■ Steel
Mittal badmouths Russians
Mittal Steel, the world's biggest steel maker, sought on Friday to highlight the influence that Russian businessman Alexei Mordashov would exert over the future of a merged group comprising European steel group Arcelor and Russia's Severstal. Arcelor and Severstal have plans to merge in what is seen as a defensive move by Arcelor, which is trying to fend off a hostile takeover bid from Mittal Steel. Mittal Steel said that Mordashov, who is the founder and chairman of Severstal, had notified the EU competition services on Friday about his future "decisive influence" over the merged Severstal-Arcelor group. Under the terms of their merger, Arcelor is to buy Severstal in a US$15.3 billion (12.1 billion euro) transaction but Mordashov would end up with a stake of 38 percent in the merged company. "This filing [with the EU competition body] clearly evidences that the Severstal transaction is not an acquisition of control of Severstal by Arcelor, but the acquisition of control of Arcelor by Mordashov," said a spokesman for Mittal.
■ Singapore
Governance ratings released
Singapore has been ranked second only to the US in a survey of corporate governance among the world's key financial centers, said a report on Friday. In the survey, the Hong Kong-based Political and Economic Risk Consultancy ranked 14 economies for their corporate governance. The US was first, followed by Singapore. Japan was third. The rest in descending order were: Britain, Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea, Thailand, Malaysia, India, the Philippines, Indonesia, China and Vietnam. Singapore scored 2.4 overall, and the US scored 2.3. Zero is the best grade, while 10 is the worst.
■ Semiconductors
Intel moves chip date
Intel Corp is moving up the planned shipment date of a computer chip that will compete against one from rival Advanced Micro Devices Inc. Intel officials told analysts during a conference call on Friday that the company expects to ship its Tulsa chip in the third quarter instead of the fourth quarter. The microprocessor is one of Intel's latest for server systems, one of the markets in which AMD's Opteron chips have made recent gains at Intel's expense. Intel said the launch of another server chip, code-named Woodcrest, will be June 26. The Santa Clara, California-based chip manufacturer also contested some of AMD's earlier claims, saying that Woodcrest performs better and uses less power than the Opteron.
■ Retail
Lacoste sues Silk Alley
French clothing retailer Lacoste is suing Beijing's Silk Alley market, which is popular with tourists, for selling fake shirts bearing its famous crocodile logo, state media reported yesterday. The company is seeking 100,000 yuan (US$12,500) in compensation from the owner of the indoor market, Beijing Xiushui Haosen Clothing Co (秀水豪森服裝), and some of its tenants for trademark infringement, Xinhua news agency reported. "Xiushui Haosen not only failed to stop these tenants from selling counterfeited Lacoste products but also tried to connive with them by providing business premises," Xinhua quoted the indictment as saying. Lacoste could not be reached for comment on Saturday. In November last year, Chanel, Prada, Burberry, Louis Vuitton and Gucci sued Silk Alley and asked for 2.5 million yuan in compensation for allegedly selling fake copies of their products.
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
EUROPE ON HOLD: Among a flurry of announcements, Intel said it would postpone new factories in Germany and Poland, but remains committed to its US expansion Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger has landed Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a customer for the company’s manufacturing business, potentially bringing work to new plants under construction in the US and boosting his efforts to turn around the embattled chipmaker. Intel and AWS are to coinvest in a custom semiconductor for artificial intelligence computing — what is known as a fabric chip — in a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar framework,” Intel said in a statement on Monday. The work would rely on Intel’s 18A process, an advanced chipmaking technology. Intel shares rose more than 8 percent in late trading after the
GLOBAL ECONOMY: Policymakers have a choice of a small 25 basis-point cut or a bold cut of 50 basis points, which would help the labor market, but might reignite inflation The US Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut in more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the US presidential election. Senior officials at the US central bank including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool. The Fed, which has a dual mandate from the US Congress to act independently to ensure