SINGAPORE
Inflation holds above 4.5%
Inflation held above 4.5 percent for a third month as the cost of transportation, food and housing climbed. The consumer price index increased 5 percent last month from a year earlier, a Department of Statistics statement showed yesterday. That compares with an inflation rate of 5.5 percent in January. The city state last month raised its inflation forecast for this year, and economists from Standard Chartered PLC to Citigroup Inc predict the central bank will revalue the currency or let it appreciate faster at the policy review next month. The central bank revalued the currency in April last year and said in October it would steepen and widen the currency’s trading band while continuing to seek a “modest and gradual appreciation.”
CONSUMER GOODS
KT&G plans ginseng plant
KT&G, South Korea’s largest tobacco and ginseng company, said in Seoul yesterday it would build a ginseng plant in China to tap the world’s largest market for the root. The former state-run monopoly will invest at least 18 billion won (US$16 million) in the plant in the northeastern city of Yanji, it said. Construction will begin in September to produce up to 2,000 tonnes of ginseng product a year from Chinese ginseng roots. Ginseng roots are prized in Northeast Asia for their purported health-giving properties. China, the world’s largest ginseng producer and consumer, saw its ginseng and other diet supplement market grow 13 percent each year to reach US$16 billion last year, KT&G said.
COMPUTERS
Jobs told to answer queries
Apple Inc CEO Steve Jobs, who is out on medical leave, has been ordered to answer questions from lawyers for a group of consumers accusing the company of creating a music-download monopoly. US Magistrate Judge Howard Lloyd, based in San Jose, California, ruled on Monday that lawyers representing the plaintiffs in the antitrust lawsuit may question Jobs for a total of two hours. Apple may appeal the decision. A company spokeswoman declined to comment, while attorneys for the plaintiffs did not respond to requests for comment.
INTERNET
LinkedIn breaks 100 million
LinkedIn, the career-oriented social network, said on Tuesday that it has hit 100 million members, more than half of whom live outside the US. Forty-four million of its members are in the US and 56 million are outside the US, it said. LinkedIn grew by 428 percent in Brazil last year over the previous year, by 178 percent in Mexico, by 76 percent in India and 72 percent in France. Nearly 1 million members of LinkedIn describe their job as teacher. Seventy-four are “Elvis tribute artists.”
INTERNET
Solomon leaves Groupon
Groupon Inc chief operating officer Rob Solomon is departing from the world’s largest coupon site, leaving a hole in the company’s executive ranks as it prepares for an initial public offering. Solomon joined Groupon about a year ago after serving as a partner at venture capital firm Technology Crossover Ventures and holding management roles at Yahoo Inc. Solomon said in an interview that he’s better suited to navigating a company through a rapid-growth phase than when it has become large. “I’m great at a lot of things, I’m not the guy who wants to run a 10,000-person company,” Solomon said. “I’m much better at the startup and growth stage.”
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
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
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