SOUTH KOREA
Foreign reserves grow
Foreign currency reserves swelled to their third record high in four months amid strength in the Japanese yen and the euro, the central bank said yesterday. The reserves totaled US$293.35 billion at the end of last month, up US$3.57 billion from US$289.78 billion in September, the Bank of Korea said in a statement. Last month’s figure bested the previous all-time high set in September, when South Korea’s reserves were the world’s sixth-largest behind those of China, Japan, Russia, Taiwan and India, according to central bank data. The statement did not provide a global ranking for last month.
GREEN ENERGY
S Korea plans wind farm
South Korea said yesterday it would build a massive offshore wind farm off the west coast by 2019 to develop new sources of renewable energy and help wind turbine exporters. Under the 9.2 trillion won (US$8.2 billion) project, companies such as Hyundai Heavy Industries and Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering plan to build 500 turbines, the Knowledge Economy Ministry said in a statement. The wind farm, to be built near the southwestern counties of Buan and Yeonggwang, will generate about 2,500 megawatts of electricity, it said. The government will coordinate the project and provide 29 billion won, while private investors will finance the rest.
TECHNOLOGY
Hitachi returns to profit
Japanese high-tech firm Hitachi said yesterday it swung back to the black in the three months to September, boosted by robust demand for el electronic components and systems for automobiles. Hitachi reported a group net profit of ¥71.9 billion (US$890 million) despite the yen’s advance against other major currencies. It reversed a loss of ¥50.5 billion in the same period last year. Operating profit made a five-fold jump to ¥129.5 billion from ¥25.8 billion a year earlier as sales rose 5 percent to ¥2.35 trillion. Hitachi, which makes several products from household appliances to nuclear reactors, also returned to a net profit of ¥158 billion in the April-to-September first half of the current business year.
COMPUTERS
Apple takes 95% of tablets
Apple Inc increased its market share in tablet computers to 95 percent in the third quarter, while Google Inc’s Android operating system slipped, according to researcher Strategy Analytics. Global tablet sales rose 26 percent from the previous period to 4.4 million units, with Apple selling 4.19 million iPads, the company said in a statement. Android’s share of the market declined to 2.3 percent from 2.9 percent. Android’s market share will rise in the fourth quarter as devices using Google’s platform enter the market, Strategy Analytics said.
AUTOMOBILES
Leafs sold out in US
US consumers looking to get Nissan’s all-electric Leaf will have to wait another year, after dealers sold this year’s entire shipment before the zippy sedan even hit showrooms, the Japanese automaker said on Monday. Nissan dealers have collected more than 20,000 orders for the Leaf, and the bulk are wealthy “early adapters” on the US west coast, said Carlos Tavares, chairman of Nissan’s management committee for the Americas. The next step will be to convince “pragmatists” that an electric vehicle will save them money, he said. The Leaf will be introduced later this month and Nissan is in the midst of installing charging stations at more than 40 US dealers.
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
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],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained