AUTOMAKERS
Chrylser to hire 1,000
The No. 3 automaker in the US, Chrysler Group LLC, plans to create 1,000 engineering and high technology jobs over the next four months, a spokesman said on Tuesday. The spokesman said the move aimed “to support our small and mid-size product plant.” A week ago, the company said it planned to invest US$843 million on modernizing its transmission system plant in Kokomo, Indiana to retain 2,250 jobs. Earlier, Chrysler rival General Motors Co (GM) also announced it was creating 1,000 jobs in engineering and high-tech to work on future electric vehicle models.
TOURISM
Thomas Cook plans cuts
Tour operator Thomas Cook Group PLC said it planned to save between £40 million and £50 million (US$78 million) through cost savings in its British business after reporting full-year earnings at the lower end of expectations. Europe’s second-biggest travel firm said it planned to cut 500 managerial and support jobs in the UK, renegotiate supplier costs and reduce its buying requirements and upgrade its IT infrastructure. Thomas Cook reported an underlying operating profit of £391.4 million, down 5.7 percent on the previous year. Market expectations had ranged between £390 million and £404 million.
FOOD AND BEVERAGE
Fiji Water reopens plant
Fiji Water reopened its operations in the South Pacific nation of Fiji yesterday — just two days after closing its bottling plant and laying off 400 workers in a row over a major Fijian government tax increase. The US-owned company said after meeting with Fiji’s leaders it has agreed to “comply” with the hefty tax hike imposed on it by Fiji’s military-led regime. Fijian Prime Minister Commodore Frank Bainimarama said earlier he was ready to call tenders from international groups interested in taking over the artesian water bores used by Fiji Water.
AUTOMAKERS
Toyota sues ‘old GM’
Toyota Motor Corp is suing the company handling bankrupt GM’s assets, demanding US$73 million in damages from the shuttering of a joint-venture California plant. Toyota spokesman Paul Nolasco said on Tuesday the lawsuit was filed Nov. 24 for research and development costs that weren’t recouped because of the shuttering earlier this year of New United Motor Manufacturing Inc plant in Fremont, California. The lawsuit targets so-called “old GM,” or Motors Liquidation Co, which is separate from General Motors Co.
SOUTH KOREA
Trade surplus narrows
The country’s trade surplus narrowed sharply last month from a month earlier because of strong imports, but the balance remained in the black for the 10th straight month, official figures showed yesterday. Exports last month rose 24.6 percent year-on-year to US$42.36 billion, while imports surged 31.2 percent to US$38.75 billion on strong domestic demand, resulting in a US$3.61 billion surplus. Inflation rate eased last month as fresh food prices fell amid increased supply, official figures showed.
GERMANY
Retail sales rise 2.3%
Retail sales gained 2.3 percent in October from the previous month, data released yesterday by the national statistics office showed, signaling a broadening recovery in Europe’s biggest economy. On a 12-month basis, sales gained 0.4 percent in nominal terms, a statement issued by the Destatis office added. The data does not include sales of automobiles or petrol.
MAJOR BENEFICIARY: The company benefits from TSMC’s advanced packaging scarcity, given robust demand for Nvidia AI chips, analysts said ASE Technology Holding Co (ASE, 日月光投控), the world’s biggest chip packaging and testing service provider, yesterday said it is raising its equipment capital expenditure budget by 10 percent this year to expand leading-edge and advanced packing and testing capacity amid strong artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing chip demand. This is on top of the 40 to 50 percent annual increase in its capital spending budget to more than the US$1.7 billion to announced in February. About half of the equipment capital expenditure would be spent on leading-edge and advanced packaging and testing technology, the company said. ASE is considered by analysts
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
Huawei Technologies Co’s (華為) latest smartphones carry a version of the advanced made-in-China processor it revealed last year, results from an independent analysis showed. This underscored the Chinese company’s ability to sustain production of the controversial chip. The Pura 70 series unveiled last week sports the Kirin 9010 processor, research firm TechInsights found during a teardown of the device. This is a newer version of the Kirin 9000s, made by Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯) for the Mate 60 Pro, which had alarmed officials in Washington who thought a 7-nanometer chip was beyond China’s capabilities. Huawei has enjoyed a resurgence since
purpose: Tesla’s CEO sought to meet senior Chinese officials to discuss the rollout of its ‘full self-driving’ software in China and approval to transfer data they had collected Tesla Inc CEO Elon Musk arrived in Beijing yesterday on an unannounced visit, where he is expected to meet senior officials to discuss the rollout of "full self-driving" (FSD) software and permission to transfer data overseas, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. Chinese state media reported that he met Premier Li Qiang (李強) in Beijing, during which Li told Musk that Tesla's development in China could be regarded as a successful example of US-China economic and trade cooperation. Musk confirmed his meeting with the premier yesterday with a post on social media platform X. "Honored to meet with Premier Li