Chinese steelmaker Hebei Jingye has initiated consultation procedures with the UK government under a bilateral investment treaty, seeking compensation for losses after the state takeover of British Steel, reports Caixin.

Jingye acquired British Steel in March 2020 for about £53 million (nearly $70 million), gaining control of a company with an annual crude steel production capacity of 4.5 million tons. Over the next five years, the Chinese firm invested more than £1.2 billion, despite daily losses of roughly £700,000.

The conflict erupted on March 27, 2025, when British Steel announced consultations on closing its two blast furnaces—the last two operating in the UK. To prevent the shutdowns, the government rushed the Steel Industry (Special Measures) Act through parliament in a single day in April 2025, authorizing a state takeover.

BYD will start assembling cars at its new plant in Hungary in the fourth quarter of this year, reports Reutersciting a company executive. ​Meanwhile, the Chinese automaker has paused work on a plant ‌in Turkey while it focuses on production in Europe.

“Hungary is the number one priority right now,” Executive Vice President Stella Li ​told Reuters at the company’s UK headquarters in west London. “The ​second priority will be to focus on finding a second (production) ⁠facility in Europe.”

BYD’s sales in Europe grew 270% last ​year to almost ​188,000 vehicles. European ⁠sales at the world’s largest electric vehicle maker rose 144% year to date through May this year to ​over 100,000 units. Building EVs in Europe would help ​BYD avoid ⁠European Union tariffs on Chinese-made electric cars.

China’s commitment to buy 200 Boeing jets during the recent visit by US President Donald Trump will ‌be firmed up later this year and is only an “initial tranche” of a potentially far bigger deal, reports Reuters citing the planemaker’s CEO Kelly Ortberg.

Investors had expressed disappointment over the size of the deal, which was much smaller than a roughly 500-plane package that sources told Reuters was under discussion ahead of a meeting between Trump ​and Chinese leader Xi Jinping this month.

But at a US conference on Wednesday, Ortberg said his trip to China alongside Trump ​had been “super successful” and reopened the market to Boeing’s narrowbody planes for the first time in nearly ⁠a decade after an effective order freeze due to trade tensions between Washington and Beijing. “It’s a good start. And I’m very confident ​that keeping that market open, that’s an initial tranche of aircraft, and there will be more to come,” Ortberg said.

 Investors pressed Mercedes-Benz on its recovery plans for ​China on Thursday, reports Reuters, warning that a luxury-focused strategy could hurt the ‌German brand’s chances of winning back Chinese consumers after a slump in sales.

Like rivals BMW and Audi, Mercedes has lost ground in the world’s largest car market, struggling to keep pace ​with fast-moving local brands such as BYD, NIO and Li Auto, which ​offer tech-laden premium cars at lower prices.

“Customers in China today buy innovation, not tradition. Anyone who ​isn’t a technological leader there becomes a status symbol of a bygone era,” said Moritz Kronenberger of Union Investment, a top-20 shareholder with about $276 million worth of stock. Kronenberger criticised Mercedes for ​developing new products from its luxury S-class range downwards, rather than adopting a ​more mass-market approach like its Chinese competitors.

China’s domestic auto sales plunged 23.1% year-on-year in the first two months of 2026 as reduced government stimulus and sweeping policy changes dampened consumer demand, reports Caixin.

Overall domestic auto sales fell to 2.8 million vehicles in January and February, according to data released by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM). Domestic deliveries of new energy vehicles (NEVs) tumbled 27.5% to 1.1 million units, while traditional internal combustion engine vehicle sales dropped 19.8% to 1.7 million. Including exports, China’s total vehicle sales declined 8.8% year on year to 4.2 million units.

CAAM attributed the domestic sluggishness to a combination of factors, including stimulus policy adjustments, front‑loaded demand, the Spring Festival holiday, weak consumer sentiment and a high base effect from the same period in 2024. Most crucially, a long‑standing vehicle purchase tax exemption for NEVs was halved at the start of 2026. The change, which now requires NEV buyers to pay a 5% tax compared with the 10% rate for gasoline cars, prompted many consumers to bring forward purchases to late 2025.