ELECTRONICS
BlackBerry ban binned
The United Arab Emirates said yesterday that a ban on BlackBerry services that had been due to come into effect next week will not go ahead. The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority confirmed that Blackberry services are now compliant with the UAE’s telecommunications regulatory framework in a statement carried by the official WAM news agency. “BlackBerry services will carry on as usual and will not be suspended on Oct. 11,” the statement said. In late August, the UAE said it would block BlackBerry messenger, Web browsing and e-mail services because they “allow individuals to commit violations” that cannot be monitored.
CHINA
One-house policy started
Authorities in Shanghai have ordered that families be allowed to only purchase one home each, part of a series of moves aimed at cooling surging property prices. “One family in Shanghai, whether local or migrant, can only buy one new home, including a secondhand one, for the time being,” said a notice issued late on Thursday by the municipal government, citing a need to curb “irrational demand.” The new rule for Shanghai, a city of more than 20 million, took effect on Thursday. China’s capital, Beijing, imposed a similar one home per family restriction in April. The city government said it was preparing to impose a property tax, another measure to be rolled out on a trial basis in several major cities.
CLOTHING
Uniqlo forecast slides
The operator of Japan’s cheap-chic clothing chain Uniqlo yesterday booked a higher annual net profit in the year to August, but forecast it to slide 17 percent next year on weak demand at home. Fast Retailing, with ambitions of becoming the top global clothing retailer, reported a net profit of ¥61.68 billion (US$752 billion), up 24 percent from a year earlier. However, for the current year to next August, it estimated a 17 percent lower net profit of ¥51 billion and a 14 percent decline in operating profit to ¥113.5 billion.
GERMANY
Exports dipped in August
Official data show that German exports dipped 0.4 percent on the month in August, compared with the previous month, but were up 26.8 percent over the same month last year. August was the second straight month the Federal Statistical Office reported a drop in exports, after months of growth. Strong exports helped push the German economy — Europe’s biggest — to growth of 2.2 percent in the second quarter. Germany exported goods and services worth 75.1 billion euros (US$104.9 billion) in August. Imports totaled 66.1 billion euros — up 0.9 percent on the month and 29.2 percent higher than a year earlier.
METALS
Alcoa net income drops
Alcoa Inc says its third quarter net income slid about 21 percent on lower metals prices during the period. The Pittsburgh aluminum maker on Thursday reported net income of US$61 million, or US$0.06 per share, for the three-month period ended Sept. 30. That compares with earnings of US$77 million, or US$0.08 per share for the same period last year. Revenue increased 14.6 percent to US$5.3 billion. The results beat Wall Street expectations of US$0.05 a share on revenue of US$4.95 billion. Alcoa is one of the first companies to report financial results for the quarter and economists use its results to get an early read on the health of the economy.
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],”