SOUTH KOREA
June trade surplus rises
The nation yesterday reported its biggest trade surplus in 21 months as rising exports to the Middle East and Southeast Asia offset falling demand from the US and Europe. Exports last month rose 1.3 percent from a year ago to reach US$47.4 billion, after shrinking for three straight months. Imports fell sharply by 5.4 percent to US$42.4 billion, the Knowledge Economy Ministry said in a preliminary tally. That resulted in a trade surplus of US$4.96 billion in June — the biggest since US$6.34 billion posted in October 2010, the ministry said. Economists polled by Dow Jones Newswires had expected exports to grow 1 percent and a trade surplus of US$3 billion. Increased sales of cars, machinery and semiconductors as well as solid demand in emerging economies in Latin America and Asia helped offset shrinking sales in advanced markets, particularly debt-hit Europe.
ENERGY
Softbank plans solar plant
Softbank Corp, Japan’s third-largest mobile phone company, said it would build the nation’s biggest solar plant as the country begins an incentive program for “clean” energy. The facility in Tomakomai, Hokkaido, will start operations in fiscal 2014 and have the capacity of 111 megawatts, Softbank spokesman Naoki Nakayama said yesterday. The Tokyo-based company held a ceremony yesterday to mark the start of operations at a 2.1 megawatt solar plant in Kyoto, Nakayama said. The carrier also announced plans to build solar plants in Tottori, Nagasaki and Kumamoto prefectures as well as a wind power power plant in Shimane Prefecture, he said. Under the incentive plan, Japan’s utilities are required to buy electricity from renewable sources such as solar, wind and geothermal at above-market rates to increase the country’s clean power use and diversify its energy mix.
VIETNAM
Central bank trims rates
The central bank said it would trim key interest rates beginning yesterday, its fifth cut so far this year as inflation cools amid signs of weakening economic growth. The State Bank of Vietnam said it would lower the refinancing rate — charged on loans to commercial banks — to 10 percent from 11 percent. Other measures include lowering the discount rate from 9 percent to 8 percent, and the overnight inter-bank lending rate to 11 percent from 12 percent, the bank said in a statement posted on its Web site following the decision on Friday. This is the fifth time this year the bank has cut rates, following similar reductions in March, April, May and last month. By repeatedly hiking rates last year, Hanoi successfully reined in double-digit inflation, which peaked at 23 percent in August last year, but was down to 6.9 percent year-on-year last month, its lowest rate in three years. Standard & Poor’s revised the nation’s outlook to stable from negative last month, citing the government’s successful fiscal tightening measures.
AEROSPACE
Bombardier sells eight jets
Canadian planemaker Bombardier announced on Saturday it had received an order for eight large business aircraft worth US$507 million from an undisclosed customer. The client, who according to Bombardier asked not to be named, ordered three Global 6000 and five Global 8000 jets. “Sales momentum for the Global product line is strong and we are experiencing tremendous success with the new Global 7000 and Global 8000 jets,” Steve Ridolfi, president of Bombardier Business Aircraft, said in a statement.
WASHINGTON’S INCENTIVES: The CHIPS Act set aside US$39 billion in direct grants to persuade the world’s top semiconductor companies to make chips on US soil The US plans to award more than US$6 billion to Samsung Electronics Co, helping the chipmaker expand beyond a project in Texas it has already announced, people familiar with the matter said. The money from the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act would be one of several major awards that the US Department of Commerce is expected to announce in the coming weeks, including a grant of more than US$5 billion to Samsung’s rival, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), people familiar with the plans said. The people spoke on condition of anonymity in advance of the official announcements. The federal funding for
HIGH DEMAND: The firm has strong capabilities of providing key components including liquid cooling technology needed for AI servers, chairman Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday revised its revenue outlook for this year to “significant” growth from a “neutral” view forecast five months ago, due to strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers from cloud service providers. Hon Hai, a major assembler of iPhones that is also known as Foxconn, expects AI server revenues to soar more than 40 percent annually this year, chairman Young Liu (劉揚偉) told investors. The robust growth would uplift revenue contribution from AI servers to 40 percent of the company’s overall server revenue this year, from 30 percent last year, Liu said. In the three-year period
LONG HAUL: Largan Energy Materials’ TNO-based lithium-ion batteries are expected to charge in five minutes and last about 20 years, far surpassing conventional technology Largan Precision Co (大立光) has formed a joint venture with the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI, 工研院) to produce fast-charging, long-life lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles, mobile electronics and electric storage units, the camera lens supplier for Apple Inc’s iPhones said yesterday. Largan Energy Materials Co (萬溢能源材料), established in January, is developing high-energy, fast-charging, long-life lithium-ion batteries using titanium niobium oxide (TNO) anodes, it said. TNO-based batteries can be fully charged in five minutes and have a lifespan of 20 years, a major advantage over the two to four hours of charging time needed for conventional graphite-anode-based batteries, Largan said in a
Taiwan is one of the first countries to benefit from the artificial intelligence (AI) boom, but because that is largely down to a single company it also represents a risk, former Google Taiwan managing director Chien Lee-feng (簡立峰) said at an AI forum in Taipei yesterday. Speaking at the forum on how generative AI can generate possibilities for all walks of life, Chien said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) — currently among the world’s 10 most-valuable companies due to continued optimism about AI — ensures Taiwan is one of the economies to benefit most from AI. “This is because AI is