JAPAN
Kuroda signals ‘bold’ easing
Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda yesterday said that policymakers would live up to market expectations for “bold” monetary easing, ahead of his first policy meeting since taking the post last month. The two-day meeting starts today. “It is not easy to break out of 15 years of deflation,” he told a parliamentary committee, but added: “It is important that we show a strong commitment to mobilizing all the policy measures that the Bank of Japan has and doing everything possible, and that we explain this to markets appropriately” to stoke growth. Kuroda’s remarks stoked speculation that the central bank will launch a new wave of aggressive policy measures that tend to weaken the yen, helping the country’s exporters.
AUSTRALIA
Bank holds rates steady
The central bank kept interest rates on hold at 3 percent yesterday, saying that global downside risks appeared to have eased, but domestic pressures were lingering. Reserve Bank of Australia Governor Glenn Stevens said there were a “number of indications that the substantial easing of monetary policy during late 2011 and 2012 is having an expansionary effect,” but that more time was needed. “At today’s meeting, the board judged that it was prudent to leave the cash rate unchanged,” he added.
SPAIN
Joblessness at five-year low
Government figures show that the number of people registered as unemployed edged down by a little under 5,000 last month, the first reduction for the month in five years. The Ministry of Employment and Social Security yesterday said the decline showed that the government’s policies are working. However, the scale of the task remains huge as the number of peopel registered as unemployed stands at 5.04 million. The nation is fighting to cut an unemployment rate of about 26 percent.
AVIATION
Boeing retests Dreamliner
Boeing Co conducted another test flight of its 787 passenger jet over the US’ west coast. The company said that Monday’s flight was designed to test system upgrades and not to certify changes in the plane’s batteries. Airlines have 50 of the planes, which Boeing calls the Dreamliner, but they are still grounded after two of them overheated. Boeing is trying to assure regulators that the batteries are safe after some design changes were made.
MINING
Xstrata-Glencore delayed
Swiss mining giant Xstrata PLC and commodities trader Glencore International PLC yesterday announced that they had pushed back the date to finalist their merger further as they wait for approval from Chinese authorities. The companies pushed back the so-called long stop date for the merger to create a global mining and commodities leader to May 2 from April 16. If it obtains the final regulatory approval and completes the court process as set out in the merger agreement, Glencore-Xstrata would enter the stage among the world’s top commodities companies.
MEDIA
Lagardere to sell Amaury
French media giant Lagardere Group yesterday said it is selling its 25 percent stake in Les Editions P Amaury SA, the publisher of newspaper Le Parisien, for 91.4 million euros (US$117.5 million). Amaury, which also publishes sports paper L’Equipe and organizes sporting events such as the Tour de France, will buy back its shares following shareholders approval, Lagardere said in a statement.
WASHINGTON’S INCENTIVES: The CHIPS Act set aside US$39 billion in direct grants to persuade the world’s top semiconductor companies to make chips on US soil The US plans to award more than US$6 billion to Samsung Electronics Co, helping the chipmaker expand beyond a project in Texas it has already announced, people familiar with the matter said. The money from the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act would be one of several major awards that the US Department of Commerce is expected to announce in the coming weeks, including a grant of more than US$5 billion to Samsung’s rival, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), people familiar with the plans said. The people spoke on condition of anonymity in advance of the official announcements. The federal funding for
HIGH DEMAND: The firm has strong capabilities of providing key components including liquid cooling technology needed for AI servers, chairman Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday revised its revenue outlook for this year to “significant” growth from a “neutral” view forecast five months ago, due to strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers from cloud service providers. Hon Hai, a major assembler of iPhones that is also known as Foxconn, expects AI server revenues to soar more than 40 percent annually this year, chairman Young Liu (劉揚偉) told investors. The robust growth would uplift revenue contribution from AI servers to 40 percent of the company’s overall server revenue this year, from 30 percent last year, Liu said. In the three-year period
LONG HAUL: Largan Energy Materials’ TNO-based lithium-ion batteries are expected to charge in five minutes and last about 20 years, far surpassing conventional technology Largan Precision Co (大立光) has formed a joint venture with the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI, 工研院) to produce fast-charging, long-life lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles, mobile electronics and electric storage units, the camera lens supplier for Apple Inc’s iPhones said yesterday. Largan Energy Materials Co (萬溢能源材料), established in January, is developing high-energy, fast-charging, long-life lithium-ion batteries using titanium niobium oxide (TNO) anodes, it said. TNO-based batteries can be fully charged in five minutes and have a lifespan of 20 years, a major advantage over the two to four hours of charging time needed for conventional graphite-anode-based batteries, Largan said in a
Taiwan is one of the first countries to benefit from the artificial intelligence (AI) boom, but because that is largely down to a single company it also represents a risk, former Google Taiwan managing director Chien Lee-feng (簡立峰) said at an AI forum in Taipei yesterday. Speaking at the forum on how generative AI can generate possibilities for all walks of life, Chien said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) — currently among the world’s 10 most-valuable companies due to continued optimism about AI — ensures Taiwan is one of the economies to benefit most from AI. “This is because AI is