MINING
China tightens rare earths
China’s government has cut the number of permits issued for rare earths mining in a new move to tighten controls over the exotic minerals needed to manufacture mobile phones and other high-tech goods. State television yesterday said the Ministry of Land and Resources will cut the number of mining permits by 40 percent from 113 to 67. The report gave no indication how that was expected to affect the amount of rare earths produced.
SHIPPING
FedEx gloomy about future
FedEx Corp says the global economy is stalling, and it is going to get worse next year. On Tuesday, the world’s second-largest package delivery company said a continued slowdown in the developed world combined with high fuel prices will keep trade volumes at low levels. FedEx sharply cut its earnings forecast for the fiscal year ending in May. It cut its forecast for the full year to between US$6.2 and US$6.6 per share, from US$6.9 to US$7.4 previously.
TELECOMS
Brazil spurs innovation
Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff has approved new tax incentives to boost innovation in the information technology and telecommunications sectors, the official Agencia Brasil reported on Tuesday. The measures, published in the Official Gazette, are part of the government’s Brasil Maior (“Bigger Brazil”) plan unveiled in August last year to strengthen the productivity and competitiveness of Brazilian industries. The plan provides incentives, financing and tax relief for domestic sectors, including information and communication technology.
CREDIT
Australia still rated ‘AAA’
International credit agency Standard & Poor’s yesterday affirmed mining-driven Australia’s “AAA” rating with a stable outlook, but warned about its growing reliance on the Chinese economy. Australia is one of only a handful of nations to hold the top rating, with its economy growing a solid 0.6 percent in the three months to June and 3.7 percent from a year earlier. However, the figure was less than half the upwardly revised 1.4 percent in the first quarter of this year and below analyst predictions of 0.8 percent.
VIDEO GAMES
PlayStation 3 gets smaller
Sony Corp is introducing a smaller, slimmer and lighter version of its PlayStation 3 home console ahead of the year-end holidays as it gears up for growing competition in games from smartphones. The announcement yesterday from the Japanese company comes a day ahead of the annual Tokyo Game Show, where game makers show their wares. The new PlayStation 3, closer to the size of a laptop, is half the size of the original model, introduced in 2006. It also offers more hard-drive memory at 500 gigabytes and 250 gigabytes, up from the current 320 and 160 options. The global rollout starts on Sept. 25 in North America.
FINANCE
Goldman Sachs CFO retires
Goldman Sachs Group Inc’s chief financial officer is retiring, and his replacement is a longtime executive at the investment bank. David Viniar, 57, is stepping down after 32 years with Goldman, the last 12 as CFO. Harvey Schwartz, 48, will replace him at the end of January, the bank said on Tuesday. After Viniar leaves the post, he will join Goldman’s board as a non-independent director.
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
FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six