INSURANCE
Jet crash provisions set
Insurers are setting aside US$300 million in provisions for the air crash in the French Alps that killed 150 people, German airline Lufthansa said yesterday. The sum includes financial compensation for the families of the people who died and the cost of the Airbus A320 jet itself, which belonged to low-cost carrier Germanwings, a spokeswoman for parent company Lufthansa said. The list price of an Airbus A320 jet is US$93.9 million. According to Handelsblatt, the consortium of insurers is headed by German giant Allianz.
AUTOMAKERS
Tweet boosts Tesla shares
Tesla Motors Inc shares jumped on Monday after co-founder Elon Musk tweeted that the company would unveil a “major” new product line this month, leaving analysts guessing. The shares rallied 3 percent to US$190.97 on the news. Musk was intentionally vague. “Major new Tesla product line — not a car — will be unveiled at our Hawthorne Design Studio on Thurs[day] 8pm, April 30,” he tweeted. Some reports said Musk was likely referring to a home battery based on a design used in Tesla’s vehicles.
BANKING
Macquarie plans job cuts
Macquarie Group Ltd planned to cut about half of its investment-banking jobs in Asia and announce the departure of the head of its advisory and capital markets unit as soon yesterday, people familiar with the matter said. About 80 to 90 jobs would be eliminated in the reductions, one of the people said. Jeremy Wernert, who was named head of Macquarie Capital, the group’s investment-banking unit, less than a year ago is leaving, the people said.
ELECTRONICS
Samsung, LG call truce
Samsung Electronics Co and LG Electronics Inc agreed yesterday to end all pending legal disputes that had seen the South Korean electronics rivals accuse each other of stealing technology and vandalizing products. A series of feuds between the two giants even saw one senior LG executive indicted by prosecutors for allegedly sabotaging Samsung’s washing machines at a trade fair in Germany last year. The two firms’ display panel-making subsidiaries have also accused each other of stealing technology in separate lawsuits, which saw four Samsung Display officials indicted.
SOUTH KOREA
Holiday boosts output
Industrial output rose 2.6 percent in February from a month earlier, boosted by demand over the Lunar New Year holiday, government data showed yesterday. Production in the automobile and semiconductor sectors led the growth figure, which followed a steep decline of 3.7 percent in January’s industrial output. Year-on-year, February’s output showed a fall of 4.7 percent.
DENMARK
Growth revised upwards
The economy grew faster in the last three months of last year than initially assessed. GDP in the fourth quarter expanded 0.5 percent from the previous three months, the statistics office said in a statement. Preliminary data on Feb. 27 showed output growth of 0.4 percent. The economy for last year grew 1.5 percent from a year earlier, also better than the 1.3 percent first estimated. The economy is set to grow 1.6 percent this year, the government said on Friday last week.
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
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],”