MACROECONOMICS
Global output to rise 2%: UN
The world economy is still in disarray five years after the financial crash, the UN Conference on Trade and Development said in a report on Monday. Global output rose 2.2 percent last year and is forecast to grow at a similar rate this year, the report said. Developed countries are expected to show the poorest performance, with GDP expanding about 1 percent. Developing and transition economies are forecast to grow by almost 5 percent and 3 percent respectively, it said.
ACCOUNTING
UK market change ordered
Britain’s top 350 companies must put their bookkeeping work out to tender at least once a decade to increase competition in a market dominated by just four big accounting firms. The Competition Commission published its final report yesterday following a probe into the audit market and rowed back on an earlier draft recommendation that would have forced companies to retender their audit work every five years.
TIRES
Hankook to build US plant
South Korean tire maker Hankook announced on Monday that it would build its first North American plant in Tennessee, creating 1,800 jobs. Hankook, the world’s seventh-largest tire maker, said it would build the US$800 million facility in Clarksville. Construction on the 140,000m2 facility is scheduled to begin by the end of next year, and it will begin making high-end performance tires by early 2016.
PHARMACEUTICALS
AstraZeneca to buy Spirogen
British drugmaker AstraZeneca yesterday said its MedImmune unit would buy biotech company Spirogen for up to US$440 million to bolster its research and development pipeline in oncology. Privately held Spirogen focuses on antibody-drug conjugate technology, which has the potential to directly target cancer tumors while safeguarding healthy cells, AstraZeneca said. The British drugmaker said it would pay an initial US$200 million plus a further US$240 million if Spirogen meets development targets. It will also pay US$20 million to take an equity investment in Swiss-based ADC Therapeutics, which has a licensing agreement with Spirogen.
MINING
Rio Tinto posts solid output
Rio Tinto yesterday reported solid third-quarter production across its commodities, with strong growth in energy coal and copper, and record output at its flagship Australian iron ore operations. The Anglo-Australian mining titan said iron ore production rose 2 percent year-on-year, copper jumped 23 percent and energy coal to produce power expanded 14 percent. Bucking the trend was steelmaking coal output, which dropped 6 percent from the same period last year after a wall collapse at Rio’s Hail Creek mine in Queensland.
HEALTH
No known cellphone impact
France’s safety watchdog yesterday said it was standing by existing recommendations for mobile phones, WiFi and relay antennas, saying their emissions had “no demonstrated impact” on health. The National Agency for Health, Food and Environmental Safety said that in lab tests, electromagnetic emissions had had a “biological” effect on cells, but it saw no grounds for recommending any changes to existing laws as there was “no demonstrated impact” on health. However, it added that it would recommend that children and big users of mobile phones limit their exposure to the devices.
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
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has appointed Rose Castanares, executive vice president of TSMC Arizona, as president of the subsidiary, which is responsible for carrying out massive investments by the Taiwanese tech giant in the US state, the company said in a statement yesterday. Castanares will succeed Brian Harrison as president of the Arizona subsidiary on Oct. 1 after the incumbent president steps down from the position with a transfer to the Arizona CEO office to serve as an advisor to TSMC Arizona’s chairman, the statement said. According to TSMC, Harrison is scheduled to retire on Dec. 31. Castanares joined TSMC in
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