SOUTH KOREA
Economy grows 2 percent
South Korea’s central bank confirmed yesterday that the economy grew just 2 percent last year — the slowest rate in three years — on weak export growth and consumer demand. The growth figure was in line with the Bank of Korea’s preliminary estimate made in January. Exports, which account for 50 percent of GDP, grew 4.2 percent last year, down from 9.1 percent growth the year before. The central bank recently slashed its forecast for economic growth for this year to 2.8 percent from the 3.2 percent it estimated in October last year.
GERMANY
Growth forecast slashed
An influential panel of top economic advisers to the government downgraded its growth forecast on Monday, saying Europe’s top economy would only expand 0.3 percent. In November last year, the panel, known as Germany’s “Five Wise Men,” had predicted an already very sluggish growth rate of 0.8 percent for this year and next, blaming a recent downturn and shrinking demand from abroad. The government has predicted 0.4 percent growth this year after slowing down to 0.7 percent last year.
ENERGY
Suzlon restructures debt
India’s troubled wind energy giant Suzlon said yesterday that it has raised US$647 million by selling bonds, which will be used to repay loans as part of its debt restructuring plans. Suzlon, once a star of India’s green technology sector, called it an “important milestone” for the group and a key requirement in its corporate debt restructuring plans with its creditors. State Bank of India, the country’s largest bank and a lender to Suzlon, had issued a letter of credit — or a guarantee — to potential bond buyers, which helped Suzlon to gain easier access to bond markets.
INVESTMENT
Germany eyes Brazil
Germany is keen to boost its already substantial investment in Brazil ahead of next year’s soccer World Cup and the 2016 Rio Olympics, the new president of the Brazil-Germany Chamber of Commerce said on Monday. Thomas Schmall, the head of Volkswagen’s Brazil unit, who has just been elected chamber president for a two-year term, told a press conference that about 1,500 political and business leaders from both countries would meet in May to discuss investment opportunities.
SHIPBUILDERS
Hyundai wins Total order
Hyundai Heavy Industries, the world’s largest shipbuilder, said yesterday it had won a US$2 billion order to build two offshore platforms for French energy giant Total. Under the deal with Total’s Republic of the Congo unit, the South Korean company is to build and deliver by early 2016 a drilling platform, and a floating oil and gas production platform, Hyundai said. The two platforms will operate at the Moho Nord field 80km off the southwestern coast of the Republic of the Congo, which is believed to have a crude oil reserve of about 3 billion barrels.
CONGLOMERATES
Hutchison beats forecasts
Hutchison Whampoa Ltd (和記黃埔), the company controlled by billionaire Li Ka-shing (李嘉誠), posted full-year profits that beat analysts’ forecasts on earnings from retail and investments. Net income fell 53 percent to HK$26.1 billion (US$3.4 billion), or earnings per share of HK$6.13, the Hong Kong-based company said yesterday. Growth in retail and property, as well as foreign exchange gains boosted operating income, the company 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],”