EMPLOYMENT
Eurozone jobless rate rises
Official figures on Tuesday showed that unemployment across the 17 EU countries that use the euro has struck 12 percent for the first time since the currency was launched in 1999. Eurostat, the EU’s statistics office, said the rate in February was unchanged at the record high after January’s figure was revised up to 12 percent from 11.9 percent. A total of 19.07 million people were officially out of work in the eurozone in February, nearly 2 million more than the same month the year before. For the 27-country EU, of which the eurozone is a large part, the unemployment rate was 10.9 percent.
INDIA
Singh pushes investment
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is appealing to business leaders to help return the country to a path of high economic growth and is promising in return to cut the red tape hampering investment. Singh told a meeting of business leaders yesterday that he was optimistic the country could jumpstart the economy. He also called for a revival of the investment climate and stressed that this could be done by removing the “many impediments affecting the implementation of infrastructure projects.”
MANUFACTURING
Sony, Olympus deal okayed
A joint-venture deal between Sony and medical equipment maker Olympus has won regulatory approval, the firms said yesterday, after it was held up by China’s competition watchdog. Sony and Olympus had initially planned the launch of a joint venture from Monday as Sony, which is trying to repair a dented balance sheet, invests ¥50 billion (US$535 million) in Olympus as part of a drive to tap the lucrative medical equipment market.
AVIATION
EADS buyback approved
The new board of European Aeronautic Defence & Space Co (EADS) has approved an 18-month share buyback plan worth up to 3.75 billion euros (US$4.8 billion). The company, which owns the plane maker Airbus, will buy up to 15 percent of EADS stock at a maximum price of 50 euros per share, the company said in a statement on Tuesday, using cash on hand, and then cancel the shares. The move was approved by shareholders last week.
STOCKS
Intelsat revises IPO plan
Satellite operator Intelsat Global Holdings on Tuesday revived its plan for an initial public offering (IPO) on the New York Stock Exchange, aiming to raise up to US$710 million, less than half of what it envisioned last year. Intelsat, the privately held satellite-services giant, plans to use the IPO proceeds to pay down debt, according to a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. The Luxembourg group is offering to sell 21.7 million common shares, priced between US$21 and US$25 per share.
UNITED STATES
Frugality patterns to stay
The frugality and investing discipline that the 2008 financial crisis imposed on Americans appear to have instilled permanent changes in behavior on money matters, according to survey findings released yesterday by Fidelity Investments, the nation’s second-largest mutual fund company. Findings from the “Five Years After” survey of nearly 1,200 investors suggest that spendthrift ways are unlikely to again become as pervasive as they were before the crisis. Positive behaviors that appear to be entrenched include saving more, paying down debt and taking greater care to invest wisely.
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
FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six