INDIA
Refiners slash prices
State-run refiners announced a cut in gasoline prices from yesterday, mitigating a sharp increase a month ago that sparked public protests and anger among the government’s coalition allies. The cut reduced the cost of a liter of gasoline by 2.46 rupees to 67.78 (US$1.19) per liter, the country’s largest refiner Indian Oil Corp said in a statement. It was the second cut this month following a record 11 percent hike in prices last month that triggered the political backlash.
FRANCE
Economic growth stalled
The French economy posted zero growth in the first quarter of this year following a weak 0.1 percent expansion in the fourth quarter of last year, the French National Insitute for Statistics and Economic Studies said yesterday, confirming an earlier estimate. On Tuesday, the institute forecast that the economy would grow only 0.4 percent this year, slightly less than the 0.5 percent previously forecast and budgeted by the government. “France will suffer from a contraction in internal demand from its eurozone partners, which will hurt exports, and its efforts to consolidate its budget,” the institute’s research director Eric Dubois said.
BREWERIES
Grupo Modelo bought out
Anheuser-Busch InBev NV, the world’s biggest brewer, agreed to buy the remainder of Mexico’s Grupo Modelo SAB for US$20.1 billion, gaining full control of the maker of Corona to increase its presence in emerging markets. The maker of Budweiser will pay US$9.15 a share in cash, the Belgium-based company said yesterday in a statement. Modelo closed at the equivalent of US$8.71 in Mexico City, Mexico, on Thursday. In a related deal, Constellation Brands Inc will buy Modelo’s stake in their US distribution joint venture for US$1.85 billion.
AUTOMAKERS
Daimler, Fuso strike deal
German auto giant Daimler said yesterday that its Japanese truck unit Fuso has agreed to cooperate with rival Nissan in the area of light trucks. While the precise details of the deal have still to be worked out, the agreement will see Fuso make available its Canter five-tonne truck to Nissan, while Nissan will supply its Atlas F24 to Fuso, Daimler said.
JAPAN
Online sales may be taxed
The government may slap a tax on online sales of electronic books, music and other products by overseas Internet vendors such as Amazon.com, Finance Minister Jun Azumi said yesterday. The comments come days after Tokyo passed a bill through its lower house of parliament that would see sales tax double to 10 percent by 2015. However, tax is applied only to sales by Japanese Internet vendors, putting them at a disadvantage to foreign electronic retailers. Azumi said the imbalance may be prompting some Japanese firms to boost their overseas presence to take advantage of the apparent tax loophole.
SPORTING GOODS
Nike posts sales decline
Nike Inc, the world’s largest sporting-goods company, tumbled after fourth-quarter profit unexpectedly declined for the first time since 2009 as marketing and labor costs increased. Net income in the quarter ended on May 31 declined 7.6 percent to US$549 million, or US$1.17 a share, Oregon-based Nike said in a statement on Thursday. Analysts projected US$1.37 a share, the average of 20 estimates. Profit had topped analysts’ expectations in 22 of the past 23 quarters.
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
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
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],”
MAJOR BENEFICIARY: The company benefits from TSMC’s advanced packaging scarcity, given robust demand for Nvidia AI chips, analysts said ASE Technology Holding Co (ASE, 日月光投控), the world’s biggest chip packaging and testing service provider, yesterday said it is raising its equipment capital expenditure budget by 10 percent this year to expand leading-edge and advanced packing and testing capacity amid strong artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing chip demand. This is on top of the 40 to 50 percent annual increase in its capital spending budget to more than the US$1.7 billion to announced in February. About half of the equipment capital expenditure would be spent on leading-edge and advanced packaging and testing technology, the company said. ASE is considered by analysts