■ Tobacco
Cuban cigars survive storm
Production of Cuba's world-famous Cohiba and other exclusive cigars will not be affected by Hurricane Ivan's passage along the island's western tip earlier this week, says the Cuban-Spanish firm that markets the cigars abroad. "Damage to the Cuban tobacco sector has been very limited," primarily because planting season doesn't begin until next month, Habanos SA said in a news release issued late Thursday. "The supply of tobacco for Habanos production will not be affected, and the next harvest will start in normal conditions," the company added. Tobacco growers had earlier indicated that they believed damage from the storm would be minimal. Ivan swept past Cuba's western tip on its way to the Gulf of Mexico late Monday, drenching the Pinar del Rio province -- the heart of Cuba's tobacco-growing region. There were no tobacco plants in the fields.
■ Branding
Retailer sticks with FCUK
UK fashion chain French Connection said last week it was sticking with its controversial FCUK brand, as it announced a 12 percent increase in first-half profits. The clothing retailer, which saw its irreverent FCUK logo come under fire from the fashion industry this summer, said UK retail conditions last month had been "unusually poor," however, and its performance had been disappointing. Business in Europe, North America and Asia had been good. French Connection reported profit before tax and goodwill of ?15.4 million (US$27.7 million) for the six months ended July 31, compared with ?13.7 million in the year-earlier period. The chain's shares were hit in July after fashion retail bible the Drapers Record quoted a stockist as saying the FCUK brand looked "tired and tacky." Press reports later said it was scaling back the brand.
■ Foreign credit
S&P raises Brazil's rating
Standard and Poor's Ratings Services on Friday raised Brazil's long-term foreign currency sovereign credit rating in response to improvements in some of the South American nation's economic indicators. The long-term credit rating was raised to B plus, up from BB minus. "The upgrade reflects marked improvement in Brazil's external liquidity position and improved fiscal dynamics amid strong macroeconomic policy management," the credit agency said. Brazil's long-term local rating remained at BB and its short-term sovereign credit rating stayed at B.
■ Outsourcing
Offshoring has little effect
US companies sending jobs overseas are not having a big impact on the total job market, UBS Investment Research chief economist Maury Harris said in a study last week. Between 2001 and last year, increased international outsourcing didn't have much effect on overall jobs or wages, even though individual workers were affected. This suggests that investors shouldn't worry even though the trend of turning to foreign workers may continue. In the new UBS study, Harris says the US economy adds new jobs in some areas even as it loses them in others. His study estimates that only about 400,000 job cuts annually are due to foreign outsourcing, out of a total of about 21 million unemployment claims each year. Further, he finds that about 50 percent of displaced workers tend to find new jobs within five weeks, and most within six months, although many take substantial pay cuts.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day