■ Oil
Exxon Mobil ordered to pay
Oil giant Exxon Mobil faces a payout of about US$1.3 billion after being ordered by a US judge to compensate thousands of overcharged petrol station owners, the lawyer for the complainants said on Friday. The judge in Miami, Alan Gold, ordered Exxon on Wednesday to pay damages of US$0.013 a gallon on gasoline that the dealers bought from the company over 1983-1994, attorney Mark Dikeman said. Exxon was found guilty in the case in 2001 but has refused to make any payments while it appeals the case. The company said on Wednesday it would also appeal Gold's ruling, Dikeman said. "We want Exxon to pay the money that the courts say they have to pay, to stop playing with people's money and with their lives," he said. About 10,000 Exxon station dealers from across the US sued the company in 1991 alleging it had been systematically ripping them off.
■ Labor
HSBC workers plan walkout
Some of the British staff of HSBC Holdings PLC will go on strike on May 27 because of a dispute over pay, a spokesman for the financial services union Amicus said on Friday. "We are planning for a full walkout the same day as HSBC's annual general meeting, and the only thing that will keep us from striking is a significant change from what has happened in negotiations," the Amicus spokesman, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, told Dow Jones Newswires. When the union polled 10,519 workers -- or about 39 percent of the bank's UK-based retail employees -- earlier this month, 21 percent voted in favor of some form of industrial action. Industrial action includes refusing to work overtime, following job descriptions strictly and striking.
■ Mining
Court ends takeover battle
A feisty attempt by South Africa's mining giant Harmony to create the world's largest gold producer by taking over rival Gold Fields abruptly ended on Friday after seven months of court battles and mudslinging. A high court ruled in favor of Gold Fields when it said that the bid, which was to expire at noon, in fact ended in mid-December last year. It said the country's Security Regulation Panel had erred in allowing Harmony to extend its offer beyond the normal 60-day takeover limit, which started on Oct. 18 when the initial bid was launched. The court found that the Harmony offer had lapsed on Dec. 18, meaning that any shares tendered after that date had to be returned to Gold Fields shareholders.
■ Macroeconomics
Inflation soars in Russia
Russia registered 6.5 percent inflation for the first three months this year, a startling 40 percent increase from the same period last year, the economic development minister told President Vladimir Putin in a tense meeting on Friday. Trade and Economic Development Minister German Gref insisted there was "a chance" of keeping inflation under 10 percent this year. That figure, however, exceeds the 7.5-8.5 percent range foreseen in Russia's budget for this year. "The government has set itself a particular task. It is necessary to fulfill it. Let's not return to this matter," Putin said in televised comments. "There is a chance that we can keep inflation under 10 percent, it might be a little higher," Gref responded after a pause.
■ Trade
Brazil fortifies against China
The Brazilian government is preparing domestic antidumping regulations against Chinese products, Trade Ministry officials said Friday. Government authorities said they would prepare one set of regulations to cover textile products and another group of regulations for other goods. The announcement came in response to requests from local industry for protection from a flood of cheap Chinese products entering the economy. Trade Minister Luiz Fernando Furlan said the regulations should not be interpreted as an offensive move against China. According to Trade Ministry figures, imports from China increased 58 percent in the first four months of the year, compared to a 21 percent increase in imports from all other countries.
■ Automakers
Toyota overtakes Ford
Toyota continued its world expansion by pushing Ford Motors down to third place in world sales and claiming second place after General Motors, according to the US trade magazine Automotive News. Total worldwide sales were up 5.5 percent to 61.4 million vehicles. The study only included firms that produce more than 10,000 cars a year. European manufacturers however still held the lion's market share, with 33.5 percent, compared to 30.9 for Japanese and 24 percent for North American manufacturers. The North American figures dropped 1.4 percent over the previous year. GM sold 8.1 million vehicles last year, up from 8 million the previous year. Toyota sold 6.7 million, compared to 6.1 million the previous year. Ford sold 6.4 million, down from 6.5 million last year. Volkswagen claimed fourth place with 5.1 million, followed by DaimlerChrysler at 4.7 million. Sixth to 13th places were held by PSA/Peugot-Citroen, Nissan, Honda, Hyundai, Renault, Fiat, Suzuki and Mitsubishi. BMW was 14th on the list with 1.2 million, and Porsche was 33rd with 76,827.
■ Labor
Fiat sues striking truckers
Italy's Fiat SpA said on Friday it has requested damages from striking truck drivers that transport the Turin-based giant's cars from factories across the country. The strike has effectively halted the flow of new cars to dealers since April 26 and saturated holding areas, Fiat said in a statement. It has also blocked production in three of its plants, it said. "The damages for the company are very serious, from the industrial, commercial and economic point of view," the statement said. Fiat said it reserves the right to quantify the damages it is seeking at a later date, and to possibly break the contract.
■ Automakers
Rover receives five offers
The administrators for collapsed British automaker MG Rover Group Ltd said on Friday they had received three offers for the firm's sports car business and two for the rest of the company. PricewaterhouseCoopers, which took over the UK's last major car manufacturer on April 8, said there was a possibility that production at the Longbridge factory in central England could continue. "We are still discussing a sale of the rest of the business and assets with two credible interested parties," said Tony Lomas, one of the administrators, though he did not name the potential bidders. "While there is still an outside possibility that some form of car production could recommence at Longbridge, the cost and complexity of the challenge should not be underestimated," Lomas said.
DECOUPLING? In a sign of deeper US-China technology decoupling, Apple has held initial talks about using Baidu’s generative AI technology in its iPhones, the Wall Street Journal said China has introduced guidelines to phase out US microprocessors from Intel Corp and Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) from government PCs and servers, the Financial Times reported yesterday. The procurement guidance also seeks to sideline Microsoft Corp’s Windows operating system and foreign-made database software in favor of domestic options, the report said. Chinese officials have begun following the guidelines, which were unveiled in December last year, the report said. They order government agencies above the township level to include criteria requiring “safe and reliable” processors and operating systems when making purchases, the newspaper said. The US has been aiming to boost domestic semiconductor
Nvidia Corp earned its US$2.2 trillion market cap by producing artificial intelligence (AI) chips that have become the lifeblood powering the new era of generative AI developers from start-ups to Microsoft Corp, OpenAI and Google parent Alphabet Inc. Almost as important to its hardware is the company’s nearly 20 years’ worth of computer code, which helps make competition with the company nearly impossible. More than 4 million global developers rely on Nvidia’s CUDA software platform to build AI and other apps. Now a coalition of tech companies that includes Qualcomm Inc, Google and Intel Corp plans to loosen Nvidia’s chokehold by going
ENERGY IMPACT: The electricity rate hike is expected to add about NT$4 billion to TSMC’s electricity bill a year and cut its annual earnings per share by about NT$0.154 Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has left its long-term gross margin target unchanged despite the government deciding on Friday to raise electricity rates. One of the heaviest power consuming manufacturers in Taiwan, TSMC said it always respects the government’s energy policy and would continue to operate its fabs by making efforts in energy conservation. The chipmaker said it has left a long-term goal of more than 53 percent in gross margin unchanged. The Ministry of Economic Affairs concluded a power rate evaluation meeting on Friday, announcing electricity tariffs would go up by 11 percent on average to about NT$3.4518 per kilowatt-hour (kWh)
OPENING ADDRESS: The CEO is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing and artificial intelligence at the trade show’s opening on June 3, TAITRA said Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) chairperson and chief executive officer Lisa Su (蘇姿丰) is to deliver the opening keynote speech at Computex Taipei this year, the event’s organizer said in a statement yesterday. Su is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing (HPC) in the artificial intelligence (AI) era to open Computex, one of the world’s largest computer and technology trade events, at 9:30am on June 3, the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) said. Su is to explore how AMD and the company’s strategic technology partners are pushing the limits of AI and HPC, from data centers to