ENERGY
Australian coal output hurt
Devastating floods could cost Australia up to US$8.3 billion in lost coal production, new estimates released yesterday show — a sharp increase on earlier projected losses. The huge deluge that swamped coal-producing Queensland in January caused significant damage, the Australian Treasury said in its latest economic round-up. “Contacts suggested that the loss of coal production is estimated to be between 20 million and 30 million tonnes,” it said. The government has estimated the floods will cut coal production by about 15 million tonnes.
AUTOMAKERS
Ford grabs No. 1 spot in US
Ford Motor Co knocked General Motors Co out of the top spot for US auto sales last month, a feat it had managed only once before since 1998, industry data showed on Friday. The upset came as the US auto industry continues to rebound strongly, with the overall sales rate rising for the sixth consecutive quarter. Last month’s sales increased 16.9 percent from a year earlier to 2.5 million vehicles, according to Autodata. Meanwhile, rising oil prices has contributed to a strong shift toward smaller cars, automakers said.
MINING
Vale forces out CEO
Brazilian mining giant Vale SA announced on Friday it is forcing chief executive Roger Agnelli out, following weeks of rumors that the government was demanding change at the top of Latin America’s largest non-state firm. Vale, the world’s largest iron ore producer, said in a statement that its controlling shareholder group, Valepar, had hired an “international executive recruitment firm” to find a replacement for Agnelli, who has headed the company for a decade and whose term reportedly expires next month. The company is to hold shareholder meetings tomorrow and on Thursday to discuss and choose Agnelli’s replacement.
RETAIL
Wal-Mart tries delivering
Wal-Mart Stores Inc, the world’s largest retailer, plans to test its first fresh grocery delivery service in California, looking online for new sources of revenue growth, said a person familiar with the project. The Web service, internally dubbed “Project Titan,” hasn’t yet been approved and may not happen, said the person, who declined to be identified. If it goes forward, Wal-Mart stores in the San Jose, California, area would fill deliveries for shoppers living nearby, the person said.
PETROLEUM
Sri Lanka raises fuel prices
Sri Lanka raised fuel prices yesterday by up to 7.5 percent in a bid to offset higher crude oil import costs, the government said. Gasoline prices increased by 10 rupees (US$0.09) to 143 rupees a liter, while diesel, which is widely used by public transport, was raised 3.5 percent to 93 rupees. The rise in fuel prices is expected to impact on inflation, which climbed to 8.6 percent last month, the highest in more than two years because of shortages of food following massive flooding earlier in the year.
ENERGY
S&P slashes TEPCO’s rating
Standard & Poor’s (S&P) downgraded the long-term rating on Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO), operator of a nuclear plant at the center of the world’s worst atomic crisis for 25 years, to BBB+ from A+. The agency also lowered the short-term rating to A-2 from A-1, with both ratings remaining “on CreditWatch with negative implications,” it said, suggesting that they could be downgraded further.
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
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