JAPAN
Car production to normalize
Toyota’s global car production, disrupted by parts shortages after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, will likely return to normal two to three months earlier than expected, a report said yesterday. The nation’s top business daily Nikkei said Toyota’s output will normalize earlier than the end of this year as parts shortages are easing. The paper didn’t cite any sources. Toyota Motor Corp spokeswoman Shiori Hashimoto could not confirm the report. However, she said Toyota was doing its utmost to return to full production.
AUSTRALIA
Exports help trade surplus
Sydney yesterday reported a trade surplus for March as it bounced back from a deficit in February on the back of a boom in exports, adding weight to expectations of a possible interest rate rise. Overseas shipments were up 9 percent in adjusted terms in March, while imports gained 1 percent, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said. It put the country’s trade balance into a A$1.74 billion (US$1.87 billion) surplus, from a downwardly revised deficit of A$87 million in February. Exports surged to A$25 billion, led by a 15 percent gain in iron ore, while imports were boosted by a 23 percent increase in gas.
GREECE
S&P cuts rating further
Standard and Poor’s cut Greece’s credit rating further into junk territory on Monday, reflecting growing doubts that the eurozone’s most fragile economy can manage its debt without imposing losses on private bondholders. “In our view, there is increased risk that Greece will take steps to restructure the terms of its commercial debt, including its previously issued government bonds,” the agency said in a statement, warning that more downgrades could come. Moody’s said it might cut its Greek rating by more than one notch while Fitch analyst Chris Pryce said the agency was “actively reviewing” Greece’s rating.
INTERNET
Tencent buys Huayi stake
Chinese Internet giant Tencent (騰訊) has bought a 4.6 percent stake in Chinese film and TV producer Huayi Brothers Media (華誼兄弟) to look at possible ways to combine film and new media, the firms said yesterday. Tencent bought 27.8 million shares in Shenzhen-listed Huayi for about 450 million yuan (US$69.2 million), or 16 yuan each, according to a statement filed with the Shenzhen Stock Exchange by Huayi. “The strategic investment in Huayi is the first step of cooperation between two parties,” Tencent president Martin Lau (劉熾平) said in a separate statement, without elaborating on how they planned to integrate the two media.
CHINA
BYD listing approved
Chinese car maker BYD (比亞迪), backed by US billionaire Warren Buffett, has received the green light for a stock listing, China’s securities regulator has said. The China Securities Regulatory Commission announced the approval in a statement late on Monday after a meeting assessing the planned listing on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange. The company, already listed in Hong Kong, plans to issue up to 79 million A-shares in the initial public offering (IPO), or 3.36 percent of its enlarged share capital, according to a draft prospectus. The proceeds from the IPO will provide 2.19 billion yuan (US$337.3 million) for a lithium-ion battery project, a research and development center and expansion of its product line, which require total investments of around 5.4 billion yuan, it said.
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
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],”