CLOUD SERVICES
IBM shifting to cloud services
IBM Corp plans to invest US$1.2 billion to expand its cloud services, bolstering a business it is counting on for growth after spending US$2 billion last year to acquire SoftLayer Technologies Inc. The company plans to add 15 new data centers worldwide by the end of this year, SoftLayer chief executive officer Lance Crosby said. IBM is winding down its separate SmartCloud Enterprise product as early as the first quarter of this year, except for a premium service that will be offered with SoftLayer’s, he added in an interview. IBM is trying to keep up with customers shifting from buying their own computer servers to relying on the cloud, which delivers data and applications online instead of locally.
OIL
Shell warns of profit loss
Royal Dutch Shell warned on Friday that its fourth-quarter figures are expected to be significantly lower than recent levels of profitability because of oil and gas prices and problems with its refining business. The sharp cut in forecasts for earnings on a current cost of supplies basis (CCS), excluding identified items, to US$2.9 billion from market expectations of about US$4 billion, is the first major move by new chief executive Ben van Beurden, who took over at the start of this year. Shell missed analyst forecasts for its third-quarter trading in October last year, and said that weak refining profit margins, higher production costs and output stoppages in Nigeria had weighed on its performance. In the third quarter, CCS earnings excluding identified items came in at US$4.5 billion, down from US$6.6 billion in the same period of 2012.
ECONOMY
Japan is ‘recovering’
A Japanese government report yesterday said the economy was “recovering,” its first use of the word since the 2008 global financial crisis, as Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe works to revive years of tepid growth. Tokyo’s monthly checkup on the world’s third-largest economy used some of its most upbeat language in years as it pointed to a pick-up in consumer and capital spending. “Concerning short-term prospects, the economy is expected to be on a recovery trend as household income and business investment increase, while exports move toward picking up,” it said. The latest report is also the most rosy rating on the once-powerhouse economy since its January 2006 paper.
BONDS
Portugal rating promotion
Portugal’s long-term government bond rating was removed from “creditwatch” by Standard & Poor’s, reducing the risk of a downgrade, as the country sticks to an EU-led bailout program. “The coalition government remains committed” to the program, S&P said in a statement yesterday. The agency will keep a negative outlook on the country’s BB rating, “reflecting what we view as ongoing social and political risks associated with de-leveraging efforts by Portugal’s highly indebted private and public sectors, as well as financing uncertainties related to Portugal’s exit” from the bailout, expected in May, the statement said. S&P had put the country’s ratings on “creditwatch” with a negative outlook on Sept. 18 last year. Portugal’s debt is also rated “junk” by Moody’s Investors Service and Fitch Ratings. The country sold 3.25 billion euros (US$4.43 billion) of five-year notes through banks last week in the first offering of coupon-bearing debt in eight months as signs of economic recovery spur a rally in the region’s higher-yielding fixed-income assets.
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
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
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
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