TRADE
East Asia talks wrap up
China, Japan and South Korea yesterday concluded a first round of talks on securing a free-trade pact to bind three economies that account for 20 percent of global GDP. The three days of talks in Seoul that began on Tuesday were largely procedural, setting the agenda and scope of future negotiations when substantive trade issues will be discussed. The second round of the trilateral FTA talks will be held in China in June or July, followed by a third round in Japan later in the year.
INSURANCE
Swiss Re settles dispute
Swiss Re, one of the world’s biggest insurers, yesterday said it had settled a dispute with billionaire Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway over a 2010 life retrocession deal, and would accept a settlement of US$610 million from the US company. Swiss Re said in a statement it had agreed to take back some of the risks covered by the reinsurance contract with Berkshire Hathaway. The total protection provided by the US firm to Swiss Re will be reduced from US$1.5 billion to US$1.05 billion, it added.
AVIATION
US merger deal approved
A US bankruptcy court judge on Wednesday approved the merger of American Airlines (AMR) and US Airways, which will create the country’s largest airline, the two companies said. However, the judge left undecided the US$19.9 million payout planned for AMR chief executive Tom Horton, who will lose his job in the merger. The combined airline, to keep the American Airlines name, is to be led by current US Airways chief executive Doug Parker.
NEW ZEALAND
Telecom plans job cuts
Up to 1,200 people will soon lose their jobs at the nation’s largest telecommunications company. Telecom New Zealand yesterday announced that by midyear it plans to reduce its workforce by between 900 and 1,200 people, or 12 and 16 percent. Spokesman Andrew Pirie said customers are paying less for their telephone and Internet bills in a competitive market. He said the majority of the reductions would come through layoffs. Most jobs cuts will be in New Zealand, with about 120 in Australia.
GERMANY
Retail sales improve
Retail sales showed an unexpected increase last month, after already rising strongly the previous month, official data showed yesterday. Retail sales rose by 0.4 percent last month compared with January in price, seasonally and calendar-adjusted terms, according to provisional figures by the federal statistics office Destatis. However, on a 12-month basis retail sales were down by 2.2 percent last month, but that was partly because there was one fewer shopping day last month than in February last year, the statisticians said.
JAPAN
GS Yuasa shares hit
Shares in GS Yuasa, the Japanese battery supplier for Boeing’s troubled Dreamliner, plunged yesterday after its power packs overheated or caught fire in Mitsubishi’s electric and hybrid vehicles. The stock dropped 11.11 percent to ¥392 by the close in Tokyo after the automaker said on late on Wednesday that lithium-ion batteries made by a joint venture including GS Yuasa had suffered malfunctions in at least two instances. No one was injured in the incidents, which involved Mitsubishi’s i-MiEV model and its Outlander PHEV. Neither of the cars involved had yet been shipped to customers.
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
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
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has appointed Rose Castanares, executive vice president of TSMC Arizona, as president of the subsidiary, which is responsible for carrying out massive investments by the Taiwanese tech giant in the US state, the company said in a statement yesterday. Castanares will succeed Brian Harrison as president of the Arizona subsidiary on Oct. 1 after the incumbent president steps down from the position with a transfer to the Arizona CEO office to serve as an advisor to TSMC Arizona’s chairman, the statement said. According to TSMC, Harrison is scheduled to retire on Dec. 31. Castanares joined TSMC in
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