PETROLEUM
Russia increases oil output
Russian oil production rose to a post-Soviet record last month, showing how the pumping of the nation’s biggest source of revenue has so far been unaffected by US and European sanctions or a price collapse for the commodity. The nation increased output 0.3 percent to 10.667 million barrels a day, according to preliminary data e-mailed on Friday by CDU-TEK, part of the Russian Ministry of Energy. Production averaged 10.58 million barrels per day last year, also a post-Soviet record.
AUTOMAKERS
Hyundai sees growth slow
Hyundai Motor Co and its affiliate Kia Motors Corp are forecasting their weakest growth in yearly car sales in more than a decade as competition intensifies and the global economy slows. Hyundai Motor Group, the world’s fifth-largest automaker, said on Friday the two carmakers aim to sell a combined 8.2 million vehicles this year. That would be an increase of just 2.5 percent from last year’s sales of about 8 million vehicles. Sales grew 4 percent in each of the past two years.
TAXES
Minister calls for reform
Austrian Minister of Labor Rudolf Hundstorfer on Friday urged the government to push ahead with tax reform to boost growth after the unemployment rate last month jumped to the highest for at least two-and-a-half years. Hundstorfer listed tax reform, a housing construction program and an EU-wide 315 billion euro (US$380 billion) investment plan as crucial steps to fight unemployment, which rose to 10.2 percent last month.
CONSTRUCTION
Fitch cuts OAS credit rating
Brazilian construction company OAS SA had its credit grade cut seven levels to “C” by Fitch Ratings after missing a US$16 million interest payment on US dollar bonds. The company’s US$400 million of securities due in 2021 have plunged to US$0.33 on the dollar from more than US$0.90 in November amid a probe into builders that allegedly bribed state-run oil producer Petroleo Brasileiro SA for contracts. While OAS has a 30-day grace period to make the disbursement, the company is likely to miss principal and interest payments on local bonds next week, according to Fitch.
CONSTRUCTION
Singapore building grows
A new hospital and subway lines may have helped Singapore’s construction industry grow the most in a year last quarter, a bright spot in an economy otherwise hurt by an uneven global recovery. Construction, which made up 4.4 percent of GDP last year, rose 8 percent in the three months through last month from the previous period, data showed on Friday. Manufacturing, which accounted for 18.6 percent, shrank 5.8 percent.
ENERGY
Former execs pay off Afren
British oil and gas producer Afren PLC said it had secured US$17.1 million from its former chief executive and chief operating officer in relation to unauthorized payments that caused a scandal last year. Afren said it would not pursue legal proceedings against founder and former CEO Osman Shahenshah and former COO Shahid Ullah and released the pair of claims in connection with the issue.
DECOUPLING? In a sign of deeper US-China technology decoupling, Apple has held initial talks about using Baidu’s generative AI technology in its iPhones, the Wall Street Journal said China has introduced guidelines to phase out US microprocessors from Intel Corp and Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) from government PCs and servers, the Financial Times reported yesterday. The procurement guidance also seeks to sideline Microsoft Corp’s Windows operating system and foreign-made database software in favor of domestic options, the report said. Chinese officials have begun following the guidelines, which were unveiled in December last year, the report said. They order government agencies above the township level to include criteria requiring “safe and reliable” processors and operating systems when making purchases, the newspaper said. The US has been aiming to boost domestic semiconductor
Nvidia Corp earned its US$2.2 trillion market cap by producing artificial intelligence (AI) chips that have become the lifeblood powering the new era of generative AI developers from start-ups to Microsoft Corp, OpenAI and Google parent Alphabet Inc. Almost as important to its hardware is the company’s nearly 20 years’ worth of computer code, which helps make competition with the company nearly impossible. More than 4 million global developers rely on Nvidia’s CUDA software platform to build AI and other apps. Now a coalition of tech companies that includes Qualcomm Inc, Google and Intel Corp plans to loosen Nvidia’s chokehold by going
ENERGY IMPACT: The electricity rate hike is expected to add about NT$4 billion to TSMC’s electricity bill a year and cut its annual earnings per share by about NT$0.154 Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has left its long-term gross margin target unchanged despite the government deciding on Friday to raise electricity rates. One of the heaviest power consuming manufacturers in Taiwan, TSMC said it always respects the government’s energy policy and would continue to operate its fabs by making efforts in energy conservation. The chipmaker said it has left a long-term goal of more than 53 percent in gross margin unchanged. The Ministry of Economic Affairs concluded a power rate evaluation meeting on Friday, announcing electricity tariffs would go up by 11 percent on average to about NT$3.4518 per kilowatt-hour (kWh)
OPENING ADDRESS: The CEO is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing and artificial intelligence at the trade show’s opening on June 3, TAITRA said Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) chairperson and chief executive officer Lisa Su (蘇姿丰) is to deliver the opening keynote speech at Computex Taipei this year, the event’s organizer said in a statement yesterday. Su is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing (HPC) in the artificial intelligence (AI) era to open Computex, one of the world’s largest computer and technology trade events, at 9:30am on June 3, the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) said. Su is to explore how AMD and the company’s strategic technology partners are pushing the limits of AI and HPC, from data centers to