■CHINA
Growth could meet target
The economy will be able to achieve a growth target of 8 percent this year, but the country should not rest on its laurels as problems remain, the statistics bureau’s top economist was quoted as saying yesterday. Yao Jingyuan (姚景源), chief economist of the National Bureau of Statistics, told a forum in Shanghai that the basis for the country’s economic recovery was still not stable and that many uncertainties existed. Yao said the slide in the nation’s economic performance which began in the second half of last year had already been arrested.
■AUTOMOBILES
Moscow open about Opel
Russia’s part in the purchase of GM’s Europe unit Opel will prove a waste of time if no Western technology is gained, German Gref, the head of deal participant Sberbank, was quoted as saying yesterday. “The point of our participation in the deal is for the import of technology. If this doesn’t happen, then we wasted our time,” Gref was quoted by news agency RIA Novosti as saying at an economic forum in the Black Sea resort of Sochi. State-owned Sberbank has teamed with Canadian auto parts maker Magna to purchase a joint majority 55 percent stake in Opel, while General Motors will keep 35 percent.
■SOFTWARE
Apple rejects Google app
Google Inc said Apple Inc’s top marketing executive rejected its Google Voice application because it duplicates the dialer on the iPhone and could be used as a replacement. Apple earlier denied it rejected the program and said on Friday the two Silicon Valley companies were still discussing the application. Google Voice lets people pick a new phone number, then route incoming calls to cell, office or home phones. It also lets users place calls from within the application. Google said Phil Schiller of Apple told Google’s Alan Eustace, a senior vice president, during a July phone call that Apple rejected the Google Voice program.
■OIL
Brazil claims reserves
The massive oil reserves found off Brazil under a geological layer of salt all lie within Brazilian waters, the head of the country’s top oil company Petrobras said on Friday. The “pre-salt area is in Brazilian waters,” Petrobras chief executive Jose Sergio Gabrielli told a press conference in London. Brazil has decided to put the offshore fields, estimated to hold up to 50 billion barrels of oil, under tighter state control, counting on the resources to help propel it forward as one of the major powers of this century.
■AVIATION
JAL hires Merrill Lynch
Japan Airlines Corp (JAL), Asia’s most indebted carrier, hired Merrill Lynch Japan Securities Co to advise on its search for partners and investments, two sources familiar with the situation said. Japan Airlines appointed Bank of America Corp’s Merrill Lynch to evaluate the carrier’s value and select a partner who can help replenish its capital, said the sources, who asked not to be identified because they aren’t authorized to discuss the deal publicly.
■BANKING
Irwin subsidiaries closed
US regulators on Friday closed two banking subsidiaries of Irwin Financial Corp, bringing the total of US bank failures this year to 94. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp said First Financial Bank of Ohio will assume the deposits of Irwin Union Bank and Trust Company and of Irwin Union Bank.
IN THE AIR: While most companies said they were committed to North American operations, some added that production and costs would depend on the outcome of a US trade probe Leading local contract electronics makers Wistron Corp (緯創), Quanta Computer Inc (廣達), Inventec Corp (英業達) and Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶) are to maintain their North American expansion plans, despite Washington’s 20 percent tariff on Taiwanese goods. Wistron said it has long maintained a presence in the US, while distributing production across Taiwan, North America, Southeast Asia and Europe. The company is in talks with customers to align capacity with their site preferences, a company official told the Taipei Times by telephone on Friday. The company is still in talks with clients over who would bear the tariff costs, with the outcome pending further
A proposed 100 percent tariff on chip imports announced by US President Donald Trump could shift more of Taiwan’s semiconductor production overseas, a Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (TIER) researcher said yesterday. Trump’s tariff policy will accelerate the global semiconductor industry’s pace to establish roots in the US, leading to higher supply chain costs and ultimately raising prices of consumer electronics and creating uncertainty for future market demand, Arisa Liu (劉佩真) at the institute’s Taiwan Industry Economics Database said in a telephone interview. Trump’s move signals his intention to "restore the glory of the US semiconductor industry," Liu noted, saying that
STILL UNCLEAR: Several aspects of the policy still need to be clarified, such as whether the exemptions would expand to related products, PwC Taiwan warned The TAIEX surged yesterday, led by gains in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), after US President Donald Trump announced a sweeping 100 percent tariff on imported semiconductors — while exempting companies operating or building plants in the US, which includes TSMC. The benchmark index jumped 556.41 points, or 2.37 percent, to close at 24,003.77, breaching the 24,000-point level and hitting its highest close this year, Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) data showed. TSMC rose NT$55, or 4.89 percent, to close at a record NT$1,180, as the company is already investing heavily in a multibillion-dollar plant in Arizona that led investors to assume
AI: Softbank’s stake increases in Nvidia and TSMC reflect Masayoshi Son’s effort to gain a foothold in key nodes of the AI value chain, from chip design to data infrastructure Softbank Group Corp is building up stakes in Nvidia Corp and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the latest reflection of founder Masayoshi Son’s focus on the tools and hardware underpinning artificial intelligence (AI). The Japanese technology investor raised its stake in Nvidia to about US$3 billion by the end of March, up from US$1 billion in the prior quarter, regulatory filings showed. It bought about US$330 million worth of TSMC shares and US$170 million in Oracle Corp, they showed. Softbank’s signature Vision Fund has also monetized almost US$2 billion of public and private assets in the first half of this year,
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