■ Macroeconomics
US trade rep sworn in
Representative Rob Portman, a Republican from Ohio, was sworn in as the new US trade representative following the Senate's early morning approval of his nomination. With record trade deficits and mounting concern in Congress over China's handling of its currency as well as its violation of international trade laws, Portman promised lawmakers during his confirmation hearing last week that he would get tough with the Chinese and do a better job of enforcing trade laws. The administration responded to some of that criticism on Friday by releasing a report detailing China's continuing violation of intellectual property rights despite repeated public promises to rein in rampant pirating and counterfeiting. The US Chamber of Commerce says cost American industry more than US$200 billion a year.
■ United Kingdom
Journalists found guilty
Two journalists pleaded innocent Friday to charges that they used a newspaper column to encourage readers to buy stocks that they owned. Anil Bhoyrul, 38, and James Hipwell, 38, who wrote for the Daily Mirror's "City Slickers" column, each denied one count of conspiring to contravene the 1986 Financial Services Act in 1999 and 2000. A third man, private investor Terry Shepherd, 35, pleaded innocent to the same charge. The charge alleges that the men "conspired to create a misleading impression as to the value of investments for the purpose of creating that impression and thereby inducing other persons to acquire those investments, by using the City Slickers column in the Daily Mirror to tip those investments." Hipwell and Bhoyrul were fired by the newspaper, owned by Trinity Mirror PLC, in February 2000. The jury trial will begin within 12 months.
■ Shipping
Evergreen Marine profits up
Evergreen Marine Corp, Asia's largest container shipping company, posted a bigger profit for last year, citing results of an audit. Profit was NT$12.1 billion (US$387 million), the Taipei-based Evergreen Marine said in a filing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange yesterday. That's 236 percent higher than the NT$3.6 billion posted a year earlier. On Jan. 31, Evergreen Marine reported unaudited net income of NT$11.7 billion for last year. Evergreen Marine's profits rose as the company's vessels carried more goods from China for US retailers, including Wal-Mart Stores Inc. Asia's shipping lines are benefiting from increasing demand in the US and Europe for Chinese toys, textiles, electrical appliances and other exports.
■ Automobiles
Volkswagen suffers in China
Volkswagen, which for years reaped hefty profits from the emerging Chinese car market, reported on Friday that it lost 17 million euros (US$22 million) on operations in China in the first quarter, as a raft of new competitors chipped away at its once-dominant franchise. The troubles in China oversha-dowed Volkswagen's generally better results for the quarter, with net profits nearly tripling to 70 million euros, driven by a company-wide cost-cutting program that contributed 684 million euros (US$880 million) to earnings. Volkswagen reported its first quarterly loss in China late last year, and the results released on Friday show that it has not figured out how to stem the slide. Its deliveries fell 32.7 percent in the first quarter, compared with the period last year, while its market share eroded to 18 percent from 26 percent.
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
Apple Inc has been developing a homegrown chip to run artificial intelligence (AI) tools in data centers, although it is unclear if the semiconductor would ever be deployed, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. The effort would build on Apple’s previous efforts to make in-house chips, which run in its iPhones, Macs and other devices, according to the Journal, which cited unidentified people familiar with the matter. The server project is code-named ACDC (Apple Chips in Data Center) within the company, aiming to utilize Apple’s expertise in chip design for the company’s server infrastructure, the newspaper said. While this initiative has been
GlobalWafers Co (環球晶圓), the world’s No. 3 silicon wafer supplier, yesterday said that revenue would rise moderately in the second half of this year, driven primarily by robust demand for advanced wafers used in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, a key component of artificial intelligence (AI) technology. “The first quarter is the lowest point of this cycle. The second half will be better than the first for the whole semiconductor industry and for GlobalWafers,” chairwoman Doris Hsu (徐秀蘭) said during an online investors’ conference. “HBM would definitely be the key growth driver in the second half,” Hsu said. “That is our big hope
The consumer price index (CPI) last month eased to 1.95 percent, below the central bank’s 2 percent target, as food and entertainment cost increases decelerated, helped by stable egg prices, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday. The slowdown bucked predictions by policymakers and academics that inflationary pressures would build up following double-digit electricity rate hikes on April 1. “The latest CPI data came after the cost of eating out and rent grew moderately amid mixed international raw material prices,” DGBAS official Tsao Chih-hung (曹志弘) told a news conference in Taipei. The central bank in March raised interest rates by