■ Automobiles
Suzuki plans US campaign
Japanese carmaker Suzuki Motor aims to triple its vehicle sales in the US within about two years by boosting dealerships and product line-ups to woo customers, an official said yesterday. Suzuki aims to lift annual US sales to about 200,000 vehicles in 2005, compared with slightly below 70,000 estimated for this year, the official said. In order to achieve the sales goal, the company will boost the number of dealerships by some 30 percent to 600 by the end of next year, he said. Suzuki incurred an operating loss of ?3.5 billion (US$33 million) in its North American business in the six months to September with large sales to corporate customers yielding only slim profit margins.
■ Trade
China drops steel tariffs
China has lifted its steel import tariffs, responding to a US decision earlier this month to drop tariffs on steel imports, a news report said yesterday. "In view of the latest developments in the steel trade, the Ministry of Commerce has decided to terminate its safeguard steps starting Dec. 26," the ministry said in a statement, according to the official news agency Xinhua. China, the world's largest steel importer, slapped tariffs of up to 26 percent on five steel products in November last year. The move followed a decision by the US to impose tariffs of up to 30 percent on steel imports in March last year, which violated international trade law, according to a WTO ruling last month. The US dropped the safeguards after the WTO decision.
■ Toys
FAO Schwarz sells assets
Bankrupt US toy retailer FAO said Friday it had signed a deal to sell its assets to an investment group, which averts a shutdown of its famed FAO Schwarz store on New York's Fifth Avenue. The company said the sale, for about US$20 million, to VGACS Acquisition, a subsidiary of DE Shaw Laminar Portfolios, was subject to approval of the supervising bankruptcy court. Under the deal, the investment group, backed by financier David Shaw, would acquire FAO's New York and Las Vegas store leases, as well as its catalog and Internet assets. But FAO Inc was to sell the remaining inventory in these stores before temporary closings after which they would be turned over to the new owners for re-opening next year. FAO, which is based in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, said it would ask the court to approve the deal or accept a better bid by Jan. 22.
■ Internet
Hermit Kingdom goes online
A Berlin entrepreneur said Friday that he had signed a deal with North Korean officials to bring Internet access to the country beginning in mid-February, a date chosen to coincide with leader Kim Jong-Il's birthday. Jan Holtermann, a former banker and one-time employee of the North Korean embassy in Berlin, told reporters that the project would involve the use of filtering software similar to that in place in Chinese and Cuban networks. "We started from the assumption that the North Korean government would be very selective in granting access to the Internet," he said. A select group of handpicked users will be allowed to send e-mail, and only a few will be able to view information on the web. Holtermann said that the company he founded for the project, KCC Europe, had signed a contract on Jan. 17 after negotiating with North Korean officials.
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