SPAIN
More Spaniards employed
Spain’s jobless rate eased slightly to 25.98 percent in the third quarter, official data showed yesterday, as the EU’s fourth-largest economy battled its way out of a long recession. The number of people out of work dipped by 72,800 to 5.9 million, lowering the unemployment rate from the previous quarter’s 26.26 percent, a National Statistics Institute report showed. It was the second straight quarter showing a drop in the unemployment rate, which peaked at a record of more than 27 percent early this year.
CAMERAS
Canon sees first sales drop
Canon Inc, the world’s largest camera maker, cut its annual profit forecast and predicted its first drop in sales of models with an interchangeable lens, as consumers switch to smartphones to take photos. Net income will likely total ¥240 billion (US$2.5 billion) for the year ending Dec. 31, the Tokyo-based company said in a statement yesterday, cutting its earlier forecast of ¥260 billion. The value of worldwide camera shipments dropped 19 percent in August from a year earlier, a ninth consecutive monthly decline, according to the Camera & Imaging Products Association in Tokyo.
TEXTILES
Brazilians rally over job loss
Brazilian textile workers held a demonstration on Wednesday over the loss of manufacturing jobs to China, in a protest at a trade fair showcasing mainly Chinese goods. Reporters witnessed about 200 demonstrators who converged on the Anhembi convention center in the north of Sao Paulo, where 340 mostly Chinese firms were displaying their wares. Unions and textile associations say they want to call attention to the loss of factory work to China.
TECHNOLOGY
Ericsson warns of pressure
Swedish wireless equipment company Ericsson AB warned yesterday that its sales are under pressure as big projects in the US and Japan come onstream. The warning came as Ericsson reported a 34 percent increase in third-quarter net profit to 2.92 billion Swedish kronor (US$458 million), compared with 2.18 billion kronor a year earlier. Sales in the quarter dropped 3 percent to 52.98 billion kronor amid negative currency effects and lower sales in North East Asia and India.
BANKING
Credit Suisse profit rises
Credit Suisse Group posted a 79 percent increase in third-quarter profit compared with last year, backed by strong results from private banking and wealth management. Switzerland’s second-largest bank, which has shed employees and cut other costs to boost profitability, reported a third-quarter profit of 454 million Swiss francs (US$509 million), up from SF254 million a year ago. The Zurich-based bank said in a statement yesterday it had net revenue of SF3.32 billion from private banking and wealth management, roughly in line with the comparable quarter a year earlier.
TELECOMS
LG phone biz falls into red
LG Electronics Inc said its handset business sank into the red for the first time in a year as it cut prices and spent more on marketing to carve out a share of the high-end smartphone market. The South Korean firm reported yesterday that its mobile communications business lost 79.7 billion won (US$75.5 million) in the July-to-September period, even after selling 12 million smartphones. It was the first red ink since the third quarter last year.
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
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
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
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