BANKING
China eases rate regime
China’s central bank yesterday unveiled a new regime to allow banks to set a prime lending rate, in what it said was a further step towards liberalization. Nine commercial banks will submit the lending rate they charge their best quality clients each day to set the prime rate, the central bank said in a statement. A weighted average will be calculated based on the submissions by banks and announced daily by China’s interbank market, it said. The average was set at 5.71 percent yesterday, according to the official Web site for interbank rates.
SOUTH KOREA
Economy grew 3.3%
The economy expanded at the fastest clip in nearly two years in the latest quarter as companies increased machinery purchases and consumers spent more. The Bank of Korea yesterday said that Asia’s fourth-largest economy grew 3.3 percent in the third quarter over a year earlier, the highest rate in seven quarters, showing that a recovery is gaining traction. From the previous three months, the economy expanded 1.1 percent, the same level as the second quarter.
BANKING
US Fed wants more assets
The US Federal Reserve on Thursday proposed that big banks keep enough cash, government bonds and other high-quality assets on hand to survive during a severe downturn on par with the 2008 financial crisis. The largest banks — those with more than US$250 billion in assets — would be required to hold enough cash and securities to fund their operations for 30 days during a time of market stress. Smaller banks — those with more than US$50 billion and less than US$250 billion — would have to keep enough to cover 21 days.
MANUFACTURING
DuPont to spin off unit
DuPont Co says it will spin off its Performance Chemicals unit to shareholders. The company has said previously that it was looking at options for the unit. Performance Chemicals is one of DuPont’s largest businesses by revenue, but it has been struggling because of falling prices for titanium dioxide, a key industrial pigment. It says it expects the spinoff to its shareholders to happen in about a year and a half. The company also says the spinoff will give it more reliable earnings growth.
INTERNET
Amazon Q3 loss narrows
Amazon.com says that its fiscal third-quarter loss narrowed as revenue grew 24 percent. The Seattle-based online retailer on Thursday also said that it expects growth in its fourth-quarter revenue, indicating confidence as it enters the key holiday shopping season. Amazon posted a loss of US$41 million, or US$0.09 per share, for the quarter that ended last month. That is compared with a loss of US$274 million, or US$0.60 per share, in the same quarter last year. The prior year includes a one-time US$169 million loss related to its stake in online deals site LivingSocial. Revenue came to US$17.09 billion from US$13.81 billion.
AUTOMAKERS
Ford boost profit outlook
Ford Motor Co boosted its full-year global profit outlook on Thursday as its European picture brightened and stronger overseas demand sparked better-than-expected third-quarter results. The No. 2 US automaker now expects this year’s pretax profit to top last year’s US$8 billion and losses in Europe to be less than they were last year. Chief financial officer Bob Shanks said Ford sees the European unit being profitable in 2015.
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],”