TRADE
Japan seeks Myanmar ties
Japan’s foreign minister will suggest that Myanmar enter negotiations on a bilateral investment accord when he holds talks with the country’s top officials this week, Kyodo News reported yesterday. The talks would mark another step as Myanmar gradually reconnects with the rest of the world after decades of tight military rule. A series of reforms have been initiated by Myanmar President Thein Sein aimed at pushing for the lifting of decades of Western sanctions and attracting much-needed foreign investment in the country. In Naypyidaw, Japanese Foreign Minister Koichiro Gemba will discuss the investment accord, which would promote cross-border investment and allow trade disputes to be settled under international frameworks, Kyodo said, citing a government source.
MINING
Indonesia strike ends
Workers at Freeport McMoran Copper & Gold Inc’s mine in Indonesia will gradually return to work this week to end a three-month strike that has crippled output and exports from the world’s second-biggest copper mine, union officials said yesterday. Some workers have started a traditional stone burning ritual and removed a road blockage that kept other workers from accessing the Grasberg mine in the central highlands of Papua island in eastern Indonesia, Juli Parorrongan, a union spokesman, said via telephone yesterday. The union had planned to mobilize workers to return to the mine on Saturday, but some of them are celebrating Christmas with their families in Papua, which is predominantly Christian. Many workers at the Grasberg mine are Papuans. In mid-December, workers reached a deal including a 37 percent pay rise over two years and extra benefits.
FRANCE
Growth slows to 0.3 percent
The nation’s economy, the eurozone’s second largest, grew at a weaker pace than previously estimated in the third quarter as companies cut spending. GDP rose 0.3 percent from the second quarter, when it fell 0.1 percent, Paris statistics institute Insee said on Friday. It had previously reported a gain of 0.4 percent. In the year, the economy expanded 1.5 percent, down from 1.7 percent in the previous quarter. The economy is probably already in recession, with output shrinking this quarter and next, Insee said last week. While business confidence dropped to the lowest in one-and-a-half years this month and manufacturing contracted, government leaders have refused to use the word recession, saying France is in a “slowdown” or an “air pocket.” Investment growth slowed to 0.2 percent in the third quarter from 0.6 percent in the previous three months, the report showed. Consumer spending increased 0.3 percent after dropping 0.6 percent in the second quarter and exports advanced 0.8 percent, up from 0.7 percent.
THAILAND
Flood crisis funding sought
The government will seek Cabinet approval this week for a 350 billion baht (US$11.12 billion) budget for infrastructure and water management to prevent a repeat of the country’s recent flood crisis, a top official said on Saturday. The government’s post-flood rehabilitation task force would propose the budget for flood prevention and infrastructure upgrades to restore investor confidence as soon as possible, the head of the task force, Veerapong Ramangkuland, said in a televised speech. Veerapong said the fund would allow the government to raise and allocate necessary funds to fast-track the work and prevent further damage to the economy.
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
Apple Inc has been developing a homegrown chip to run artificial intelligence (AI) tools in data centers, although it is unclear if the semiconductor would ever be deployed, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. The effort would build on Apple’s previous efforts to make in-house chips, which run in its iPhones, Macs and other devices, according to the Journal, which cited unidentified people familiar with the matter. The server project is code-named ACDC (Apple Chips in Data Center) within the company, aiming to utilize Apple’s expertise in chip design for the company’s server infrastructure, the newspaper said. While this initiative has been
GlobalWafers Co (環球晶圓), the world’s No. 3 silicon wafer supplier, yesterday said that revenue would rise moderately in the second half of this year, driven primarily by robust demand for advanced wafers used in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, a key component of artificial intelligence (AI) technology. “The first quarter is the lowest point of this cycle. The second half will be better than the first for the whole semiconductor industry and for GlobalWafers,” chairwoman Doris Hsu (徐秀蘭) said during an online investors’ conference. “HBM would definitely be the key growth driver in the second half,” Hsu said. “That is our big hope
The consumer price index (CPI) last month eased to 1.95 percent, below the central bank’s 2 percent target, as food and entertainment cost increases decelerated, helped by stable egg prices, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday. The slowdown bucked predictions by policymakers and academics that inflationary pressures would build up following double-digit electricity rate hikes on April 1. “The latest CPI data came after the cost of eating out and rent grew moderately amid mixed international raw material prices,” DGBAS official Tsao Chih-hung (曹志弘) told a news conference in Taipei. The central bank in March raised interest rates by