APPAREL
Banglasdeshi workers strike
Thousands of Bangladesh garment workers blocked roads and attacked factories outside the capital Dhaka yesterday demanding a US$100 minimum monthly wage. The workers, many carrying sticks, walked off the job in dozens of garment factories, which make apparel for the world’s top retailers, and protested for hours on highways in the major industrial areas of Gazipur, Mouchak and Ashulia. Bangladesh is the world’s second-largest garment exporter, with apparel shipments from its 4,500 factories accounting for 80 percent of its US$27 billion annual exports. However, the vast majority of the nation’s 3 million workers earn a basic monthly wage of 3,000 taka (US$38) — among the lowest in the in the world — following a tripartite deal between unions, the government and manufacturers in August 2010.
PAPER
Tissue factory taken over
A state agency on Friday ordered the temporary takeover of a factory that produces toilet paper in what it called an effort to ensure consistent supplies after embarrassing shortages earlier this year. Critics of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro say the nagging shortages of products ranging from bathroom tissue to milk are a sign his socialist government’s rigid price and currency controls are failing. They have also used the situation to poke fun at his administration on social media networks. A national agency called Sundecop, which enforces price controls, said in a statement it would occupy one of the factories belonging to paper producer Manpa for 15 days, adding that National Guard troops would “safeguard” the facility.
TECHNOLOGY
Upgrades aid AT&T sales
AT&T Inc, the second-biggest US wireless carrier, said it would report third-quarter smartphone sales similar to the 6.8 million it had from April to June, aided by new upgrade programs. The result will be a record for any third quarter in AT&T’s history, the company said in a statement on Friday. Fourth-quarter smartphone upgrades will decline from a year earlier, though, because some customers went ahead and got new phones already. AT&T began providing an option in July to pay for phones and tablets on an installment plan, with the ability to upgrade yearly. The promotion mimicked a service by T-Mobile US Inc, and Verizon Wireless and Sprint Corp have since made similar offers. The program will help Dallas-based AT&T expand its base of smartphone users by 1 million this quarter, it said. AT&T also said it expects to report a total of 10 million subscribers to its U-verse television and Internet services, with overall consumer landline sales growth similar to last quarter’s 2.4 percent year-over-year expansion.
STOCK MARKET
NYSE volume surges
The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) won its biggest share of US equity volume in almost four years amid changes to the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index and Dow Jones Industrial Average, as well as the expiration of derivatives. NYSE Euronext’s market captured 23 percent of volume yesterday, the most since reaching 25 percent on Dec. 18, 2009, and topping the peak of 22 percent set a year ago, according to Bloomberg data.
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
EUROPE ON HOLD: Among a flurry of announcements, Intel said it would postpone new factories in Germany and Poland, but remains committed to its US expansion Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger has landed Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a customer for the company’s manufacturing business, potentially bringing work to new plants under construction in the US and boosting his efforts to turn around the embattled chipmaker. Intel and AWS are to coinvest in a custom semiconductor for artificial intelligence computing — what is known as a fabric chip — in a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar framework,” Intel said in a statement on Monday. The work would rely on Intel’s 18A process, an advanced chipmaking technology. Intel shares rose more than 8 percent in late trading after the
GLOBAL ECONOMY: Policymakers have a choice of a small 25 basis-point cut or a bold cut of 50 basis points, which would help the labor market, but might reignite inflation The US Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut in more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the US presidential election. Senior officials at the US central bank including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool. The Fed, which has a dual mandate from the US Congress to act independently to ensure