AUTOMAKERS
Hyundai recall over sensors
Hyundai Motor America is recalling about 263,000 cars in the US and Canada because a sensor problem could cause drivers to lose power-assisted steering. The company has not reported any injuries or accidents. The US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says a sensor in the affected cars could detect a discrepancy in the steering input and signals and disable power-assisted steering as a result. The affected cars include model years 2008 to 2010 of Elantras made between June 1, 2008, and April 30, 2010, and Elantra Touring vehicles made between Nov. 1, 2008, and April 30, 2010.
CUBA
Mexican firm deal greenlit
A Mexican meat processing firm has become the first international company to get approval for an investment project in the nation’s first special economic development area, the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Saturday. Richmeat de Mexico plans to invest in the processing and packing of meat within the Mariel special development zone of the island, the ministry said in a statement, without giving details of how much money was involved. The Mariel special development zone covers 466km2 west of Havana and is centered on a new container terminal in Mariel Bay.
BANKING
Bankia raises net profits
Bailed-out Spanish financial giant Bankia on Saturday said an 83 percent jump in its net profits last year to 747 million euros (US$836.4 million), though the group remains under investigation for an ill-fated 2011 stock listing. The jump in gains at the bank was due in part to a change in accounting norms that pushed down 2013’s profits, the bank said unveiling last year’s results. However, the bank also benefited from an increase in revenues, a drop in costs and a decrease in dubious lending. Bankia nearly collapsed in 2012 and had to be bailed out by the Spanish government to the tune of 24 billion euros.
ENERGY
Lithuania inks US LNG deal
Lithuania on Saturday said it had signed an agreement to buy liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the US in a move aimed at reducing its heavy dependence on Russian gas deliveries. Under the deal with Houston-based Chenier Energy company, the first LNG fuel is expected to arrive in Lithuania as early as next year, state-owned Litgas said in a statement. The nation of 3 million will initially import 0.54 billion cubic meters of gas from Statoil this year, covering about one-fifth of its demand. The first US LNG export terminal is expected to starts its operations later this year.
ECONOMY
No more bailouts: Tsipras
Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras says his country will not seek a third bailout deal, having succeeded in separating the loan agreement from the “disastrous” austerity conditions imposed with the willing cooperation of previous governments. Tsipras spoke on Saturday at the start of a two-day meeting of his SYRIZA party’s Central Committee. However, Tsipras said that although a “difficult battle in a long and difficult war” was won with the loan extension, difficulties lie ahead. Meanwhile, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble yesterday said Greece’s new government needs “a bit of time,” but is committed to implementing necessary reforms to resolve its debt crisis. “I am confident that it will put in place the necessary measures, set up a more efficient tax system and in the end honor its commitments,” Schaeuble told the Bild am Sonntag newspaper.
STOCK MARKET
Barclays sees TAIEX surge
Barclays Capital expects the TAIEX to exceed 10,000 points in the next 12 months because of the market’s strong liquidity and Taiwan’s sound economic fundamentals. Barclays has raised its 12-month target for the benchmark index to 10,230 points from a previous forecast of 9,000. Since the beginning of the year, the TAIEX has risen 3.38 percent after gaining about 8 percent last year.
MANUFACTURING
Output increased 3.59%
The production value of the manufacturing industry rose 3.59 percent to NT$14.43 trillion (US$458.87 billion) last year from a year earlier, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said on Saturday. The production value of the electronics sector, which includes semiconductors, flat panels and other electronics components, rose 8.5 percent annually to a record high of NT$3.75 trillion, the ministry said. The machinery industry saw its production value rise 10.72 percent last year from a year earlier to NT$664.7 billion. The automotive industry lifted its production value by 12.8 percent to NT$421.8 billion, while the chemical sector’s output value fell 3.07 percent to NT$2.08 billion, ministry data show.
TECHNOLOGY
Tablet market in flux
The combined global market share for the world’s top two tablet vendors, Apple Inc and Samsung Electronics Co, has fallen below 50 percent, as smaller players edge in with more innovative designs and cheaper products, market research firm Strategy Analytics said. The two companies’ combined market share fell from 50.9 percent in 2013 to 43 percent last year, as overall market shipments fell 6.6 percent to 242.5 million units last year, Strategy Analytics said in a report published on Wednesday.
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
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained