JAPAN
Tax increase to be decided
Liberal Democratic Party Leader (LPD) Shinzo Abe said he would decide whether to increase a sales tax next year based on economic conditions in the second quarter. “It’s impossible to raise the tax if deflation deepens,” Abe said during a Fuji television program yesterday. A decision will be made after data on economic conditions from April to June become available next August, he said. Polls show the LDP, the largest opposition party, is on track to return to power it lost in 2009 after the election on Sunday, with Abe in line to become prime minister. Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda won parliamentary approval in August for his bill to raise the country’s sales tax for the first time in 15 years. The bill raises the tax to 8 percent in April 2014 and to 10 percent in 2015.
AGRICULTURE
Meat packing plant relisted
A Canadian meatpacking plant involved in a large recall of contaminated beef products over E. coli bacteria concerns is again being allowed to ship products to the US. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency said on Friday that the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) has relisted the XL Foods plant in Brooks, Alberta, effective immediately. Canada revoked the plant’s permit to export beef to the US on Sept. 13 at the request of the USDA after several of the company’s beef products were recalled. A massive recall was also implemented in Canada after 16 people became ill.
MEXICO
Economy to grow 3.5 percent
Treasury Secretary Luis Videgaray estimates the country’s economy will increase 3.5 percent next year, slightly less than the almost 4 percent growth next year. He expects inflation to run at 3 percent. Videgaray presented Congress on Friday with a balanced budget plan for next year. Lawmakers are expected to approve the budget by the end of the year. The treasury secretary projects next year’s price for a barrel of oil at US$84.90 and pegs output at 2.55 million barrels a day. Oil revenues finance about 30 percent of the federal government’s budget.
TECHNOLOGY
Cisco affirms growth target
Cisco Systems Inc chief executive officer John Chambers affirmed the company’s long-term revenue growth target of 5 percent to 7 percent as he expands software and services to lessen reliance on routers and switches. Cisco, the world’s largest maker of computer networking equipment, is looking for new markets amid intensifying competition from rivals. A central part of that effort has been the acquisition of software and services companies with strong recurring sales and profit margins. Services will become a bigger part of Cisco’s revenue, reaching 25 percent of sales, Chambers said on Friday at a financial analysts’ conference in New York. That business accounted for 21 percent of Cisco’s US$46.1 billion in revenue in the last fiscal year.
RETAIL
Groupon shares surge
Groupon shares surged on Friday as market players reacted to chatter about a possible takeover for the troubled online deals company. Groupon closed with a gain of 22.97 percent at US$4.68. The Chicago-based firm made no comment on reports of takeover talk. Nor did Google, which made an unsuccessful US$6 billion bid for Groupon a year ago. Groupon in September reported a loss of US$3 million in results that came up shy of most analyst forecasts for a small profit.
WASHINGTON’S INCENTIVES: The CHIPS Act set aside US$39 billion in direct grants to persuade the world’s top semiconductor companies to make chips on US soil The US plans to award more than US$6 billion to Samsung Electronics Co, helping the chipmaker expand beyond a project in Texas it has already announced, people familiar with the matter said. The money from the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act would be one of several major awards that the US Department of Commerce is expected to announce in the coming weeks, including a grant of more than US$5 billion to Samsung’s rival, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), people familiar with the plans said. The people spoke on condition of anonymity in advance of the official announcements. The federal funding for
HIGH DEMAND: The firm has strong capabilities of providing key components including liquid cooling technology needed for AI servers, chairman Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday revised its revenue outlook for this year to “significant” growth from a “neutral” view forecast five months ago, due to strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers from cloud service providers. Hon Hai, a major assembler of iPhones that is also known as Foxconn, expects AI server revenues to soar more than 40 percent annually this year, chairman Young Liu (劉揚偉) told investors. The robust growth would uplift revenue contribution from AI servers to 40 percent of the company’s overall server revenue this year, from 30 percent last year, Liu said. In the three-year period
LONG HAUL: Largan Energy Materials’ TNO-based lithium-ion batteries are expected to charge in five minutes and last about 20 years, far surpassing conventional technology Largan Precision Co (大立光) has formed a joint venture with the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI, 工研院) to produce fast-charging, long-life lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles, mobile electronics and electric storage units, the camera lens supplier for Apple Inc’s iPhones said yesterday. Largan Energy Materials Co (萬溢能源材料), established in January, is developing high-energy, fast-charging, long-life lithium-ion batteries using titanium niobium oxide (TNO) anodes, it said. TNO-based batteries can be fully charged in five minutes and have a lifespan of 20 years, a major advantage over the two to four hours of charging time needed for conventional graphite-anode-based batteries, Largan said in a
Taiwan is one of the first countries to benefit from the artificial intelligence (AI) boom, but because that is largely down to a single company it also represents a risk, former Google Taiwan managing director Chien Lee-feng (簡立峰) said at an AI forum in Taipei yesterday. Speaking at the forum on how generative AI can generate possibilities for all walks of life, Chien said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) — currently among the world’s 10 most-valuable companies due to continued optimism about AI — ensures Taiwan is one of the economies to benefit most from AI. “This is because AI is