SOUTH KOREA
Exports make good start
South Korea’s exports got off to a good start last month as signs of economic recovery in the EU and Southeast Asia offset the risks from a weak yen, the trade ministry said yesterday. Exports came to US$45.584 billion last month, down 0.2 percent from last year as there were two less working days in the month compared with the previous year due to the Lunar New Year holiday that began on Thursday. Imports came to US$44.849 billion last month, down 0.9 percent on-year, mainly due to smaller crude oil imports, leaving a US$735 million trade surplus, up from US$400 million a year earlier.
JAPAN
Listed firms gain traction
Nearly 70 percent of listed Japanese companies are likely to post sales and profit growth this business year, a sign they are gaining traction after years of deflation, a report said yesterday. More than 1,000 companies out of about 1,500 firms listed on stock markets are on track to log annual rises in both sales and recurring profits for the business year ending in March, the Nikkei business daily said. The 1,500 companies are expected to post a combined 10 percent rise in sales and a 28 percent increase in recurring profit, the daily said, citing its tally of the companies’ forecasts.
ECONOMY
Dubai projects worry IMF
The IMF is warning that Dubai’s megaprojects could increase the risk of a real estate bubble. The city, part of the oil-rich United Arab Emirates, has proposed a large area around a new airport with hotels, housing and a new conference center to host the world Expo 2020. However, the IMF cautioned that if these projects are not “implemented prudently” they could exacerbate the danger of a bubble and create additional risks for government-owned companies and the banking system, still recovering from a 2009 financial crisis.
BRAZIL
Deficit hits four-year high
Brazil’s fiscal deficit rose to 3.28 percent of the country’s GDP last year, the highest level in four years, the central bank said on Friday. That was sharply up from 2.39 percent in 2012, as economic growth in Latin America’s largest economy continued to slump despite government efforts to stimulate it. The deficit reached 157.5 billion reais (US$65 billion) last year, nearly one-third more than in the previous years.
PAYMENT SERVICES
MasterCard earnings up 3%
MasterCard Inc’s fourth-quarter earnings climbed 3 percent as rising payment volume countered a jump in expenses, but the results fell short of financial analysts’ expectations. Net income grew to US$623 million, or US$0.52 per share, in the three months that ended Dec. 31, compared with US$605 million, or US$0.49 per share, a year earlier. Revenue climbed 12 percent to US$2.13 billion, as consumers hit stores for holiday shopping.
MULTINATIONALS
IBM top brass ditch bonuses
IBM CEO Virginia Rometty and the rest of her senior management team are relinquishing their bonuses for last year as penance for the technology company’s lackluster performance. The decision disclosed in a Friday regulatory filing will result in a substantial pay cut for the affected executives, whose annual bonuses often exceed their salaries. IBM’s revenue slipped 5 percent last year. The Armonk, New York, company’s earnings dipped by less than 1 percent, thanks to cost cutting. Rometty still received a US$1.5 million salary last year.
WASHINGTON’S INCENTIVES: The CHIPS Act set aside US$39 billion in direct grants to persuade the world’s top semiconductor companies to make chips on US soil The US plans to award more than US$6 billion to Samsung Electronics Co, helping the chipmaker expand beyond a project in Texas it has already announced, people familiar with the matter said. The money from the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act would be one of several major awards that the US Department of Commerce is expected to announce in the coming weeks, including a grant of more than US$5 billion to Samsung’s rival, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), people familiar with the plans said. The people spoke on condition of anonymity in advance of the official announcements. The federal funding for
HIGH DEMAND: The firm has strong capabilities of providing key components including liquid cooling technology needed for AI servers, chairman Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday revised its revenue outlook for this year to “significant” growth from a “neutral” view forecast five months ago, due to strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers from cloud service providers. Hon Hai, a major assembler of iPhones that is also known as Foxconn, expects AI server revenues to soar more than 40 percent annually this year, chairman Young Liu (劉揚偉) told investors. The robust growth would uplift revenue contribution from AI servers to 40 percent of the company’s overall server revenue this year, from 30 percent last year, Liu said. In the three-year period
LONG HAUL: Largan Energy Materials’ TNO-based lithium-ion batteries are expected to charge in five minutes and last about 20 years, far surpassing conventional technology Largan Precision Co (大立光) has formed a joint venture with the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI, 工研院) to produce fast-charging, long-life lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles, mobile electronics and electric storage units, the camera lens supplier for Apple Inc’s iPhones said yesterday. Largan Energy Materials Co (萬溢能源材料), established in January, is developing high-energy, fast-charging, long-life lithium-ion batteries using titanium niobium oxide (TNO) anodes, it said. TNO-based batteries can be fully charged in five minutes and have a lifespan of 20 years, a major advantage over the two to four hours of charging time needed for conventional graphite-anode-based batteries, Largan said in a
Taiwan is one of the first countries to benefit from the artificial intelligence (AI) boom, but because that is largely down to a single company it also represents a risk, former Google Taiwan managing director Chien Lee-feng (簡立峰) said at an AI forum in Taipei yesterday. Speaking at the forum on how generative AI can generate possibilities for all walks of life, Chien said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) — currently among the world’s 10 most-valuable companies due to continued optimism about AI — ensures Taiwan is one of the economies to benefit most from AI. “This is because AI is