■TAIWAN
Gravel, sand demand to grow
Taiwan’s demand for gravel and sand will increase by an estimated 7.2 percent this year, as public works projects launched by the government to revive the local economy come on line. The Bureau of Mines estimated on Friday that demand for gravel and sand would reach 58 million cubic meters this year, up from 54.1 million cubic meters last year. In its plan to secure supplies to meet the forecast demand, the Ministry of Economic Affairs expects 21.7 million cubic meters of gravel and sand to come from Taiwan’s rivers, 19.8 million cubic meters to come from land sources and 16.8 million cubic meters to be imported.
■BANKING
IndyMac sale approved
The US government said on Friday it had approved the sale of bankrupt California bank IndyMac to investment group IMB Management Holdings for about US$13.9 billion. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation said it had signed a letter of intent on Wednesday to sell IndyMac Bank, which it seized in July when the bank collapsed under the weight of a bank run by depositors panicked about its viability. The consortium includes JC Flowers & Co, Paulson & Co and MSD Capital, a private investment firm created to exclusively manage the capital of Dell computer founder Michael Dell and his family.
■JAPAN
Megabanks suffer: report
Japanese megabanks Mitsubishi UFJ and Mizuho Financial appear to have experienced a group net loss in the three months to last month because of a plunging stock market, a major daily reported yesterday. It would be the first quarterly net loss for Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group since its establishment in 2005 through the merger of Mitsubishi Tokyo Financial Group and UFJ Holdings, the Mainichi Shimbun said. Mizuho Financial Group was also in the red in the previous quarter to September. But Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group, the other of the country’s top three banks, appears to have remained in the black as the value of its stock holdings is low, the daily said.
■COTTON
Consumption drops further
Global cotton consumption will fall more than forecast last month as textile mills in China, the biggest consumer, buy less fiber to weave into clothing and bedding, the International Cotton Advisory Committee said. Worldwide use will drop 7.1 percent in the year ending July 31 to 24.5 million tonnes from a year earlier on lower use in China, India and Pakistan, the three largest consumers, the committee said today in a report. That was down from 24.9 million tons projected last month. Chinese consumption could fall 10 percent to 9.8 million tons this year, the group said. Exports will drop 17 percent to 6.9 million tons, the lowest in six seasons, the committee said. Last month, global exports were forecast at 7.3 million. Chinese imports will tumble 40 percent to 1.5 million tons, the group said.
■AVIATION
Lufthansa eyes SAS
Shares in SAS, the operator of the joint-carrier Scandinavian Airlines, surged on Friday on a report that Lufthansa is interested in the Scandinavian market and is in talks with SAS. A Lufthansa executive quoted by the Jyllands-Posten newspaper, however, did not say if a possible merger was being considered. “After the German and Italian markets, Scandinavia is one the most important for Lufthansa,” Lufthansa executive Karsten Bentz was quoted as telling the Danish daily. He declined to comment on a possible merger with SAS but said talks were ongoing.
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
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: The chipmaker last month raised its capital spending by 28 percent for this year to NT$32 billion from a previous estimate of NT$25 billion Contract chipmaker Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電子) yesterday launched a new 12-inch fab, tapping into advanced chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) packaging technology to support rising demand for artificial intelligence (AI) devices. Powerchip is to offer interposers, one of three parts in CoWoS packaging technology, with shipments scheduled for the second half of this year, Powerchip chairman Frank Huang (黃崇仁) told reporters on the sidelines of a fab inauguration ceremony in the Tongluo Science Park (銅鑼科學園區) in Miaoli County yesterday. “We are working with customers to supply CoWoS-related business, utilizing part of this new fab’s capacity,” Huang said, adding that Powerchip intended to bridge
Qualcomm Inc, the world’s biggest seller of smartphone processors, gave an upbeat forecast for sales and profit in the current period, suggesting demand for handsets is increasing after a two-year slump. Revenue in the three months ended in June will be US$8.8 billion to US$9.6 billion, the company said in a statement Wednesday. Excluding certain items, earnings will be US$2.15 to US$2.35 a share. Analysts had projected sales of US$9.08 billion and earnings of US$2.16 a share. The outlook signals that the smartphone market has begun to bounce back, tracking with Qualcomm’s forecast that demand would gradually recover this year. The San
Clambering hand-over-hand, sweat dripping into his eyes, a durian laborer expertly slices a cumbersome fruit from a tree before tossing it down to land with a soft thump in his colleague’s waiting arms about 15m below. Among Thailand’s most famous and lucrative exports, the pungent “king of fruits” is as distinctive in its smell as its spiky green-brown carapace, and has been farmed in the kingdom for hundreds of years. However, a vicious heat wave engulfing Southeast Asia has resulted in smaller yields and spiraling costs, with growers and sellers increasingly panicked as global warming damages the industry. “This year is a crisis,”