MINING
Newmount hit by new laws
US mining giant Newmont said yesterday it has ceased production at its Indonesian gold and copper mine due to controversial new rules governing the sector in Southeast Asia’s top economy. Newmont has not shipped copper concentrate overseas since the rules were introduced in January. They include a ban on the export of some unprocessed minerals and higher taxes for some commodities that can still be shipped out of the country. Copper concentrate, a major export for Newmont and its US peer, Freeport McMoRan, was exempt from the ban, but the companies still faced paying the new, higher taxes on shipments of the product.
MINING
Centerra threatens closure
Canada’s Centerra Gold on Monday threatened to close its mine in Kyrgyzstan unless its receives long-awaited government approvals for its annual mine plan and related operating permits by Friday next week. The company has been in discussions with Kyrgyzstan officials since late last year about greenlighting its proposals for operations this year at the Kumtor mine, located at the foot of glaciers high in the Tien Shan mountains. The mine is Kyrgyzstan’s biggest employer and taxpayer, according to Centerra.
VIDEO GAMES
PlayStation Portable era ends
Sony Corp is pulling the plug on its hand-held PlayStation Portable (PSP) video game machine after 10 years. The Japanese electronics and entertainment company has been pushing the successor machine, PlayStation Vita. Tokyo-based Sony said yesterday that PSP shipments ended in North America in January, are to end in Japan this month and later this year in Europe. Discounts on Vita and downloads are offered to Japanese PSP owners, but are still undecided for those overseas.
COMPUTING
Chromebooks market expands
Google on Monday used painful prose to proclaim that Chromebooks designed to push computing into the “cloud” are heading for more countries. “Chromebooks are coming to nine more nations; to improve computing for all generations,” Google marketing executive and “occasional versifier” David Shapiro said in a rhyming blog. Subsequent verses were dedicated to Chromebooks going to Norway, Denmark, Chile, Mexico, Spain, Italy, Belgium, New Zealand, and the Philippines.
ECONOMY
World Bank sees stability
The World Bank does not expect major changes in its global growth forecast, even as advanced economies improve and emerging markets adjust to a reduction in US stimulus, managing director Bertrand Badre said in an interview in Singapore yesterday, before the bank’s next global update due this month. The Washington-based lender said in January that it sees the world economy expanding 3.2 percent this year, compared with a projection in June last year of 3 percent. Developed nations are doing better, while Europe grapples with low inflation, Badre said.
RETAIL
Tesco seeks to reshape
Tesco PLC, Britain’s biggest retailer, is creating two roles on its executive committee, chief executive Phil Clarke said on Monday, hoping to “reshape” the company and meet changing customer needs amid price cuts and a weak food market. Jill Easterbrook, who is currently running Tesco’s emerging health and well-being businesses, is to become the chief customer officer. Matt Atkinson is to take on the role of chief creative officer, Clarke said.
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
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],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained