PORTUGAL
Minister hails aid program
Economy Minister Alvaro Santos Pereira said the fourth review of the country’s aid program has been successful as the government complies with the terms of the international plan to ensure further financing. “The final part of the review will be taking place in the next few days, but we believe that it has been a fairly successful review,” Santos Pereira, 40, said in a Friday interview in Lisbon. The Portuguese finance ministry will hold a news conference tomorrow about the conclusions of the fourth quarterly review of the country’s financial aid program provided by the EU and the IMF. Portugal is cutting spending and raising taxes to comply with the terms of the 78 billion euro (US$97 billion) aid plan.
SOLAR ENERGY
Konarka files for bankruptcy
Konarka Technologies Inc, the thin-film solar panel manufacturer backed by Chevron Corp, Draper Fisher Jurvetson and New Enterprise Associates Inc, filed for bankruptcy in Massachusetts. “Konarka has been unable to obtain additional financing, and given its current financial condition, it is unable to continue operations,” Howard Berke, chief executive officer of the Lowell, Massachusetts-based company, said on Friday in a statement. Konarka listed US$100,000 to US$500,000 in assets and US$10 million to US$50 million in debt in its Chapter 7 filing yesterday in US Bankruptcy Court in Worcester, Massachusetts. Konarka NB Holdings LLC, in a separate filing, listed US$1 million to US$10 million in assets and as much as US$50,000 in debt. At least four other US solar panel manufacturers filed for bankruptcy in the past year as prices fell 50 percent because of oversupply and production expansion in China.
BRAZIL
GDP up a weak 0.2 percent
The nation’s economy barely expanded in the first quarter as frustrated business leaders cut back on investments, setting the stage for another disappointing year and casting new doubt on the health of emerging markets. The economy grew just 0.2 percent compared with the final three months of last year, less than half the pace markets expected. The third straight quarter of weakness in the world’s sixth-largest economy prompted new calls for President Dilma Rousseff to enact much bolder reforms that could reclaim the country’s mantle as a favorite of global investors. That reputation has faded since the middle of last year as Brazil failed to cope adequately with the challenges posed by its boom over the past decade.
SECURITIES
SEC acts to curb volatility
The US Securities and Exchange Commission approved two proposals to alter trading curbs meant to curtail volatility in the US stock market. The regulator approved a system known as limit-up/limit-down that prevents trades at prices outside a specified band, according to a statement on the SEC Web site on Friday. It also backed changes to broader circuit breakers instituted after the 1987 market crash that halt exchange-listed securities in US markets during periods of volatility. Both programs will be implemented on Feb. 4 for a one-year pilot period. The price band will be 5 percent above and below for stocks higher than US$3 in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index and Russell 1000 Index and a group of about 430 exchange-traded products, the SEC said. It will be 10 percent for other securities higher than US$3. Those between US$0.75 and $3 can move up to 20 percent, while those less than US$0.75 can move the lesser of 75 percent or US$0.15.
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],”