TECHNOLOGY
Sharp eyes restructuring
Japan’s Sharp Corp yesterday said that it is considering restructuring options after a newspaper reported the struggling electronics maker is seeking aid from two of its main lenders. The company is drafting a new medium-term business plan, and no decision has been made on restructuring, Osaka, Japan-based Sharp said in a statement filed with the Tokyo Stock Exchange. There are no plans to revise earnings forecasts at this time, it added. Sharp is seeking to raise about ¥200 billion (US$1.67 billion) from a debt-for-equity swap with lenders, alongside share sales, the Nikkei business daily reported. The company’s net loss this fiscal year may widen to ¥100 billion from the current forecast for a loss of ¥30 billion, the report said.
MACROECONOMICS
S Korea inflation slows
South Korea’s inflation hit its lowest level in more than 15 years last month amid slumping oil prices, S Korean government data showed yesterday. Inflation has remained stubbornly below 1 percent for three consecutive months because of the slump in global oil prices. Consumer prices rose 0.5 percent last month from the previous year — further slowing from January’s 0.8 percent, state-run Statistics Korea said. Last month’s figure was the lowest since July 1999, when it rose 0.3 percent. Core inflation, which excludes oil and food prices, came in at 2.3 percent, also slowing from January’s 2.4 percent.
MACROECONOMICS
Swiss growth beats forecast
The Swiss economy grew twice as fast as economists predicted at the end of last year, indicating resilience before the central bank scrapped a currency cap that was shielding exporters. GDP increased 0.6 percent in the three months through December last year, after an upwardly revised 0.7 percent a quarter earlier, Switzerland’s State Secretariat for Economic Affairs in Bern said in a statement yesterday. Private and public consumption, as well as trade in goods, contributed to the rise in GDP in the fourth quarter, the data showed. Output rose 2 percen, it showed.
AUTOMAKERS
Takata to double output
Embattled Japanese auto supplier Takata Corp on Monday said that it would double its production of replacement airbags in the next six months in response to a massive global safety recall. Takata, under fire from safety regulators over defective airbags linked to at least five fatalities, said it had increased production of airbag replacement kits from 350,000 per month in December last year to 450,000 per month now. Output is expected to hit 900,000 in September. About 20 million vehicles produced by some of the world’s biggest automakers are being recalled due to the risk their Takata-made airbags could deploy with excessive explosive power, spraying potentially fatal shrapnel into the vehicle.
TECHNOLOGY
NASDAQ surpasses 5,000
The NASDAQ finished above 5,000 points on Monday for the first time in 15 years, capping a long-running recovery in the exchange after the dotcom bubble burst spectacularly in 2000. The tech-rich NASDAQ Composite Index jumped 44.57 points (0.90 percent) to 5,008.10, finishing above 5,000 for just the third time in its history. Both the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 struck new records as well, as US markets marched ahead in a six-year bull run.
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
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
FACTORY SHIFT: While Taiwan produces most of the world’s AI servers, firms are under pressure to move manufacturing amid geopolitical tensions Lenovo Group Ltd (聯想) started building artificial intelligence (AI) servers in India’s south, the latest boon for the rapidly growing country’s push to become a high-tech powerhouse. The company yesterday said it has started making the large, powerful computers in Pondicherry, southeastern India, moving beyond products such as laptops and smartphones. The Chinese company would also build out its facilities in the Bangalore region, including a research lab with a focus on AI. Lenovo’s plans mark another win for Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who tries to attract more technology investment into the country. While India’s tense relationship with China has suffered setbacks