SPAIN
Jobless rate soars
The unemployment rate soared to a new record of 27.16 percent of the workforce in the first quarter of this year as the number of those without jobs surpassed 6 million, National Statistics Institute data showed yesterday. The rate jumped from 26.02 percent in the previous quarter. The number of unemployed climbed by 237,400 people to 6.2 million, the institute said.
MINING
Vale’s Q1 profit drops 10.1%
Brazilian mining giant Vale reported a 10.1 percent drop in first-quarter net profit on Wednesday, citing lower sales, higher taxes and currency fluctuations. The world’s top iron ore producer said net profit totaled US$3.199 billion during the period, down 10.1 percent from the same period last year. However, the first-quarter result was better than the fourth quarter of last year, when net profit totaled US$1.95 billion.
MANUFACTURING
Electrolux Q1 profits fall 27%
Swedish home appliance-maker Electrolux yesterday said first-quarter profits plunged 27 percent year-on-year to 361 million kronor (US$55 million) due to the ongoing crisis in Europe, one of the manufacturer’s core markets. It said sales for the three-month period compared to a year ago dropped 2 percent to 25.3 billion kronor, led by a 3 percent drop in shipments of core appliances to Western Europe.
PHARMACEUTICALS
Bayer Q1 profits rise 11.5%
German chemical and pharmaceutical company Bayer AG said net profit rose 11.5 percent in the first quarter as new drug launches added sales revenue. The company also saw stronger demand in emerging markets, which helped overcome weaker business in Europe. Net income rose to 1.16 billion euros (US$1.51 billion) from 1.04 billion in the same quarter a year earlier. Revenue rose 2.1 percent to 10.2 billion euros.
ECONOMY
UK dodges recession
Britain dodged recession after official figures showed the economy grew in the first quarter. The Office for National Statistics yesterday said the economy grew by 0.3 percent in the first quarter compared with the previous three-month period. Economists on average were expecting growth of 0.1 percent. However, with growth so anemic, even a statistical blip could have put the number in negative territory and pushed Britain into its third recession since 2008.
AUTOMOBILES
Hyundai Q1 profits drop 15%
South Korea’s top automaker Hyundai Motor yesterday said net profit in the January-March quarter fell 15 percent from a year earlier, mainly due to work stoppages and a strong won. Its consolidated net profit for the first quarter fell to 2.088 trillion won (US$1.87 billion) from 2.453 trillion won a year earlier. Operating profit was down 11 percent year-on-year at 1.869 trillion won as sales rose 6 percent at 21.367 trillion won.
INTERNET
Page, Brin cap salaries
Google chief executive Larry Page and his longtime partner Sergey Brin limited their salaries to US$1 apiece last year, while four other top executives received combined compensation packages totaling more than US$124 million. Google co-founders Page and Brin have capped their salaries at US$1 since the company went public in 2004. They each own Google stock currently worth about US$20 billion.
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
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],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained