TRADE
Japan to join TPP talks
Japan and the US have agreed on a deal to allow Tokyo to join talks on a US-led Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) pact that Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is making a keystone of his strategy to open the economy and spur long-sought growth. “Japan and the US agreed,” Abe told reporters yesterday at the start of a meeting with Cabinet ministers involved in trade matters. He said he wanted Tokyo to join talks on the pact as soon as possible. Tokyo needs formal approval by all 11 participating countries to take part in the talks. Japan hopes to join the talks as early as July.
ECONOMY
IMF cuts US forecast
The IMF lowered its forecast for US growth as automatic budget cuts slow the expansion, according to a draft of the lender’s World Economic Outlook. US GDP will expand 1.7 percent this year compared with a previously forecast 2 percent advance, according to the draft report obtained by Bloomberg News. The draft, which was presented to the IMF board last week, may be subject to revisions before its scheduled release on Tuesday.
ECONOMY
Australian deficit grows
Australia’s national budget fell further into deficit in February due in part to the effects of the high local dollar, taking the total shortfall to A$23.6 billion (US$24.9 billion) for the first eight months of the financial year, Treasury figures showed. The gap in the financial year to Feb. 28 was A$5.7 billion, primarily due to lower tax revenue and higher personal benefit payments, the Treasury said. In its mid-year review in October last year, the government forecast a budget surplus of A$1.08 billion in the 12 months ending June 30.
ECONOMY
India still fragile
India’s industrial production rose just 0.6 percent in February from a year earlier, official data showed yesterday, indicating Asia’s third-largest economy remains fragile. However, the increase in output at factories, mines and utilities outpaced analysts’ expectations of a 1 percent decline, according to a Dow Jones Newswires poll, and followed a preliminary 2.4 percent rise in January. Manufacturing, which accounts for three-quarters of India’s Index of Industrial Production, grew 2.2 percent in February from a year earlier.
EMPLOYMENT
Siemens to cut 3,000 jobs
German engineering giant Siemens on Thursday said it is planning to cut more than 3,000 jobs in its industrial division as part of a vast plan to save 6 billion euros (US$7.8 billion) as it faces falling profits. It said 500 jobs would be cut at its Munich headquarters and 500 would be lost by reducing mechanics factories in Germany from four to two. The closure of a factory in Pakistan would result in 200 job losses and 200 positions would be moved from Germany to the Czech Republic. In addition, 1,700 sales positions would be lost.
BANKING
Japanese CEO steps down
Royal Bank of Scotland Group’s Japan brokerage unit CEO Ryusuke Otani is preparing to step down as the firm faces punishment for attempts to rig benchmark interest rates, two people with knowledge of the situation said. Otani was to leave RBS Securities Japan Ltd as early as yesterday, one of the people said. Japan’s Financial Services Agency will announce penalties, including a business improvement order, the people 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],”