ENERGY
IEA cuts oil demand forecast
The International Energy Agency (IEA) yesterday cut its forecast for this year’s oil demand to 92.7 million barrels a day due to weaker than expected global economic growth. The revised forecast shows a drop of 130,000 barrels a day from the agency’s prediction a month ago. It reflects the “growing realization that macroeconomic conditions, although still likely to strengthen in the second half of the year, will probably now do so at a less dramatic pace than previously forecast,” the agency said. On the supply side, members of OPEC pumped out 40,000 barrels a day less in last month to 30.03 million on a daily basis, with decline in Iraqi output partly offset by small increases from Saudi Arabia, Iran, Nigeria and Angola.
MACROECONOMICS
Malaysian interest rates up
Malaysia’s central bank on Thursday raised its benchmark interest rate for the first time in three years to curb inflation and household debt as economic growth picks up. Bank Negara Malaysia said it raised its overnight policy rate, used by banks to set lending rates, by a quarter percentage point, to 3.25 percent. The rate was last raised in May 2011. The central bank said the economy, which grew 6.2 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier, is expected to remain on a steady growth path. It said inflation, which rose to 3.2 percent in May, is above average but contained.
INNOVATION
LG presents roll-up TV
LG Display Co has shown an 18-inch flexible display that can be rolled into the shape of a thin cylinder. The South Korean display panel maker said yesterday the display has a resolution of 1,200 pixels by 810 pixels and maintains its function when it is rolled up. While that resolution would fall within the range of high-definition, images on the display would not look as sharp as the latest flat displays that boast ultra-high definition. LG touted its technology as a significant advance, allowing the company to produce TVs that are larger than 50 inches diagonally and can be rolled up. LG said the technology would make large TVs portable.
ELECTRONICS
World Cup boosts TV sales
Sales of flat-panel televisions across Southeast Asia rose sharply in May as demand soared in the soccer-crazy region ahead of the World Cup, a report said on Thursday. Nearly 957,000 units were sold across Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, a 15 percent jump compared with the average sales volume in February-April, global market research firm GfK said. TV sales in Thailand showed the sharpest increase, followed by Vietnam and Singapore, according to GfK.
INTERNET
Amazon launches storage
Amazon on Thursday launched an online service for collaborating on work projects in a challenge to tech titan Google. Zocalo is being billed as a secure, managed venue for storing, sharing and amassing feedback on documents, spreadsheets, presentations, Web page, and other digital tools typically used to get modern-day jobs done. The service has a monthly fee of US$5 per user and comes with 200 gigabytes of data storage. It will compete with a suite of Google Docs software and also challenge companies such as Dropbox which provide online storage for documents, photos and other digital belongings.
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