RUSSIA
GDP shrinks 0.5 percent
The economy saw its first decline since October 2009 last month as manufacturing and investment shrank amid the ruble’s worst rout in a decade. GDP shrank 0.5 percent last month from a year earlier after a 0.5 percent increase in October, the Ministry of Economics said on its Web site. Seasonally adjusted GDP fell 0.2 percent in the month after a 0.1 percent advance in October. The world’s biggest energy exporter is facing its first recession since 2009 next year as oil, trading near a five-year low and sanctions imposed over Ukraine pushed Russia into its biggest currency crisis since 1998. With oil prices at US$60 a barrel, the economy might contract about 4 percent next year, Minister of Finance Anton Siluanov said.
SMARTPHONES
Xiaomi raises US$1.1bn
Xiaomi Corp (小米) raised US$1.1 billion in a new funding round that values China’s largest smartphone vendor at US$45 billion, or about triple its closest competitor, Lenovo Group Ltd (聯想). Investors include Yuri Milner’s DST, GIC Pte and All-Stars Investment Ltd, according to a statement posted yesterday on Xiaomi chief executive Lei Jun’s (雷軍) verified microblog. Lei is expanding overseas and unveiling new products, including an air purifier, to build on growth in China, where Xiaomi leads Samsung Electronics Co and Apple Inc in smartphone sales. Lei plans to sell 100 million phones next year after expanding into India, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines.
ENERGY
Chinese firms merge
China’s government said it merged Beijing Energy Investment Holding Co (北京能源投資) and Jingmei Group (京煤集團) into a 200 billion yuan (US$32 billion) business in line with its policy to improve efficiency in the energy industry and reduce pollution. The merger of Beijing Energy and Jingmei, a coal supplier based in the capital, will improve electricity supply, Lin Fusheng (林撫生), head of Beijing’s Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, said in a report by Xinhua news agency yesterday. The merger took place on Sunday, Beijing Energy — which invests in electricity projects — said on its Web site. The new company, Beijing Energy Group Co, is to manage coal-fired power plants, renewable energy projects, heating supply and coal mine development, Xinhua reported. Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), in a pact with US President Barack Obama, agreed to cap China’s carbon emissions by 2030 and use renewable sources for 20 percent of the nation’s energy.
ECONOMY
Germans eye oil benefit
Germany expects low oil prices to boost growth in Europe’s biggest economy by between 0.2 and 0.3 percent next year, Der Spiegel magazine reported on Sunday, citing an internal memo for Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy. Oil prices have fallen by about 45 percent since June. The ministry expects oil prices to remain low in the long term and increase to about US$80 a barrel only by 2018, Der Spiegel reported. The memo also said that Germany would pay about 12 billion euros (US$14.62 billion) less to oil-producing nations than it did this year, a 25 percent reduction, Der Spiegel said. The ministry declined immediate comment. Germany expects the economy to expand by 1.3 percent next year after predicted growth of 1.2 percent this year. OPEC expects oil prices to rebound to between US$70 and US$80 a barrel by the end of next year, they said last week.
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has appointed Rose Castanares, executive vice president of TSMC Arizona, as president of the subsidiary, which is responsible for carrying out massive investments by the Taiwanese tech giant in the US state, the company said in a statement yesterday. Castanares will succeed Brian Harrison as president of the Arizona subsidiary on Oct. 1 after the incumbent president steps down from the position with a transfer to the Arizona CEO office to serve as an advisor to TSMC Arizona’s chairman, the statement said. According to TSMC, Harrison is scheduled to retire on Dec. 31. Castanares joined TSMC in
EUROPE ON HOLD: Among a flurry of announcements, Intel said it would postpone new factories in Germany and Poland, but remains committed to its US expansion Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger has landed Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a customer for the company’s manufacturing business, potentially bringing work to new plants under construction in the US and boosting his efforts to turn around the embattled chipmaker. Intel and AWS are to coinvest in a custom semiconductor for artificial intelligence computing — what is known as a fabric chip — in a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar framework,” Intel said in a statement on Monday. The work would rely on Intel’s 18A process, an advanced chipmaking technology. Intel shares rose more than 8 percent in late trading after the