ENERGY
World oil demand eases
Global oil demand growth eased to its weakest since 2012 last quarter, calming world markets amid threats to supplies in the Middle East and North Africa, the International Energy Agency said. The agency cut estimates for oil demand growth this year and next after the annual expansion in fuel consumption slowed to 700,000 barrels a day in the second quarter, the lowest level since early 2012. The resulting supply surplus has meant that Libya, seeking to restore crude exports choked off by political feuding, is struggling to find buyers, the agency said in its monthly market report. Logistical constraints in southern Iraq may prove a bigger hurdle to bolstering output than violence in the north, it said.
ENERGY
Firm claims huge oil find
A company owned by Israeli mining magnate Dan Gertler said it has discovered vast potential reserves of oil in the strife-torn east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Oil of DRCongo, a subsidiary of the Fleurette Group, said in a statement that seismic testing from Lake Albert, which forms part of the northeastern border with Uganda, indicated reserves of about 3 billion barrels of oil. It said that exporting the oil from North Kivu Province could boost the GDP of the vast central African nation by 25 percent.
FOOD
Chiquita receives new offer
Two Brazilian firms made a US$611 million offer for US banana giant Chiquita on Monday that could derail its merger with European rival Fyffes. Cutrale Group, one of Brazil’s largest juice exporters, and investment bank Safra Group offered US$13 a share for all of Chiquita’s stock, 29 percent higher than the shares traded on Friday last week. The unsolicited offer challenged Chiquita’s merger with Fyffes announced in March, which would create the world’s largest banana company, with US$4.6 billion in annual sales. That proposal would allow Chiquita to avoid higher US taxes by relocating its statutory headquarters to Ireland.
TRADE
EU hopeful of Hanoi FTA
The EU’s top diplomat said she hoped the European bloc would soon conclude a free-trade agreement (FTA) with Vietnam. Speaking to reporters in Hanoi during a one-day visit yesterday, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton said that negotiations on the agreement were making good progress and that she hoped the deal could be signed before the end of the year. The EU is already Vietnam’s largest export market, with shipments worth 21 billion euros (US$28 billion) last year. A free-trade pact will help Vietnam to further expand its markets of 28 EU members countries with more than 500 million people. Currently, Vietnam has a free-trade agreement with the 10-member ASEAN.
TOURISM
France draws most tourists
France welcomed 84.7 million foreign tourists last year, making it once again the most-visited country in the world, according to a study published on Monday.The figure topped the 2012 number by 2 percent and meant that when it comes to attracting foreign visitors, France easily beats the US and Spain who had 69.8 and 60.7 million foreign visitors each. The study —- which showed figures for France rising from 83 million in 2012 — is published annually by France’s DGCIS international competitiveness agency and by the Banque de France.
BUSINESS UPDATE: The iPhone assembler said operations outlook is expected to show quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year growth for the second quarter Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported strong growth in sales last month, potentially raising expectations for iPhone sales while artificial intelligence (AI)-related business booms. The company, which assembles the majority of Apple Inc’s smartphones, reported a 19.03 percent rise in monthly sales to NT$510.9 billion (US$15.78 billion), from NT$429.22 billion in the same period last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 14.16 percent, it said. The company in a statement said that last month’s revenue was a record-breaking April performance. Hon Hai, known also as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), assembles most iPhones, but the company is diversifying its business to
Apple Inc has been developing a homegrown chip to run artificial intelligence (AI) tools in data centers, although it is unclear if the semiconductor would ever be deployed, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. The effort would build on Apple’s previous efforts to make in-house chips, which run in its iPhones, Macs and other devices, according to the Journal, which cited unidentified people familiar with the matter. The server project is code-named ACDC (Apple Chips in Data Center) within the company, aiming to utilize Apple’s expertise in chip design for the company’s server infrastructure, the newspaper said. While this initiative has been
GlobalWafers Co (環球晶圓), the world’s No. 3 silicon wafer supplier, yesterday said that revenue would rise moderately in the second half of this year, driven primarily by robust demand for advanced wafers used in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, a key component of artificial intelligence (AI) technology. “The first quarter is the lowest point of this cycle. The second half will be better than the first for the whole semiconductor industry and for GlobalWafers,” chairwoman Doris Hsu (徐秀蘭) said during an online investors’ conference. “HBM would definitely be the key growth driver in the second half,” Hsu said. “That is our big hope
The consumer price index (CPI) last month eased to 1.95 percent, below the central bank’s 2 percent target, as food and entertainment cost increases decelerated, helped by stable egg prices, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday. The slowdown bucked predictions by policymakers and academics that inflationary pressures would build up following double-digit electricity rate hikes on April 1. “The latest CPI data came after the cost of eating out and rent grew moderately amid mixed international raw material prices,” DGBAS official Tsao Chih-hung (曹志弘) told a news conference in Taipei. The central bank in March raised interest rates by