AUTOMAKERS
Toyota to raise production
Toyota Motor plans to raise domestic production from next month until September by about 10 percent from its earlier estimate thanks to the recent weak yen, it was reported yesterday. Toyota has already revised up planned output for next month and May by 10 percent to between 13,000 and 13,500 vehicles a day and it now intends to keep production at that level until September, the Nikkei business daily said. The weakening Japanese currency is seen pushing up exports of the Corolla and Prius to North America, as well as vehicles for the Middle Eastern market, the newspaper said. Domestic output for the nine months to September is expected to reach 2.5 million units, topping the earlier plan by some 200,000 units, it said, adding that the firm may revise up its annual estimate of 3.1 million units.
FOOD
PepsiCo denies acquisition
PepsiCo Inc says it is not interested in any big acquisitions after a report suggested a major snack food deal could bring its Doritos under the same roof as Oreos. The Purchase, New York, company, which dominates the salty snack market with Frito-Lay, issued a short statement on Friday after the Telegraph of London said activist investor Nelson Peltz could push it to merge with Mondelez, which is known for sweets including Cadbury and Nabisco. The report cited unnamed sources as saying Peltz, who is known for making big investments then forcing change, has been building stakes in the two companies in recent weeks. PepsiCo has long been the subject of speculation that it would spin off its underperforming beverage business. CEO Indra Nooyi tried to squash such talk last year with a “Power of One” marketing campaign that featured the company’s sodas alongside its chips.
FINANCE
JPMorgan endorses Dimon
JPMorgan Chase’s board on Friday “strongly” endorsed Jamie Dimon to continue serving as both chairman and chief executive despite last year’s embarrassing US$6.2 billion trading loss in the “London Whale” debacle. JPMorgan had “strong” performance under Dimon “during a time when many other financial institutions with independent chairs experienced great difficulty,” the company said in its annual proxy filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
ENGINEERING
Bosch to quit solar sector
German engineering company Bosch on Friday said that it is abandoning its solar energy business, because there is no way to make it economically viable amid overcapacity and huge price pressure in the industry. The solar power industry has been hit by falling subsidies, weaker sales and increasingly stiff price competition, especially by Chinese manufacturers. Robert Bosch GmbH’s move came after German industrial conglomerate Siemens announced in October last year that it would give up its lossmaking solar business. Bosch said that it would stop making products such as solar cells, wafers and modules at the beginning of next year. It is to sell a plant in Venissieux, France, and is abandoning a plan to build a new plant in Malaysia.
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
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
GLOBAL ECONOMY: Policymakers have a choice of a small 25 basis-point cut or a bold cut of 50 basis points, which would help the labor market, but might reignite inflation The US Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut in more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the US presidential election. Senior officials at the US central bank including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool. The Fed, which has a dual mandate from the US Congress to act independently to ensure