GERMANY
Retail sales take a hit
Retail sales fell unexpectedly in December last year, as consumer spending took a hit from the eurozone’s debt crisis, official data showed yesterday. Retail sales declined by 1.7 percent in December compared with November, in price, seasonally and calendar-adjusted terms, according to provisional figures published by the federal statistics office Destatis. Analysts surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires had expected a modest increase of 0.2 percent following a rise of 0.6 percent in November last year. On a 12-month basis, retail sales were down even more sharply by 4.7 percent in December. However, that was because there were two fewer shopping days in December last year than in 2011, the statisticians said. Taking last year as a whole, retail sales slipped by 0.3 percent, Destatis calculated. Monthly retail sales data are volatile and subject to frequent revision, but analysts said the data were nevertheless disappointing.
TECHNOLOGY
Lenovo’s Q3 profit jumps
Lenovo Group Ltd, the world’s second-biggest maker of personal computers, reported a 34 percent jump in third-quarter profit after increasing its market share and boosting smartphone sales. Net income climbed to US$204.9 million in the three months that ended on Dec. 31 last year, from US$153.5 million a year earlier, the company said in a statement on Wednesday. Excluding a US$20 million one-time gain, the figure was in line with analysts’ estimates. Sales climbed 12 percent to US$9.36 billion. Lenovo’s PC shipments rose 8 percent in the period, the only increase among the world’s four biggest suppliers, as it boosted North American consumer sales amid slowing global demand. The company has also developed mobile devices including smartphones and tablets that have helped it lure customers from Apple Inc and Samsung Electronics Co in China.
JAPAN
Industrial output rises
Industrial production picked up pace in December last year from a month before, in a sign the world’s third-largest economy may be stabilizing thanks to stronger global demand and government spending. Increased output of large passenger cars and vehicle components and machinery for making semiconductors were the main factors helping to drive the improvement in manufacturing, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said yesterday. It said industrial output rose a seasonally adjusted 2.5 percent from November last year.
AUTOMAKERS
Honda cuts profit forecast
Honda Motor Co, Japan’s third-largest carmaker, cut its full-year profit forecast as lower sales in China and Europe overshadowed the benefits from the weaker yen. Net income will likely be ¥370 billion (US$4.1 billion) in the 12 months ending March 31, compared with its previous estimate of ¥375 billion, the company said in a statement yesterday. Honda maintained its projections for operating profit and revenue, while cutting its forecast for global deliveries to 4.06 million from 4.12 million units. While Honda recovered from disruptions stemming from natural disasters in 2011, the company reported lower sales in China as a territorial dispute over a group of islands in the East China Sea fueled a consumer backlash in the world’s biggest auto market. A weaker yen may help drive gains in other markets for Honda, the first major Japanese automaker to report earnings.
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
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
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