AVIATION
Lufthansa crew strike
Germany’s Lufthansa yesterday said it was working on an emergency plan, but would still need to cancel numerous outgoing flights from Frankfurt and Duesseldorf airports due to a cabin crew strike. The airline said it would still be able to offer at least eight of its long-haul flights from Frankfurt after the strike starts at 2pm. It has also reserved 2,500 hotel rooms in the city. The UFO union said earlier this week its members would go on strike for a week, starting yesterday, if its demands were not met.
PHARMACEUTICALS
AstraZeneca to buy ZS
AstraZeneca PLC, the UK’s second-largest drugmaker, yesterday agreed to buy ZS Pharma Inc of California for US$2.7 billion in cash to gain a potential blockbuster medicine for a deadly condition. ZS Pharma holders will get US$90 per share, London-based AstraZeneca said in a statement. ZS’s board agreed to the transaction.
GERMANY
Industrial output drops 1.1%
Industrial production unexpectedly dropped in September as a slowdown in China and other emerging markets took its toll. Output, adjusted for seasonal swings and inflation, fell 1.1 percent from August, when it declined a revised 0.6 percent, data from the Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy showed yesterday. Industrial production fell 0.3 percent in the third quarter from the previous period as manufacturing output dropped. In September, factory production declined 1.4 percent from the previous month.
STEELMAKERS
ArcelorMittal profit falls 29%
ArcelorMittal SA’s third-quarter profit fell 29 percent on a rout in steel prices amid record Chinese exports. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) declined to US$1.35 billion from US$1.9 billion a year earlier, the world’s largest steelmaker said yesterday. The company reduced its full-year EBITDA forecast to US$5.2 billion to US$5.4 billion from US$6 billion to US$7 billion. ArcelorMittal’s earnings from its iron ore mines has dropped after a glut weighed on prices.
CHINA
Auto sales rise 11.3%
Passenger-vehicle sales increased at the fastest pace in seven months after the government cut a tax on car purchases to boost sagging demand in the world’s largest auto market. Retail deliveries of cars, SUVs and multipurpose vehicles rose 11.3 percent to 1.85 million units last month, the biggest monthly gain since March, according to the China Passenger Car Association. Retail sales through October gained 6.4 percent to 16.2 million units.
SOCIAL MEDIA
Ad-blockers hurt Facebook
Facebook Inc on Thursday warned investors in a regulatory filing that its revenue could be adversely affected by technology that blocks advertisements. Ad-blocking tools, which people use to screen out marketing messages, have occasionally affected Facebook’s revenue, especially on desktop computers, the company said in a quarterly filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
INSURANCE
Allianz profit down 15%
Allianz SE, Europe’s biggest insurer, yesterday said third-quarter profit dropped 15 percent as earnings at its property and casualty and asset management units declined. Net income fell to 1.36 billion euros (US$1.48 billion) from 1.61 billion euros a year earlier.
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
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
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
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