CURRENCY
G7 seeks yen consultation
The G7 has signaled it wants Japan to build a consensus before intervening in the foreign exchange market, according to the nation’s former head of currency policy. Members have indicated intervention “should be done in agreement with the G7 as opposed to unilaterally,” Rintaro Tamaki, who was a Japanese vice finance minister until July and directed two of Japan’s three rounds of yen sales in the past year, said in an interview in Paris on Thursday. He was referring to language in an Aug. 8 statement by the G7 that said officials will “closely consult” each other on currencies. Tamaki’s comments indicate Japan may encounter opposition to further yen sales after acting unilaterally twice in the past 12 months.
MALAYSIA
Exports rise 7.1% in July
Kuala Lumpur said yesterday exports increased 7.1 percent year-on-year to 59.24 billion ringgit (US$19.80 billion) in July, while imports reached 49.79 billion ringgit, up 2.9 percent year-on-year. Export growth was slower than June’s 8.6 percent year-on-year increase and down from the 13.5 percent growth seen in July last year. Meanwhile, industrial production unexpectedly fell in July as mining contracts and manufacturing growth slowed following weaker overseas demand. Production at factories, utilities and mines declined 0.6 percent from a year earlier after rising a revised 1.3 percent in June, the statistics department said yesterday.
INTERNET
Google buys restaurant site
Google has acquired restaurant review service Zagat to ramp up its efforts to connect people with local businesses. The founders, husband-and-wife team Nina and Tim Zagat, said they would remain co-chairs of the 32-year-old company and use Google’s resources and expertise to expand. Zagat currently offers reviews and ratings on restaurants in more than 100 cities around the world, based largely on surveys of diners. Google plans to integrate New York-based Zagat with its search and mapping products, which already invites users to write reviews of businesses and services.
FINANCE
SC reopens in South Korea
Standard Chartered (SC) PLC resumed operations at five branches of its South Korean banking unit on Thursday, Standard Chartered First Bank Korea Ltd said in an e-mailed statement yesterday. The lender had closed the branches since July 11 when staff went on strike over the company’s plan for performance-based payment. Thirty seven branches are still suspended, the statement said.
FINANCE
BofA mulls redundancies
US financial giant Bank of America (BofA) is considering cutting up to 40,000 jobs as part of a round of belt-tightening, the Wall Street Journal reported yesterday. The Journal cited unnamed sources as saying the company had discussed cuts of between 30,000 and 45,000 jobs, but it said the numbers could still change and the decision would be carried out over a number of years.
FINANCE
BNS wins China bank bid
Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS), Canada’s third-largest bank, said it was the winning bidder to buy about 20 percent of Bank of Guangzhou (廣州銀行) for about C$719 million (US$727 million). The transaction, which is subject to regulatory approval, will add to earnings next year, Toronto-based Scotiabank said in a statement yesterday. The lender said it expected to complete the deal in December.
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],”