■JAPAN
New stimulus planned
The government is considering more steps to fire up the economy on top of a planned ¥12 trillion (US$131 billion) in new spending and tax cuts as the economy probably shrank an annualized 10 percent in the fourth quarter of last year, the Nikkei Shimbun reported. Economics Minister Kaoru Yosano has instructed ministries to informally craft policies aimed at reviving the economy, the Nikkei said yesterday without citing sources. Parliament is now debating the government’s record ¥88.5 trillion budget for the next fiscal year starting in April.
■AIRLINES
SIA drops Vancouver route
Singapore Airlines (SIA) said yesterday it would suspend its thrice weekly service to Vancouver, which has been “badly affected” by the global economic crisis. The last flight will be on April 25, the airline said in a statement. The Singapore-Vancouver service passes through Seoul. SIA said it would continue to serve Canada through its 42 weekly flights between Singapore and its gateways in the US. The airline also offers codeshare services on Air Canada to Toronto and Montreal from its European gateways.
■JEWELRY
Buffett buys Tiffany debt
Tiffany & Co says it sold US$250 million in debt to billionaire Warren Buffett’s company, and the jeweler plans to use the proceeds to refinance existing debt. New York-based Tiffany disclosed in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday that it had sold the debt to Berkshire Hathaway Inc a day earlier. Omaha-based Berkshire will receive 10 percent interest on the new senior notes. Half of the debt will be due in 2017, and the other half will be due in 2019.
■FOOD
Peanut Corp bankrupt
The peanut processing company at the heart of a national salmonella outbreak is going out of business. The Peanut Corp of America, which is headquartered in Lynchburg, Virginia, filed for bankruptcy in the US Bankruptcy Court in Virginia on Friday. It was the latest bad news for the company that has been accused of producing tainted peanut products that may have been sent to everyone from poor schoolchildren to disaster victims.
■AUTOMOBILES
Suppliers ask for aid
Two groups representing US auto suppliers have asked the Treasury Department for up to US$25.5 billion in emergency aid, the associations said on Friday. The request came days before General Motors and Chrysler are required to present long-term viability plans to the Treasury to prove they will be able to repay US$13.4 billion in loans. The supplier organizations warned in their submission that as many as 1 million jobs could be lost should the supplier base not be supported.
■REAL ESTATE
Trump resigns from board
Real estate tycoon Donald Trump and his daughter Ivanka are resigning from the board of directors of Trump Entertainment Resorts, the troubled casino company he once controlled. The company won a fourth extension on Wednesday on restructuring US$1.25 billion in debt, and some analysts have predicted it will file for bankruptcy protection if it doesn’t work out a deal with its bond holders. Trump said in a statement released late on Friday that he is quitting because it is controlled by the company’s bond holders and he disagrees with their actions.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”