Yokohama Rubber, a Japanese corporation with a history of over 107 years, has purchased a tire factory for the mining industry, as well as for earthmoving and oversized transport machinery, located in Drobeta Turnu Severin, according to Profit.ro. The factory, built in the 1970s–1980s, was put up for sale by the judicial liquidator of the company Euro Tyres Manufacturing SRL, which went bankrupt at the end of January 2025 after nearly 7 years of insolvency. The company owns an industrial platform spanning over 19 hectares in the city of Drobeta Turnu Severin.
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Eurozone consumers tightened their purse strings at the end of a first quarter marked by growing unease about the coming U.S. trade tariffs, the Wall Street Journal reported. Retail trade slipped by 0.1% across the 20 nations that share the euro, defying economists’ expectations for an increase that would have built on February’s growth in sales, figures from the European Union statistics agency showed Wednesday. February remains the only month in the last six in which trade has increased.
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German factory orders climbed surprisingly sharply in March, reflecting the stockpiling of goods in the U.S. to get ahead of tariffs placed by the Trump administration in the following month, the Wall Street Journal reported. Manufacturing orders jumped 3.6% on month at the end of the first quarter, after flatlining in February, German statistics agency Destatis said Wednesday. Economists polled by The Wall Street Journal expected a 1.0% uptick. Despite the increase, new orders were 2.3% lower in the first quarter than in the final three months of 2024, Destatis said.
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Mark Branson, the president of Germany's bank watchdog BaFin, said on Wednesday that the nation's financial firms were in a strong position but that uncertainty would remain extremely high, Reuters reported. "The possibility that problems in the non-banking sector have an impact on banks cannot be ruled out just because we have weathered the turbulence well so far," Branson said. Read more.
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Volvo Cars' battery company Novo Energy said on Monday it will cut its workforce by 50% to reduce costs after evaluating its business to take account of the bankruptcy of Sweden's Northvolt, which originally co-owned the venture, Reuters reported. "Despite our best efforts to secure our business and an extensive ongoing search for a suitable new technology partner, the current economic challenges and market conditions have made it impossible to maintain our operations at the current scale," Novo Energy CEO Adrian Clarke said in a statement.
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Britain and India agreed to a trade deal on Tuesday, strengthening economic ties between two of the world’s largest economies amid President Trump’s upheaval of the global trade system, the New York Times reported. The deal, which the British government said would increase bilateral trade by 25.5 billion pounds ($34 billion), comes three years after the negotiations began. Intense talks to finalize the outstanding issues took place last week between Jonathan Reynolds, Britain’s business and trade secretary, and Piyush Goyal, India’s commerce minister.
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France’s industrial sector continued to book rising output, capping a positive start to a year that could nevertheless darken if U.S. President Trump’s trade tariffs bite into demand, the Wall Street Journal reported. Production from French factories and other industry increased 0.2% in March from a month earlier, in line with economists’ estimates, figures from the country’s statistics agency showed Tuesday. Following a 1% rise a month earlier, March’s increase helps reverse a monthslong streak of decline in the sector’s output.
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U.S. prosecutors said on Monday that UBS, which rescued Credit Suisse from the brink of collapse two years ago, would pay $510 million in fines for the role Credit Suisse played in helping clients evade taxes, the New York Times reported. Credit Suisse, among other moves, helped clients hide more than $4 billion from the Internal Revenue Service in at least 475 accounts, prosecutors said. Credit Suisse’s Singapore office was singled out for holding undeclared accounts for people who owed taxes. The bank pleaded guilty to, in the words of prosecutors, enabling “U.S.
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The Freital glassworks produces bottles and glasses for juice, wine and more. But a new investor is being sought for the insolvent glassworks in Freital near Dresden, diesachsen.de reported. The first interested parties from various countries have already come forward, according to the law firm in charge of the restructuring. The prospects for a successful reorganization are good, emphasized lawyer Matthias Rönsch. Business operations have remained stable since filing for insolvency and the company has a healthy core.
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For motorcycle lovers in Sweden, Harley-Davidson is the hottest brand on the road. Jack Daniels whiskey beckons from the bar at British pubs. In France, Levis jeans are all about chic. But in the tumult of President Trump’s trade war with Europe, many European consumers are starting to avoid U.S. products and services in what appears to be a decisive and potentially long-term shift away from buying American, according to a new assessment by the European Central Bank, the New York Times reported. In April, Mr.
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