BANKING
China bank lending rises
China’s bank lending rose last month, the central bank said yesterday, as money poured into a massive rescue for the country’s stock market. Domestic banks extended new loans of 1.48 trillion yuan (US$233.9 billion), up from 1.27 trillion yuan in June — almost twice the estimate of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News — the People’s Bank of China said. For the first seven months of this year, Chinese banks extended a total of 8.04 trillion yuan in new loans, up by 2.15 trillion yuan from the same period last year, the central bank said.
AUTOMAKERS
China car sales drop 6.6%
Chinese consumers bought the fewest passenger vehicles in 17 months last month, extending a slump in the world’s largest car market, as deeper discounts failed to revive demand. Retail deliveries fell 2.5 percent to 1.3 million units, the lowest level since February last year, according to the China Passenger Car Association. A separate set of figures from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers showed passenger vehicle sales declined by 6.6 percent, also to a 17-month low.
APPAREL
Gap issues earnings forecast
Gap Inc is issuing a second-quarter earnings forecast that is below Wall Street analysts’ estimates. The company on Monday blamed US west coast port delays, foreign currency fluctuations and strategic maneuvers the San Francisco-based company is taking to turn around its namesake brand. The earnings outlook comes as the retailer, which also operates Old Navy and Banana Republic, posted a 3 percent drop for a key revenue measure last month. Analysts expected a 2.3 percent drop.
COMPUTERS
Symantec to sell Veritas unit
Symantec Corp plans to sell its Veritas data-storage business to Carlyle Group LP in a deal that was set to be announced yesterday, people with knowledge of the matter said. Carlyle would pay on the high side of a range between US$7 billion and US$8 billion, one of the people said. While no deal has been signed, talks were set to wrap up in time for an agreement to be announced yesterday, the day Symantec reports quarterly earnings, the people said. Carlyle spokesman Randy Whitestone declined to comment.
AIRLINES
PAL profit soars in first half
Philippine Airlines Inc’s parent company saw its first-half profit soar nearly tenfold, boosted by strong demand during the peak summer months, the company said yesterday. Interim net income for January to June rose to 5.8 billion pesos (US$126.1 million) from 560 million pesos during the same period last year, PAL Holdings Inc said. Revenue increased to 55.9 billion pesos from 48.9 billion pesos, with passenger revenue up by 15 percent to 47.1 billion pesos, it added.
MINING
Banks shun Carmichael
Standard Chartered PLC on Monday said it would not advise or help finance the multibillion-dollar Carmichael coal mine in Australia, marking the second big bank to walk away from the project in a week. Environmental groups have been campaigning against the mine, being developed in Queensland by Indian conglomerate Adani Mining. Commonwealth Bank of Australia last week said it had ended its role as financial adviser on the project.
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],”