INDIA
Industrial output up 8.2%
India’s industrial output climbed by a surprising 8.2 percent from a year ago in October, data showed yesterday. The figures marked a big improvement from a revised contraction of 0.7 percent in September and far outpaced market expectations of a 5 percent rise, according to a Dow Jones Newswires poll. The increase was helped by a weak base in October last year, when production contracted 5 percent, but output of consumer goods climbed 13.2 percent, suggesting improving demand.
MACHINERY
Japan orders rise 2.6%
Japan’s machinery orders rose for the first time in three months, a sign that companies may expect the world’s third-largest economy to return to growth next year. Orders, an indicator of capital spending, climbed 2.6 percent in October from the previous month, Japan’s Cabinet Office said yesterday. The median estimate of 25 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News was for a 3 percent increase. Large orders can cause volatile results. Orders from the auto industry rose 17.8 percent, the first rise in five months.
CHEMICALS
DuPont predicts profit rise
Chemicals giant DuPont Co said on Tuesday it should reach the high end of its net income guidance this year and profit will grow in the low to mid-single digits next year. The company added that it planned to buy back up to US$1 billion of its shares next year. DuPont has forecast net income of between US$3.25 and US$3.30 per share from continuing operations this year. The company says sales will grow in the low single digits next year. DuPont expects weaker results from its performance chemicals unit and solid growth from other businesses.
AUTOMAKERS
Peugeot to cut 1,500 jobs
French automaker PSA Peugeot Citroen is to shed an additional 1,500 positions by not replacing departing workers, on top of 8,000 job cuts already announced, union sources said on Tuesday. After a meeting with management, union sources said the company would cut 11,214 jobs in total by the middle of 2014, including the 8,000 announced in July and the 1,500 non-replaced workers. The rest will come from voluntary departures. Peugeot this summer announced it planned to cut 8,000 jobs.
ELECTRONICS
LG falls on Apple rumors
LG Display Co’s shares declined in Seoul trading on speculation Apple Inc may introduce an upgraded iPhone 5 version earlier than expected, potentially cutting the South Korean company’s shipments for the existing model. Shares of the world’s second-largest LCD maker slipped 4.9 percent to 32,700 won at the close on the Korea Exchange, its steepest loss since June 4. LG Display spokeswoman Claire Ohm declined to comment. LG Display shares have climbed 33 percent this year, compared with a 8.2 percent gain in the benchmark KOSPI.
BIOTECHNOLOGY
Milner funds 23andMe
Russian billionaire Yuri Milner, who backed companies ranging from Facebook Inc to gaming company Zynga Inc, has led a US$50 million funding round into 23andMe, a US company that helps people decipher their genetic makeup. Existing investors joining the funding round include chief executive Anne Wojcicki; Sergey Brin, Wojcicki’s husband and cofounder of Google Inc; New Enterprise Associates; Google Ventures; and MPM Capital.
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: The US company could switch orders from TSMC to alternative suppliers, but that would lower chip quality, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), whose products have become the hottest commodity in the technology world, on Wednesday said that the scramble for a limited amount of supply has frustrated some customers and raised tensions. “The demand on it is so great, and everyone wants to be first and everyone wants to be most,” he told the audience at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc technology conference in San Francisco. “We probably have more emotional customers today. Deservedly so. It’s tense. We’re trying to do the best we can.” Huang’s company is experiencing strong demand for its latest generation of chips, called
EUROPE ON HOLD: Among a flurry of announcements, Intel said it would postpone new factories in Germany and Poland, but remains committed to its US expansion Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger has landed Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a customer for the company’s manufacturing business, potentially bringing work to new plants under construction in the US and boosting his efforts to turn around the embattled chipmaker. Intel and AWS are to coinvest in a custom semiconductor for artificial intelligence computing — what is known as a fabric chip — in a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar framework,” Intel said in a statement on Monday. The work would rely on Intel’s 18A process, an advanced chipmaking technology. Intel shares rose more than 8 percent in late trading after the