ENERGY
Group suggests exchange
China should set up an oil-futures exchange with contracts traded in yuan because local companies cannot participate fully in the global market, the Chicago Board Options Exchange said. “From a global point of view, one of the solutions to ease the excessive volatility in oil markets would be” an oil futures market established by China, Asia affairs managing director Eugene Zheng (鄭學勤) said in Shanghai yesterday. China should also develop commodity-options products, Zheng said. “With its own markets and prices, China can help correct irrational prices,” Zheng said, speaking at the Shanghai Futures Exchange’s annual conference.
TELECOMS
Skype heads off trouble
Internet phone service Skype says a small percentage of its 170 million users have been unable to sign in to its service, a problem that it expects to fix with a software update. Skype said on its Web site the trouble stemmed from corrupted data affecting computers using Windows, Linux or Macintosh operating systems. The company, which is based in Luxembourg, said it released a new version of Skype for Windows late on Thursday to deal with the problem. On Friday, it released a version for Mac. Linux users were told to delete a file manually. Skype said individuals using its service on cellphones, televisions or other non-computer devices were unaffected.
AUTOMOBILES
Fiat to buy Chrysler stake
Fiat said in Milan on Friday it planned to boost its stake in Chrysler to 57 percent by the end of this year as the Italian auto giant moves to consolidate its control of the Detroit-based brand. Fiat announced in a statement its decision to exercise an option to buy an additional 6 percent stake in Chrysler from the US Treasury. It said the price of the purchase would be agreed with the Treasury shortly. Fiat currently holds a 30 percent stake in Chrysler, but the reimbursement of Chrysler loans to the US and Canadian governments on Tuesday has opened the way for the Italian company to increase its holding.
AUTOMOBILES
GM scraps hybrid plan
General Motors Co (GM) has canceled plans to develop a plug-in hybrid vehicle based on the current Cadillac SRX crossover platform, deciding the project was not financially viable, three people with direct knowledge of the project said. While two of the sources said the plans could still be revived on a future platform, they and two others familiar with the matter said engineers involved had been reassigned to other projects. The Cadillac plug-in shared much of the same technology that GM developed for its battery-powered Chevrolet Volt, which has been the centerpiece of the automaker’s effort to convince consumers of its turnaround after its bankruptcy and government bailout in 2009.
RETAIL
CRC to buy Italian chain
Thailand’s Central Retail Corp (CRC) will buy La Rinascente, an historic chain of Italian department stores, for 205 million euros (US$293 million) under the terms of a deal announced on Friday. The R/U holding that controls 97 percent of Rinascente approved the sale to CRC, the property fund Prelios, a leading shareholder, said in a statement. The heir of the chain’s founders, Maurizio Borletti, who holds a 4 percent stake in La Rinascente, had tried to oppose the sale, but a court in Milan earlier rejected his attempt to block it. La Rinascente has 11 department stores in Italy’s main cities.
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
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: The chipmaker last month raised its capital spending by 28 percent for this year to NT$32 billion from a previous estimate of NT$25 billion Contract chipmaker Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電子) yesterday launched a new 12-inch fab, tapping into advanced chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) packaging technology to support rising demand for artificial intelligence (AI) devices. Powerchip is to offer interposers, one of three parts in CoWoS packaging technology, with shipments scheduled for the second half of this year, Powerchip chairman Frank Huang (黃崇仁) told reporters on the sidelines of a fab inauguration ceremony in the Tongluo Science Park (銅鑼科學園區) in Miaoli County yesterday. “We are working with customers to supply CoWoS-related business, utilizing part of this new fab’s capacity,” Huang said, adding that Powerchip intended to bridge
Microsoft Corp yesterday said that it would create Thailand’s first data center region to boost cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure, promising AI training to more than 100,000 people to develop tech. Bangkok is a key economic player in Southeast Asia, but it has lagged behind Indonesia and Singapore when it comes to the tech industry. Thailand has an “incredible opportunity to build a digital-first, AI-powered future,” Microsoft chairman and chief executive officer Satya Nadella said at an event in Bangkok. Data center regions are physical locations that store computing infrastructure, allowing secure and reliable access to cloud platforms. The global embrace of AI
Qualcomm Inc, the world’s biggest seller of smartphone processors, gave an upbeat forecast for sales and profit in the current period, suggesting demand for handsets is increasing after a two-year slump. Revenue in the three months ended in June will be US$8.8 billion to US$9.6 billion, the company said in a statement Wednesday. Excluding certain items, earnings will be US$2.15 to US$2.35 a share. Analysts had projected sales of US$9.08 billion and earnings of US$2.16 a share. The outlook signals that the smartphone market has begun to bounce back, tracking with Qualcomm’s forecast that demand would gradually recover this year. The San