INDIA
October output shrank 5.1%
Industrial output shrank 5.1 percent year-on-year in October, well below expectations and piling pressure on the central bank to consider some monetary loosening after months of rate hikes. The October figure released by the government marked a sharp slump from the 1.9 percent expansion posted in September and was the first contraction in output for more than two years. Manufacturing production, which accounts for about 75 percent of the industrial index, declined 6 percent year-on-year, while mining output was down 7.2 percent and capital goods output plunged 25.5 percent.
THAILAND
Recovery budget approved
The Cabinet approved 20 billion baht (US$645 million) in spending to recover from the nation’s worst flooding in almost 70 years, Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra said yesterday. The spending includes 13 billion baht in compensation for flood victims and 7 billion baht to repair roads, bridges and historical sites damaged by the deluge, said Worawit Jampeerat, head of the budget bureau. The funds, which would come from the fiscal budget for this year, are the first part of 120 billion baht in planned spending on flood relief that would likely pass parliament in February, Yingluck told reporters.
MANUFACTURING
Blohm + Voss sold
German heavy industry giant ThyssenKrupp said yesterday it had agreed to sell its civil shipbuilding activities Blohm + Voss to British investment Star Capital Partners for an undisclosed sum. ThyssenKrupp, which is active in steel, elevators, submarines and car parts, said in a statement it had decided to sell the activities as part of a strategy to optimize its business portfolios. The deal, which is subject to approval by the competition authorities, is expected to be finalized in the first quarter of next year. ThyssenKrupp did not give any indication of the price, but according to the Handelsblatt business daily, it is less than 100 million euros (US$133 million).
BANKING
ING to buy back debt trade
ING NV, the Dutch bank and insurer, said it would launch offers to buy back 5.8 billion euros of its own debt trading below face value. The company said it would offer cash or new senior bonds for seven batches of “subordinated debt securities” at prices ranging from 58 percent to 87 percent of their face value. ING said the offer is a premium to levels the securities are trading at now. When debt trades at a discount to its face value, it is a signal investors believe there is a significant chance it won’t be paid back. To the extent the paper is repurchased below face value, it would lower ING’s net debt and improve its capital position.
BANKING
Swedbank catering to Latvia
Swedbank said yesterday it had been working to provide cash for customers in Latvia after more than 10,000 clients withdrew more than 10 million lati (US$19.2 million) in a day due to rumors about a bank having problems in the Baltic state. Despite assurances from the regulator and banks, Latvians lined up to empty cash machines on Sunday in a country of 2.2 million people with a history of post-Soviet bank failures. Swedbank and SEB both said they had seen increased withdrawals on Sunday after rumors spread on Twitter of problems at Swedish banks.
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],”