MACROECONOMICS
China monitors deflation
China must remain vigilant against the possibility of deflation, People’s Bank of China (PBOC) Governor Zhou Xiaochuan (周小川) said yesterday in a speech at the Boao Forum on the southern Chinese island of Hainan. While monetary policy is not unconventional now, China “had experience” with non-conventional policy after the Asian and global financial crises, Zhou said. Beijing set a consumer inflation target of 3 percent for this year in its annual work report earlier this month.
AVIATION
Philippine Airlines buys jets
The Philippines’ struggling national carrier Philippine Airlines yesterday said it has purchased an additional two Airbus jets as part of its re-fleeting program. The two Airbus A321 NEO aircraft bring to 40 the total number of deliveries the airline is set to receive from Airbus through 2024, it said in a statement. The aircraft are to be used for domestic routes, Philippine Airlines spokeswoman Cielo Villauna told reporters.
FINANCE
Ecuador discloses loans
Ecuador recieved US$924 million in previously undisclosed loans from Deutsche Bank AG and other lenders, showing the extent of Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa’s effort to line up a record amount of financing as oil prices plunge. The nation received US$181 million in two separate loans from units of Deutsche Bank and obtained US$125 million from the European Investment Bank, according to a prospectus prepared before the government sold bonds this month that was reviewed by Bloomberg News. Ecuador also received financing from Bank of China Ltd (中國銀行) and a Chinese state oil company, the document shows.
MINING
Peru mine to proceed
Mexican-owned Southern Copper on Friday said it would go ahead with a US$1.4 billion project in Peru, denying company executive Julio Morriberon’s claim that it was pulling out because of local opposition. Southern Copper affiliate Southern Peru’s planned Tia Maria mine in the the Arequipa region’s Tambo Valley has faced months of protests by locals who fear pollution will damage agriculture. The project “will be very beneficial for the company, its workers and the local population, as well as for the Arequipa region and the country,” Southern Peru said in a statement.
ENERGY
Chevron stops shale hunt
Chevron Corp on Friday abandoned Australian shale exploration and said it would sell its 50 percent stake in that nation’s largest oil refiner. Chevron notified Beach Energy Ltd, its partner in the central Australian shale project, that “the opportunity does not align strategically” with the US explorer’s portfolio, according to a statement from Beach. Selling its half of refiner Caltex Australia Ltd is expected to yield about A$4.7 billion (US$3.64 billion.)
BANKING
Swiss pair duck US jail time
Two former Swiss bankers avoided jail time on Friday for their roles in a tax fraud scheme that helped US customers hide billions of US dollars in assets. Prosecutors in US District Court in Alexandria recommended probation for the two men, Andreas Bachmann and Josef Dorig. The two were among eight former employees of Zurich-based Credit Suisse Group AG and its subsidiaries who were indicted in 2011. The other six remain at large.
DECOUPLING? In a sign of deeper US-China technology decoupling, Apple has held initial talks about using Baidu’s generative AI technology in its iPhones, the Wall Street Journal said China has introduced guidelines to phase out US microprocessors from Intel Corp and Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) from government PCs and servers, the Financial Times reported yesterday. The procurement guidance also seeks to sideline Microsoft Corp’s Windows operating system and foreign-made database software in favor of domestic options, the report said. Chinese officials have begun following the guidelines, which were unveiled in December last year, the report said. They order government agencies above the township level to include criteria requiring “safe and reliable” processors and operating systems when making purchases, the newspaper said. The US has been aiming to boost domestic semiconductor
Nvidia Corp earned its US$2.2 trillion market cap by producing artificial intelligence (AI) chips that have become the lifeblood powering the new era of generative AI developers from start-ups to Microsoft Corp, OpenAI and Google parent Alphabet Inc. Almost as important to its hardware is the company’s nearly 20 years’ worth of computer code, which helps make competition with the company nearly impossible. More than 4 million global developers rely on Nvidia’s CUDA software platform to build AI and other apps. Now a coalition of tech companies that includes Qualcomm Inc, Google and Intel Corp plans to loosen Nvidia’s chokehold by going
ENERGY IMPACT: The electricity rate hike is expected to add about NT$4 billion to TSMC’s electricity bill a year and cut its annual earnings per share by about NT$0.154 Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has left its long-term gross margin target unchanged despite the government deciding on Friday to raise electricity rates. One of the heaviest power consuming manufacturers in Taiwan, TSMC said it always respects the government’s energy policy and would continue to operate its fabs by making efforts in energy conservation. The chipmaker said it has left a long-term goal of more than 53 percent in gross margin unchanged. The Ministry of Economic Affairs concluded a power rate evaluation meeting on Friday, announcing electricity tariffs would go up by 11 percent on average to about NT$3.4518 per kilowatt-hour (kWh)
OPENING ADDRESS: The CEO is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing and artificial intelligence at the trade show’s opening on June 3, TAITRA said Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) chairperson and chief executive officer Lisa Su (蘇姿丰) is to deliver the opening keynote speech at Computex Taipei this year, the event’s organizer said in a statement yesterday. Su is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing (HPC) in the artificial intelligence (AI) era to open Computex, one of the world’s largest computer and technology trade events, at 9:30am on June 3, the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) said. Su is to explore how AMD and the company’s strategic technology partners are pushing the limits of AI and HPC, from data centers to