MACROECONOMICS
China industrial output rises
China’s industrial production rose 7.2 percent year-on-year last month, the government said yesterday. The figure missed market expectations of 7.5 percent, according to Dow Jones Newswires. Retail sales, a key indicator of consumer spending, rose 11.7 percent in the same month, while fixed-asset investment, a measure of government spending on infrastructure, expanded 15.8 percent year-on-year in the first 11 months, China’s National Bureau of Statistics said. The data follow other figures suggesting a softening in Chinese growth. Last Monday, official figures showed that export growth slowed sharply last month, while imports fell.
MACROECONOMICS
US household wealth down
US households’ net worth slipped in the third quarter as a drop in stock prices overwhelmed a solid gain in home values. Household wealth declined 0.2 percent in the July-September quarter to US$81.3 trillion, the US Federal Reserve said on Thursday. Americans’ stock and mutual fund portfolios fell US$700 billion. The value of their homes increased US$245 billion. The slight drop comes after US household wealth rose to a record high in the second quarter.
MINING
BHP sees ore under US$100
The world’s biggest miner, BHP Billiton, says iron ore prices are unlikely to rise above US$100 a tonne again, as the commodity trades at five-year lows amid a supply glut and weak Chinese demand. Iron ore prices have slumped about 40 percent this year as output from resources giants like BHP, Rio Tinto and Vale increases, hurting higher-cost producers. A year ago, iron ore fetched about US$135 a tonne, but it is now below US$70.
PHARMACEUTICALS
Sanofi to start Saudi plant
French drugmaker Sanofi will start commercial production early next year from a factory in Saudi Arabia, a spokeswoman said on Thursday. After product testing and regulatory approval “the first commercial batches” should be available in February, Sanofi communications manager for Saudi Arabia Rajiah Meir told reporters. On Wednesday, the company formally inaugurated its factory at King Abdullah Economic City, an industrial and residential development on the Red Sea. The plant will initially produce antibiotics, cardiovascular drugs, diabetic medication and medicine to protect against blood clots.
TECHNOLOGY
Adobe sales beat estimates
Adobe Systems Inc on Thursday reported fiscal fourth-quarter revenue that topped estimates, as the software maker pushed deeper into delivering programs via the Web to expand its business, an effort bolstered by a deal to buy stock-photography provider Fotolia LLC for about US$800 million. Sales in the period ended Nov. 28 were US$1.07 billion and profit before certain items was US$0.36 a share, Adobe said in a statement. The Fotolia deal is aimed at enhancing Creative Cloud and is Adobe’s third-biggest acquisition in the past decade.
AIRLINES
Qantas CEOs resign
Qantas Airways Ltd yesterday said that the heads of its two main divisions, international and domestic, “decided to leave” the Australian carrier, four days after the airline said it expects to swing back to profitability. Qantas international CEO Simon Hickey and Qantas domestic CEO Lyell Strambi will leave as the firm takes a “flatter” executive structure, Qantas said.
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
FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six