UNITED KINGDOM
Zero-hours contracts high
About 1 million Britons are in jobs offering no guaranteed minimum work or pay, far more than the 250,000 estimated by the country’s statistics agency, an industry survey showed yesterday. Zero-hours contracts have come in for growing criticism from trade unions and the opposition Labour Party because people who sign up to them are offered very little security while often being expected to work at short notice. The Chartered Institute for Personnel and Development, the main professional body for human resources, said that based on a survey of more than 1,000 employers, it estimated that 3 to 4 percent of workers were on zero-hours contracts, equivalent to about 1 million people.
ENERGY
HHI wins steam power bid
South Korea’s Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) yesterday said it had won a US$3.3 billion order to build a steam power plant in Saudi Arabia. Under the deal signed on Sunday with Saudi Electricity Co, Hyundai will complete the massive facility with a production capacity of 2,640 megawatts by 2017, the company said in a statement. The plant will be located 135km north of the southwestern city of Jizan, it said. HHI is the world’s top shipbuilder, but also constructs power and water plants. In October last year, the company won a US$3.2 billion order to build a thermal power plant near Jeddah.
RETAIL
Eurozone sales slid in June
Eurozone retail sales, a key indicator or demand in the economy, slipped in June even as other data suggested the bloc was finally turning the corner on a deep recession, official data showed yesterday. Retail sales by volume in the 17-nation eurozone fell 0.5 percent compared with May, when they rose 1.1 percent, the Eurostat statistics office said. In the 27-member EU, sales were down 0.3 percent after a gain of 1.3 percent in May. Compared with data for June last year, retail sales were down by 0.9 percent in the eurozone but up 0.1 percent in the full EU, Eurostat said.
BANKING
HSBC first-half profit up 22%
Global banking giant HSBC yesterday announced a 22 percent increase in half-year net profits to US$10.28 billion on lower costs and falling bad-debt charges. The result came in slightly below analysts’ consensus forecast of profit after tax of US$10.52 billion, according to a survey by Dow Jones Newswires. Pre-tax profit rose 10.0 percent to US$14.1 billion in the six months to the end of June compared with the first half of last year. Total operating expenses decreased 13 percent, and loan impairment charges and other credit risk provisions dropped to US$3.1 billion in the first half, the bank said.
AUTOMAKERS
Buick drives GM China sales
General Motors Co (GM), the largest foreign automaker in China, yesterday said sales growth in the country accelerated last month as deliveries of Buick vehicles expanded at the fastest pace this year. Total sales climbed 11.1 percent to 221,580 units last month, after expanding 10.6 percent the preceding month, GM said in a statement. Buick deliveries jumped 26 percent to 66,208 units on the popularity of the Excelle line and Cadillac sales surged 83 percent to 3,688, though Chevrolet fell 3.4 percent to 43,343. GM’s sales have risen 11 percent this year, keeping it on track to reach its target of selling 3 million vehicles this year in the world’s largest auto market.
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
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
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