ECONOMY
Slight growth for France
France is poised for economic growth of 0.3 percent in the second quarter of the year, the Banque de France yesterday forecast, as solid industrial production boosts the eurozone’s second-biggest economy. In its first forecast for the second three months of the year, the central bank said the “rise in production should continue in May” after solid gains last month. On the downside, the bank forecast a “slight dip” in construction activity this month after a stable performance last month.
NUCLEAR POWER
EDF inks deal with Chinese
French state-controlled utility EDF has signed agreements with Chinese firms which will supply equipment for two nuclear reactors EDF plans to build in Hinkley Point, Britain, the company said. China General Nuclear Power Group (中國廣東核電集團) and China National Nuclear Corp (中國核工業集團) in October 2013 signed an agreement with EDF to take a 30 to 40 percent stake in the consortium to build Hinkley Point. The new supply deal would mean that the participation of the Chinese companies would not be purely financial, French daily Les Echos said.
INTERNET
Google sidelines Map Maker
Google Inc on Monday said it is sidelining its crowd-sourced map making tool to implement a way to prevent bogus edits, some of which have proven embarrassing. The Map Maker service was “temporarily unavailable” as of yesterday, according to a message posted online. The California-based Internet giant last month began re-evaluating its user-edited online map system after the latest embarrassing incident — an image of an Android mascot urinating on an Apple logo.
ENERGY
Mexico opens drilling bids
Mexico has announced the opening of bidding for oil and gas drilling rights in 26 areas, the latest in a sweeping oil reform that allows participation of foreign companies. The National Hydrocarbons Commission approved the auction for the land-based areas in five states in southern and northern Mexico, which together could yield 35,000 barrels of oil and 6.37 million cubic meters of gas per day. This is the third of five sets of areas Mexico plans to auction in a first round. The previous two auctions were for areas in shallow water.
INDUSTRY
ThyssenKrupp raises outlook
German heavy industry giant ThyssenKrupp on Tuesday raised its full-year forecasts after better-than-expected earnings in the second quarter. ThyssenKrupp, which runs its year from October to September, said in a statement that “against the background of the progress made in operating performance and the generally stabilizing economic conditions, management has specified and raised its forecast for the full year 2014/2015.” The group said it now expected underlying or operating profit to “increase significantly to 1.6 - 1.7 billion euros” (US$1.8 million to US$1.91 million).
ENERGY
Morgan Stanley selling
Morgan Stanley is selling its oil storage and transport business, which has drawn scrutiny from Congress, to Castleton, a commodities trading company. Castleton is buying oil terminal storage agreements, inventory, oil purchase and sale and supply deals, and freight shipping contracts. The companies say they hope to complete the deal this year, but they did not disclose terms of the sale.
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
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
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