TAIWAN
National debt rises
The average national debt shouldered by Taiwanese has reached NT$210,000 (US$7,297), up NT$1,000 from the end of March, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. However, last month’s figure was NT$1,000 lower than the debt-level recorded at the end of February, the ministry said. The per capita value is calculated from the NT$4.63 trillion in outstanding central government loans with a maturity of more than one year, as well as NT$245 billion in short-term debt with a maturity of one year or less. The government has highlighted national debt data since setting up a “national debt clock” in December.
TELECOMS
Android takes US top spot
Smartphones powered by Google software widened their lead on BlackBerry handsets in the US market during the first quarter, industry tracker comScore reported on Friday. Android smartphones dethroned BlackBerry in January by capturing 31.2 percent of the US market and that share grew to 34.7 percent by the end of March. BlackBerry ended March with 27.1 percent of the US market, while Apple’s iPhones commanded 25.5 percent of the market, according to comScore.
RETAIL
Unilver to buy hair company
Unilever has reached an agreement with the US Department of Justice that allows its US$3.7 billion acquisition of hair care company Alberto-Culver Co to move forward. Federal regulators said that the deal posed antitrust issues by reducing competition in the market for low-price shampoo, conditioner and hairspray. Under the agreement announced on Friday, Alberto-Culver will divest its VO5 hair care brand and Unilver its Rave brand. The deal is now expected to close on Tuesday.
VENEZUELA
PVSA production hit
State oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA (PVSA) says the failure of an air circulation system has affected production at the country’s largest refinery, but the problem will not affect oil shipments. PVSA says the problem prompted the shutdown of some units at the Paraguana Refining Complex in the northwestern state of Falcon. The complex has the capacity to process about 900,000 barrels of crude oil a day and produces 200,000 barrels of gasoline daily.
ENERGY
Ethanol production boosted
Brazilian state-controlled energy giant Petrobras will boost its production of ethanol as part of a government effort to contain fuel prices, Energy Minister Edison Lobao announced on Friday. “We are going to make rapid advances to produce [an additional] 10, 12, 15 percent in three to four years,” Lobao told reporters. “With this, Petrobras will be transformed into an important factor in the supply and pricing of ethanol.” According to the official, Petrobras currently accounts for 5 percent of total ethanol production in the country, but expects to be the largest producer by 2017.
INVESTMENT
Buffett profits down
Warren Buffett’s conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway Inc reported a smaller profit for the first quarter, as reinsurance losses from the March 11 earthquake in Japan dragged down results. Berkshire reported a net profit of US$1.51 billion, or US$917 per Class A share, compared with a profit of US$3.63 billion, or US$2,272 per Class A share, a year earlier. The conglomerate reported US$41.18 billion in cash and cash equivalents at the end of the quarter.
BUSINESS UPDATE: The iPhone assembler said operations outlook is expected to show quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year growth for the second quarter Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported strong growth in sales last month, potentially raising expectations for iPhone sales while artificial intelligence (AI)-related business booms. The company, which assembles the majority of Apple Inc’s smartphones, reported a 19.03 percent rise in monthly sales to NT$510.9 billion (US$15.78 billion), from NT$429.22 billion in the same period last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 14.16 percent, it said. The company in a statement said that last month’s revenue was a record-breaking April performance. Hon Hai, known also as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), assembles most iPhones, but the company is diversifying its business to
Apple Inc has been developing a homegrown chip to run artificial intelligence (AI) tools in data centers, although it is unclear if the semiconductor would ever be deployed, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. The effort would build on Apple’s previous efforts to make in-house chips, which run in its iPhones, Macs and other devices, according to the Journal, which cited unidentified people familiar with the matter. The server project is code-named ACDC (Apple Chips in Data Center) within the company, aiming to utilize Apple’s expertise in chip design for the company’s server infrastructure, the newspaper said. While this initiative has been
GlobalWafers Co (環球晶圓), the world’s No. 3 silicon wafer supplier, yesterday said that revenue would rise moderately in the second half of this year, driven primarily by robust demand for advanced wafers used in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, a key component of artificial intelligence (AI) technology. “The first quarter is the lowest point of this cycle. The second half will be better than the first for the whole semiconductor industry and for GlobalWafers,” chairwoman Doris Hsu (徐秀蘭) said during an online investors’ conference. “HBM would definitely be the key growth driver in the second half,” Hsu said. “That is our big hope
The consumer price index (CPI) last month eased to 1.95 percent, below the central bank’s 2 percent target, as food and entertainment cost increases decelerated, helped by stable egg prices, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday. The slowdown bucked predictions by policymakers and academics that inflationary pressures would build up following double-digit electricity rate hikes on April 1. “The latest CPI data came after the cost of eating out and rent grew moderately amid mixed international raw material prices,” DGBAS official Tsao Chih-hung (曹志弘) told a news conference in Taipei. The central bank in March raised interest rates by