OIL
Saudi says no to output cut
OPEC will not cut oil production, even if the price drops to US$20 a barrel, and it is unfair to expect the cartel to reduce output if non-members do not, Saudi Arabia said. “Whether it goes down to US$20 a barrel, US$40, US$50, US$60, it is irrelevant,” Saudi Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Ali al-Naimi said in an interview with the Middle East Economic Survey, an industry weekly. In unusually detailed comments, al-Naimi defended a decision by OPEC last month to maintain a production ceiling of 30 million barrels per day. The decision sent global crude prices tumbling, worsening a price drop that has fallen by about 50 percent since June.
TELECOMS
Telstra to buy Pacnet
Telstra Corp will acquire Pacnet Ltd, which operates undersea cables in the Asia-Pacific region, as Australia’s largest telephone company seeks to expand in the region. The US$697 million transaction, which includes gross debt of about US$400 million, will be completed by the middle of next year, subject to regulatory and Pacnet financier approvals, Melbourne-based Telstra said in a statement. Singapore and Hong Kong-based Pacnet will give Telstra an expanded data center network, more submarine cables and major customers across the region, it said.
TRAVEL
Italy fines TripAdvisor
Italy’s competition watchdog has fined travel Web site TripAdvisor 500,000 euros (US$613,000) for publishing misleading information in its reviews, it said on Monday. The fine follows a seven-month investigation into whether the Web site takes appropriate measures to avoid publishing false opinions while presenting them as genuine, following a complaint from consumers and hotel owners in Italy. The Rome-based regulator said the US company and its Italian arm should stop “publishing misleading information about the sources of its reviews,” adding that the practice started in September 2011. TripAdvisor said it disagreed with the antitrust authority’s decision and would appeal it.
INTERNET
Lines rebuts spying report
The parent company of the Line mobile-chat application yesterday denied press reports in Thailand that the military government is monitoring messages sent through the service. “No monitoring by the Thailand government has been conducted,” Nam Ji-woong, a spokesman for South Korea-based Naver Corp, which owns Line Corp, said by e-mail. The government was monitoring more than 40 million messages sent via Line each day, Khaosod newspaper reported, citing Thai Minister of Information, Communication and Technology Pornchai Rujiprapa. Pornchai said the ministry could see what messages were being forwarded and was focusing on those deemed libelous, anti-royalty or threatening national security, the report said.
INTERNET
Facebook censors dissent
The blocking of a Facebook Inc page promoting a Russian opposition rally highlights the challenges the social network faces in the country as Russian President Vladimir Putin seeks more control over the Web. Facebook agreed to block the page at the request of Russian communications regulator Roskomnadzor, agency spokesman Vadim Ampelonskiy said yesterday. The watchdog asks social media to shut access to Web sites calling for mass protest and extremism, Ampelonskiy said. A Facebook representative declined to comment.
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