FINANCE
UK firms boost hiring
Financial firms in Britain, including banks hit last year by the eurozone debt crisis, have started taking on new staff again, confounding forecasts for more layoffs, according to a new industry survey. A balance of 19 percent of financial firms reported a rise in headcount in the first three months of the year, the survey by the Confederation of British Industry and accounting and consultancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) showed yesterday. The percentages reflect the balance of responses, since out of the 95 firms surveyed, insurers reported a big increase in headcount for instance, while securities traders and investment managers said it had fallen. A balance of 20 percent also predicted a rise in employment by the second quarter. The confederation’s previous report with PWC had suggested that 18 percent of firms on balance thought thousands more layoffs were in store after a rough end to last year.
AUTOMAKERS
Maruti Suzuki sales jump
India’s biggest automaker, Maruti Suzuki, yesterday said sales last month hit a record monthly high, led largely by higher demand for hatchbacks. The company, majority-owned by Japan’s Suzuki Motor Corp, said sales were up 3.3 percent year-on-year at 125,952 vehicles, a third straight monthly gain. However, for the full fiscal year ending March 31, the company’s sales fell nearly 11 percent to 1,133,695 units. The company lost production of 106,000 vehicles between June and October due to a crippling labor dispute at one of its plants in the northern Indian state of Haryana. Sales last month were strongest for hatchbacks — the Swift, Estilo and Ritz — as well as the larger DZire car and its utility vehicles.
INDONESIA
S&P retains positive outlook
Ratings agency Standard & Poors (S&P) said it maintained a positive outlook for Indonesia after parliament decided to give the government authority under certain conditions to raise the price of subsidized fuel. “We maintain a positive outlook on Indonesia’s sovereign rating, which reflects the likelihood of an upgrade if inflation is sustainably tamed while balance sheet improvements continue, likely in combination with successful implementation of at least parts of the government’s fiscal, administrative and structural reform agenda,” S&P said in a statement. “A stalling of reforms or the absence of timely and adequate policy responses to renewed fiscal or external pressures would result in the rating stabilizing or weakening,” associate director of sovereign and international public finance ratings Agost Benard said.
AUTOMOBILES
Japan posts record growth
Japanese auto sales saw their biggest-ever monthly surge last month, data showed yesterday, a year after domestic demand plummeted in the wake of the quake-tsunami disaster. Sales of new vehicles with engines above 660cc stood at 497,959 last month, up a record 78.2 percent from March last year, and marking the seventh consecutive rise, the Japan Automobile Dealers Association said. The figures, also boosted by government subsidies for eco-friendly vehicles, include large vehicles, such as trucks and buses, as well as cars. “The sharp gain was exceptional because it was mainly due to a considerable plunge in March last year when the disaster struck the country,” an association spokesman said. New vehicle purchases slumped 37 percent in March last year following the earthquake-tsunami, but they have since staged a recovery.
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],”