SPAIN
China confident in Madrid
Chinese officials have faith in Madrid’s financial system and will continue to take part in government debt auctions, Chinese Vice Premier Li Keqiang (李克強) wrote in an editorial in El Pais yesterday. “China is a responsible, long-term investor in the European financial market and particularly in Spain, and we have confidence in the Spanish financial market, which has meant the acquisition of its public debt, something which we will continue to do in the future,” Li wrote. Spain has come under increasing pressure from international debt markets on concerns it may be forced to follow Greece and Ireland and seek an EU/IMF bailout, but while bond yields have risen, demand for Spanish debt remains solid.
SINGAPORE
Economic growth hits 12.5%
The city-state’s economy grew 12.5 percent in the fourth quarter of last year, a record year in which it was Asia’s strongest economic performer, government figures showed yesterday. The city-state grew 14.7 percent for the year as a whole, the figures confirmed, bounding back from a 1.3 percent contraction in 2009 in part thanks to the biomedical sector. Growth in the October to December quarter was powered largely by the manufacturing sector, which expanded 28.2 percent from a year ago, the Ministry of Trade and Industry said in a statement.
INTERNET
Facebook raises US$500m
A published report says social networking behemoth Facebook has raised US$500 million from Goldman Sachs and a Russian investment firm in a deal that values the company at US$50 billion. The New York Times reported on Sunday in its online edition that Goldman invested US$450 million and Digital Sky Technologies invested US$50 million. The newspaper cited people involved in the transaction that it did not name. The report said representatives for Facebook, Goldman and Digital Sky Technologies declined to comment.
METALS
Copper surges to record high
Copper jumped to a record high in New York, extending a second annual advance, on speculation that supply will lag behind demand as the global economic recovery gathers pace. Copper for March delivery on the COMEX in New York gained as much as 1 percent to US$4.4925 a pound, the highest ever for the most-active contract, before trading at US$4.4845 by 8:49am London time. The metal surged 33 percent last year as the global economy recovered from the worst recession since World War II. The London Metal Exchange and Shanghai Futures Exchange were closed yesterday for holidays.
AUTOMAKERS
Hyundai, Kia to boost sales
Hyundai Motor Co and affiliate Kia Motors Corp, South Korea’s two largest automakers, expect to boost vehicle sales 10 percent this year because of new models and rising demand in China and other emerging markets. Sales may rise to 6.33 million vehicles, Chung Mong-koo, chairman of the two carmakers, said yesterday in a speech to employees in Seoul. The companies sold a record 5.74 million vehicles last year, a 24 percent increase from 2009, according to regulatory filings. The automakers plan to release at least 12 new or revamped models this year after sales gains from Toyota Motor Corp helped make Hyundai become fastest-growing mass-market brand in the US.
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
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
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],”
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