FRANCE
Industrial output falls 0.9%
The country’s industrial output fell by a worse-than-expected 0.9 percent in March due to lower production in the farm and transport sectors and a sharp drop in refining activity, official data showed yesterday. The drop, in part an adjustment from a 0.8 percent rebound in February driven by the restarting of a refinery, was worse than the 0.3 percent dip predicted by economists in a Reuters poll. Output over the first quarter in the moribund industrial sector — which makes up about 12 percent of the country’s economy — was down 0.4 percent from the previous quarter.
TELECOMS
EU backs Apple
The European Commission said Motorola Mobility may have abused its dominant market position to deny Apple the right to use technology essential for mobile phones. It is a violation of EU antitrust rules for a patent-holder to deny use to technologically essential patents to companies willing to pay a fair and reasonable price. Motorola Mobility, now owned by Google, obtained an injunction preventing Apple from using certain patented technologies. The preliminary finding could lead to formal anti-trust charges.
AUTOMAKERS
GM recalls 43,500 hybrids
General Motors (GM) is recalling nearly 43,000 hybrid vehicles in the US and about 500 in Canada to fix a defect that could cause a fire in the trunk, the automaker said on Monday. The recall affects this year’s Chevrolet Malibu Eco models and Buick LaCrosse and Regal sedans from last year and this year that are equipped with eAssist hybrid gas-electric engines. “The issue is the potential overheating of the circuit boards in the generator control module, but it does not involve the eAssist battery,” GM said.
AUTOMAKERS
Fiat investing in Brazil
Italian carmaker Fiat is upping its stake in Brazil, pouring about US$7 billion into local investments by 2016, according to a plan its CEO Sergio Marchionne handed Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff on Monday. The company’s plans expand — dramatically so — on an earlier outline that called for about US$4 billion in investment between 2011 and next year, state news agency Agencia Brasil reported. The outlays will fund building and expansions of factories in Brazil, the agency said.
FINANCE
BofA settles mortgage suit
Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BofA Merrill Lynch) agreed to pay bond insurer MBIA US$1.7 billion to settle a dispute over faulty mortgage securities issued during the US housing boom. In exchange for the payment, the bond insurer will drop the litigation it brought against the mortgage lender Countrywide in 2008, according to a statement released by MBIA on Monday. Countrywide was acquired by BofA Merrill Lynch in 2008. Also, MBIA will have no further payment obligations on any of its insurance policies held by BofA Merrill Lynch.
LIQUOR
Diageo names Menezes CEO
Spirits company Diageo named chief operating officer Ivan Menezes its new chief executive yesterday, choosing an insider to replace Paul Walsh, who has been at the helm of the British firm since 2000. Menezes will take over the top job from July 1 and Walsh will remain with the company over the next year to focus on moving “critical partner relationships” to Menezes, the maker of Guinness stout and Tanqueray gin said in a statement.
HORMUZ ISSUE: The US president said he expected crude prices to drop at the end of the war, which he called a ‘minor excursion’ that could continue ‘for a little while’ The United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Kuwait started reducing oil production, as the near-closure of the crucial Strait of Hormuz ripples through energy markets and affects global supply. Abu Dhabi National Oil Co (ADNOC) is “managing offshore production levels to address storage requirements,” the company said in a statement, without giving details. Kuwait Petroleum Corp said it was lowering production at its oil fields and refineries after “Iranian threats against safe passage of ships through the Strait of Hormuz.” The war in the Middle East has all but closed Hormuz, the narrow waterway linking the Persian Gulf to the open seas,
Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技) yesterday said the DRAM supply crunch could extend through 2028, as the artificial intelligence (AI) boom has led the world’s major memory makers to dramatically reduce production of standard DRAM and allocate a significant portion of their capacity for high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips. The most severe supply constraints would stretch to the first half of next year due to “very limited” increases in new DRAM capacity worldwide, Nanya Technology president Lee Pei-ing (李培瑛) told a news briefing. The company plans to increase monthly 12-inch wafer capacity to 20,000 in the first half of 2028 after a
Taiwan has enough crude oil reserves for more than 100 days and sufficient natural gas reserves for more than 11 days, both above the regulatory safety requirement, Minister of Economic Affairs Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) said yesterday, adding that the government would prioritize domestic price stability as conflicts in the Middle East continue. Overall, energy supply for this month is secure, and the government is continuing efforts to ensure sufficient supply for next month, Kung told reporters after meeting with representatives from business groups at the ministry in Taipei. The ministry has been holding daily cross-ministry meetings at the Executive Yuan to ensure
RATIONING: The proposal would give the Trump administration ample leverage to negotiate investments in the US as it decides how many chips to give each country US officials are debating a new regulatory framework for exporting artificial intelligence (AI) chips and are considering requiring foreign nations to invest in US AI data centers or security guarantees as a condition for granting exports of 200,000 chips or more, according to a document seen by Reuters. The rules are not yet final and could change. They would be the first attempt to regulate the flow of AI chips to US allies and partners since US President Donald Trump’s administration said it rescinded its predecessor’s so-called AI diffusion rules. Those rules sought to keep a significant amount of AI
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