GERMANY
Retail sales slip forecast
The Federal Statistical Office is estimating that retail sales in the country — which is Europe’s biggest economy — slipped by between 0.1 and 0.3 percent last year compared with the previous year. The estimate released yesterday was based on sales figures from January through November, adjusted for inflation and for the fact that December had two shopping days fewer than the same month in 2011. Official growth figures for last year are due on Jan. 15. The statistical office reported that retail sales in November were 1.2 percent higher than the previous month, but 0.9 percent lower than a year earlier.
UNITED STATES
Transocean agrees payout
Transocean Ltd agreed to pay US$1.4 billion to settle US government charges over BP PLC’s massive Gulf of Mexico oil spill in 2010 and the rig contractor admitted that its crew on the Deepwater Horizon was partly responsible. Transocean, which employed nine of the 11 workers killed in the accident, had set aside US$1.5 billion for the US Department of Justice out of a US$1.95 billion Macondo loss provision. The settlement, unveiled on Thursday, includes US$1 billion in civil penalties and US$400 million in criminal penalties. Still looming is a settlement with the plaintiffs committee that represents more than 100,000 individuals and business owners claiming economic and medical damages. The ultimate cost to Transocean could end up being more than US$4 billion, UBS analyst Angie Sedita said. Last year, BP reached a US$7.8 billion plaintiffs liability settlement.
AUSTRALIA
Soy milk lawsuit widened
Hundreds of people who became sick after drinking soy milk containing dangerously high levels of iodine have widened their class-action lawsuit to include two Japanese companies, lawyers said. About 600 Australians became ill after consuming Bonsoy milk, many suffering thyroid problems, up until the product was withdrawn from sale in late 2009, Maurice Blackburn Lawyers said. The case against the Australian brand owner Spiral Foods launched in 2010 had been widened to include manufacturer Marusan-ai Co and exporter Muso Co, the firm said. Victims are seeking compensation for medical expenses, loss of income and for the pain and suffering.
INDIA
Infosys planning job cuts
The country’s second-largest software outsourcer, Infosys Technologies Ltd, is planning to cut up to 5,000 jobs, a report said yesterday, as it seeks to reduce costs. “Infosys is asking the worst performers, about 3-4 percent of the 151,000 work force, to leave straightaway,” the Economic Times said, citing people familiar with the development. The Bangalore-based firm wants to reduce costs and move toward a more aggressive sales strategy, the report said. Infosys was not available for comment on the report.
AUTOMOBILES
Fiat to boost Chrysler stake
Italian auto giant Fiat on Thursday said it was exercising its option to increase by 3.3 percentage points its stake in US automaker Chrysler to 65.17 percent for US$198 million. Fiat said the value of the purchase from a trust run by the US auto union UAW to pay health care benefits for Chrysler retirees was its estimate, which still had to be determined by a US court. Fiat boss Sergio Marchionne is also chief executive of the Chrysler Group, though the two groups still operate independently. Marchionne does not foresee a full merger before 2015.
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
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
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