COMPUTERS
Apple shares rise
Apple shares gained 1.31 percent on Wall Street on Wednesday and the California gadget-maker closed the day with a market capitalization of US$504.01 billion. The maker of the iPhone, iPad, iPod and Macintosh computer passed oil giant ExxonMobil in January to become the largest US company in terms of market value. Separately, Apple sent out invitations on Tuesday to a press event next Wednesday that is expected to be the unveiling of the next generation of the iPad. The invitations featured a picture of an iPad and the words: “We have something you really have to see. And touch.”
AUTOMOBILES
GM, Peugeot join forces
The struggling French carmaker PSA Peugeot Citroen and US giant General Motors on Wednesday announced a strategic alliance that will see GM take a 7 percent stake in Peugeot. In a joint statement, the two firms announced “the creation of a long-term and broad-scale global strategic alliance that will leverage the combined strengths and capabilities of the two companies.” The statement said the agreement would “contribute to the profitability of both partners and strongly improves their competitiveness in Europe.” GM and Peugeot will focus on sharing vehicle platforms, components and modules and on creating a global purchasing joint venture to source commodities and other goods and services from suppliers.
AUTOMOBILES
Ford eyes losses in Europe
Ford Motor Co’s outgoing chief financial officer Lewis Booth said the company could lose between US$500 million and US$600 million this year in Europe where the financial crisis is exacerbating industry-wide overcapacity. Ford’s pretax loss in Europe in the first quarter of this year could exceed the US$190 million the company lost there in the final three months of last year, Booth told reporters on Wednesday. Ford still expects company-wide pretax operating profit for this year to equal last year’s US$8.8 billion, Booth said. Ford in January forecast industry-wide sales of 14 million to 15 million cars and trucks in Europe’s 19 primary countries. A lack of consumer confidence and a stubborn sovereign debt crisis is pushing the annual selling rate below 14 million this month, Booth said.
SHIPPING
Dubai firm to address debt
Dubai’s state-run shipbuilding company said it plans to lay out the terms of its US$2.2 billion debt restructuring plan and to complete the process by July. DryDocks World and its lenders have been discussing the terms of the restructuring for months. The company said yesterday that it had made “significant progress” on the project and would present its proposed revised repayment terms to all creditors on Thursday. DryDocks World’s parent Dubai World sent global markets reeling in 2009 when it said it could not repay billions of US dollars. The firm signed an agreement to restructure about US$25 billion in debt in March last year.
THAILAND
Inflation rises 3.35%
Consumer prices last month rose 3.35 percent from a year earlier, led by soaring food costs as a result of drought in parts of the country, the government said yesterday. Inflation was almost unchanged from January, when consumer prices were up 3.38 percent, according to the Ministry of Commerce. Overall food prices surged 7.18 percent last month, the data showed. The ministry maintained its forecast for inflation of between 3.3 percent and 3.8 percent for this year.
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],”