MACROECONOMICS
Russian economy contracts
The Russian economy is on course for a 3.9 percent year-on-year contraction in the fourth quarter, Russian Minister of Economic development Alexei Ulyukayev told a government meeting on Thursday. Ulyukayev also said that the country’s current account surplus would exceed US$70 billion next year. Russian Minister of Finance Anton Siluanov said the Kremlin is planning a federal budget deficit of 3 percent of GDP next year, equivalent to 2.36 trillion rubles (US$38.34 billion).
STEEL
Tax slows India’s imports
Steel shipments to India grew at a slower pace for a second month last month after Asia’s third-largest economy increased the import tax on some products, fearing an influx of cheaper goods from China. Domestic steel stocks gained. Imports rose 1.7 percent to 850,000 tonnes last month from a year earlier, slowing from 17 percent in August and 69 percent in July, according to initial data from the Indian Ministry of Steel on Thursday. For the six months through to last month, imports grew 41 percent to 5.4 million tonnes.
LABOR
Cambodia to increase wages
Cambodia on Thursday said it is to raise the minimum monthly wage for garment workers to US$140, an increase of nearly 10 percent. The Cambodian Ministry of Labor said a US$12 monthly pay rise had been agreed after a week of talks between union representatives, employers and government officials. By January next year employees will earn 40 percent more than this year after rounds of strikes and violent protests forced contractors to improve wages. However, unions want upwards of US$150 a month for their members and expressed dismay at the settlement.
COMMODITIES
Aluminum demand climbing
Alcoa Inc, the largest US aluminum producer, maintained its forecast for global consumption of the metal. Demand is set to climb by 6.5 percent this year, New York-based Alcoa said on Thursday. That matched the company’s prediction in July. Alcoa narrowed this year’s surplus forecast to 551,000 tonnes from 762,000 tonnes in its second-quarter earnings presentation. The company also lowered its China consumption forecast to 9.3 percent this year, from 9.5 percent. It still expects global aluminum demand to double between 2010 and 2020.
ECONOMY
OECD says growth easing
Growth seems to be easing off in most of the world’s major economies, including the US and more notably in China, the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) said on Thursday. The OECD said its monthly leading indicator showed moderating growth generally. Taking an index reading of 100 as the long-term average, China slipped to 97.2 from 97.6 in its latest update, the US economy dropped to 99.2 from 99.5, Japan to 99.8 from 99.9 and the UK to 99.5 from 99.7, while the eurozone as a whole remained stable at 100.7.
RETAIL
Amazon sells handmade
Amazon.com Inc on Thursday opened a shop showcasing handmade goods sold directly by artisans. Handmade at Amazon came as a challenge to New York City-based Etsy, an e-commerce Web site devoted to personally crafted and vintage items. All items in the store must be “factory-free” and made by hand, according to the Seattle-based firm
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