UNITED STATES
President said to plan tax
President Barack Obama is to propose a minimum tax of 19 percent on foreign earnings and a 14 percent tax on stockpiled offshore profits as part of a US$3.99 trillion budget designed to help the lower and middle classes by increasing levies on the nation’s wealthiest citizens, according to two people speaking on condition of anonymity. Obama wants to use new revenue to pay for infrastructure projects in the US and these two provisions, along with the extension of certain laws that are set to expire, would yield US$565 billion over 10 years, according to one of the people.
MACROECONOMICS
Brazil posts budget deficit
Brazil on Friday posted its first budget deficit in 12 years — more bad news for an economy already battling high inflation and facing deep spending cuts. Brazil’s central Bank released data showing a public sector primary deficit equal to 0.63 percent of GDP last year. It marks the first time that the figure has been in the red since 2002, when its central bank began keeping statistics, and shows a sharp decline even from the previous year, when GDP growth was 1.88 percent.
AUTOMAKERS
Second air bag fix needed
More than 2 million Toyota, Chrysler and Honda vehicles are being recalled for a second fix for faulty air bags that might inadvertently inflate while the car is running. The recall includes some Acura MDX, Dodge Viper, Jeep Grand Cherokee, Honda Odyssey, Pontiac Vibe, Toyota Corolla and Toyota Avalon models made from 2002 to 2004. The US’ National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says all of the vehicles covered in Saturday’s announcement had already been under a recall for the faulty air bags, but the automakers’ original attempts to fix the defects only worked about 85 percent of the time.
FOOD INUSTRY
Sugar traders merge
Cargill Inc’s decision to partner its sugar business with Brazil’s Copersucar SA is to be followed by more mergers among sugar traders after four years of falling prices, Kingsman SA founder Jonathan Kingsman said. Sugar prices decreased almost 12 percent last year, the fourth annual decline and capping the longest slump since at least 1962. Noble Group Ltd, Asia’s biggest commodity trader by revenue, sold a majority stake in its food division to China’s Cofco Corp (中國糧油集團) last year. “In five years time there will be fewer traders,” Kingsman said on Saturday in an interview at the Platts Kingsman sugar conference in Dubai. “You’ll see a lot new people coming in.”
STOCKS
Spotify IPO faces delay
Spotify Ltd, the online and mobile music service, is working with Goldman Sachs Group Inc on a new round of private financing that might push back the timing of an initial offering (IPO), people with knowledge of the matter said. The Stockholm-based music streaming Web site is seeking to raise about US$500 million, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing private information. Spotify worked with Goldman Sachs, also an investor in the company, last year on raising a credit facility, a move that might presage an initial public offering in the US, people familiar with the situation said at the time. Banks often pitch loans to early-stage technology companies with an eye toward an underwriting role down the road, the people then said.
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
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
FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six