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Britain’s arms sales reach record £8.5bn

Guam: This photo provided by U.S. Pacific Air Forces on Oct. 10, 2017, shows a B-1B Lancer supersonic bomber taking off from an air base in Guam. South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said two B-1B Lancers staged simulated air-to-ground missile firing drills with two F-15K fighters over the East Sea and the Yellow Sea the same day in a show of force amid the standoff over North Korea's weapons program. (Yonhap/IANS)

The Saudi-led coalition that first intervened in the war in Yemen in 2015 is accused of repeatedly bombing, killing and injuring civilians, using aircraft and guided missiles supplied by countries including the UK…reports Asian Lite News

British arms exports doubled during 2022 to a record £8.5bn according to the only publicly available official figures, reflecting escalating geopolitical uncertainties and fallout from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The largest destination for UK-made weaponry was Qatar, which bought £2.7bn-worth, and 54% went to countries designated as “not free” by the human rights group Freedom House. These include Saudi Arabia and Turkey, as well as Qatar.

The £8.5bn recorded in 2022 is comfortably a record since the UK began publishing export data in 2008, and is more than double the £4.1bn recorded in 2021. The previous high was £6.9bn in 2015, a time when Syria had collapsed into civil war.

“The latest export licence figures for 2022 show that the UK arms industry is working overtime to arm some of the world’s most authoritarian regimes,” said Sam Perlo-Freeman, a researcher at Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT), “as well as countries engaged in armed conflict, with the UK government’s full approval.”

The two largest arms buyers were in the Gulf. Qatar bought £2.4bn worth of Eurofighter Typhoons and related equipment from BAE Systems during 2022, the first of which was delivered last August, a few months before the winter World Cup.

Saudi Arabia, traditionally the UK’s most significant customer, bought £1.1bn of UK arms, including £964m of missiles and related components, arms of the type used previously by its air force to conduct bombing missions in Yemen.

Arms sales to Saudi of weapons that could have been used in Yemen were briefly halted by the UK after a successful legal challenge brought by CAAT. The decision to resume is being challenged in the courts by the campaign group.

The Saudi-led coalition that first intervened in the war in Yemen in 2015 is accused of repeatedly bombing, killing and injuring civilians, using aircraft and guided missiles supplied by countries including the UK.

At least 87 civilians were killed by airstrikes from the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen using weapons supplied by the UK and US between January 2021 and February 2022, according to an analysis by Oxfam. Air raids, however, halted in March 2022.

Ukraine itself received £401m-worth of exports, although most of the £2.3bn of weapons the UK supplied to Kyiv in 2022 were from stocks held by the British military, and so did not require an export licence.

Export figures are based on an analysis of official data released by the Department of Business and Trade produced by CAAT. The other two leading destinations for arms were the US (£860m) and Turkey (£424m).

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Business Tech Lite

Q4 of 2021: Tablet sales dropped 25%

While remaining the top Android vendor, Samsung tablet shipments declined 28 per cent YoY to 7.3 million units; market share declined by 0.7 percentage points to 16 per cent during the same period…reports Asian Lite News

The once-booming tablet market appears to have hit a snag, with shipments dropping 25 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2021, says a new report.

According to research firm Strategy Analytics, supply constraints held market growth to a decline of 25 per cent year-on-year (YoY).

“Last year’s pre-vaccine holiday quarter was a tough one to compare against and when you add on the severe supply constraints impacting tablet vendors, it added up to a disappointing quarter, “Eric Smith, Director, Connected Computing, said in a statement.

“The maddening thing is, demand far exceeded supply at the end of 2021, holding back higher revenues for everyone,” Smith added.

Microsoft cashed in on the need for mobile productivity devices with its massive Surface portfolio refresh and joined the ranks of the top global tablet vendors for the first time ever.

Meanwhile, most vendors experienced setbacks in securing components to meet persistently high demand.

Apple shipments (sell-in) fell 22 per cent YoY to 14.6 million units, with worldwide market share climbing one percentage point to 31 per cent as the vendor outpaced the market.

While remaining the top Android vendor, Samsung tablet shipments declined 28 per cent YoY to 7.3 million units; market share declined by 0.7 percentage points to 16 per cent during the same period.

Amazon performed the best among Android vendors with its deep holiday discounts; shipments declined 13 per cent to 5.8 million units.

Lenovo tablet shipments broke a nine-quarter streak of growth to fall 17 per cent to reach 4.6 million units. And for the first time, Microsoft cracked the top five global vendor list with tablet shipments totaling 1.9 million units and a marginal 1 per cent YoY growth rate.

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-Top News Business Tech Lite

Electric vehicle sales set to jump 80% in 2021

This compares with just 2.6 per cent in 2019, the year of the last UN Climate Change Conference…reports Asian Lite News.

Passenger electric vehicle sales are set to jump over 80 per cent in 2021 to 5.6 million units, off the back of unprecedented industry and government commitments around the world over the last two years, according to the Zero-Emission Vehicles Factbook, a special report published on Wednesday by BloombergNEF (BNEF), at the request of the UK COP26 Presidency and in partnership with Bloomberg Philanthropies.

The Factbook documents the progress that has been made towards global net-zero emissions in the road transport sector, and shows that the future is brighter than ever for zero-emission vehicles.

In the first half of 2021, sales of passenger electric vehicles (including battery electric, plug-in hybrid and fuel cell vehicles) were 140 per cent higher than the same period in 2019, reaching seven per cent of global passenger vehicle sales.

This compares with just 2.6 per cent in 2019, the year of the last UN Climate Change Conference.

The total global fleet of passenger electric and fuel cell vehicles now totals nearly 13 million, of which 8.5 million are true zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs), either battery electric or fuel cell (still, fuel cell vehicles account for a fraction of that total).

The latter figure is up from just 4.6 million at the time of COP25. At the same time, by 1H 2021, the global fleet of zero-emission buses has increased by 22 per cent since 2019, and the report expects 18 per cent of all municipal buses on the road to be zero-emission at the end of 2021.

What is more, the future looks brighter than ever.

A review of industry outlooks shows that zero-emission vehicle forecasts have been raised across the board. BNEF’s own forecast for the global ZEV fleet in 2040 has been raised from 495 million vehicles in its 2019 forecast, to 677 million in its 2021 Electric Vehicle Outlook.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) has raised its 2030 battery electric vehicle fleet forecast by seven per cent since 2019, while the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has raised its 2040 estimate for the global electric and fuel cell vehicle fleet by 11 per cent.

Underpinning these stronger forecasts are a range of factors, including improving battery technology and costs, faster roll-outs of charging infrastructure, a wider range of vehicle models on offer to customers, and longer range and faster charging speeds available on the newest vehicles. Each of these factors is discussed in detail in the report.

The report is launched in time for Transport Day of COP26, where a coalition of government and global car industry leaders working towards 100 per cent zero-emission new car, van and HGV sales by 2040, will come together, helping to keep 1.5 degrees within reach.

UK Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said: “Accelerating towards a greener future is the UK’s key priority and I am delighted to see our tremendous efforts towards greening transport reflected in this report. Decarbonising transport is key to conserving our planet and creating new UK jobs. Today marks a very proud moment in history as governments around the world come together behind 100 per cent zero emission car, van and HGV sales by 2040.”

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