☕️ Good morning, friends,

We’re in typhoon season and hope all our readers are staying safe. We’re in Hong Kong right now and (fingers crossed) flying back to Shanghai tonight.

Readers asked us to make our intro a bit more serious. We took that to heart and got a crash course in gravitas from professional news anchors. What do you think?

P.S. There’s an Easter egg hidden in today’s Top Reads. 😉

P.P.S. Are your seatmates and classmates signed up for asiabits yet? If not, send them your personal link—quick!

BENCHMARKS

NUMBERS

280,000

This is how many people were evacuated in Shanghai yesterday due to Tropical Storm Co-May. The storm is bringing heavy rains and flight cancellations, which hopefully won't affect us today.

1,000

This is the number of Megapacks manufactured at Tesla's new factory in Shanghai in less than six months, which will be exported to Europe. This is a milestone in global energy storage.

8.6

That’s the magnitude of the earthquake off Russia’s far eastern Kamchatka peninsula which triggered tsunami warnings in Japan.

TOP BIT

🇨🇳 Despite Trade Lull: China’s Production Plummets

China’s industrial output contracted again in July. The official Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) fell to 49.3—well below the 50-point growth threshold and missing forecasts. Despite a temporary tariff truce with the US, export pressure remains high, domestic demand is sluggish, and the government is hesitant to roll out fresh stimulus.

The Details

📉 Fourth Month in the Red: The official PMI has held below 50 since April. July’s drop was steeper than expected—its lowest level in six months.

📦 Export Momentum Fades: Front-loading ahead of US tariffs appears exhausted. New export orders have stayed in contraction for 15 straight months.

🌡️ Weather and Uncertainty: Extreme weather, price competition, and geopolitical tensions are weighing on production. New orders and employment are both shrinking.

🛑 Politburo Remains Vague: At its July meeting, China’s leadership announced no major stimulus—only targeted support for hard-hit sectors.

Why It Matters

• China’s recovery is losing steam: Output, orders, and sentiment remain weak. This hits not only Chinese firms but suppliers and trade partners worldwide.
  

• US–China tensions persist: Although another tariff hike was delayed, the truce is expiring soon. Talks in Stockholm yielded no breakthrough.
  

• Double whammy for Europe: First, missing stimulus from the Chinese market. Second, the EU must contend with rising import surpluses from China and an unfavorable tariff pact with the US.

Background

Official data show a broad cooling in China’s industrial activity for July; the services sector is also stagnating. The government cites “market distortions” and plans targeted measures to curb undercutting in manufacturing. Economists call for stronger consumer‐demand stimulus, but concrete steps are lacking.
Meanwhile, signs are mounting that Beijing is deliberately weakening the yuan to secure export advantages.

📊 All Data & Details: CNBC, Wall Street Journal

WEBINAR

🧠 The China AI Playbook

Everyone is talking about AI. We’ll show you how it really works.

In just 90 minutes, discover the latest trends and how we used AI to make our processes profitable.

You’ll get:

✅ The latest AI trends from Asia
✅ A real use case from our own work
✅ A 340-page AI report
✅ The asiabits automotive dossier

Bonus: 45 minutes of live Q&A – ask us anything (except for our Netflix passwords).

📅 Only 28 tickets! The first ten attendees get 10% off.

👉🏻 Secure your spot now.

HEAD OF THE DAY

🇸🇬 Tan Min Liang

🎮 From courtroom to gaming powerhouse: Tan Min-Liang swapped his law degree for Razer’s green logo in 2005, secured early backing from IDG-Accel, Temasek, Intel Capital and Horizon Ventures, IPO’d in Hong Kong for US$529 million in 2017, hit roughly US$4 billion in revenue by 2023 and took the company private at a US$3.2 billion valuation in 2022—making him Singapore’s youngest self-made billionaire (US$1.1 billion).

👉 Lesson learned: Leverage your professional expertise to solve a genuine passion point, build a community-first brand, bring on the right investors early, and expand into adjacent services. Tan Min Liang himself said “If there’s one thing I’ve learned from gaming, you’re going the right way if there are obstacles in your way.”

MARKET BIT

🔋 Tesla Secures 4.3 billion USD Battery Deal with LG

Details

🔑 Deal Locked In: LG Energy Solution will supply Tesla with battery cells worth $4.3 billion from August 2027 through July 2030, with options to extend and expand volumes.

🏭 US Production: The LFP cells come from LG’s new Michigan plant—one of the first large-scale facilities for this chemistry in the US.

📈 Energy-Storage Boom: Cells will go into Powerpack and Megapack systems, whose demand is soaring thanks to AI data centers.

💸 Tariff Relief: Up to 40 % duties on Chinese batteries will hit Tesla less hard.

🚀 Korean Lead: Rivals Samsung SDI and SK On are only now planning US LFP lines; LG has already ramped up production.

Why It Matters

• Supply Security: A non-Chinese source stabilizes Tesla’s battery supply chain.
  

• Local Value Creation: The multi-billion-dollar deal bolsters the US battery ecosystem in the Midwest.
  

• Korea as Tech Champion: The agreement underscores South Korea’s weight in strategic high-tech supply chains.

👉🏻 Full Story: Business Times, Korea Herald, CNBC

TOP READS

🐼 Morgan Stanley Debuts Panda Bond: The US company issued CNY 2 billion (approx. USD 290 million) of five-year bonds at a 1.98 % coupon, becoming the first U.S. issuer in China’s interbank market. Robust on-shore demand and increasing issuance volumes attest to China’s ongoing market opening and underscore the growing appeal of CNY-denominated funding, with record participation achieved this year. Full story.

📉 60 Kilos Lighter: Hong Kong’s largest English-language newspaper, the South China Morning Post, reports on the dramatic transformation of German influencer Thomas Derksen. Now based in Shanghai, he has shed around 60 kilos in three years. His recipe: make 80 % of meals consciously healthy, eat smaller portions, take daily walks of up to five kilometers, and do strength training three times a week. He rejected crash diets, fasting regimens, and weight-loss injections. For him, a lasting lifestyle change beats quick fixes every time. Full story.

🤝 Chinese AI Alliance in Banking: UK bank Standard Chartered taps Alibaba AI for streamlined operations and smarter customer support. The british bank uses Alibaba Cloud to digitize service, risk management, and staff training. Both aim to transform financial services with AI. Full story.

OPTIONAL READS

Vietnam: VPBank, SMBC and partners finance green growth with a $350m loan for sustainable initiatives. More on this.

China: Goldman Sachs raises its MSCI China Index target, expecting 12% upside. More on this.

Singapore: Sovereign wealth fund GIC sees no AI bubble despite sector growth, warns of challenges from elevated US pricing. More on this.

FORTUNE COOKIE

💔📱Phones Instead of a Mortgage Plan: A seemingly unassuming caseworker in Shenzhen was dating twenty lovers at once—each gifting her a brand-new iPhone. She flipped the phones online, amassing nearly ¥120,000 in just six months (about $16,000) toward the down payment on her condo.

While her dates were still dreaming of true love, she was already clicking “Sell Now.” It wasn’t until the “girl next door” suddenly topped the classifieds charts as a best-selling seller that they finally caught on.

Send us your fortune cookie and win the highly coveted asiabits T-shirt!

Spotted something funny, interesting, or noteworthy in or about Asia? Send it to [email protected] and we’ll feature it right here!

FEEDBACK

See you tomorrow in your inbox, 

Thomas, Michael & the Team of asiabits