STEELMAKERS
Companies lay off 10,000
ArcelorMittal Ltd and other steel firms on Thursday said they have laid off 10,000 workers in Mexico and warned that thousands more are at risk if the government fails to curb “unfair imports.” The global steel giant and Mexican firms DeAcero, Altos Hornos de Mexico and Tubacero took out a full-page newspaper advertisement urging Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto to impose temporary tariffs on countries with no trade deals with Mexico. They also asked for new foreign trade measures to make sure the industry is protected.
CANADA
GDP to contract: banks
The Canadian economy is likely headed for recession, two major banks said on Thursday, predicting a successive contraction in the second quarter. Canada, the world’s fifth-biggest oil producer, has been hit hard by tumbling global oil prices and its economy shrank by 0.6 percent at an annualized rate in the first quarter. Nomura bank said it expected the GDP to contract by 0.5 percent in the second quarter, while Bank of America Merrill Lynch said a 0.6 percent decline in that period was likely.
UNITED STATES
Unemployment hits low
Unemployment fell to a seven-year low of 5.3 percent and employers hired at a solid pace last month, but other gauges of the job market drew a bleaker picture: A wave of people stopped looking for work, and paychecks failed to budge. The figures released on Thursday showed the economy gained 223,000 jobs last month, and unemployment edged down from 5.5 percent in May, the Department of Labor reported. That is the lowest jobless rate since April 2008, when it was 5 percent.
CHIPMAKERS
Intel’s James to leave firm
Intel Corp on Thursday said that president Renee James, who has worked at the chipmaker for 28 years, plans to leave the company early next year to seek a CEO role elsewhere. James has agreed to stay with Intel until January next year to oversee the transition of her responsibilities and is to be paid US$4 million to do so, according to a filling with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Intel did not disclose which CEO role James is pursuing. James was named president of Intel two years ago.
INTERNET
Yahoo teams up with Google
Yahoo Inc is working with Google Inc on a test that would use Google’s search results and advertisements on its site. If successful, the trial could result in a larger search deal between the companies. Yahoo confirmed the initiative in a statement, while declining to comment further. The company’s search is currently powered by Microsoft Corp’s Bing. The two companies renegotiated their agreement earlier this year, giving Yahoo more freedom over how it makes money from ads on search.
UKRAINE
IMF reaches agreement
The IMF on Thursday said it had reached a staff-level agreement with Ukraine on the policies needed for the global financial institution to disburse US$1.7 billion under a loan program. The IMF, which awarded Ukraine a new four-year support program in March, said the agreement is subject to approval by its management and executive board.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
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
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
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