ECONOMY
BOE not mulling rate hike
The Bank of England (BOE) is not close to raising interest rates despite the sharp fall in unemployment toward the central bank’s 7 percent threshold, policymaker Paul Fisher said yesterday. Britain’s unemployment rate slid to 7.1 percent in the three months to November last year from 7.4 percent the month before, data showed on Wednesday — just a fraction above the 7 percent threshold the bank set in August last year for considering a rate rise. Bank officials agreed earlier this month that it would not be right to raise interest rates if unemployment hit 7 percent soon, and in a speech to pension fund managers in London, Fisher emphasized this point in the light of the latest data. Fisher said the bank needed to avoid choking off economic recovery by raising interest rates too quickly, and that the recent return of inflation to its 2 percent target, and lower price pressures, gave it scope to wait before raising rates.
SOLAR ENERGY
Sharp making more cuts
Japanese electronics maker Sharp Corp will end solar panel production at its factory in Tennessee as it reviews its photovoltaic panel business. Output will stop by the end of March and the number of jobs to be cut at the plant will be decided after talks with the labor union, Sharp spokeswoman Miyuki Nakayama said yesterday by telephone. The Nikkei Shimbun yesterday reported that as many as 300 employees are expected to be dismissed. The decision comes as the Osaka-based company reviews its production capacity for solar products, Nakayama said. Sharp said last month that it will stop producing solar panels at its UK plant in Wales by the end of next month and cut as many as 250 employees. The Tennessee plant, which employees about 450 people, will continue making other products such as microwaves, Nakayama said. About 300 people are involved in solar production.
AUTOMAKERS
Tesla tests Chinese demand
Tesla Motors Inc is to sell its battery-powered Model S sedan in China from 734,000 yuan (US$121,280), as billionaire founder Elon Musk prepares to test demand for electric vehicles in the world’s largest auto market. The price for the Model S, equipped with a premium 85 kilowatt hour battery pack, puts the car in the same bracket as Volkswagen AG’s Audi S5 sedan and Bayerische Motoren Werke AG’s 5-series GT sedan, according to Autohome, a car-pricing Web site. It is also 50 percent more expensive than in the US, where the equivalent model sells for US$81,070, according to Tesla’s statement. China is struggling to meet a target of having 5 million alternative energy-powered vehicles by 2020 because of a lack of charging stations, high costs and concerns about safety and range.
VIETNAM
Fertilizer firm to diversity
PetroVietnam Fertilizer & Chemicals Corp plans to invest US$230 million in adding and diversifying production to boost revenue as its parent considers selling shares in the nation’s fourth-biggest manufacturer by market value. The producer of so-called prilled urea will expand into another type of fertilizer that is in greater demand, chief executive officer Cao Hoai Duong said in an interview. The investment will add production of a nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium combination fertilizer. The domestic market for that product is growing twice as fast as the 2 percent demand growth for urea and is double the size, the company said.
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],”