ECONOMY
China’s PMI contracts
China’s manufacturing contracted last month for the fourth straight month but the pace of decline was less severe, suggesting the downturn in the world’s No. 2 economy is bottoming out. HSBC’s purchasing managers’ index (PMI) released yesterday ticked up to 48.1 from 48.0 in March on a 100-point scale on which numbers above 50 indicate expansion. The report said new export orders contracted last month although the decrease was slight and outpaced by a faster decline in new orders overall, indicating that weak domestic demand was mainly to blame for weakness in manufacturing. HSBC’s report was more pessimistic than a manufacturing index released last week by the state-sanctioned China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing, which hovered above the no-change level at 50.4.
SOFTWARE
SAP adds board members
SAP AG, the largest maker of businesses-management software, named Robert Enslin and Bernd Leukert to the board as chief technology officer Vishal Sikka stepped down for personal reasons. Sikka, a protege of chairman Hasso Plattner, had been put in charge of overseeing innovation throughout SAP only a year ago as the company pushed further into software delivered as an Internet service, a technology known as cloud computing. SAP is overhauling its management as Bill McDermott prepares to take over as sole chief executive officer later this month. Adding Enslin and Leukert to the board will help advance the transition to cloud-computing services, SAP said in a statement.
REAL ESTATE
‘Bank of parents’ popular
Almost two-thirds of first-time British homebuyers are turning to their parents for financial help, a survey said yesterday, underscoring concerns about the booming housing market. With house prices rising at about 10 percent a year and lending criteria tightening since the 2008 financial crisis, banks are demanding buyers pay more of the purchase price up front to qualify to borrow the rest, prompting many to ask their parents for money. A survey of 20-to-45-year-olds by mortgage lender Halifax showed 63 percent who had bought a property had received help from their parents.
MINING
Iron price expected to fall
Iron ore may drop to less than US$100 a tonne for the first time since 2012 as swelling global supplies push the global seaborne market into surplus and demand growth in China, the largest user, slows amid tighter credit. Prices of the steelmaking ingredient may decline to US$95 in the fourth quarter, according to CLSA Ltd. SSY Futures Ltd sees a retreat below US$100 “very shortly.” The commodity may drop as Australian exports increase and Chinese demand growth slows, according to Wood Mackenzie Ltd. Goldman Sachs Group Inc forecasts a fourth-quarter average of US$100.
TRADE
Tehran seeks to boost ties
Trade Promotion Organization of Iran official Miraboutaleb Badri says Tehran will almost triple the number of commercial attaches in its embassies abroad to boost trade ties. Badri was quoted by Iranian newspapers yesterday as saying the government is raising the number of commercial attaches abroad from 11 to 30. Badri says new trade attaches will also be dispatched to Germany, Italy, Serbia, Spain and Switzerland. The move is part of efforts by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani’s administration to boost trade relations.
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