DEFENSE
Lockheed to furlough staff
Lockheed Martin says it will furlough 3,000 employees tomorrow due to the US government shutdown. The big defense contractor on Friday said that the number of employees put on furlough will increase weekly if the shutdown continues. Lockheed said the furloughs include staff who cannot work because the US government facility where they work is closed and those whose jobs require a government inspection that cannot be completed or for which the company has received a stop work order. United Technologies Corp said earlier in the week that it will furlough 2,000 employees by tomorrow and more than 5,000 if the shutdown continues next month.
ECONOMY
IMF cuts Ireland forecast
The IMF on Friday slashed its growth forecasts for Ireland after predicting weaker consumer demand and export growth for the bailed-out eurozone nation. The IMF, which formed a central part of Ireland’s international rescue in 2010 that was worth 85 billion euros (US$115.2 at current exchange rates), said it expects Ireland’s economy to grow by 0.6 percent this year, compared with a previous forecast of 1.1 percent. It added that GDP was forecast to expand by 1.8 percent next year, compared with its earlier prediction of 2.2 percent. “Most importantly, export growth has been cut by 1.5 percentage points,” the IMF said in a report. “Weaker consumption and export growth are expected to dampen the pace of recovery, with growth now penciled in at 1.8 percent in 2014.”
RETAIL
Wal-Mart in talks with Bharti
Wal-Mart Stores Inc, the world’s largest retailer, said it is in talks with Indian partner Bharti Enterprises Pvt on its future business plan and aims to reach an agreement in the next few weeks. Wal-Mart has a “very good” relationship with Bharti and has had multiple conversations with billionaire owner Sunil Mittal in the past few days to determine the next steps, Scott Price, head of Wal-Mart’s Asia operations, said yesterday. His comments come after Indian media have suggested that Bharti is seeking to exit the joint venture due to Wal-Mart’s lack of progress in expanding operations in the country. While New Delhi changed laws in September last year to allow foreign retailers to own majority stakes in multi-brand retail chains, no global retailers have sought such licenses yet. Rules covering sourcing, infrastructure investment and store location were also eased to entice global chains to open retail stores in India.
ECONOMY
Challenges to growth seen
The Asia-Pacific region will have a challenging time sustaining economic growth, as it is constrained by volatility in financial markets and a slow recovery in advanced nations, Moody’s Investors Service said. The region still has a “long way to go” in shifting from export-led growth to driven by domestic demand, Michael Taylor, Moody’s chief credit officer for Asia, told reporters yesterday in Nusa Dua, Indonesia, where trade and foreign ministers from APEC members are attending a summit. “What we are sensing is that there is a change in the economic cycle and sustaining the levels of economic growth that we have seen in the region over the last five years is going to become more challenging,” Taylor said.
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