ELECTRONICS
Canon raises profit forecast
Japan’s Canon Inc yesterday boosted its full-year profit forecast, saying that a weak yen was offsetting tepid demand for its digital cameras and printers. The firm now expects a net profit of ¥250 billion (US$2.3 billion) this year, up from an earlier ¥240 billion forecast, on slightly lower sales of ¥3.74 trillion. Canon booked a 12.3 percent rise in net profit of ¥186.7 billion in the nine months through last month, while operating profit rose 8.7 percent to ¥265 billion. Sales slipped 1.1 percent from a year ago to ¥2.67 trillion, it said. Since late 2012, the yen has dropped from about 80 against the US dollar to about 108 in forex trading yesterday.
AVIATION
Saab, Brazil pen aircraft pact
Saab AB has signed a contract valued at 39.3 billion kronor (US$5.4 billion) with Brazil for the development and production of 36 Gripen NG fighter aircraft. The order comprises 28 single-seat and eight two-seat jets, with deliveries to Brazil’s air force expected to start in 2019, the Stockholm-based company said in a statement yesterday. Saab and Brazil’s government also signed an industrial cooperation contract to deliver “substantial technology transfer” from Saab to the Brazilian industry. Partnering with Brazil could give the Gripen a new lease of life after the program suffered a blow in May when Swiss voters rejected a 3.1 billion Swiss franc (US$3.3 billion) order for 22 fighters that had been awarded two-and-a-half years previous.
HUNGARY
Internet data tax opposed
Thousands of people on Sunday protested in Budapest against a planned new tax on Internet data transfers, which they said would not only increase the tax burden, but would also curb fundamental democratic rights and freedom. Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s government, which has been widely accused of adopting anti-democratic policies, first unveiled plans for the new tax on Tuesday last week in the draft 2015 tax bill submitted to parliament. The draft tax bill contains a provision for Internet providers to pay a tax of 150 forints (US$0.60) per gigabyte of data traffic, though it would also let companies offset corporate income tax against the new levy. The rally was organized by a Facebook group that has more than 210,000 supporters. The protesters, which some local Web sites estimated as numbering more than 10,000, gathered in front of the Ministry for National Economy.
PHARMACEUTICALS
Fujifilm eyes stake in Kalon
Fujifilm Holdings Corp yesterday said it would buy a US vaccine maker as the Japanese firm boosts its supply of an experimental Ebola drug to help stem the spread of the virus. The deal would see Fujifilm take a 49 percent stake in Kalon Biotherapeutics LLC, with plans to buy the whole company “in the future,” the company said, without supplying financial details. Japan’s leading Nikkei Sangyo Shimbun said the acquisition would be worth several billion yen. Kalon can safely handle and produce vaccines against deadly pathogens, including anthrax, Fujifilm said, as it looks to further tap the health sector. Fujifilm last week said it would increase its stock of Avigan, which has been given to several patients who were evacuated from Ebola-hit west Africa to Europe. The firm said it has enough Avigan tablets to treat 20,000 people and enough of its active ingredient for 300,000 treatments.
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
Clambering hand-over-hand, sweat dripping into his eyes, a durian laborer expertly slices a cumbersome fruit from a tree before tossing it down to land with a soft thump in his colleague’s waiting arms about 15m below. Among Thailand’s most famous and lucrative exports, the pungent “king of fruits” is as distinctive in its smell as its spiky green-brown carapace, and has been farmed in the kingdom for hundreds of years. However, a vicious heat wave engulfing Southeast Asia has resulted in smaller yields and spiraling costs, with growers and sellers increasingly panicked as global warming damages the industry. “This year is a crisis,”
HIGH-TECH: As leading-edge process technologies become more complicated, only a handful of players are able to provide design services, the company’s CEO said Artificial intelligence (AI) chip designer Alchip Technologies Ltd (世芯) yesterday said that revenue would grow significantly again in 2026 after adding a major AI chip customer, reversing moderation amid a product transition next year. The Taipei-based application-specific IC (ASIC) designer reiterated its strong revenue growth forecast for this year and 2026 after its stock plummeted about 23 percent to NT$3,145 from a peak of NT$4,085 on March 6 amid growing competition. Alchip said it has built strong partnerships with cloud service providers (CSP), denying that it had lost orders to smaller competitors such as Faraday Technology Corp (智原). Faraday said it has secured