In the history of marketing, in 1940, Pepsi was credited with an advertising campaign called “twice as Much for a Nickel”. It was based on the fact that Coca Cola was sold in 6-ounce bottles and the new Pepsi bottles were 12 ounces.
An article in Wall Street Journal, online edition, on October 27th, 2020, noted that nickel is becoming important to the production of electric-cars. Most of the raw materials required are the same as those used in conventional ones, but the metals that make up lithium-ion batteries are exceptions. Until recently, procurement worries and market speculation in the metal market tended to focus on lithium and cobalt. Now nickel has attracted the attention of senior executives of mining companies and Mr. Elon Musk, the CEO of the largest electric-car company.
Nickel is used to improve vehicle range. As a result, Nickel has become crucial in the chemistry of cathodes. One standard form of cathode – the most valuable part of an automotive –grade lithium-ion battery – used to contain equal parts of nickel, cobalt and manganese. Now, it has eight parts of nickel to each one of the two metals. This trend, together with the growth of electric-car sales, promises to increase nickel demand.
However, the article noted that investors should not rush to pile up on nickel stocks yet.
Batteries still do not consume a lot of nickel. It is mostly used in the making of stainless steel. Depending on the future sales of electric-cars, a step-change in the demand of nickel will likely occur in the late 2020s. Until then, the kind of supply constraint once expected in the much smaller markets for cobalt and lithium—which don’t have major alternative uses-is hard to imagine.
Meanwhile, the nickel market has become oversupplied as growth in China, the big stainless steel market, has slowed. The experiences of cobalt and lithium offer warnings too. Speculation about demand from electric-cars pushed their prices in 2017. However, the prices of these two metals have collapsed.
Stainless steel uses a lot of nickel
The article noted that nickel will be harder for battery chemists to work around than cobalt if they need to, but perhaps not impossible. Battery technology is still developing. Tesla is turning to lithium iron phosphates, which don’t contain nickel, as a solution for cheaper electric cars in China.
According to evergen.com.au, lithium-ion has a higher energy density at 150/200 Wh/kg versus lithium iron phosphates at 90/120 Wh/kg. So, lithium-ion is normally the go-to-source for power hungry electronics that drain batteries at a high rate. On the other hand, the discharge rate for lithium iron phosphates outmatches lithium-ion.
An eventual nickel shortage can’t be rule out. Once batteries are cheaper than engines-UBS, the investment bank, expects the turning point in 2024—demand for electric vehicles could accelerate fast. Producing the kind of high-purity nickel required for batteries to high environmental standards is complex and projects take years to take off the ground.
Then, nickel would be worth more than a dime, US 10 cents.
The Covid-19 pandemic is changing the way Governments in many countries, especially developed countries, run their economies. They have adopted the so-called modern monetary theory or MMT. A clear explanation on MMT has been written by David Smith in the Times London on August 14th, 2020. The following is the extract of the article.
Today, something is slightly different. This is in the nature of an economic version of a request show. I have had many requests to write about what is known as modern monetary theory (MMT) and this is my response. MMT has been around for some time — decades, or even centuries, according to its advocates — but it is relevant now.
My reluctance to write about it has been in part because its true believers can get very exercised when faced with criticism, even if it is constructive.
The reason for writing about MMT now is the book by Stephanie Kelton, professor of economics and public policy at America’s Stony Brook University, and one of MMT’s leading advocates. She advised Bernie Sanders, who ran Joe Biden close for the nomination as Democratic challenger for the US presidency. Her book, The Deficit Myth: Modern Monetary Theory and How To Build a Better Economy, is published by John Murray.
Professor Kelton is a leading advocate of MMT
It is proving popular, for good reason. Not only are plenty of people interested in MMT, but it is written in a non-technical, accessible, even folksy style. It is being read by non-economists, as all the emails I have received urging me to write about it attest, as well as being on the summer reading lists for many economics students. Last time I looked, it was Amazon’s bestseller in macroeconomics and inside the online retailer’s top 1,000 among all titles.
It is arranged as a series of myth-busting chapters, although people who are aware of conventional economics do not believe many of these myths. The first “myth” is that the government’s budget is not the same as a household budget; something I thought had been buried many years ago. The same goes for most of the other myths.
The central idea of MMT is simple. It distinguishes between currency issuers and currency users. The only currency issuer in America is the US Treasury, with the Federal Reserve acting as its agent. Everybody else is a currency user.
As a currency issuer, the government has the ability to print as much money as it needs. The budget deficit itself is not a constraint, and neither is government debt. Some claim — wrongly, I think — that MMT has already been adopted in response to the Covid-19 crisis in the form of quantitative easing (QE).
In the world of MMT, the government can print enough money to cover a deficit of any size and, in extremis, to pay off all the accumulated debt of the past. The only tests of whether a budget deficit is too large or too small are inflation and unemployment. If inflation is low, the budget deficit cannot be too high, and if there is unemployment, the budget deficit must be too low.
Many people will catch their breath at this point, not least because Kelton claims that this is not just a theory but an explanation of how the world works. However, that requires us to be taken down a rabbit hole of implausibility.
If deficits can be costlessly funded and managed by the simple device of issuing currency, why do governments need to levy taxes? In perhaps the least plausible explanation of how incentives work, people apparently need to work to meet their tax obligations. If they did not have to pay tax, they would not need to work. I rather think they would, to satisfy their wants. Another reason for taxing — to redistribute wealth and income — does not wash either: you can redistribute wealth and income within the tax system without raising any net revenues by taking from the rich and giving it to the poor in tax credits.
Taxation exists in the real world to raise revenue. And borrowing by governments also plainly exists. Kelton says this is not to raise money, because governments don’t need to, but “to offer people a different kind of government money, one that pays a bit of interest”. Try telling that to US and British governments in the past, which have paid a lot of interest to fund borrowing and sometimes struggled to do so.
There is plenty more in the book. Some of it, like the policy of a job guarantee for everybody, is not so much part of MMT but an add-on to it, although at a time of high unemployment possibly a popular one.
MMT is misnamed because it is not monetary at all but almost entirely fiscal. As Kelton puts it: “MMT requires us to demote monetary policy and elevate fiscal policy as the primary tool for macroeconomic stabilisation.”
So what should we think of this? MMT has drawn robust criticism from some eminent economists. Kenneth Rogoff, a former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund, writing last year under the headline “Modern Monetary Nonsense”, described its central idea as “just nuts”. An exasperated Paul Krugman, the Nobel Prize-winning economist, described debating with MMT advocates as like playing Calvinball, a game where players make up the rules as they go along.
Larry Summers, economist and former US treasury secretary, attacked “ludicrous claims” by “fringe economists . . . offering the proverbial free lunch: the ability of the government to spend more without imposing any burden on anyone”.
I am going to be polite. We always need new, fresh thinking and nobody wants to kill off ideas clearly in a state of gestation and in no way workable in their present form. Some, like the economists above, might say it is necessary to kill off MMT because it is dangerous. There is, however, little chance of it being adopted as real-world policy. Not even Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell embraced MMT, despite being urged to by some supporters.
They were wise not to do so, because there are fundamental problems with MMT. It would take another book to address them fully. Kelton has fun with Margaret Thatcher’s “backward dictum” because Thatcher described a government’s finances in the way you would describe a household’s finances.
However, Kelton has more in common with Thatcher than she thinks. In the early 1980s, when the Tories launched their monetarist experiment, Thatcher thought the key driver of inflation was the budget deficit. The deficit had to be cut to reduce money supply growth and inflation. It is why people associated monetarism with “cuts”. Kelton looks at it from the other end of the telescope but applying the same principle.
The causes of inflation are many and varied, particularly when you do not use the simplifying assumption of a closed economy. Dylan Grice, whose review of Kelton’s book was republished by Albert Edwards of Société Générale, is not unsympathetic but points to the “preposterous” idea that getting the Congressional Budget Office in America, or equivalents elsewhere, to predict inflation will take care of the inflation risk from large budget deficits. Given the forecasting record on inflation, it plainly will not. As Grice puts it: “In short, MMT is a recommendation that policymakers press harcelerator without knowing where the brake is.”
He is right and, while advocates of MMT see it as a two-way street in which spending would be reined in if inflation took off, politicians may see it differently. Would it be a recipe for huge instability in the provision of public services, with public spending cut in response to rising inflation in a way that would make George Osborne’s austerity look like a tea party? Or would the government decide it could live with a lot more inflation? Either way, it would not be pretty.
The oil palm industry in Malaysia used to hire thousands of female workers to just manually gather pollen grains from male flowers of oil palms to pollinate female flowers. On average, a group of three workers are required for a every hectare of oil palm plantation.
The oil palm flowers, courtesy of etawau.com
Teams of workers patrolled the oil palm estate daily, searching for male flowers to collect pollen grains. The pollen grains were distributed to other teams who went around pollinating receptive female flowers with hand puffers. I would imagine the oil palm plantation would be full of chatting noises of these women. Today, these chatting noises are gone. The task of pollinating the oil palm flowers is done in silence by a weevil imported from Cameroon of Central Africa.
Cameroon where E kamerunicus oringates
The weevil is known by its scientific name, Elaeidobious kamerunicus (E kamerunicus). The technique of pollinating the flowers by weevil was discovered by Datuk Leslie Davidson, a Scottish planter who worked for Unilever’s oil palm plantation in Sabah, Malaysia. The weevils were officially released into Malaysia on February 21st, 1981.
E kamerunicus is about 5 mm from the horn to the tail
Datuk Leslie Davidson , undeterred and unconvinced by textbook knowledge which claimed that oil palm fruits were wind-pollinated and that heavy rains washed pollen grains away, arranged for more research to prove that that pollination of oil palms in West and Central Africa was largely due to weevils which were not found in Malaysia.
Datuk Leslie Davidson and the scientists who brought in E kamerunicus into Malaysia
Under Davidson’s instruction, a group of four Malaysian scientists and experts, namely Dr Kang Siew Ming, Zam Karim, Dr Tay Eong Beok and Mahbo Abdullah, went to Cameroon to assess the work of Dr Rahman Anwar Syed, the entomologist who was assigned to study oil palm pollination by insects in Africa, especially the E kamerunicus specie.
Dr Rahman Anwar Syed proved, in a series of experiments, that the oil palm in its natural habitat was pollinated by different insects, the most important of which the weevil named E kamerunicus. It was also found out that the weevils had evolved with the oil palms and developed a very synergistic relationship with them.
Dr Rahman Anwar Syed started research on pollination by African weevils
Subsequently, the Malaysian government issued an import permit to introduce the weevils into Malaysia. In June 1980, Dr Rahman Anwar Syed arrived in Malaysia from Cameroon with 1,044 weevil pupae individually packed in plastic vials. Only 400 vigorous weevils were selected whilst the rest were destroyed. After six months of testing, the Malaysian government was finally satisfied that the weevils would bring no harm. The results of the tests were presented at a meeting of experts from various Malaysian research agencies. The final authorization was granted to release the weevils for commercial use at Unilever’s oil palm estate in Kluang, Johor, Malaysia. Since then, the weevils had been released in Indonesia, Thailand, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Island and India.
Unilever had sold its oil palm estates in Malaysia to a Malaysian palm oil conglomerate.
When you tuck in to enjoy your fried KFC chickens, please remember E kamerunicus from Cameroon.
Note: This article is extracted from my book, The Palm Oil Multinationals from Malaysia, published by Lap Publishing. The book is available from Amazon.com.
The motor industry in Europe and the US in the early 1900s led to the mad rush for plantation rubber in British Malaya (Malaysia now). There was not enough supply of rubber gathered from the Amazon rainforest of Brazil.
A large part of British Malaya was cleared of its forests and planted with rubber trees. Roads and railway lines were laid out to transport smoked rubber sheets to make tyres to ports and exported to UK and the US.
Financiers in London formed financial syndicates to open-up rubber plantations in British Malaya. Many financial syndicates listed their vehicle on the London Stock Exchange. Thus, more lands were cleared to plant rubber trees in British Malaya. Many young Scottish men went to British Malaya to seek their fortunes by becoming rubber planters.
Before the 1900s, many British farmers were involved with coffee plants and reluctant to switch to rubber, which had unknown market. However, Sir Henry Ridley, a government official, believed in the potential the plantation rubber industry. A few British Advisors to the Malay States in British Malaya worked hard to convince British farmers and local Chinese businessmen to consider rubber trees. One British Advisor to the Malay State of Perak, Sir Hugh Low, planted a rubber tree near a polo club at the royal town of Kuala Kangsar, Perak.
The 140-year old rubber tree in Kuala Kangsar, Perak, Malaysia
Hand-operated rubber sheet rolling machine
I visited the huge rubber tree two weeks ago. A plaque near the rubber tree noted the rubber tree was planted in the 1880s by Sir Hugh Low to convince the locals to plant rubber trees in a big scale.
The trunk is huge
Then, the rubber tree could only be tapped for rubber latex after 7 to 10 years. Today, the rubber tree can be tapped after 3 to 4 years. As seen in the photos, the oldest rubber tree has a huge trunk as compared to a smaller trunk of today’s rubber trees.
Today’s rubber tree with smaller trunks
Rubber sheet hung to dry
I used to walk passed the oldest rubber tree in Malaysia as a student at the nearby famous Malay College in the 1970s. The rubber tree is still thriving after 140 years.
Last weekend, we visited a few relatives in the Malaysian northern state of Perak. We also admired about 20 140-year old rain trees at the Lake Garden, Taiping. The rain trees were planted by British botanists in 1880s. We were sure that the rain trees were maintained by Malay gardeners. The rain trees are like magnets for locals, enjoying a picnic under them. Newly weds use the rain trees as the background for their photo sessions.
We hope the rain trees can live another 140 years. Please enjoy the rain trees.
In a recent blog, we reported that Bill Gates invested in a company, C16 Biosciences Inc.,that plans to produce palm oil using fermentation process. The company aims to reduce the need to reduce the impact on clearing tropical forests to plant oil palms.
It is reported by The Times, London on June 24th, 2020, that Bill Gates has made an investment in a new venture that aims to solve another global problem. He has put his money in a start-up hopes to develop artificial breast milk to reduce the carbon footprint of mothers who choose not to breastfeed.
Estimates suggest that at least 10 per cent of the world dairy market, a major source of greenhouse gases, is used to produce baby formula milk. The company, Biomilq, an American company, has provided a proof of concept top show the feasibility of its plan. It hopes to produce breast milk artificially from cultured human mammary epithelial cells in about five years (mammary epithelial cells are cells in the thin layer of of tissue that coat and lines the surface of the milk ducts in the breast)
This would be an alternative to formula milk. The firm has already shown that the process can produce lactose and casein, to components of human breast milk. Biomilq is being assisted by an investment of US$3.5 million, mostly from a fund set up by Bill Gates. The idea of growing breast milk in a laboratory is likely to be less alien to the public after the popularity of lab-grown meat.
Biomilq was founded by Michelle Egger and Leila Strickland. Ms Egger was a food scientist, while Ms Strickland was a cell biologist.
Breast feeding is widely touted for its health benefits for babies but many mothers do not have that option. Formula milk is the normal alternative for these mothers. This can cause problems, however, for some children’s digestive systems because it relies on cow’s milk or soy rather than human proteins. Biomilq aims to create something that is as digestible as human breast milk but have a smaller environmental impact than dairy.
The investment by Bill Gates into Biomilq was made through Breakthrough Energy Ventures, set up to focus on climate change.
About Breakthrough Energy Ventures
According to Quartz, the digital business news website (www.qz.com, noted by its senior reporter, Ashkat Rathi on August 26, 2019, Breakthrough Energy Ventures (BEV) is a US$1 billion fund with the aims to fund those technologies that fight climate change.
To be eligible for BEV, a start-up needs to showcase a scientifically sound technology that has the potential to reduce annual global greenhouse-gas emission by at least 500 million MT. Global emissions currently measure about 40 billion MT per year.
Start-up that have these technologies usually struggle to scale, either because the engineering challenge is too big or the business environment to support the companies doesn’t exist. These companies need patient capital. BEV is fine if its investments don’t provide a return for up to 20 years. In September, 2018, Quartz revealed the first nine investments made by BEV. It included three start-ups building energy-storage technologies, two using microbes to cut emissions in agriculture products, and one each working on low-carbon cement, cheap geothermal, nuclear fusion, and a solar-powered technology to collect water from the air. Eight were based in the US and one in Canada.
In the 12 months since the last tranche, of investments, BEV has found 10 more companies that it thinks could help the world cut emissions drastically.
Arnergy: A Nigerian start-up that deploys solar-power solutions for small businesses to provide reliable electricity.
Baseload Capital: A specialized investment entity based in Sweden that funds the deployment of technology developed by start-up Climeon, which uses waste heat to generate power.
Boston Metal: A company based in Boston, US, that uses electricity, instead of coke, to convert iron ore into iron.
Kobold Metals: A company based in San Francisco, US, that uses artificial intelligence to accelerate the search from ethical sources of the metals, like Cobalt, needed to make lithium-ion batteries.
Max: A Nigerian ride-sharing app that deploys two-wheeled motorcycles to move people in cities more safely. BEV’s money will help lower emissions by pushing for the electrician of Max’s vehicle fleet.
Malta: A Boston-based start-up that has developed a way to store renewable electricity renewable energy in the form of heat and cold.
Motif: A Boston-based start-up that develops low-carbon alternatives for everyday food ingredients.
Sierra Energy: A start-up spun out of University of California, Davis, US, that uses oxygen and steam to break down waste into gases, which can be used to make synthetic fuel. The process leaves behind solid sorb metals that can be safely discarded or re-used
SparkMeter: A US-based start-up with a Kenyan office that develops smart meters to grow reliable access to electricity in poor countries.
Sustainable Bioproducts: A Chicago-based start-up whose fermentation technology creates low-carbon proteins that can be used as nutrients for foods.
Breakthrough Energy Venture is the investment arm of Breakthrough Venture, an entity established in 2015 by Bill Gates and a coalition of private investors concerned about the impact of accelerating climate change (www.b-t.energy). The board member s and investors include prominent individuals such as follows:
Samsung is becoming part of our life; Samsung smartphones, Samsung television, Samsung monitor and Samsung refrigerator. It is not surprising this Korean company is a leader in high technology fields as it has the largest portfolio of active families of patents, according to ificlaims.com. This top position had been held by IBM, the American computer company, for almost 27 years. The ificlaims.com ranks 250 parent companies by active patents they own. The holdings of subsidiaries are included in the parent company’s holding. The top 100 companies are listed below.
Rank
Ultimate owner
Active families
Country
1
Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd
76,638
South Korea
2
International Business Machine Corp
37,304
US
3
Canon Inc
35,724
Japan
4
General Electric Co
30,010
US
5
Microsoft Corp
29,824
US
6
Robert Bosch
28,285
Germany
7
Panasonic Corp
27,298
Japan
8
Siemens
25,320
Germany
9
Intel Corp
24,628
US
10
LG Electronic Inc
23,043
South Korea
11
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. Ltd
21,522
Taiwan
12
Qualcomm Inc
21,255
US
13
Sony Corp
21,167
Japan
14
Alphabet Inc
21,084
US
15
Toyota Motor Corp
20,814
Japan
16
Nokia Oyj
20,492
Finland
17
Fujifilm Holdings Corp
18,538
Japan
18
General Motors Co
17,778
US
19
Fujitsu Ltd
17,564
Japan
20
Hitachi Ltd
17,329
Japan
21
Ford Motor Co
16,942
US
22
United Technologies Corp
16,926
US
23
Volkswagen
16,470
Germany
24
Broadcom Inc
15,135
US
25
Honda Motor Co Ltd
15,072
Japan
26
Ericsson AB
14,878
Sweden
27
Apple Inc
14,849
US
28
Seiko Epson Corp
14,377
Japan
29
Huawei
14,315
China
30
Toshiba Corp
14,201
Japan
31
Honeywell International Inc
13,892
US
32
HP Inc
13,673
US
33
Ricoh Co Ltd
13,321
Japan
34
Dell Technologies Inc
13,313
US
35
Oracle Corp
13,254
US
36
Texas Instruments Inc
13,253
US
37
Denso Corp
13,120
Japan
38
Mitsubishi Electric Corp
13,062
Japan
39
TSMC Ltd
12,792
Taiwan
40
Philips NV
12,474
Netherlands
41
Medtronic PLC
12,400
US
42
Johnson and Johnson
12,226
US
43
Cisco Systems Inc
11,498
US
44
Continental AG
11,195
Germany
45
BASF SE
10,987
Germany
46
Boeing Co
10,897
US
47
Brother Industries Ltd
10,163
Japan
48
NEC Corp
10,152
Japan
49
Infineon Technologies AG
9,854
Germany
50
Airbus SE
9,741
France
51
Bayer AG
9,654
Germany
52
Amazon com Inc
9,455
US
53
GlobalFoundries Inc
9,426
US
54
BlackBerry Ltd
9,379
Canada
55
NXP Semiconductor BV
9,328
US/Netherlands
56
Xerox Holdings Corp
9,276
US
57
Procter and Gamble Co
8,950
US
58
Western Digital Corp
8,927
US
59
Valeo SA
8,913
France
60
Kyocera Corp
8,769
Japan
61
STMicroelectronics NV
8,630
Switzerland
62
LG Display Co Ltd
8,523
South Korea
63
Hyundai Moro Co
8,495
South Korea
64
Safran SA
8,332
France
65
3M Co
8,306
US
66
Hewlet Packard Enterprise Co
8,125
US
67
AT&T Inc
8,106
US
68
SK Hynix Inc
7,934
South Korea
69
Olympus Corp
7,924
Japan
70
Micron Technology Inc
7,488
US
71
National Research Council of Science and Technology
7,226
South Korea
72
Schlumberger Ltd
7,412
US
73
Konica Minolta Inc
7,366
Japan
74
BOE Technology Group Co Ltd
7,236
Japan
75
Renesas Electronics Corp
7,002
Japan
76
Corteva Inc
6,856
US
77
Nike Inc
6,787
US
78
Halliburton Co
6,638
US
79
Dow Inc
6,532
US
80
Boston Scientific Corp
6,519
US
81
Sumitomo Electric Industries Ltd
6,466
Japan
82
Lenovo Group Ltd
6,379
China
83
Abbot Laboratories
6,265
US
84
CEA
6,120
France
85
Murata Manufacturing Co Ltd
6,116
Japan
86
Nissan Motor Co Ltd
6,096
Japan
87
Peugeot SA
6,046
France
88
TDK Corp
5,939
Japan
89
Roche Holdings AG
5,732
Switzerland
90
Verizon Communications Inc
5,656
US
91
Caterpillar Inc
5,622
US
92
Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Ltd
5,586
Japan
93
Thales SA
5,500
France
94
Kioxia Corp
5,285
Japan
95
Schaeffler AG
5,172
Germany
96
ZF Friedrichshafen AG
5,152
Germany
97
LOreal SA
5,116
France
98
Applied Materials Inc
5,079
US
99
TCL Corp
4,886
China
100
BMW AG
4,855
Germany
Patent filing
since 1883
According to WIPO (World Intellectual Property
Organization) World Intellectual Property Indicators 2019 Report, from 1883 to
1963, the patent office of the US was the leading office for world filing.
Application numbers in Japan and the US were stable until the early 1970s, when
Japan began to see rapid growth—a pattern also observed for the US from the
1980s onward. Among the top five offices, Japan surpassed the US in 1968 and
maintained the top position until 2005. Since the early 2000s, however, the number
of applications filed in Japan has followed a downward trend. Both the EPO
(European Patent Office) and South Korea have seen increases each year since
the early 1980s, as has China since 1995. China surpassed the EPO and South
Korea in 2010, Japan in 2010 and the US in 2011— and now receives the largest
number of application worldwide. This also coincides with the emergence of
Chinese companies to develop their own technologies, which is led by Huawei
Technologies Co., Ltd.
South Korea continues to file the
highest number of patents per unit of GDP
Variations in patenting activity across countries
reflect differences in their size and the structure of their economies. It is
therefore informative to examine resident patent activity with regards to population,
research and development, gross domestic product 9GDP) and other variables.
With 8,561 patent applications per unit of US$100 billion GDP, South Korea continued to file the largest number of patent applications. China (6,183) had the second largest ratio in 2018, followed by Japan (5,101), Germany (1,924) and Switzerland (1,831). However, over the past 11 years, the gap between South Korea and China has narrowed considerably, reflecting the strong growth in resident applications in China, with resident application per unit of GDP increasing from 1,854 in 2008 to 6,183 in 2018.
Focus areas of patent application by
leading companies
According to the World Intellectual Property Indicator 2019 Report, the leading companies submitted patent applications from 2014 to 2016 were in technology fields as follows:
Rank
Company
Technology
fields
1
Samsung
Telecommunication, digital communication, computer technology, semiconductors, optics and electrical machinery, apparatus and energy
2
IBM
Digital communication, computer technology, IT method for management semiconductor and audio-visual technology
3
Canon
Audio-visual technology, computer technology, optics, telecommunication, semiconductors, measurement and textile and paper machines
6
Robert
Bosch
Transport, engines and turbines, machine tools, control, measurement, computer technology and digital communication
15
Toyota
Motor Corp
Engines, pumps and turbines, mechanical elements transport, computer technology, semiconductors, measurement and control
29
Huawei
Technologies
Audio-visual technology, digital communication, telecommunication, computer technology and measurement and optics
Universities and PROs in Korea are
active applicants of patent in 2014 to 2016
The South Korean universities and PROs (public research organizations) are also active applicants of patents. The list of leading universities and PROs is shown below.
No
University or PRO
Technology fields
1
AIST (National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology), Japan
Semiconductor, measurement organic fine chemistry and biotechnology and electrical machinery, apparatus and energy
2
CEA,
France
Computer technology, semiconductor thermal processes and apparatus and telecommunication
3
CNRS,
France
Electrical machinery, apparatus and energy, computer technology, semiconductors, measurement analysis of biological materials, medical technology, organic fine chemistry, medical technology biotechnology and pharmaceuticals
4
DLR,
Germany
Measurement, control, thermal processes and apparatus, handling, engines, pumps and turbines and transport
5
Fraunhofer,
Germany
Computer technology, optics, digital communication, semiconductor, measurement, and machine tools
6
Harbin
Institute of Technology (China)
Electrical
machinery, apparatus and energy, computer technology, measurement and
materials and metallurgy and environmental technology
7
KAIST,
South Korea
Computer technology, digital communication telecommunication, measurement and optics
8
Korea
Electronics and Telecomm
Telecommunication,
digital communication, audio-visual technology computer technology and IT
methods for management
9
MIT,
US
Measurement, medical technology, biotechnology, pharmaceutical computer technology and electrical machinery, apparatus and energy
10
Tokyo
University, Japan
Biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, measurement computer technology and electrical machinery, apparatus and energy
11
University
of California, US
Medical technology, biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, organic fine chemistry measurement, computer technology and electrical machinery, apparatus and energy.
12
Zhejiang
University, China
Measurement, biotechnology, computer technology materials and metallurgy and electrical machinery, apparatus and energy
Our comments
It is noted that South Korea’s leading companies
such as Samsung, Hyundai and LG have made technological advances which are
incorporated into their products. Their progress has been supported by
universities and PROs.
China is also progressing up the technological ladder, which is led by Huawei. Taiwan has several companies which possess advanced semiconductor technologies, which is led by TSMC.
Our country, Malaysia, has not been successful in
creating companies that are involved in advanced technology fields. Malaysian
government’s effort to nurture domestic technology companies did not succeed
due to a number of factors.
Malaysia is a leading producer of palm oil as well
as a significant producer of oil and gas. Unlike Taiwan and South Korea,
Malaysian companies are happy to be involved in oil palm plantations that
generate regular profits through increased acreage.
The current turmoil in the oil industry and low prices of palm oil could spur a change in the economic development strategies through high technology industries involving digital and computer technologies. Looking at the advances made by Asian countries like South Korea, Taiwan and China, the challenge of Malaysia to catch-up with these countries is very enormous.
Last week my wife related to me that a
not-so-old gentleman was asking for vitamin C in our local pharmacy. The pharmacist
told him that the stocks of vitamin pills have run out. She added that the stocks
she ordered was also not sure when they would be delivered.
Last weekend, my university, Azman Hashim International School of Business cancelled face-to-face classes. I need to teach my DBA students via online method using Skype.
Everyone
knows the culprit is Covid-19.
I
noted an article by Peta Bee in the Health Section of The Times London today.
She interviewed an expert on immunology, Dr Jenna Macciochi, and a lecturer at
the University of Sussex. The following is
an extract of the interview.
If
Dr Jenna Macciochi’s behaviour is a barometer of how wary we should be about
the immediate threat of coronavirus, it is reassuring that we meet in
a busy café and she greets me warmly — although not quite with a shake of
hands.
Beyond that, her guard is clearly
raised. She says that she has travelled by train from Brighton, a journey she
would rather not have made, and that she is mindful of every situation in which
she finds herself interacting with others. “I am taking great care not to go
anywhere unnecessarily,” she says. “I’m being extremely careful and it goes
without saying that I’m stringent about washing my hands.”
If
we listen to anyone about the pandemic, perhaps it should be Macciochi.
She has an impressive scientific CV; a lecturer in immunology at the University
of Sussex, she previously worked at Imperial College London and is a
contributing editor of scientific journals including the Annals of
Advanced Biomedical Sciences. Her new book, Immunity — The Science
of Staying Well, delves into everything related to our immune system and
what we need to do to protect ourselves against infection. Its publication is
timely — not even she predicted a pandemic of these proportions coming.
“Once real fear was
raised in China, it was a case of gathering data and watching it evolve,” she
says. “But it’s a brand new virus, and while we can look to others from the
same family for clues, ultimately we don’t know what’s going to happen.”
Macciochi, 38, and
the mother of five-year-old twins, says that she has abandoned arrangements to
visit her parents, both in their seventies, out of a desire to protect them.
“There’s a lot of people saying, ‘Oh, I’ll be fine,’ because they are
relatively healthy and might get only mild symptoms anyway,” she says. “But we
seem to be missing the fact that it’s the vulnerable people we need to protect
and the transition we need to contain.”
How we do that does
not come in the form of a manual. Macciochi is reluctant to suggest that we can
“boost” our immune systems through healthy living — “it’s a phrase that is too
often misused by the wellness industry” — but says that we can raise our
personal protection in many ways. Here she tackles the big questions about
protecting ourselves from coronavirus.
I never get colds,
so won’t I be OK?
“We are genetically and immunologically unique. But that is by design because
if we were all immunologically identical, we would react to the same infection
in the same way and our species would die out. Even members of the same family
react differently to different immune system threats. But while some people do
claim never to get cold and flu-like infections and may think that they will
avoid coronavirus too, the reality is we are just more susceptible to some
types of infection and more resilient to others. There’s no hierarchy to this
and none of us is invincible to everything.”
Will taking vitamins
help?
“When thinking about protecting themselves against infection, most people
believe that taking vitamin C, in supplement form, will be helpful. It’s
certainly true that vitamin C plays a key role in immunity and that a
deficiency of it can lead to a higher susceptibility of a cold or virus.
“If you eat fruit
and vegetables, vitamin C is practically unavoidable in the diet. Taking more —
in doses of 1-2g daily — has not been proven to ward off infections, but it
might be helpful in reducing the severity and duration of them.
Effervescent vitamin C and orange
“When we are ill our
immune cells need almost double the amount of vitamin C they normally do to
fight an infection, so consuming more of it could be beneficial in marginally
reducing the length of time you are suffering by around 8 per cent in adults
and 14 per cent in children, on average.
“If you do a lot of
exercise, it’s worth taking as vitamin C appears to have stronger effects on
people who train hard. In Finnish studies on marathon runners and skiers,
vitamin C supplementation almost halved the duration of a cold, but had little
effect on the sedentary participants.
“Do be aware that
high intakes of vitamin C can cause gastrointestinal upset in some people and
that, even if you do take it, it will not make you invincible.”
Will being fighting
fit help?
“Physical activity is one of the best ways to prime and even rejuvenate
immunity. A recent British study of male and female long-term cyclists aged 55
to 79 found that, when compared with those of twentysomething sedentary people,
the older cyclists’ immune systems were far superior.
“Keeping your
muscles active releases high levels of a specific chemical called interleukin 7
(IL-7) into the blood and that helps to prevent shrinking of a gland of great
importance to immunity. The thymus gland, situated in front of the heart and
behind the sternum, is responsible for producing new T cells, the master
controllers of the immune system.
“It starts
diminishing in size from our twenties, a process called thymus involution, but
regular exercise halts this, keeping the thymus gland in healthy shape.
Resistance training — lifting weights or your own body weight through
press-ups, lunges and the like — is particularly beneficial in prompting the
release of IL-7. But just moving throughout the day — getting up from your
desk, walking at lunchtime — is more effective than sitting all day and doing a
HIIT class after work.”
But shouldn’t I be
avoiding the gym?
“Gyms tend to pack a lot of people into a confined space, probably not the best
environment to seek out during the coronavirus pandemic. If you do go, take
sensible precautions such as washing your hands often before and after a
workout, wiping equipment with sanitisers and avoiding people who are sniffling
or coughing. Your best bet is to exercise outdoors, running, walking or cycling
alone or in small groups.
“If you usually
train intensely, by all means keep it up. Your body and immunity adapt to
training loads and it’s only if you increase your exercise steeply that it can
start to suppress the immune system. Exercise is a form of stress to the body
and will produce some immune dampening responses if you go at it too hard.
“It used to be
thought that there was a window following prolonged endurance activity in which
immunity was compromised as immune cells disappeared, making people more
susceptible to infection. Science has since shown that this is not the case and
that immune cells are just diverted to where they are needed most after hard
workouts. But sensible precautions are recommended — don’t push too far or too
hard and stay warm and dry when you finish.”
Is it OK to keep
drinking alcohol?
“There are no benefits to drinking alcohol in terms of immunity and it may
actually harm our defences. One reason for this is the effect it has on our
sleep, which may be poorer in quality after a few glasses of wine. Since sleep
disruption is known to raise the risk of catching a cold or the flu, it stands
to reason that your susceptibility to any virus might be increased.
“Alcohol also
affects the gut microbiome with hard spirits (including gin) particularly
harmful when it comes to decreasing gut bacteria that benefit our immunity. A
weekend of heavy drinking can affect the function of immune-regulating organs
like the liver and explains why people tend to fall ill after partying. It’s
best avoided at this time.”
Are zinc supplements
worth a shot?
“Zinc is an essential mineral that’s needed by every cell in the body and is
vital for normal development and function of cells that are involved in
immunity. It’s not stored in our bodies, so a regular intake is vital — men
need 5.5-6.5mg a day and women 4-7mg and you find it in a range of foods,
including meat, milk, eggs, fish, chickpeas, baked beans, pumpkin seeds, dried
figs and Brazil nuts.
“Whether it’s worth
taking a supplement is debatable, but there is some evidence that zinc lozenges
do help to prevent winter infections in children, and test-tube trials have
shown that it seems to stop viruses getting into cells and improves the power
of immune cells to fight infection, although there’s no confirmation they are
helpful to adults in real-life circumstances. If you do take extra zinc, take a
lozenge for the short term. Prolonged use of more than six weeks can cause an
irritated digestive tract.”
Does eating organic
food make a difference?
“Gut health is a big trend and your microbiota can have a powerful effect on
your immunity. But too many people think that turning to probiotics or kefir is
the way to go. What they should be doing is fertilising the gut bugs they
already have with a diet rich in fibre and containing a diverse range of fruit,
wholegrains and vegetables.
“A lot of soil
microbes have been shown to help our immune system, so consuming fresh produce
as soon after it has been picked as possible is the best bet. There’s some
evidence that organic produce or that picked from an allotment, which might
still have a bit of dirt on it, is superior for the microbiome. Ultimately,
though, just increasing how many fruit and veg you eat is the best step you can
take.”
Should I just stop
worrying about coronavirus?
“Worrying definitely makes us more susceptible to infection, and stress has a
known dampening effect on our immunity. I’ve been contacted by so many people
in recent days who are concerned about the spread of the virus, and the best
thing we can do is to take a step back and remove some of the pressure.
“We can’t make
ourselves invincible, but we can reduce the effects of stress and in doing so
raise our levels of protection. Carving time out of our day to change our
routine slightly is essential at the moment. Small and regular practice of things
like meditation can be really helpful, but so can walking outdoors, which
introduces our brains to a wider vista and removes the focus on work and
coronavirus. Try yoga, t’ai chi or reading — any steps that you find help to
relax your mind.”
Will the threat of
coronavirus improve with the weather?
“Weather and the climate could play a part in coronavirus, but the truth is we
can’t be sure. We know that some viruses, influenza for example, prefer cooler
climates and can survive longer on a cold surface, which is why it strikes more
often in winter. Only time will tell if the threat of coronavirus eases as we
move through the seasons.”
Will herd immunity
help?
“The theory behind herd immunity, one of the strategies discussed
by the government, is that a population becomes resistant to an infection
because enough people have developed a resistance to it either through having
the disease or because they’ve had a vaccination against it. It’s sort of a
community immunity that makes it harder for something to spread.
“But we are nowhere
near that point with coronavirus — it’s a brand new virus and nobody yet has
immunity from it except perhaps those who have had it and survived. At the
moment the only way not to get infected is to isolate yourself and distance
yourself from people who may already have it.”
How do
immunosuppressive drugs affect coronavirus?
“People taking this kind of medication for existing health problems are
definitely more susceptible to contracting a virus because their immunity is
compromised, although they would still need to come into contact with an
infected person. So far, there aren’t many case studies to go on, but it could
be that Covid-19 may look different and have different implications for someone
taking immunosuppressive medication.
Since it is the
immune system that produces symptoms of a virus like coughing and a fever,
these people might not initially present with symptoms as severe as other
people. But long-term there could be extra risk of complications from the virus
if they are infected. Without a normal capacity to mount an immune response, it
could mean the virus directly damages the delicate lung cells, something that
is not reversible. The advice is to not stop taking medications unless
instructed by your healthcare provider to do so, and if self-isolating to
ensure you have plenty of your prescription.”
Can you get it and
not know?
“One of the concerning things about coronavirus is that some people have tested
positive having had no symptoms at all. They may be spreading the virus without
realising it which is what makes it particularly scary.”
Immunity: The
Science of Staying Well by Dr Jenna Macciochi (Thorsons, £14.99)
Maintaining cognitive health through food supplements
Cognitive health is a vital part of
healthy living and quality of life. Cognition includes the ability to learn new
things, intuition, judgment, language and remembering. Cognitive health has
remained a major health issue globally. Over the years, people have employed
the use of traditional herds and medicines which contains therapeutic compounds
that help curb diseases and ailments ranging from headaches and migraines to
more condition-specific disorders like Parkinson’s disease.
CoQ10
and omega-3 fatty acids are being used in human nutritional applications to
support brain or cognitive health. Vitamin E, rosemary, ginseng and ginkgo
biloba are used in maintaining general brain health. New cognitive health
ingredients are also being introduced and gaining popularity.
Aging
population and increasing prevalence of brain-related diseases such as
Alzheimer’s disease are among the key factors that the growth of the cognitive
health ingredients market.
Dietary
supplements dominate the global cognitive health market. Functional foods and
beverages is still an emerging application for majority of these ingredients
and offers immense future potential.
Active
ingredients used in cognitive (brain) health
There are a lot of ingredients
positioned for cognitive health, such as vitamins, minerals, CoQ10, omega-3
fatty acids, citicoline and botanical extracts. Majority of the cognitive
health ingredients are also positioned for health benefits other than
supporting brain health. For example, omega-3 ingredients are positioned both
for cardiovascular and cognitive health. However, the positioning of omega-3
fatty acids for cognitive health is emerging due to manufacturers’ interests in
catering to a different target audience. Both ginkgo biloba and ginseng
extracts are primarily positioned as adaptogens (a unique group of herbal ingredients
used to improve the health of adrenal system,
the system that is in charge of the body’s hormonal response to stress) to
improve memory and concentration and decrease the symptoms of
condition-specific mental disorders such as Parkinson’s disease. The cognitive
health benefits of the major ingredients are summarized as follows:
CoQ10:
Improves brain function
Antioxidant property
Prevents migraine
Reduces the damage caused by Parkinson’s disease
Helps lower cholesterol
Helps reduce inflammation
Discourages atherosclerosis
Omega-3
Promotes heart health
Improves immunity
Enhances eye health
Improves cognitive health
CoQ10
and omega-3 are the most researched and clinically established health
ingredients available for use in functional foods, functional beverage, and
dietary supplement industries. EPA and DHA are the most important omega-3 fatty
acids with strong scientific evidence supporting their health benefits. Omega-3
fatty acids have been associated with numerous health benefits. The cognitive
health benefits have been accepted by consumers.
Companies
involved in cognitive (brain) health ingredient market
There are many companies involved in the
cognitive health ingredient market. These include Naturex SA, Ocean Nutrition
Canada, Martek Biosciences Corporation and Cargill. There is a high level of
threat from product substitution in the cognitive health ingredient market. The
increasing demand for health ingredients has resulted in a large number of
ingredients competing for market share. The competition is keen in such
segments such as fatty acids, vitamins and mineral supplements, antioxidants,
botanicals and herbs.
Moreover,
majority of the ingredients’ efficacy and safety, except a few, are backed by
limited science. Additionally, consumers are confused by the offering of such
ingredients in the market place.
Despite
these challenges, new companies are entering the cognitive health ingredient
market. The global population is increasingly being affected by brain disorders
such as dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. Continued research efforts have
provided scientific backing to the benefits of cognitive health ingredients.
These efforts have revealed numerous brain-related benefits of a single
ingredient.
The
omega-3 ingredient market is continuously undergoing consolidation. One large
acquisition exercise was made by DSM which acquired Martek Biosciences in 2010.
The latter was the first company to commercialize DHA produced from sources
other than fish oils.
Global cognitive (brain) health ingredient market
According to a market research company,
Sprout Intelligence, the cognitive (brain) health ingredient market was
estimated to be US1,500 million in 2015. This market was growing at 7 per cent per
year. .
Beta-glucan extracted from oat is main ingredient for heart health
In our recent
consulting assignment, we conducted a market research on active ingredients
used in the nutraceutical industry. In general, the nutracutical industry is
segmented into digestive health, immune support, weight control, heart health,
beauty from within (nutricosmetic), heart health and cognitive (brain) health.
This article
covers the active ingredients used for heart health. The following article will
touch on active ingredients for cognitive (brain) health.
Sales
of heart health foods and beverages are rising rapidly. Unlike other health
product such as digestive health, consumers of heart health products are not
offered “instant” gratification, a visible result within a couple of months,
but only a promise of a long-term health benefits. According to the World
Health Organization (WHO), by 2030, almost 23.6 million people will die from
cardiovascular diseases, mainly from heart disease and stroke, making heart
health products a must-have and a key food and drink development area. It has
taken years to build solid clinical basis for these ingredients and their
ability to support heart health.
Diet
can have a considerable impact on heart health, as it is linked to diabetes,
elevated blood pressure and elevated cholesterol levels, the major risk factors
in developing cardiovascular diseases. There are three main factors in the
expansion of the health and wellness sectors, and they are:
Consumers are moving away from treatment to prevention.
When supplementing their diets, consumers tend to favour food and drinks over pills or capsules.
With increasing education about the role of functional ingredients, consumers more frequently build their diets around health conditions.
The
major movements towards nutraceuticals (including fortified/functional foods
and beverages, and vitamins and dietary supplements), focuses on adding
purportedly beneficial ingredients to a diet to achieve the specific health
function claimed by the product. Nutraceuticals represent a key focal point for
product innovation.
The impact of diet on cardiovascular
disease risks is shown in the table below.
Diabetes
Obesity is an important risk factor for the development of diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Weight management and reduced intakes of fat, sugar and carbohydrate foods offer easy solutions, which can lead to the maintenance of good heart health.
Hypertension
The risk of elevated blood pressure and hypertension is determined by genetic background, as well as many different environmental factors, including nutrition. Excess weight, alcohol consumption, physical inactivity, stress and, in some individuals, a diet rich in salt may lead to increased blood pressure.
Hypercholesterolaemia
Elevated blood cholesterol is strongly associated with cardiovascular disease risk, as it promotes plaque development in arteries, which leads to heart attack, stroke and peripheral vascular disease. Reducing dietary intake of saturated fats and cholesterol, and consumption of plant sterols, beta-glucans and other ingredients can help reduce cardiovascular disease risk by lowering blood levels of LDL cholesterol, the so-called “bad cholesterol”, linked to formation of plaques.
Hyperhomocysteinaemia
Elevated blood levels of the amino acid homocysteine is also a known risk factor cardiovascular disease. Inadequate intakes of folic acid and/or vitamins B12 and B6 can lead to elevated homocysteine. Homocysteine is thought to increase cardiovascular risk by reducing blood vessel dilation and contributing to blood clot formation.
Ingredients used in heart health
There are a number of nutritional ingredients
positioned for heart health, which are listed below.
Ingredient
Heart health benefits
Best fortified/functional source
Plant sterols/stanols
Average cholesterol reduction of 7-10%.
Spreadable oils and fats, yoghurts
Omega-3
Reduction of blood
pressure, lowering of triglycerides,
Milk, infant
formula, spreadable oils and fats, bread, yogurt.
Beta-glucans
Regular consumption of beta-glucans contributes to maintenance of normal
blood cholesterol concentrations.
Oat, barley
Dietary fibre
Reduced risk of
coronary heart disease.
Bakery products and
pasta
Peptides
Blood pressure lowering in hypertensive individuals.
Yoghurt
Squalene
Can reduce
cholesterol
Bread and breakfast
cereals
Antioxidants
Anti-inflammatory, beneficial to heart health.
Chocolate, tea, red wine and other sources. Palm fruit juice would be a
new source.
Soy protein
Reported to reduce
cholesterol by 3%.
Food and drinks with
soy protein.
Companies involved in heart health ingredient market
There are many companies involved in the
heart health nutritional ingredient market. These include Naturex SA, Ocean
Nutrition Canada, Martek Biosciences Corporation and Cargill. These
manufacturers also produce ingredients which are also targeted at cognitive
health market. There is a high level of threat from product substitution in the
heart health ingredient market. The increasing demand for heart health
ingredients has resulted in a large number of ingredients competing for market
share. The competition is keen in such segments such as fatty acids, vitamins
and mineral supplements, antioxidants, botanicals and herbs.
Moreover,
majority of the ingredients’ efficacy and safety, except a few, are backed by
limited science. Additionally, consumers are confused by the offering of such
ingredients in the market place. The omega-3 ingredient market is continuously
undergoing consolidation. One large acquisition exercise was made by DSM which
acquired Martek Biosciences in 2010. The latter was the first company to
commercialize DHA produced from sources other than fish oils.
Ingredient market for heart health
According to market research company, Bekryl.com, the ingredient market for heart health was estimated to be US17,000 million in 2019. This market is growing at 7 per cent per year and forms the largest market for ingredient in the nutraceutical industry.
