JAPAN
Automakers’ production rises
Major automakers yesterday reported huge production increases for last month, as the hard-hit sector recovers from the devastating impact of last year’s quake and tsunami. Toyota, the nation’s biggest automaker, said output at its local factories surged more than three-fold to 352,973 vehicles last month, while overseas production rose 64.8 percent in the period to 439,988. Honda Motor said its production at home skyrocketed 514.4 percent to 87,049 vehicles, while foreign output climbed by 112.5 percent to 264,614. Nissan’s production, meanwhile, jumped 94.0 percent to 85,734 at home, while overseas production rose 39.2 percent to 283,788.
SHIPBUILDING
Hyundai wins US$700m order
South Korean shipbuilding giant Hyundai Heavy Industries has won a US$700 million order from a Norwegian company to build the world’s largest semi-submersible oil rig, it said yesterday. Hyundai said the rig would be delivered to Norway’s Fred Olsen Energy in March 2015 and would be used in the North Sea. The world’s largest shipbuilder by sales said the contract includes an option to order an additional rig.
CHINA
Slowdown may hurt rating
A prolonged collapse in the country’s economic growth could bring the nation’s sovereign credit rating down, while continued macroeconomic stability might help raise the rating, Moody’s Investors Service said. Severe deterioration in trade relations might also harm the rating, Moody’s said yesterday. The rating would be helped by “robust government finances” and strengthening of the financial system, Moody’s said.
ENGINEERING
Hastie Group suspended
Australian engineering business Hastie Group Ltd has appointed administrators who have suspended operations in Australia and the Middle East after refinancing negotiations with banks collapsed. Voluntary administration in Australia is similar to bankruptcy protection in the US, and can buy a company time to trade out of its financial problems. The administrator, PPB Advisory, said in a statement yesterday it was suspending Hastie’s mechanical, electrical and plumbing businesses in Australia and the Middle East because they had insufficient funds to continue operating.
LIQUOR
Diageo to buy Ypioca
Diageo PLC agreed to buy the Brazilian cachaca brand Ypioca as the world’s biggest distiller expands in faster-growing emerging markets. Diageo will buy Ypioca and some production assets from Ypioca Agroindustrial Limitada for 900 million reais (US$453 million) in cash, it said yesterday in a statement. The transaction will be completed in about a month. Cachaca, the main ingredient in a caipirinha cocktail, is the most popular liquor in Brazil, the company said. Ypioca, which is the second-largest brand by value and third-largest by volume, had annual sales of about 177 million reais last year.
MEDIA
Rinehart ups Fairfax stake
The world’s richest woman, Gina Rinehart, has increased her stake in Australian media group Fairfax, the company said yesterday, as she lashed out at the chairman after being denied a board seat. Rinehart, who has a fortune of A$29.17 billion (US$28.48 billion) according to an annual index by Business Review Weekly, increased her holding to more than 13 percent from the 12.8 percent she bought in February.
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
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