■Alcohol
Taiwan beer eyes China
Taiwan’s state-owned beer maker will invest about US$30 million to open a brewery in Shanghai to produce its signature product “Taiwan Beer” this year, reports said yesterday. Taiwan Tobacco and Liquor Corp (台灣菸酒公司) expects annual sales revenue in China to reach NT$1 billion (US$31 million), the Chinese-language United Daily News quoted chairman Duan Wei (韋伯韜) as saying. The plant will produce 50,000 tonnes of beer and cut the price of Taiwan Beer, currently two to three times more expensive than Chinese brands, to boost competitiveness, Wei said.
■Economic growth
The pain in Spain
The IMF on Friday lowered its growth forecast for the Spanish economy next year to 0.6 percent from its 0.9 percent forecast in April and warned that recovery “is likely to be weak and fragile.” “The particular challenges facing Spain will likely make the recovery slower and more fragile than in the euro area,” the IMF said in its latest report. The fund’s growth forecast for Spain for next year was lower than the 1.3 percent expansion predicted by the Spanish government.
■Internet
Facebook to delay IPO
Facebook Inc will probably put off its initial public offering until 2012, giving chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg more time to gain users and boost sales, three people familiar with the matter said. Facebook would benefit from another year of growth absent the added scrutiny that comes with a public listing, instead of holding an IPO next year as investors speculated, said the people, who asked not to be identified because Facebook does not discuss share-sale plans. However, Zuckerberg, who holds board control, could push for a stock sale at any time, they said.
■Gas
Interest in gas pipeline
An official with TransCanada Corp says the company has received “multiple bids” from “major industry players and others” interested in using a proposed natural gas pipeline to move fuel from Alaska’s North Slope to markets in North America. Tony Palmer, TransCanada’s vice president of Alaska development, said he was encouraged about the line’s prospects moving forward, provided that unspecified “key conditions” are met. TransCanada ended its 90-day process of seeking shipping commitments for the proposed line on Friday.
■Industry
Wages up in North Korea
South Korean firms operating in a Seoul-backed industrial estate in North Korea have accepted the North’s demand to raise workers’ wages by 5 percent, a spokesman said yesterday. An umbrella association representing around 120 businesses operating in the Kaesong industrial estate agreed to raise the monthly minimum wage to US$60.78 per month from US$57.88 from August 1 until July 31 next year, he said.
■Oil
Earnings up at oil majors
Chevron’s second-quarter earnings tripled on better refining margins and higher prices for oil and natural gas, the company said on Friday. Chevron Corp reported income of US$5.4 billion or US$2.70 per share, for the three months to June 30. That compares with US$1.7 billion or 87 cents per share in the same period last year. In the second quarter, Exxon Mobil Corp reported net income of US$7.56 billion, its best result since the last three months of 2008. Royal Dutch Shell Group boosted earnings by 15 percent and ConocoPhillips said profits nearly tripled.
Taiwan’s foreign exchange reserves hit a record high at the end of last month, surpassing the US$600 billion mark for the first time, the central bank said yesterday. Last month, the country’s foreign exchange reserves rose US$5.51 billion from a month earlier to reach US$602.94 billion due to an increase in returns from the central bank’s portfolio management, the movement of other foreign currencies in the portfolio against the US dollar and the bank’s efforts to smooth the volatility of the New Taiwan dollar. Department of Foreign Exchange Director-General Eugene Tsai (蔡炯民)said a rate cut cycle launched by the US Federal Reserve
The US government on Wednesday sanctioned more than two dozen companies in China, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates, including offshoots of a US chip firm, accusing the businesses of providing illicit support to Iran’s military or proxies. The US Department of Commerce included two subsidiaries of US-based chip distributor Arrow Electronics Inc (艾睿電子) on its so-called entity list published on the federal register for facilitating purchases by Iran’s proxies of US tech. Arrow spokesman John Hourigan said that the subsidiaries have been operating in full compliance with US export control regulations and his company is discussing with the US Bureau of
Pegatron Corp (和碩), a key assembler of Apple Inc’s iPhones, on Thursday reported a 12.3 percent year-on-year decline in revenue for last quarter to NT$257.86 billion (US$8.44 billion), but it expects revenue to improve in the second half on traditional holiday demand. The fourth quarter is usually the peak season for its communications products, a company official said on condition of anonymity. As Apple released its new iPhone 17 series early last month, sales in the communications segment rose sequentially last month, the official said. Shipments to Apple have been stable and in line with earlier expectations, they said. Pegatron shipped 2.4 million notebook
Businesses across the global semiconductor supply chain are bracing themselves for disruptions from an escalating trade war, after China imposed curbs on rare earth mineral exports and the US responded with additional tariffs and restrictions on software sales to the Asian nation. China’s restrictions, the most targeted move yet to limit supplies of rare earth materials, represent the first major attempt by Beijing to exercise long-arm jurisdiction over foreign companies to target the semiconductor industry, threatening to stall the chips powering the artificial intelligence (AI) boom. They prompted US President Donald Trump on Friday to announce that he would impose an additional
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