■ China busts money ring
China has cracked a US$40 million foreign-currency smuggling operation, the biggest ever by law-enforcement officials, state-owned newspaper < ■ Telecom Thai national heads SingTel The president of Thai conglomerate Siam Cement, Chumpol NaLamlieng, will take over as chairman of Singapore Telecommun-ications (SingTel) when incumbent Ang Kong Hua retires next month, the telecom operator said. In a statement released late Friday, SingTel said Ang "indicated his desire to step down to his fellow directors in May this year in order to have more time to pursue his other interests." Chumpol's appointment by the SingTel board also marks the first time that a foreign national will assume the post of chairman of a major government-linked company. SingTel is the city-state's biggest telecom operator and is almost 70 percent owned by the government. The 56-year-old Thai national has been a non-executive independent director at SingTel since last June. ■ Regulation China Rare Earth probed China Rare Earth Holdings Ltd, China's biggest processor of elements found in magnets and mobile-phone batteries, is under investigation, Hong Kong's market regulator said, after the company refused to make the announcement. "The stock exchange asked the company to make an announcement. This request was refused," a Securities and Futures Commission statement said without specifying the nature of the investigation. China Rare Earth in May denied a report by Caijing magazine that it had fabricated sales records to meet listing qualifications in Hong Kong when the company went public in October 1999. The magazine's claims were called ``unfoun-ded, groundless and libelous.'' Profit at Rare Earth plunged 71 percent last year as sales dropped by about a quarter on lower demand and falling prices. ■ Airlines SIA offers early retirement Singapore Airlines (SIA) is offering an early retirement package to its male cabin crew members in the latest of a series of cost-cutting measures, a spokesman said yesterday. The deal is open to those with 25 years of service who are over 45. The deal is similar to the one the flag carrier offered to its ground staff. Some 40 percent of SIA's 6,600 crew members are male, and they can work up to age 57. Spokesman Rick Clements said all of SIA's female crew members were on five-year renewable contracts, and there was no need for early retirement packages for them. The slump in the industry triggered by the SARS epidemic plunged SIA into the worst crisis in its 56-year history. The airline recently said it had been losing S$6 million (US$3.4 million) daily since April. A wage cut for 1,600 pilots amounting to 16.5 percent for captains and 11 percent for first officers went into effect July 1 and will last until March 31.
BUSINESS UPDATE: The iPhone assembler said operations outlook is expected to show quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year growth for the second quarter Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported strong growth in sales last month, potentially raising expectations for iPhone sales while artificial intelligence (AI)-related business booms. The company, which assembles the majority of Apple Inc’s smartphones, reported a 19.03 percent rise in monthly sales to NT$510.9 billion (US$15.78 billion), from NT$429.22 billion in the same period last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 14.16 percent, it said. The company in a statement said that last month’s revenue was a record-breaking April performance. Hon Hai, known also as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), assembles most iPhones, but the company is diversifying its business to
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: The chipmaker last month raised its capital spending by 28 percent for this year to NT$32 billion from a previous estimate of NT$25 billion Contract chipmaker Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電子) yesterday launched a new 12-inch fab, tapping into advanced chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) packaging technology to support rising demand for artificial intelligence (AI) devices. Powerchip is to offer interposers, one of three parts in CoWoS packaging technology, with shipments scheduled for the second half of this year, Powerchip chairman Frank Huang (黃崇仁) told reporters on the sidelines of a fab inauguration ceremony in the Tongluo Science Park (銅鑼科學園區) in Miaoli County yesterday. “We are working with customers to supply CoWoS-related business, utilizing part of this new fab’s capacity,” Huang said, adding that Powerchip intended to bridge
Microsoft Corp yesterday said that it would create Thailand’s first data center region to boost cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure, promising AI training to more than 100,000 people to develop tech. Bangkok is a key economic player in Southeast Asia, but it has lagged behind Indonesia and Singapore when it comes to the tech industry. Thailand has an “incredible opportunity to build a digital-first, AI-powered future,” Microsoft chairman and chief executive officer Satya Nadella said at an event in Bangkok. Data center regions are physical locations that store computing infrastructure, allowing secure and reliable access to cloud platforms. The global embrace of AI
Qualcomm Inc, the world’s biggest seller of smartphone processors, gave an upbeat forecast for sales and profit in the current period, suggesting demand for handsets is increasing after a two-year slump. Revenue in the three months ended in June will be US$8.8 billion to US$9.6 billion, the company said in a statement Wednesday. Excluding certain items, earnings will be US$2.15 to US$2.35 a share. Analysts had projected sales of US$9.08 billion and earnings of US$2.16 a share. The outlook signals that the smartphone market has begun to bounce back, tracking with Qualcomm’s forecast that demand would gradually recover this year. The San