UNITED STATES
Duties slapped on PRC wire
The US on Tuesday hit Chinese exporters of steel wire with up to 253 percent duties for allegedly unfair subsidies they receive from the government. The US International Trade Administration announced a preliminary finding that Beijing was giving countervailable assistance to a number of exporters of galvanized steel wire, used in a variety of sectors, including construction and agriculture. It ordered US Customs to begin collecting deposits or bonds on Chinese imported goods ahead of a US Department of Commerce and US International Trade Commission affirmation of the ruling.
? PHILIPPINES
Economy slowed in Q2
The economy slowed in the second quarter as weakness in construction and industry offset growth in consumer spending amid a lackluster global recovery. The government’s statistical board said yesterday that the economy grew 3.4 percent in the April-to-June quarter after expanding 4.9 percent in the first quarter. The statistical board said the European debt crisis and the fragile recovery of main trading partners the US and Japan resulted in growth below its forecast of 4.5 percent to 5.5 percent. The economy boomed last year, growing 8.9 percent.
RETAIL
Tesco to sell Tokyo stores
Tesco PLC, the UK’s biggest grocer, plans to sell its business in Japan because it cannot build a large enough business in the country. Tesco has 129 small stores in the Tokyo area, the company said in a statement yesterday. Japan is the smallest of its international retail businesses, Tesco said. More than half of the stores are profitable, it said. Tesco will start a formal sale process over the coming months and the business will trade as usual in the meantime, it said.
AUTOMAKERS
Volvo, Siemens to cooperate
Sweden’s Volvo Cars says it is joining forces with Germany’s Siemens AG in the development of a new line of electric cars. Volvo, owned by China’s Geely Holding Group (吉利控股集團), said Siemens would make the electric motors that would be fitted into the Volvo C30 Electric. The deal covers the development of electrical drive technology, power electronics and charging technology. The first line of cars are scheduled to be tested by the end of this year and Volvo is expected to deliver a test series of about 200 cars to Siemens early next year.
COMPUTERS
TouchPad’s death postponed
Hewlett-Packard Co (HP) said on Tuesday it plans one last production run of the TouchPad, which has become a hot seller following a price cut and the announcement the company was killing the tablet computer. Citing disappointing sales, HP, the world’s largest personal computer maker, announced on Aug. 18 that it was ending production of the TouchPad after just seven weeks on the market.
COSMETICS
L’Oreal posts higher profits
L’Oreal said on Tuesday its first-half net profit rose 11.6 percent from a year earlier to 1.47 billion euros (US$2.11 billion) and confirmed its forecasts for the full year. Chief executive Jean-Paul Agon said in a statement that earnings improved despite the rise in raw material costs. Operating profit in the six months to June was 1.7 billion euros, with operating margins at 16.8 percent, down from 17.3 percent in the same period last year because of increased investment and advertising costs. Sales were up 5 percent to 10.15 billion euros.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
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