TRADE
Exports ease Japan deficit
Japan’s trade deficit last month shrank by nearly a third from a year ago, helped by higher exports and falling oil bills, although the volume of shipments to foreign markets remained weak, official data showed yesterday. The Japanese Ministry of Finance data showed trade deficit came in at ¥891.9 billion (US$7.6 billion) last month, down 31.5 percent from a year ago and below a median forecast of ¥996 billion in a survey by the Nikkei Sangyo Shimbun. The value of exports rose 4.9 percent, but imports fell 1.7 percent in their first downturn in three months, as the cost of crude oil and petroleum purchases plunged.
ELECTRONICS
Apple halts sales in Russia
Apple Inc has halted online sales of its iPhones, iPads and other products in Russia amid financial turmoil triggered by the steep decline in the nation’s currency. The ruble plunged by as much as 20 percent on Tuesday, even after Russia’s central bank increased interest rates sharply in an attempt to shore up the currency. The ruble’s value has fallen by more than 60 percent since January. Apple on Tuesday said that the ruble’s instability has made it too difficult to set its prices in Russia, prompting the closure of its online store there.
AUTOMAKERS
Chrysler changes name
US automaker Chrysler on Tuesday unveiled its new name — FCA US LLC — said to reflect its subsidiary status to newly renamed Italian parent, Fiat Italy SpA. The company was known as the Chrysler Group. It was gradually acquired by Turin-based Fiat after emerging in June 2009 from a US government bankruptcy restructuring and bailout. Fiat renamed itself Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) in October, when it switched its headquarters to the Netherlands and listed on the New York Stock Exchange. On Tuesday, FCA announced that it had changed its name to FCA Italy SpA, effective on Monday. It trades in New York under the ticker FCAU.
HEALTHCARE
Dutch firm eyes Volcano
Amsterdam-based technology company Royal Philips NV says it is to pay US$1.2 billion for US medical equipment maker Volcano Corp, a deal that would beef up its presence in technologies that allow physicians to see inside patients’ hearts and veins. In an agreement backed by Volcano’s management, Philips is to offer US$1 billion for Volcano stock, or US$18 per share, reflecting a 57 percent premium over its NASDAQ closing price on Tuesday of US$11.49 in New York. Philips is also to assume US$200 million of debt. Philips, a major maker of medical imaging equipment, said the deal would allow it to sell its own products to Volcano’s customer base, and vice versa.
FINANCE
GE plans payouts, buybacks
US industrial conglomerate General Electric Co (GE) on Tuesday said that it plans to distribute US$40 billion to its shareholders next year and in 2016 in the form of dividends and share buybacks. The announcement, made at an investors’ conference, marks a relatively ambitious plan for shareholder returns, representing 16 percent of the company’s total capitalization of US$246 billion at the market close on Tuesday in New York. GE projected adjusted earnings per share this year in a range of US$1.70 to US$1.80.
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
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
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