MANUFACTURING
Eurozone growth slows
Eurozone manufacturing growth failed to accelerate as expected last month despite factories barely raising prices, as growing tensions in Ukraine weighed on sentiment, a survey showed yesterday. Markit’s final Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) for last month came in at 51.8, matching June’s reading but below an earlier flash estimate of 51.9. While manufacturing growth picked up in Germany, Europe’s biggest economy, the French PMI fell to a seven-month low and there was a renewed downturn in Greece alongside slowing growth in Spain and Italy.
REAL ESTATE
Chinese prices fall faster
China’s decline in property prices accelerated last month, as the average price of a new home in 100 major cities was 10,835 yuan (US$1,757) per square meter last month, down 0.81 percent from June, the China Index Academy said. It was the third consecutive monthly decline and an acceleration from the falls of 0.5 percent in June and 0.32 percent in May, which were the first in nearly two years, according to the academy’s data. Last month, prices dropped in 76 cities and rose in just 24, compared with 71 versus 29 in the previous month, it added. All of China’s 10 biggest cities posted month-on-month falls, with the average price in Beijing dropping 1.6 percent to 32,736 yuan per square meter.
STEELMAKERS
ArcelorMittal back in black
ArcelorMittal, the world’s largest steelmaker, reported a net profit of US$52 million, from a loss of US$205 million in the same period a year ago on higher steel shipments and better margins. The Luxembourg-based company said revenues rose 4.5 percent to US$20.7 billion. The company’s founder and CEO Lakshmi Mittal said yesterday that iron ore prices were not as strong as hoped, and he cut operating profit forecasts to US$7 billion from US$8 billion. However, Mittal said indicators in both Europe and the US continue to be positive. “We have increased our steel demand forecasts for both markets,” he said.
TECHNOLOGY
Sharp posts net loss
Sharp Corp said yesterday it logged a US$17.4 million net loss for the three months to June, but added it still expected a full-year profit as the Japanese electronics giant tries to move past years of record losses. The Osaka-based company lost ¥1.79 billion (US$17.39 million) in the period, well down from a ¥17.98 billion shortfall a year ago, which it said was largely due to one-time factors. Sharp was profitable on the operational side and said it was still on track to earn ¥30 billion in the fiscal year through March. Sales in the latest quarter came in at ¥619.7 billion, up 1.9 percent year-on-year, as sales of its televisions rose, particularly in China, while it saw an operating profit of ¥4.6 billion, against ¥3.01 billion a year earlier.
FINANCE
New N Korean banknote
North Korea has started issuing new banknotes in an apparent effort to flush out privately hoarded cash reserves, according to South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS). In a briefing to a parliamentary committee, the NIS said the new banknotes were issued from Wednesday, Yonhap news agency reported yesterday. Old banknotes can be exchanged or used for an unspecified grace period after which they will cease to become legal tender, the NIS 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
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy