SOUTH KOREA
Industrial output rebounds
The nation’s industrial output showed a slight expansion in September from a month before, snapping a three-month run of contractions, government data showed yesterday. Production in the mining, manufacturing, gas and electricity industries grew 0.8 percent, following a revised 0.9 percent drop in August, Statistics Korea said. From a year earlier, the September reading was up 0.7 percent. Industrial output had fallen for three consecutive months beginning in June.
ARGENTINA
S&P cuts Argentine rating
Standard & Poor’s cut the country’s credit rating by one notch on Tuesday, four days after a key New York court ruling on Argentine bonds increased pressure on the government’s ability to manage its debts. S&P lowered the country’s rating to “B-” from “B,” deep into junk bond territory, and appended a negative outlook on the rating, a warning that another rating cut could come within a year if conditions in the nation’s economy worsen.
TELECOMS
Softbank first-half profit falls
Japanese mobile carrier Softbank, which recently announced a US$20 billion takeover of US firm Sprint Nextel, yesterday said its half-year net profit tumbled 22 percent from a year ago. The company posted a net profit for the six months to September of ¥169.4 billion (US$2.13 billion), while sales rose 3.3 percent to ¥1.59 trillion. Softbank said its half-year profit fell due to a special loss related to the slumping stock price of online games firm Zynga, in which it has a stake.
AUTO INDUSTRY
Ford defies Q3 forecasts
Ford Motor Co posted a third-quarter profit that trounced Wall Street forecasts on Tuesday, driven by higher vehicle prices and record profit margins of 12 percent in North America. In the third quarter, Ford posted an overall pretax operating profit of US$2.2 billion, or US$0.40 per share. In the third quarter, Ford earned US$2.3 billion in North America, but lost US$468 million in Europe. It earned US$9 million in South America as well as US$45 million in the Asia Pacific area and Africa, the first profit for those regions since the second quarter of last year.
FINANCE
Barclays reports Q3 loss
Barclays PLC has reported a third-quarter net loss of £200 million (US$322 million) as earnings were hit in part by a previously announced £700 million rise in provisions to compensate customers for payment protection insurance. The loss disclosed yesterday compared with a profit of £2.7 billion a year ago. Barclays said adjusted income, a measure of revenue, was flat at £22.3 billion. It was the bank’s first earnings report since Anthony Jenkins was appointed chief executive in August. He said the results demonstrated good momentum, but added: “we have much to do to restore trust among stakeholders.”
MANUFACTURING
ArcelorMittal posts loss
ArcelorMittal SA, the world’s largest steelmaker, has reported a third-quarter loss of US$709 million as compared with a US$659 million profit for the same period a year ago. The company yesterday cited the effect of China’s economic slowdown on the global economy and said it was committed to reducing its debt, and increasing its productivity and efficiency. The results were a sharp drop from those for the second quarter, when the company posted a net profit of US$959 million.
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
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