■CHINA
Loans dropped after quake
Millions of dollars in bad loans caused by China’s massive earthquake will be written off in an effort to help disaster victims, the China Banking Regulatory Commission said in a statement posted on its Web site yesterday. The commission also ordered banks to write off bad credit card loans whose holders and guarantors died or went missing in the quake and who have no other assets to pay back the loans. It was not immediately clear how many loans would be written off, but the Agricultural Bank of China estimated it was facing up to 6 billion yuan (US$863 million) in bad loans linked to the earthquake.
■AUTOMOBILES
Hyundai chief stays home
The chairman of Hyundai has pulled out of a visit to China with South Korea’s president, an official at the presidential office said yesterday. Chung Mong-koo, who has been convicted of embezzling millions of dollars from Hyundai Motor Co, was among a group of South Korean business leaders due to accompany President Lee Myung-bak on an official visit to Beijing. Chung, 69, was sentenced to three years in jail in February last year for breach of trust and embezzling US$93 million in company funds.
■AVIATION
Boeing delays new jet
The Boeing Co has pushed back the date for a possible replacement to its popular 737 jet by several years, saying it needs more time to advance the underlying technology. Chicago-based Boeing spokeswoman Sandy Angers said in an interview on Friday that conversations with airline customers made it clear that requirements for a replacement plane — 15 percent to 20 percent better fuel efficiency, 25 percent lower maintenance costs — would require major technological advances in aerodynamics, materials, and the jet’s engine and electrical systems, among other areas. Angers said that first deliveries of a replacement 737 are now expected in the latter part of the next decade instead of in 2012.
■AUTOMOBILES
Suzuki may import Splash
Suzuki Motor Corp is considering selling its European-made Splash family car in Japan, the first time the automaker would import vehicles for the domestic market. “We’re considering the introduction of the model” in Japan from our Hungarian plant, company spokesman Yoichi Kojima said yesterday by telephone. Suzuki will import the model this year because its factories at home are already running at full capacity, the Nikkei Shimbun reported. The Splash was developed as the third global strategic model after the Swift and SX models.
■FINANCE
Brazil to vote on fund
Plans for the country to invest state assets in a new sovereign wealth fund will likely head to the nation’s congress in the next few weeks, Finance Minister Guido Mantega said on Friday. The fund will likely hold the equivalent of US$10 billion to US$20 billion, Mantega said when he announced its creation about 10 days ago. Much of the cash would be lent to Brazilian companies looking to boost trade and investments abroad, he said. The bill will be sent next week for the president’s approval before being forwarded to the legislature for consideration, the finance minister said.
RECYCLE: Taiwan would aid manufacturers in refining rare earths from discarded appliances, which would fit the nation’s circular economy goals, minister Kung said Taiwan would work with the US and Japan on a proposed cooperation initiative in response to Beijing’s newly announced rare earth export curbs, Minister of Economic Affairs Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) said yesterday. China last week announced new restrictions requiring companies to obtain export licenses if their products contain more than 0.1 percent of Chinese-origin rare earths by value. US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent on Wednesday responded by saying that Beijing was “unreliable” in its rare earths exports, adding that the US would “neither be commanded, nor controlled” by China, several media outlets reported. Japanese Minister of Finance Katsunobu Kato yesterday also
Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), founder and CEO of US-based artificial intelligence chip designer Nvidia Corp and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) on Friday celebrated the first Nvidia Blackwell wafer produced on US soil. Huang visited TSMC’s advanced wafer fab in the US state of Arizona and joined the Taiwanese chipmaker’s executives to witness the efforts to “build the infrastructure that powers the world’s AI factories, right here in America,” Nvidia said in a statement. At the event, Huang joined Y.L. Wang (王英郎), vice president of operations at TSMC, in signing their names on the Blackwell wafer to
‘DRAMATIC AND POSITIVE’: AI growth would be better than it previously forecast and would stay robust even if the Chinese market became inaccessible for customers, it said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday raised its full-year revenue growth outlook after posting record profit for last quarter, despite growing market concern about an artificial intelligence (AI) bubble. The company said it expects revenue to expand about 35 percent year-on-year, driven mainly by faster-than-expected demand for leading-edge chips for AI applications. The world’s biggest contract chipmaker in July projected that revenue this year would expand about 30 percent in US dollar terms. The company also slightly hiked its capital expenditure for this year to US$40 billion to US$42 billion, compared with US$38 billion to US$42 billion it set previously. “AI demand actually
RARE EARTHS: The call between the US Treasury Secretary and his Chinese counterpart came as Washington sought to rally G7 partners in response to China’s export controls China and the US on Saturday agreed to conduct another round of trade negotiations in the coming week, as the world’s two biggest economies seek to avoid another damaging tit-for-tat tariff battle. Beijing last week announced sweeping controls on the critical rare earths industry, prompting US President Donald Trump to threaten 100 percent tariffs on imports from China in retaliation. Trump had also threatened to cancel his expected meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) in South Korea later this month on the sidelines of the APEC summit. In the latest indication of efforts to resolve their dispute, Chinese state media reported that
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