TRADE
Russia rejects EU car deal
Russia on Tuesday rejected a EU attempt to get the WTO to settle their bitter dispute over car import duties imposed by Moscow. The WTO said that Moscow’s delegation had blocked the EU’s call for the creation of a panel to rule on whether it was breaking global trade rules due to its controversial recycling fee, which applies only to imported vehicles. However, the EU has the option of making a second request, which under WTO rules cannot be blocked. Disputes at the 159-nation WTO are often highly complex and technical, and can last for several years.
AUSTRALIA
Inflation rises 1.2 percent
Inflation rose by a stronger-than-expected 1.2 percent in the July-September period compared to the previous quarter, official data showed yesterday, reducing expectations of further monetary easing this year. The Australian Bureau of Statistics data showed the consumer price index was up 2.2 percent through the year to last month — above economists’ expectations of a 1.8 percent annual rise. The inflation data is closely watched by the Reserve Bank of Australia which has brought the official interest rate to the historic low of 2.5 percent in a bid to jumpstart other sections of the economy as the Asia-driven mining boom slows.
ELECTRONICS
Corning announces tie-up
Corning Inc on Tuesday announced a new tie-up with a Samsung Electronics subsidiary that will boost the glassmaker’s earnings immediately and guarantees that it will supply Samsung with liquid crystal display glass through 2023. Corning, the maker of Gorilla Glass screens for smartphones and tablets, will acquire the South Korean company’s 43 percent stake in Samsung Corning Precision Materials, an LCD glass joint venture in Korea, and will buy out other minority shareholders. The joint venture makes glass substrates, the key material in high-end LCD televisions, monitors and mobile devices. The transactions are expected to close in the first quarter of next year.
BEVERAGES
Heineken earnings to fall
Heineken NV is warning that its core earnings this year will fall modestly as business conditions, especially in central and eastern Europe, are worse than it expected. Previously the Dutch brewer said underlying earnings, which strip out effects of acquisitions, would be “broadly in line” with a year earlier. Heineken’s share price fell 3 percent at the open. The warning came as Heineken reported a 15 percent fall in third quarter net profit to 483 million euros (US$664 million), due in part to the stronger euro. Chief executive Jean-Francois van Boxmeer said yesterday that the company will respond by cutting more costs.
AUTOMAKERS
Citroen revenue falls
PSA Peugeot Citroen says its revenue continued to fall in the third quarter as shrinking European car markets and production disruptions by workers upset at a planned factory closure hurt the French automaker. The maker of the Peugeot 208, Citroen C4 and other hatchbacks and sedans said its revenue for the July-September period slumped 3.7 percent to 12.1 billion euros. Peugeot Citroen’s automobile division sales fell 5.8 percent to 8 billion euros. In a statement yesterday the company blamed weak European markets as well as disruption to its C3 production line at a factory near Paris slated for closure. The company is in the midst of plans to shut factories and shed up to 8,000 jobs.
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],”