ELECTRONICS
Samsung to boost handsets
Samsung Electronics Co, the world’s second-largest handset maker, said it aims to double sales of smartphones and tablet computers this year with a wider range of Galaxy-branded devices, intensifying competition with Apple Inc. Samsung, which shipped about 97 million smartphones last year, plans to introduce a successor to the Galaxy S II in the first half of the year and other models later, the company said in an e-mailed statement yesterday. Samsung sold a record 300 million handsets, including basic models last year, helped by the popularity of its Galaxy products that run Google Inc’s Android software. The company expects to sell about 380 million handsets this year, J.K. Shin, head of the mobile business, said in Barcelona, Spain, on Sunday.
CAMERAS
Olympus names president
Scandal-hit Olympus yesterday named current board member and executive officer Hiroyuki Sasa as its new president after one of the biggest financial scandals in Japanese corporate history. Olympus plans to hold an extraordinary general meeting on April 20, at which shareholders will be asked to approve the new 11-member management board, which includes eight people from outside the company. The firm nominated former Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp senior managing director Yasuyuki Kimoto as its next chairman and former executive of the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Hideaki Fujizuka as a director. Three current board members, including Sasa, were nominated to lead the company, while six other outside directors were also appointed to the task of rebuilding the under-fire camera and medical equipment maker.
STEEL
Severstal to invest in Russia
OAO Severstal, Russia’s second-largest steel producer by volume, plans to invest US$1.7 billion this year in its factories and mines in Russia and the US to boost output. Sevestal plans capital expenditures of US$905 million in its Russian steel operations and US$659 million on its mining units, including new projects in Liberia and Brazil, it said in a statement yesterday. Another US$104 million is earmarked for improving its US operations.
MATERIALS
Cookson’s profits rise 18%
British industrial materials group Cookson yesterday reported profit for last year above market estimates helped by strength at its two core divisions and signaled further growth this year. Cookson, whose products are used in the glass and solar industries as well as by steelmakers and foundries, said full-year pretax profit rose 18 percent to £261.5 million (US$414.6 million), beating consensus estimates of £250.8 million. Sales rose 11 percent to £2.83 billion, in line with estimates. Sales at the company’s engineered ceramics unit were up 13 percent, while revenue at Cookson’s performance materials unit was up 13 percent. The two units together account for nearly 90 percent of group sales.
ENERGY
Essar’s earnings fall 10%
India-focused refiner and power generator Essar Energy said core earnings fell 10 percent last year, falling short of forecasts due to weaker refining margins and depreciation of the Indian rupee in the second half of the year. It posted full-year earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization of US$624.8 million. That compared with US$696.5 million in 2010 and the US$685 million average of 10 analysts’ forecasts supplied by the company.
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
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],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day