MACROECONOMICS
India inflation eases
Inflation in India eased to its lowest level since 2009 last month, data showed yesterday, fanning hopes that the central bank would cut interest rates further to help spur a sharply slowing economy. The wholesale price index, India’s most closely watched cost-of-living benchmark, rose 4.89 percent last month from a year earlier, sharply lower than the previous month’s rise of 5.96 percent. It follows data on Monday that showed consumer price inflation slipped below the psychologically important 10 percent level to 9.39 percent last month.
AUTOMAKERS
VW to build Changsha plant
German auto giant Volkswagen (VW) will build a plant in central China, a spokesman said yesterday, as it battles US rival General Motors (GM) in the world’s biggest car market. The plant in the city of Changsha will start production in early 2016 with an annual output capacity of 300,000 vehicles, a Beijing-based spokesman for VW said. The German firm delivered 2.81 million vehicles in China last year, while GM sold 2.84 million vehicles in the country, making them the top two foreign automakers in China.
STEEL
Tata writes down US$1.6bn
India’s Tata Steel, one of the world’s biggest steelmakers, on Monday announced a US$1.6 billion asset writedown, blaming “weak economic and market conditions” in Europe that it forecast would continue “over the near and medium-term.” Europe accounts for about two-thirds of sales and production for the steelmaker. Tata said European steel demand fell nearly 8 percent last year.
shipbuilding
STX receives credit help
Creditors yesterday agreed on an emergency cash injection of US$271 million for the holding company of South Korea’s troubled STX shipbuilding group to avert bankruptcy, a leading creditor bank said. The state-run Korea Development Bank (KDB) said STX Corp would receive a total of 300 billion won (US$271 million) from its five main creditors. The group, which has 11 subsidiaries, has been reeling under mounting debt. More than 1 trillion won in corporate debt matures this year, including 500 billion won this month alone.
AVIATION
Airbus lifts EADS profits
European aerospace firm EADS said strong deliveries by airplane maker Airbus helped drive higher earnings in the first quarter. Airbus delivered 144 aircraft in the first quarter, up from 131 in the same period last year. EADS reaffirmed its forecast of lifting commercial aircraft deliveries this year to between 600 and 610, on strong demand from Middle Eastern and Asian carriers. The company reported first-quarter net profit of 241 million euros (US$314 million), nearly double the 126 million euros it made a year earlier.
ELECTRONICS
Icahn runs for Dell board
Carl Icahn is nominating himself and 11 other candidates for spots on the Dell Inc board of directors. The billionaire investor and Southeastern Asset Management own a combined 13 percent of the computer maker’s shares. They want to keep Dell public and oppose a US$24.4 billion offer from an investment group led by company founder and chairman Michael Dell. Icahn and Southeastern say they would let shareholders keep their stake in the slumping PC maker so they could benefit from any Dell rebound.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last