AUTOMAKERS
Honda ramps US production
Honda Motor is ramping up production in the US and expects to double its US-made vehicle exports in the next few years, a senior Honda official said on Wednesday. Honda will export about 100,000 units this year to markets in Europe, South America and Asia, said Rick Schostek, senior vice president of Honda of America Manufacturing. Last year, Honda’s operations in the US exported 53,000 units outside North America, he said. Schostek announced that Honda will invest US$40 million in an Indiana plant to increase annual production capacity by 50,000 units, to a total of 250,000 vehicles.
APPLIANCES
Electrolux’s profits rise
Electrolux, the world’s second-largest maker of household appliances, says second-quarter profits rose around 12 percent thanks to stronger sales in emerging markets as well as a round of successful product price increases in North America. The Stockholm-based group, a maker of washing machines, dryers, refrigerators and vacuum cleaners, yesterday reported a net profit of 1.26 billion kronor (US$181 million) in the three-month period, up from 1.14 billion kronor in the same quarter a year ago. Revenues rose to 27.76 billion kronor from 24.14 billion kronor, boosted by sales growth in Latin America, Southeast Asia and Eastern Europe. Although the company continues to report higher raw material costs and weaker demand in Western Europe, it is still increasing its market share there.
BANKING
UK’s Lloyds sells branches
Lloyds Banking Group has agreed the sale of 632 branches to the Co-Operative Group, concluding a process aimed at boosting competition in British high-street banking and streamlining its business at the behest of regulators. Lloyds — which is 40 percent owned by the UK government — said the Co-Op would pay £350 million (US$546.79 million) for the branches and up to £400 million in additional payments in a deal creating another major British bank. The deal will bring 4.8 million new customers to Co-Op’s burgeoning brand, including 3.1 million current account holders, and means the Co-Op will run around 1,000 branches, or approximately 10 percent of the UK network.
ITALY
Industry sales defy recession
Industrial orders rose 1.7 percent in May after a fall the previous month with a 2 percent rise in foreign orders despite a grinding recession, the official ISTAT data agency said yesterday. According to the seasonally adjusted data, ISTAT said in a statement that there was also a 1.6 percent increase in orders from Italy. Industrial orders had fallen by 1.9 percent in April, but orders were still down 9.4 percent in May on a 12-month comparison. The economy entered recession in the second half of last year and is not expected to start recovery until next year. The Bank of Italy on Tuesday predicted an economic contraction of 2 percent this year.
BANKING
Deustche Bank to cut jobs
Deutsche Bank, Germany’s biggest lender, is to cut 1,000 jobs in its investment banking division, the business daily Handelsblatt reported yesterday, quoting “well-informed financial sources.” The layoffs had become necessary in view of the difficult situation in the financial markets and most of the jobs would be cut outside Germany, with Deutsche Bank likely to unveil them when it publishes its second-quarter results on July 31, the newspaper said. Deutsche Bank declined to comment on the report.
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
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],”
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
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day