CURRENCIES
US delays China report
The US Treasury Department on Friday said it would delay a report that could label China a currency manipulator until at least May, after a series of top level meetings. The semi-annual report was next due on Friday. The US government said it would wait until a meeting of the G20 finance ministers and the IMF’s annual spring meetings this month and a bilateral meeting next month before publishing the document. The last report was published in February and stopped short of labeling China a manipulator.
AUTOMAKERS
Toyota to cut production
Toyota Motor Corp will start cutting production at its North American plants next week to adjust for supply disruptions stemming from the March 11 earthquake in Japan, the company said on Friday. That earthquake forced auto parts suppliers in Japan to shut down or operate at reduced capacity, which has caused parts shortages for the global auto industry. Toyota said it will suspend production at its North American vehicle plants on Friday, April 18, April 22 and April 25. Most of Toyota’s plants will also be shut down on April 21, except for its plant in Georgetown, Kentucky.
INTERNET
Facebook looking to China
Facebook Inc has held talks with potential partners about how to gain a foothold in China, according to a person familiar with the matter. The discussions have been exploratory, the person said. Entering China would give Facebook access to the world’s largest Internet market, with more than 457 million Web users. “We are currently studying and learning about China, as part of evaluating any possible approaches that could benefit our users, developers and advertisers,” Palo Alto, California-based Facebook said in an e-mailed statement.
INTERNET
MySpace may cut staff
Reports surfaced on Friday that faded social networking star MySpace may cut more staff to be attractive to suitors. A Wall Street Journal report cited unnamed sources as indicating News Corp might make MySpace leaner for potential buyers, including music video service Vevo, China-based Internet company Tencent and private equity firms. News Corp has had MySpace sale talks with those companies and with Chris DeWolfe, a founder of the online social networking pioneer, which was added to Rupert Murdoch’s media empire in 2005 for US$580 million, according to the Journal.
MINING
Vale bids for Metorex
Brazilian mining giant Vale, the world’s largest iron producer, has offered to buy South African miner Metorex for 7.5 billion rand (US$1.1 billion), the companies said on Friday. “Under the terms of the offer, if implemented, the Metorex shareholders will receive a cash consideration of 7.35 rand per share,” they said in a statement. The move to acquire Metorex is part of Vale’s drive to become a copper major, the statement added.
PHARMACEUTICALS
Sanofi completes buyout
Sanofi-Aventis said on Friday it has completed its US$20.1 billion buyout of specialty drugmaker Genzyme Corp. In February, Sanofi raised its buyout offer to US$74 per share and agreed to make additional cash payments pending the success of several drugs. That move came about after nine months of reluctance from Genzyme to accept a prior US$69 per share offer.
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
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
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
FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six