ECONOMICS
Mexico moves to boost peso
Mexico’s central bank on Wednesday said that it plans to sell US$52 million per day over the next three months to stop the peso from sliding further after the currency reached historic lows. The daily auction comes on top of a mechanism in which the bank sells US$200 million on days that the peso drops by 1.5 percent from the previous day’s closing price. The Mexican currency was worth 15.90 pesos against the US dollar on Tuesday. The peso has depreciated by 4.8 percent since the start of the year, Mexican Finance Minister Luis Videgaray said. However, it has strengthened against the euro, the Canadian dollar and the Brazilian real.
LABOR
Australia jobless rate drops
Australia’s unemployment rate eased to 6.3 percent last month as fewer people looked for jobs, data showed yesterday, but economists warned the labor market remained soft, maintaining expectations of another interest rate cut. The unemployment rate fell from 6.4 percent in January, a more-than 12-year high, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics — in line with analysts’ forecasts. About 15,600 jobs were added to the economy, with full-time positions increasing by 10,300 and part-time roles up by 5,300.
ECONOMICS
France still mired in inflation
The French economy remained stuck in deflation last month, according to official figures published yesterday, with consumer rices down 0.3 percent last month compared to the same period last year. This followed a 0.4-percent decline in annualized prices in January, the first time in five years that the economy had slipped into deflation, according to the national statistics office. However, inflation in Germany was back in positive territory last month with consumer prices rising by 0.1 percent, official data released by federal statistics office Destatis yesterday showed.
AVIATION
United Tech mulls spinoff
United Technologies Corp on Wednesday said that it is weighing options for its Sikorsky Aircraft division, including a possible spinoff of the maker of Black Hawk and other military and commercial helicopters. The Hartford, Connecticut, company said it has not set a timetable for any action regarding Sikorsky and that there is no guarantee it will spin off the unit. Sikorsky accounted for about US$7.5 billion of United Technologies’ total sales of US$65 billion last year. The conglomerate’s other divisions include jet engine manufacturer Pratt & Whitney and Otis elevator.
AVIATION
Lufthansa predicts profit rise
Deutsche Lufthansa AG yesterday said it expects to see a “tangible” improvement in its underlying earnings this year after profits nosedived last year. The carrier said it expects earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) to amount to “over 1.5 billion euros” (US$1.59 billion) this year, “a substantial improvement on the 2014 group operating result.” EBIT last year amounted to 1.2 billion euros.
AUTOMAKERS
Alibaba, SAIC to team up
SAIC Motor Corp Ltd (上海汽車) yesterday said that it would join e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (阿里巴巴) in investing 1 billion yuan (US$159.66 million) in a fund to develop Internet-connected cars. SAIC Motor did not provide details about the size of each party’s investment. Alibaba declined to provide immediate comment.
WASHINGTON’S INCENTIVES: The CHIPS Act set aside US$39 billion in direct grants to persuade the world’s top semiconductor companies to make chips on US soil The US plans to award more than US$6 billion to Samsung Electronics Co, helping the chipmaker expand beyond a project in Texas it has already announced, people familiar with the matter said. The money from the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act would be one of several major awards that the US Department of Commerce is expected to announce in the coming weeks, including a grant of more than US$5 billion to Samsung’s rival, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), people familiar with the plans said. The people spoke on condition of anonymity in advance of the official announcements. The federal funding for
HIGH DEMAND: The firm has strong capabilities of providing key components including liquid cooling technology needed for AI servers, chairman Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday revised its revenue outlook for this year to “significant” growth from a “neutral” view forecast five months ago, due to strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers from cloud service providers. Hon Hai, a major assembler of iPhones that is also known as Foxconn, expects AI server revenues to soar more than 40 percent annually this year, chairman Young Liu (劉揚偉) told investors. The robust growth would uplift revenue contribution from AI servers to 40 percent of the company’s overall server revenue this year, from 30 percent last year, Liu said. In the three-year period
LONG HAUL: Largan Energy Materials’ TNO-based lithium-ion batteries are expected to charge in five minutes and last about 20 years, far surpassing conventional technology Largan Precision Co (大立光) has formed a joint venture with the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI, 工研院) to produce fast-charging, long-life lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles, mobile electronics and electric storage units, the camera lens supplier for Apple Inc’s iPhones said yesterday. Largan Energy Materials Co (萬溢能源材料), established in January, is developing high-energy, fast-charging, long-life lithium-ion batteries using titanium niobium oxide (TNO) anodes, it said. TNO-based batteries can be fully charged in five minutes and have a lifespan of 20 years, a major advantage over the two to four hours of charging time needed for conventional graphite-anode-based batteries, Largan said in a
Taiwan is one of the first countries to benefit from the artificial intelligence (AI) boom, but because that is largely down to a single company it also represents a risk, former Google Taiwan managing director Chien Lee-feng (簡立峰) said at an AI forum in Taipei yesterday. Speaking at the forum on how generative AI can generate possibilities for all walks of life, Chien said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) — currently among the world’s 10 most-valuable companies due to continued optimism about AI — ensures Taiwan is one of the economies to benefit most from AI. “This is because AI is