BRAZIL
Economy may be cooling
The country last year posted its smallest trade surplus in a decade as exports fell more than 5 percent, the Ministry of Industry and Trade said on Wednesday. The surplus totaled US$19.4 billion, plummeting 34.8 percent from 2011 in the latest sign of cooling in Latin America’s largest economy. Exports totaled US$242.5 billion, a drop of 5.3 percent, while imports declined 1.4 percent to US$223.1 billion, the ministry said. Last month the Central Bank cut its GDP growth forecast for last year from 1.6 percent to 1 percent. It was the third downward revision by the bank last year, from 3.5 percent to 2.5 percent in June, then down to 1.6 percent in September and to 1 percent last month.
AUTOMAKERS
New car registrations fall
French new car registrations hit a 15-year low point last year and business looks like it will be just as tough this year, data from the French automobile manufacturers’ association, CCFA, showed on Wednesday, mirroring slumps seen elsewhere in the 17-nation eurozone. In France, auto sales fell by 13.9 percent to 1.899 million units, a CCFA statement said. The drop was compounded by the end of government-funded buying schemes that had boosted sales between 2009 and early 2011. The worst hit companies were French automakers Peugeot Citroen, where sales shrank by 17.5 percent, and Renault, down by 22 percent.
SYRIA
Port operator pulls out
A Philippine-based container port operator says it has decided to pull out of the country and has withdrawn all of its Filipino workers from a key port due to the ongoing civil war. The withdrawal of Manila-based International Container Terminal Services Inc, through its local subsidiary Tartous International Container Terminal, could effectively derail cargo services at the northwest port city of Tartous. ICTSI senior vice president Hans-Ole Madsen said in an e-mail on Wednesday that the Philippine company is the sole container operator in Tartous via a concession granted by the Ministry of Transport.
TECHNOLOGY
‘App store’ use upheld
A US federal judge on Wednesday rejected Apple Inc’s claim of false advertising for Amazon.com Inc to refer to its online shop for mobile gadget applications as an “app store.” “Apple has failed to establish that Amazon made any false statement of fact that actually deceived or had the tendency to deceive a substantial segment of its audience,” US District Judge Phyllis Hamilton said in her ruling. “The mere use of ‘Appstore’ by Amazon to designate a site for viewing and downloading/purchasing apps cannot be construed as a representation that the nature, characteristics, or quality of the Amazon Appstore is the same as that of the Apple App Store,” she said.
INDIA
IPO paybacks considered
The stock market regulator is considering a plan that would see small investors reimbursed if they lose money buying newly issued shares in a bid to boost confidence in initial public offerings (IPOs), a report said yesterday. The Securities and Exchange Board of India is seeking to convince small investors to put money into IPOs after volatile flotations prompted suspicions of price manipulation, the Wall Street Journal said. The refund would be provided if the stock dropped more than 20 percent from its issue price within three months of listing, even if the broader market was steady or rising, the Journal said.
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],”