FOREIGN EXCHANGE
Talks on A$-yuan conversion
Australia and Hong Kong officials will discuss the potential for direct conversion of the Australian dollar and Chinese yuan, particularly in the area of commodity exports, Australian Treasurer Wayne Swan said yesterday. The high-level talks, which are set to start in Sydney next year, will also support the development of new yuan-denominated financing and investment products, said Swan, who was speaking at a Hong Kong forum before traveling to Beijing. China is Australia’s biggest trading partner and Australia has been keen to become the third country allowed to directly convert capital amounts to yuan, after the US and Japan.
SEMICONDUCTORS
Applied Materials’ sales low
Applied Materials Inc cut its full-year forecast for this fiscal year, citing weaker than expected demand for its semiconductor equipment business, primarily among foundry customers. The shares fell in early trading. For the fiscal year ending Oct. 28 this year, the company expects net sales to be below the previous outlook of US$9.1 billion to US$9.5 billion, the Santa Clara, California-based company said yesterday in statement. Earnings excluding some items would be less than its previous projection of US$0.85 a share to US$0.95 cents a share, the company said. Applied Materials is seeing weaker demand from its foundry customers and manufacturers that build chips for other companies.
TELECOMS
Amazon tests smartphones
The online retail giant Amazon is testing a new smartphone and might launch production later this year or early next year, the Wall Street Journal reported yesterday. The story, datelined Taipei, said the company is working with Asian component suppliers to test the new device, which would enter a crowded market dominated by Apple’s iPhone, Samsung’s Galaxy handsets and LG models. Amazon expanded into the tablet market last year with the Kindle Fire, which runs on Google’s Android software. The Android platform is used by slightly more than half the smartphones in the US market, while the iPhone accounts for 31.9 percent, according to an industry survey released earlier this month.
AUTOMAKERS
1-euro deal saves jobs
Japan’s Mitsubishi Motors yesterday said it would sell its sole European plant to a Dutch industrial group for 1 euro (US$1.20) in a deal that calls on the buyer to keep 1,500 jobs at the facility. The automaker had earlier this year announced plans to end production at the factory in the southern Netherlands by the end of the year, blaming a difficult operating environment in the debt-hit continent. In a statement yesterday, the Japanese firm said it would sell Netherlands Car BV, or NedCar, to VDL Groep, which makes buses and a range of industrial products, for a token 1 euro in exchange for keeping the plant running.
EMPLOYMENT
S Korea jobless rate rises
South Korea’s jobless rate rose only marginally last month compared with a month earlier, figures showed yesterday, as the economy remained stable despite global turbulence. The unemployment rate stood at 3.2 percent last month, up from 3.1 percent in May, Statistics Korea said. The seasonally adjusted rate was unchanged from the previous month at 3.2 percent. Fewer jobs were created last month. Bosses added 365,000 more jobs year-on-year, compared with 472,000 in May.
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