MACROECONOMICS
Puerto Rico misses deadline
Puerto Rico failed to submit audited financial statements for fiscal 2014 by its self-imposed Saturday deadline, according to a US Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board filing. The commonwealth’s annual report for the fiscal year ended June 30 last year was 181 days late, the longest that Puerto Rico has been overdue on its yearly audited statements since at least 2000, according to Daniel Hanson, an analyst at Height Securities, a broker dealer based in Washington. The commonwealth is tardy because certain agencies have yet to submit reports and an independent auditor is conducting additional procedures given Puerto Rico’s liquidity risk, according to the filing posted late on Friday on the board’s Web site. The commonwealth’s economy has struggled to grow since 2006. It’s seeking to reduce its US$73 billion debt load by negotiating with investors.
UNITED STATES
BP halts appeals process
BP has decided to end its effort to recoup money it paid in economic damage claims to businesses and individuals under a settlement arising from the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill stemming from a well blowout and the sinking of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig. BP on Friday filed a motion to withdraw an appeal over what it said were overpayments worth hundreds of millions of dollars and involving more than 790 businesses. The appeal was before the 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans. After a 2012 settlement with businesses and individuals was approved, BP said that the claims administrator had not been correctly matching business’ revenues and expenses, resulting in overpayments. A court eventually ordered a new calculation method, but refused to order restitution of payments already made. Geoff Morrell, a BP spokesman, said the firm decided to withdraw its appeal to help “wind down” the claims program.
AUTOMAKERS
Honda recalls some SUVs
American Honda Motor Co is recalling some 2016 CR-V SUVs to replace Takata air bags that could rupture in a crash and send metal fragments flying. The recall affects just 515 of the small sport utility vehicles, and Honda said only 30 were sold before dealers were told to stop sales. US officials last month said that eight people have died and 98 others have been injured by air bag inflators that explode with too much force, sending shrapnel into car occupants. Recalls have covered about 19 million cars made by 12 different car and truck manufacturers. The company late on Friday said that the defect covered by the new recall appears to be different from previous defects, but that it could still result in metal fragments hitting the driver or passengers.
ROMANIA
Oldest coal mine closes
The oldest coal mine in Romania and until now the deepest in Europe, with shafts going down as far as 940m, closed on Friday, ending production at what was once a proud symbol of the country’s coal industry. The Petrila mine opened in 1859 when the country was still part of the Austro-Hungarian empire. It hit peak production in 1983 when workers extracted 1.2 million tonnes of coal — falling to just 110,000 tonnes last year. Romania committed itself four years ago to ending state subsidies for coal production and turning instead to greener energy sources. Petrila pit’s equipment, including a giant Siemens motor that has been running since 1945, is scheduled be sold for scrap metal next year and most of its buildings demolished.
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has appointed Rose Castanares, executive vice president of TSMC Arizona, as president of the subsidiary, which is responsible for carrying out massive investments by the Taiwanese tech giant in the US state, the company said in a statement yesterday. Castanares will succeed Brian Harrison as president of the Arizona subsidiary on Oct. 1 after the incumbent president steps down from the position with a transfer to the Arizona CEO office to serve as an advisor to TSMC Arizona’s chairman, the statement said. According to TSMC, Harrison is scheduled to retire on Dec. 31. Castanares joined TSMC in
EUROPE ON HOLD: Among a flurry of announcements, Intel said it would postpone new factories in Germany and Poland, but remains committed to its US expansion Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger has landed Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a customer for the company’s manufacturing business, potentially bringing work to new plants under construction in the US and boosting his efforts to turn around the embattled chipmaker. Intel and AWS are to coinvest in a custom semiconductor for artificial intelligence computing — what is known as a fabric chip — in a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar framework,” Intel said in a statement on Monday. The work would rely on Intel’s 18A process, an advanced chipmaking technology. Intel shares rose more than 8 percent in late trading after the