AUTOMObiles
Takata to recall inflators
The manufacturer of air bags linked to four deaths made another 30,687 inflators with an incorrect part which could lead to similarly damaging ruptures in newer vehicles, US regulators said, adding to questions about the scope of the defects in Takata Corp products. Takata plans to recall the SDI-X inflators manufactured from June 16, 2008, to June 20 this year, the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said on Saturday in a statement on its Web site. An incorrect outer baffle could cause the unit to rupture, the agency said. The defective inflators were in General Motors Co (GM) and Nissan Motor Co models the automakers decided to recall in June and last month respectively, according to documents on the Web site and an e-mail from Takata spokeswoman Alby Berman. GM recalled 29,019 Chevrolet Cruze small cars from model years last year and this year. The new recalls pertain to vehicles newer than those covered by the broader Takata actions, which involve products from the 2000 through 2008 model years.
EMPLOYMENT
Amazon staff 37% female
Amazon.com Inc said women make up 37 percent of its total global staff and 25 percent of its managers, showing a more diverse workforce than many Silicon Valley technology companies. Of the online retailer’s US workforce, 15 percent are black and 9 percent are Hispanic, while 73 percent are white or Asian, the Seattle-based company said on its Web site on Friday. Amazon’s report follows disclosures by other technology companies this year indicating that workforces in the industry are predominantly male and often white or Asian. Diversity reports from Facebook Inc, Google Inc and Twitter Inc showed that women make up about 30 percent of staff and blacks about 2 percent. Amazon’s numbers are similar to those at e-commerce rival EBay Inc, where women make up 42 percent of its staff and 7 percent of its US employees are black. Amazon had about 117,000 employees at the end of last year.
CONSTRUCTION
Citigroup clients eye Boston
Clients of a Citigroup Inc unit backing the construction of New York’s tallest apartment building are funding a new project in Boston. The firm has finished raising money from clients of its private bank to invest in a 60-story tower being built in Boston’s Back Bay neighborhood, according to a person briefed on the matter. The wealthy individuals invest directly in the project and returns are set to be based on proceeds from the sale of about 180 condominiums in the building, the person said. The residential tower also plans to include a hotel managed by Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts, the person said, requesting anonymity because the details of the project have not been finalized. Saudi billionaire Alwaleed bin Talal’s Kingdom Holding Co owns stakes in Four Seasons and New York-based Citigroup.
BANKING
BNP to take ECB loan
BNP Paribas SA, France’s largest bank, plans to borrow from the European Central Bank (ECB) through its program of targeted long-term loans, BNP chief financial officer Lars Machenil said. The low-cost funds are aimed at spurring banks to lend and stimulating growth. The ECB plans a second auction of loans in its targeted longer-term refinancing operations next month after banks borrowed 82.6 billion euros (US$104 billion) last month, less than economists had estimated. Italian and Spanish banks were among the leading borrowers in September.
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
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
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
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],”