BRAZIL
Central bank cuts rate
The central bank on Wednesday again cut its benchmark interest rate by 75 basis points to 9.75 percent — the sixth rate cut in the past eight months — in an effort to boost the sluggish economy. The bank’s monetary policy committee justified the new cut — which mirrored last month’s cut of 75 basis points — by citing the “limited risk” to further inflation. With inflation now coming under control, the government of President Dilma Rousseff wants to focus on boosting economic growth, which slowed to 2.7 percent last year, from 7.5 percent in 2010.
AUTOMAKERS
Audi to open plant in Mexico
Audi officials say the carmaker will open a new plant in Mexico that should begin production of an SUV model starting in 2016. Officials said in a statement released in Germany on Tuesday that they would decide on a location for the factory later this year. The parent group Volkswagen AG already has an automotive plant in Puebla and an engine plant in Silao, both in central Mexico. Officials did not say how much money they would invest on the plant or how many jobs it would create. Audi AG chairman Rupert Stadler said the company chose Mexico because it was one of the world’s top 10 automotive locations and “offers a blend of tradition and experience.”
AUTOMAKERS
Ford plans Hangzhou plant
Ford Motor Co says it plans to build a US$760 million auto assembly plant in Hangzhou, China. The new factory will double Ford’s production capacity in China as it strives to catch up with its global rivals in the world’s biggest auto market. Ford said yesterday that the plant would add annual capacity of 250,000 vehicles when it begins operations in early 2015. Along with a recently announced new plant in Ford’s main production base in Chongqing, China, Ford will double its current annual capacity to 1.2 million vehicles. The new factory brings Ford’s total investment in China to US$4.9 billion.
BEVERAGES
Coca-Cola, Spotify partner
Spotify and soft drink superstar Coca-Cola on Wednesday announced they will combine the global beverage company’s reach and brand appeal with Spotify’s online music platform. The partnership will include Coca-Cola software applications that tap into the Spotify platform. The first new app will be unveiled for the Olympics in London, Coca-Cola said. Spotify, which was launched in Spotify founder Daniel Ek’s native Sweden in 2008, boasts a library of 15 million tracks and is adding about 20,000 a day. It has more than 10 million active users and 2.5 million paying subscribers.
CREDIT CARDS
Amex usage up 12 percent
American Express (Amex) said on Wednesday that its cardholders charged 12 percent more in the first three months of this year than a year earlier, and past-due accounts stayed at historic lows. The figures helped the company beat Wall Street expectations for quarterly earnings and added to evidence that the well-off are feeling more comfortable about increasing their spending than other income groups. The average American Express household brings in US$97,000 a year, compared with US$71,000 for credit card customers overall, according to industry research. The company said it earned US$1.25 billion, or US$1.07 per share, in the first quarter. Earnings were 7 percent higher than the same quarter a year earlier. Revenue rose 8 percent to US$7.6 billion.
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],”