compared with the previous month, Germany’s federal statistics office said on Thursday. Analysts surveyed had predicted a 0.7% rise. Reuters
