FINLAND
GDP growth picks up
The country’s economy grew faster last quarter than the average for the 17-nation single currency bloc, which may face a recession as the sovereign-debt crisis deepens. The country’s third-quarter GDP adjusted for seasonal variations grew 0.9 percent from the three months through June, compared with a revised 0.1 percent growth in the second quarter, Helsinki-based Statistics Finland said on its Web site yesterday. In the year, GDP adjusted for working days increased 2.7 percent. The country’s economy is expanding at about four times the pace of the average in the euro area, which grew 0.2 percent in the three months through September as the debt crisis erodes demand, according to preliminary data by the European statistics office on Nov. 15.
PETROCHEMICALS
Qatar, Shell sign deal
Qatar signed a deal with Royal Dutch Shell on Sunday to develop a US$6.4 billion petrochemicals complex in the Ras Laffan industrial city in the Gulf Arab state. Qatari Energy Minister Mohammed al-Sada and Shell CEO Peter Voser signed the agreement in Doha. “We estimate the cost to be [US]$6.4 billion, but at this stage one should be cautious,” Sada said. Asked whether the agreement replaced a similar one signed with US group Exxon Mobil, Sada said: “No, this is not a replacement. This is a continuation of our strategy. There will be other petrochemical plants in the pipeline.”
AVIATION
Vietnam expands airport
Vietnam has begun construction of a second terminal to ease overcrowding at the only airport in the nation’s capital, the government said. Officials held a ceremony at the Noi Bai airport on Sunday to break ground on the four-story facility, which is being funded by more than ¥75 billion (US$962 million) in Japanese aid, the Vietnamese government said. “Terminal 2, expected to be completed by the end of 2014, was designed to handle 10 million passengers per year,” it said in a statement released on Sunday. The existing terminal handled about 9.5 million passengers last year, exceeding its capacity of 6 million, the official English-language Vietnam News reported.
TECHNOLOGY
Executive may face charges
Police say a senior executive of Canada’s Research In Motion Ltd (RIM) is a suspect in last month’s stampede at a BlackBerry promotion in Indonesia. Police spokesman Colonel Baharudin Djafar said yesterday that several people fainted and dozens were injured at the global debut of the BlackBerry Bold 9790. The US$540 phones — commonly known as Bellagios — were being sold at half price to the first 1,000 shoppers. Djafar said Canadian Andy Cobham, the outgoing country director for RIM, is among four suspects who could face charges of negligence leading to injury.
BANKING
Berlin prepared to help
Government officials are prepared to step in and nationalize Germany’s second-largest bank if the stricken institution cannot raise extra capital next year, a magazine reported on Sunday. Der Spiegel, citing anonymous government sources, reported Berlin could reactivate a rescue fund and buy up Commerzbank shares if it could not raise capital by the end of June. The German government already owns a 25 percent stake in Commerzbank. European banking officials estimate Commerzbank needs to recapitalize 2.9 billion euros (US$3.9 billion) by July, Der Spiegel reported.
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
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
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