INFLATION
China inflation rises to 1.5%
China’s consumer inflation rebounded marginally to 1.5 percent year-on-year last month, the government said yesterday, as slowing growth in the world’s second-largest economy keeps a lid on prices. The rise in the consumer price index released by the Chinese National Bureau of Statistics marked an increase from a five-year low of 1.4 percent in November of last year. For the entirety of last year, consumer inflation was 2 percent, down from 2.6 percent in 2013 and well below the government’s target of about 3.5 percent.
AUTOMAKERS
Brazil car output falls 15.3%
Car production slumped 15.3 percent in Brazil last year, in the sector’s worst showing in five years, leading to 12,400 job losses, national automobile association Anfavea said on Thursday. Brazil produced 3.15 million vehicles last year, down 560,000 from 2013 for the lowest tally since 2009, Anfavea chairman Luiz Moan Yabiku said. Sales slid last year, down 7.5 percent to 3.5 million units, after a fourth straight year of pallid economic growth, Brazil’s auto dealership association Fenabrave announced on Tuesday.
INTERNET
Google search share dips
Google Inc saw its share of the US Internet search market slip to its lowest ever mark, while Yahoo Inc notched its highest share in five years, an independent analytics firm said on Thursday. Last month, Google handled 75.2 percent of US online search referrals, down from 79.3 percent a year earlier. However, the company remains the leader in the US search market by a wide margin, ahead of Microsoft Corp’s Bing at 12.5 percent and Yahoo at 10.4 percent. Firefox, which is open-source and free, was reported by industry trackers to be the third-most used Web browser in the world, behind Google’s Chrome and Microsoft’s Internet Explorer.
RETAIL
Macy’s cutting 1,300 jobs
US department store giant Macy’s said on Thursday it would shut 14 stores, cutting more than 1,300 jobs, in a restructuring to boost its focus on the boom in online shopping. The affected stores, a small fraction of the company’s roughly 790 stores across the country, will be closed within several months, Macy’s said in a statement after the markets closed. Macy’s also announced it would open two new stores in California.
SHIPPING
Giant ship to enter service
One of the world’s largest ships, capable of lifting oil rigs five times heavier than the Eiffel Tower, arrived in Rotterdam on Thursday for finishing touches before entering service. The nearly 400m long Pieter Schelte Heerema was built by Daewoo and will have floating housing units installed around it in Rotterdam so workers can complete the construction job. Once the work and sea tests are completed, the ship’s first task will be removing the Yme oil platform off the Norwegian coast.
AIRCRAFT
Boeing hits new sales high
Boeing Co on Tuesday reported that last year was a banner year for aircraft sales, breaking records for new orders and deliveries. The company said it booked 1,432 net orders for commercial aircraft last year, with a list price value of US$232.7 billion, topping its 2007 previous record. The company’s backlog of unfilled orders climbed to 5,789, also an all-time high.
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
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
GLOBAL ECONOMY: Policymakers have a choice of a small 25 basis-point cut or a bold cut of 50 basis points, which would help the labor market, but might reignite inflation The US Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut in more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the US presidential election. Senior officials at the US central bank including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool. The Fed, which has a dual mandate from the US Congress to act independently to ensure