SOLAR ENERGY
Chinese firms face EU duty
The EU on Friday will impose anti-dumping measures on some Chinese solar panels whose manufacturers rejected rejected a deal to diffuse a brewing trade war. The measures will apply for two years, the EU Commission said. “The final anti-dumping and anti-subsidy duty rates will apply only to those exports from China which do not meet the conditions set out in the undertaking,” the commission said in a statement. China and the EU in July reached an amicable settlement under which Chinese exporters agreed to a minimum price to provide a floor to the market up to a certain threshold of imports, after which anti-dumping tariffs apply.
BANKING
Glitches disrupt RBS
RBS and its retail banking unit Netwest’s online systems and debit cards failed on Monday evening as clients were unable to process payments on one of the busiest online shopping days, “Cyber Monday.” Millions of customers across the UK were unable to withdraw cash, pay for goods or use telephone and online banking services. In its response, the bank’s twitter account, RBS Help tweeted: “We are aware of some technical issues and are working hard to fix them. Sorry and thanks for your patience.” The bank’s Irish unit, Ulster Bank, also reportedly faced similar glitches.
BANKING
Fed approves revised plans
The US Federal Reserve on Monday said it had passed the revised capital plans of JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs, eight months after sending them back due to weaknesses. In its March stress tests of the top US banks, the Fed had raised questions about how the two planned to allocate capital, which includes their programs for dividends and share buybacks to reward investors. Both JPMorgan and Goldman received only conditional approvals, and were required to submit new plans by the end of the third quarter “to address weaknesses in their capital planning processes.” In a brief statement, the Fed said it “has not objected.”
BRAZIL
Q3 growth rises 2.5%
The economy grew 2.5 percent in the third quarter compared with the same period of last year, Minister of Finance Guido Mantega told a business seminar on Monday. Official GDP growth figures were scheduled to be released yesterday by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics. Mantega also projected that GDP would grow on average 4 percent a year from next year to 2022.
UNITED STATES
Manufacturing jumps
Manufacturing grew last month at the fastest pace in two-and-a-half years as factories ramped up production, stepped up hiring and received orders at a healthy clip. The Institute for Supply Management said on Monday that its index of manufacturing activity rose to 57.3. That was up from 56.4 in October and was the highest since April 2011. A reading above 50 signals growth.
INTERNET
Google cuts cloud prices
Google Inc lowered prices for some of its cloud computing service for businesses and added features as it steps up competition with Amazon.com Inc and Microsoft Corp. The service, which lets customers purchase access to its computing power, is cutting prices for some of the most popular options by 10 percent, Google said in a blog posting. It is also adding broader support for customers during maintenance.
BUSINESS UPDATE: The iPhone assembler said operations outlook is expected to show quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year growth for the second quarter Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported strong growth in sales last month, potentially raising expectations for iPhone sales while artificial intelligence (AI)-related business booms. The company, which assembles the majority of Apple Inc’s smartphones, reported a 19.03 percent rise in monthly sales to NT$510.9 billion (US$15.78 billion), from NT$429.22 billion in the same period last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 14.16 percent, it said. The company in a statement said that last month’s revenue was a record-breaking April performance. Hon Hai, known also as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), assembles most iPhones, but the company is diversifying its business to
Apple Inc has been developing a homegrown chip to run artificial intelligence (AI) tools in data centers, although it is unclear if the semiconductor would ever be deployed, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. The effort would build on Apple’s previous efforts to make in-house chips, which run in its iPhones, Macs and other devices, according to the Journal, which cited unidentified people familiar with the matter. The server project is code-named ACDC (Apple Chips in Data Center) within the company, aiming to utilize Apple’s expertise in chip design for the company’s server infrastructure, the newspaper said. While this initiative has been
GlobalWafers Co (環球晶圓), the world’s No. 3 silicon wafer supplier, yesterday said that revenue would rise moderately in the second half of this year, driven primarily by robust demand for advanced wafers used in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, a key component of artificial intelligence (AI) technology. “The first quarter is the lowest point of this cycle. The second half will be better than the first for the whole semiconductor industry and for GlobalWafers,” chairwoman Doris Hsu (徐秀蘭) said during an online investors’ conference. “HBM would definitely be the key growth driver in the second half,” Hsu said. “That is our big hope
The consumer price index (CPI) last month eased to 1.95 percent, below the central bank’s 2 percent target, as food and entertainment cost increases decelerated, helped by stable egg prices, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday. The slowdown bucked predictions by policymakers and academics that inflationary pressures would build up following double-digit electricity rate hikes on April 1. “The latest CPI data came after the cost of eating out and rent grew moderately amid mixed international raw material prices,” DGBAS official Tsao Chih-hung (曹志弘) told a news conference in Taipei. The central bank in March raised interest rates by