MINING
Return to work delayed
Workers at Freeport McMoran Copper & Gold Inc’s Indonesia unit delayed their return to work after a three-month strike because 500 employees at subcontractors lack job security, a senior union official said yesterday. The workers hope to resolve the dispute and start heading back to the Grasberg mine in the central highlands of Papua Island, today, union spokesman Virgo Solossa said by telephone. The strike at the world’s second-largest copper mine ended on Dec. 14 with a deal under which Freeport agreed to a pay increase of about 40 percent for about 8,000 union members and to a framework for a better deal for about 15,000 other non-union workers and contractors.
BRAZIL
Budget cut set to increase
The government could cut about 60 billion reais (US$32.1 billion) from this year’s budget, more than previously forecast, as it seeks to reach its primary budget surplus target, O Estado de S. Paulo reported, citing unidentified people at the Ministry of Finance. Officials had previously said 50 billion reais would be cut from the budget, the Sao Paulo-based newspaper reported. The government is aiming for a primary budget surplus of 3.1 percent of GDP this year, Estado said.
INDONESIA
Inflation slowdown continues
Inflation slowed for a fourth straight month last month to the lowest level since March 2010, an easing that could give the central bank scope to cut interest rates further. Consumer prices rose 3.79 percent last month from a year earlier, the Central Bureau of Statistics said in Jakarta yesterday, compared with the 3.86 percent median estimate of 14 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News. Inflation was 4.15 percent in November. Bank Indonesia Governor Darmin Nasution and his board left the nation’s benchmark interest rate at 6 percent last month after cuts in October and November.
INDIA
Airline subsidy mulled
The Ministry of Civil Aviation said that airlines operating unprofitable flights to remote destinations might be given subsidies to help boost regional connectivity without affecting the carriers’ finances. The ministry recommended setting up a 1 billion rupee (US$19 million) fund to provide financial assistance, according to a report to the Planning Commission, an agency that drafts five-year economic and social programs. The commission’s 12th five-year plan will run through 2017. Airlines offering regional connectivity at the lowest cost to passengers could become eligible for a subsidy from the fund, the ministry said.
PHARMACEUTICALS
Teva CEO to stand down
Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd announced that its chief executive Shlomo Yanai will step down in May. The company said in a release on Sunday that Jeremy Levin, a former senior executive at Bristol-Myers Squibb, would replace him. Yanai has been chief executive for five years. Teva said he took the company from the business of mainly generics with US$8.4 billion in annual revenue to a more diversified business with revenue this year expected to reach US$22 billion. The company said Yanai wanted “to move on to a new phase in his career.” Israeli media reported that Yanai, a former general, could become active in politics. Teva is the world’s largest generics drugmaker. It also makes branded drugs for multiple sclerosis and Parkinson’s disease.
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
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last