☕️ Langkah Sheraton Part Deux in the making?

1. MARKET SUMMARY 📈

2. NUMBERS AT A GLANCE 🔢

816,747 units is the record Total Industry Volume (TIV) achieved by Malaysia’s automotive industry in 2024, surpassing the 800,000-unit mark for the first time. December 2024 saw the highest-ever monthly TIV, with 81,735 units sold. This represents a 2% increase compared to 799,821 units in 2023. Mohd Shamsor Mohd Zain, president of the Malaysian Automotive Association (MAA), credited Malaysia’s resilient economy for this strong performance.

RM13 bil was collected by the Employee Provident Fund’s (EPF) voluntary savings and “top-up” scheme last year, with more than 1.6 million members participating. Of these, 1.2 million were regular contributors, and 400,000 were part of the i-Saraan scheme for self-employed and casual workers. Notably, 70% of members have not accessed their funds in the Flexible Account (Account 3), which allows for unrestricted withdrawals. Additionally, around 3 mil members aged 55 and above, who are eligible to withdraw all their savings, choose to leave their funds in the EPF due to its superior returns and security.

Human-driven climate change could lead to USD1.47 trillion (RM6.52 trillion) in net property value losses (in the US) due to rising insurance costs and shifting consumer demand, according to a new report from First Street. The report estimates that by 2055, insurance premiums could increase by 29.4% on average, driven by 18.4% for “current underpricing” and 11% due to climate risks. These rising insurance costs are outpacing mortgage payments, pushing homeowners to migrate away from high-risk areas in the Sun Belt and the West.

3. IN MALAYSIA 🇲🇾

Sin City Mall
You can bring the city out of Shah Alam, but you cannot bring out the Shah Alam from the city. A shootout occurred at the Setia City Mall on Saturday when a male in his 30s fired multiple shots, injuring a cleaner in his legs and buttocks. In the shooter’s attempt to flee the scene, he shot a car and carjacked a Perodua Ativa. He held the driver of the Perodua Ativa at gunpoint and forced him to drive him out of the mall until the driver dropped him off near the Pandamaran exit of the Kesas Expressway. The driver should get a five-star rating in this five-star GTA situation. Selangor police officers recovered more than 10 bullet casings from various areas in the mall, including stairwells and parking areas. An intense manhunt is now underway, Selangor police chief Hussein Omar Khan said in a statement released on Sunday. The suspect has 11 prior records in criminal and drug-related offences. According to the police, the motive behind the incident is still under investigation and the case is being probed under Section 3 of the Firearms (Increased Penalties) Act 1971, which carries the death penalty.z View the chaos here.

Following the shootout, Inspector-General of Police Razarudin Husain said security measures will be beefed up at malls nationwide. Will we see a repeat of the instance where the military was involved in the patrol of public spaces? In 2016, the Royal Malaysia Police and the Malaysian Armed Forces launched a 24-hour joint patrol at popular public spots in the Klang Valley. The reason and the number of personnel deployed for the patrol were not disclosed back then due to security reasons.

FYI, an interesting history about Setia Alam, where the Setia City Mall is located. Setia Alam is a township in Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia. It was developed by SP Setia Berhad and launched in 2004. Before that, the land was known as North Hummock Estate and was owned by the See Hoy Chan Group.

Petronas is in a crisis?
Petroliam Nasional Bhd (Petronas) group CEO Muhammad Taufik told in a town hall that the Fortune 500 company is embarking on a right-sizing (and not down-sizing) exercise to ensure the company still exists in the next decade. Muhammad Taufik added that the new organisation structure will be announced in 2H2025, where an undisclosed number of employees will be redeployed to new roles, while some will be displaced. He revealed that the administrative roles will be the ones most impacted, where almost 30% out of it 52,000 global workforce are administrative roles. Muhammad Taufik denied that the Petronas-Petros conflict was the reason for this ‘right-sizing’ exercise, but instead, he blamed the challenging operating environment globally as the reason why. At the moment, Petronas’ average cost per barrel is around USD50. Brent crude was trading at USD74 per barrel.

Green energy update

1. The Ministry of Energy Transition and Water Transformation (Petra) is slated to introduce the Community Renewable Energy Aggregation Mechanism (Cream) — a new initiative designed to maximise residential rooftop solar potential. Through this Cream initiative, homeowners or commercial building landlords can monetise their rooftops to third parties for solar power generation. The Energy Commission (EC) is set to announce the full details and framework soon.

2. Perusahaan Otomobil Kedua Sdn Bhd (Perodua) announced that its new electric vehicle may even be priced below the RM80,000 mark, given that the owners have to lease the battery separately. This no-frills AirAsia style approach by Perodua has the support of many consumers, according to a survey conducted by the company. Perodua CEO Zainal Abidin Ahmad added that the battery leasing model will exclude consumers from bearing the responsibility for recycling the batteries. Perodua is not the first car manufacturer to think of this battery leasing model. Previously, Renault also launched the leasing model where the consumers need to pay between RM320 - RM570 per month.

3. Perak Menteri Besar Saarani Mohamad has just launched Proton Holdings Bhd’s electric vehicle (EV) assembly plant in Tanjung Malim, Perak. It is the first plant in Malaysia specifically built for the assembly of EVs and it cost Proton RM82 mil to construct the plant. Once completed, the assembly plant will have a capacity of 20,000 units per annum for the domestic and export markets.

Shorts

1. Health Minister Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad stated that the Coca-Cola products distributed in Malaysia are not contaminated with high levels of chlorate as reported in some European countries. Dr Dzulkefly added that this is not a global phenomenon and only Coca-Cola products sold in European countries such as Belgium, Luxembourg, the UK, and the Netherlands were affected. FYI, high levels of chlorate can be dangerous to human health, primarily causing issues with oxygen transport in the blood due to red blood cell damage, potentially leading to kidney failure.

2. According to Human Resources Minister Steven Sim, starting this year, all Social Security Organisation (Perkeso) contributors no longer need pay for medical treatment at panel clinics for work-related accidents and occupational diseases. Sim said that previously, it would cost between RM150 to RM200 per treatment, but now, you can go to any of the 1,400 Perkeso panel clinics nationwide and just show your IC to receive the treatment.

3. Another year, another threat from Bersatu to topple the Government as Bersatu secretary-general Azmin Ali signalled that the party has turned on the party’s machinery in anticipation of a snap general election by the end of the year. But before Bersatu aims for the star, perhaps it should ensure its house is in order first. Even within the Perikatan Nasional (PN) opposition coalition, there is still a question mark on which party should lead the charge, as last month, PAS spiritual leader Hashim Jasin said the Islamist party should lead the opposition coalition, citing its political strength compared to Bersatu. For the record, PAS has 43 parliamentary seats in the Dewan Rakyat to Bersatu’s 25.

4. AROUND THE WORLD 🌎

Israeli forces withdraw from Gaza’s Netzarim Corridor, continues to kill in West Bank
Hamas officials have reported that Israeli forces have dismantled their positions and military posts and completely withdrawn their tanks from the Netzarim Corridor, a strip of land that cut off northern Gaza from the rest of the Strip. Israel created the corridor at the beginning of its war on Gaza, which is a closed-off military zone that stretches from Israel’s boundary with Gaza to the Mediterranean Sea and is about 6 km wide.

The withdrawal is one of the requirements under the first phase of the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas, with a deadline of Feb 9. Vehicles can now pass freely in both directions, allowing more free movement for the Palestinians and letting aid trucks go all the way to the northern part of the Strip. The possession of the Netzarim corridor is a symbol of Israel’s power and grasp over the enclave. Palestinians are hopeful that they would never return.

Meanwhile, the worst continues at the occupied West Bank. Israel stops the killing in Gaza, but continues to batter the West Bank with raids and assaults that have killed an eight-month-pregnant woman in the Nur Shams refugee camp. Palestine’s Wafa news agency said the Israeli army raided the camp in occupied West Bank’s Tulkarem region early on Sunday and deployed heavy machinery and bulldozers, raiding dozens of homes as reconnaissance planes flew at low altitudes.

It’s a Trump world

Trump “fires” Biden from accessing intelligence data
President Trump has decided to revoke ex-President Biden’s security clearance and access to daily intelligence briefings, a privilege traditionally given to former presidents as courtesy. Why did he do it? Well, apparently, he is just doing what Biden had done to him in 2021 when Biden instructed the Intelligence Community (IC) to stop Trump from accessing details on National Security due to his "erratic behaviour".

Trump said that there is no need for Biden to continue receiving classified information, justifying that Biden "could not be trusted with sensitive information" and citing a justice department inquiry into the Democrat's storage of classified files, which concluded that while there was no need to press criminal charges because Biden had a poor memory. Besides Biden’s, he also revoked security clearances and protections for top officials linked to the Biden administration as well as other ex-government officials.

Trump cuts aid to South Africa over ‘racial discrimination’ against Afrikaners
More cuts from Trump - next is the financial assistance to South Africa, where he signed an executive order that accuses the country’s government of “unjust racial discrimination” against white Afrikaners (yeaps, discrimination against the whites). The order also offered Afrikaners asylum in the US and justified the cut by saying that South Africa has taken “aggressive positions towards the US and its allies, including accusing Israel of genocide in the international court of justice”, among others.

South Africa was ruled by white Afrikaner leaders, a descendent of Dutch colonizers, during apartheid, which violently repressed the country’s black majority, forcing them to live in segregated townships and rural “homelands”. More than three decades after white minority rule ended, South Africa remains hugely unequal, with land and wealth still largely concentrated among white people, who make up 7% of the population, while black people are 81%. However, some white South Africans claim they are discriminated against, often citing the country’s affirmative action laws.

South Africa’s foreign ministry said that there seemed to be a “campaign of misinformation and propaganda” and that the irony is that the order seems to make provision for a group in South Africa that remains amongst the most economically privileged, while people in the US from other parts of the world are being deported and denied asylum despite real hardship.

Tech

Pinterest jumps 18% after reporting its first-ever USD 1 bil quarter
Pinterest has hit its first-ever bil dollar quarter, sending its stocks soaring by 18% after its Q4 2024 earnings announcement on Friday. The San Francisco-based firm said revenue was USD1.15 bil, up from USD981 mil in the fourth quarter of 2023 and just above analyst expectations of USD1.14 bil. It seems like the stronghold of their earnings lies in their advertisement business - the company's earnings mentioned that advertisement impressions increased by 43% in Q4. Its AI ad optimization tool will help to create sustainable revenue growth in 2025, with expected sales in Q1 2025 to reach between USD837 mil and USD852 mil, topping earlier estimates of USD833 mil. Pinterest's market cap stands at USD27 bil.

Meta prepares for layoffs today, starting with US employees
Meta will begin its company-wide layoff today, following its notice last month that it was planning to trim about 5% of its "lowest performers" and backfill at least some of the positions in efforts to boost performance in the company. It is also pushing ahead with the expedited hiring of machine learning engineers. Employees in Germany, France, Italy and the Netherlands will be exempt from the cuts "due to local regulations," while those in more than a dozen other countries across Europe, Asia and Africa will receive their notifications between February 11 and February 18.

Shorts

1. Colombian President Petro promotes legalisation of cocaine

   Amid the narcotics war against cocaine, President Gustavo Petro of Colombia had said that the cocaine is actually illegal “because it is made in Latin America, not because it is worse harmful than whiskey”. He also said that legalising the drug would be effective in combating global trafficking. Colombia is the world’s largest producer of cocaine, with production surging under Petro’s presidency to reach a record 2,600 metric tonnes in 2023. In many countries, cocaine remains illegal, while some other countries decriminalise possession in small amounts. Nevertheless, health officials warn of its serious medical risks, including addiction and overdose.

2. 10 people on board presumed dead on board missing Alaskan plane

   The wreckage of the privately operated Cessna 208B Grand Caravan carrying nine passengers and one pilot was finally located about 885 km northwest of Anchorage, Alaska on Friday. The plane went missing on Thursday afternoon while en route from Unalakleet to Nome, with its last-known location over a stretch of water about 50 km southeast of Nome. The crash is the third aviation disaster in the US in a little over a week.

5. FOR YOUR EYES 📺

1. An entertaining and interesting interview with Nigel Ng (aka Uncle Roger) by actress and TV presenter Amelia Henderson. “Singapore is North Korea with money”. That’s funny.

2. Nobody is thinking about you. So go do the damn thing.