COURIER
TNT profit disappoints
TNT Express NV, the Dutch delivery that United Parcel Service Inc (UPS) is planning to buy, reported third-quarter profit that missed analyst estimates as trade from Asia slowed. Net income rose to 9 million euros (US$11.6 million) from 5 million euros a year earlier, Hoofddorp, Netherlands-based TNT said in a statement yesterday. TNT Express, which agreed in March to be taken over by Atlanta-based UPS for 5.16 billion euros, said it expected the deal to be completed early next year, as the delivery services await antitrust approval from the EU.
BROKERAGE
Nomura back in the black
Japan’s top brokerage Nomura Holdings yesterday said that it swung to a profit in its fiscal second quarter, reversing a year-earlier loss thanks to solid gains in its trading business. However, the figure fell well short of expectations as Nomura, which is trying to move on from an embarrassing insider trading scandal, retools its operations in a bid to cut US$1 billion in costs.
For the July-to-September quarter, the company posted a net profit of ¥2.81 billion (US$35.2 million), reversing a year-ago loss of ¥46.1 billion. Revenue was ¥461.23 billion, up 22 percent from a year ago, Nomura said.
ELECTRONICS
Renesas losses expand
Renesas Electronics yesterday reported a fiscal second-quarter loss of US$1.18 billion owing to huge restructuring costs at the troubled Japanese microchip maker. The company, a major supplier of microcontrollers used in automobiles, said it lost ¥94.3 billion in the three months to September, compared with a loss of ¥8.8 billion in the same quarter a year ago. Revenue was down 8.5 percent at ¥222.8 billion, it said. Renesas kept unchanged its forecast of a net loss of ¥150 billion, an operating profit of ¥21 billion and sales of ¥868 billion in the full year to March.
ENERGY
Chevron Indonesia expands
Chevron Corp’s Indonesian unit, the nation’s largest producer of crude, has started a US$500 million expansion project at Sumatra’s Duri field. At peak production, the project at North Duri Development Area 13 is forecast to add 17,000 barrels a day to production, PT Chevron Pacific Indonesia said in an e-mailed statement yesterday. A Chevron spokesman in Singapore confirmed the news.
PETROCHEMICALS
Sinopec profit slides 9.4%
China’s Sinopec Corp (中國石化) said late on Sunday that third-quarter profit fell 9.4 percent to 18.3 million yuan (US$2.9 million), or earnings per share of 0.2 yuan, as declining output at its chemicals business outweighed fuel price hikes. The company, also known as China Petroleum and Chemical Corp, is Asia’s biggest refiner by volume and one of China’s three major state-owned oil companies. It said ethylene production fell 4.5 percent to 7.02 million tonnes. Synthetic resin output shrank 1.1 percent to 9.96 million tonnes.
VEHICLES
MAN suspends production
MAN, the truck-making arm of German auto giant Volkswagen, said on Sunday it was halting production at two sites and sending 15,000 staff home next week as it battles falling profits. A spokesman confirmed that two German plants, one in Munich and another in Salzgitter, would shut their doors and the staff would be forced to take leave from yesterday to Friday.
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
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],”