AVIATION
Dreamliner stalls again
A Boeing 787 Dreamliner jet was forced to make an emergency landing during a US domestic flight on Sunday, due to a problem with its brake system, United Airlines said in a statement. A spokeswoman for Boeing, which makes the Dreamliner, said the problem with the braking system forced the plane “back to base,” without giving details of the malfunction or how long it might take to repair it. It marks the latest problem to plague Boeing’s flagship plane and at least a third one in a month. An All Nippon Airways flight on the Dreamliner was canceled on June 12, when an engine would not start. A day earlier, a Singapore-bound flight operated by Japan Airlines had to turn back mid-flight because of a problem with the anti-icing system.
RETAIL
Starbucks pays taxes
US-based coffee giant Starbucks said on Sunday it had paid £5 million (US$7.7 million) in British corporation tax and will pay another £15 million by next year after facing a backlash from lawmakers and customers over non-payment. The moved comes despite Starbucks claiming that it remained unprofitable in Britain, and that it was looking at closing its struggling stores in the country. Corporation tax is levied on a company’s profits and currently stands at 23 percent in Britain. Starbucks said in December last year that it intended to pay £10 million in British corporation tax this year and next year.
AUTOMAKERS
Honda eyes female buyers
Honda Motor Co is targeting female drivers for its redesigned 2014 Acura MDX sport wagon with the luxury brand’s most expensive advertising campaign yet. Using the slogan “Made for Mankind,” a female narrates the moody ads showing women hiking a mountain ridge, dancing and interacting with a robot. The commercial debuts during the National Hockey League’s Stanley Cup Finals this month, while the full campaign starts on July 7, Tokyo-based Honda said. Honda is betting the ads will boost Acura sales that have fallen 25 percent in the US from a peak of 209,610 in 2005. With the new MDX, Acura said it’s trying to make an emotional appeal to female luxury-car buyers.
INSURANCE
Swiss Re to cut costs, debts
Swiss Re Ltd., the world’s second-biggest reinsurer, plans to reduce costs and repurchase debt as it seeks to boost profitability and increase its dividend. Swiss Re expects costs savings of as much as US$300 million by 2015 to help expand in faster-growing markets, such as Brazil and China, the company said in a statement before a meeting with investors in Zurich today. The firm plans to cut leverage by more than US$4 billion by 2016 and said a subsidiary is offering to repurchase three tranches of senior debt.
ENERGY
Essar beats expectations
Essar Energy PLC reported better-than-expected full-year earnings as improving refining capacity at its core oil refineries — Vadinar in India and Stanlow in Britain — pushed up margins. The London-listed power, oil and gas arm of privately owned Indian conglomerate Essar Group, said earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortization, on a current price basis, was US$1.34 billion in the year ended March 31, compared with a company-provided analysts’ estimate of US$1.17 billion. The company this year moved its year-end to March from December, making the previous comparative period a 15-month one.
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],”