AUTOMAKERS
Tesla recalls all Models Ss
Tesla Motors Inc announced on Friday that it is recalling its entire fleet of Model S sedans to check their front seat belts after a passenger’s seat belt became disconnected. The company said the recall is the company’s largest ever, involving 90,000 cars worldwide. Tesla’s other vehicle, the Model X SUV, is not affected. Seat belts in the back seat are also not affected, the company said. Tesla said it believes the problem is due to a manufacturing error, and it has not spotted the issue in further tests.
ENERGY
Job cuts pass 250,000
The number of jobs gutted from oil and gas companies around the world has now passed the 250,000 mark, with still more to come, according to industry consultant Graves & Co. The industry has idled more than 1,000 rigs and slashed more than US$100 billion in spending this year to cope with oil prices that have fallen by more than half since last year. Oil services, drilling and supply companies are bearing the brunt of the downturn, having accounted for 79 percent of the layoffs, the Houston-based Graves said on Friday. While comparable numbers are hard to come by, the downsizing is still nowhere near as bad as the oil bust of the late 1980s, Graves said.
NETHERLANDS
Nation reclaims top rating
Standard and Poor’s on Friday raised the country back to its top “AAA” credit rating, saying the eurozone nation’s economic recovery has gained traction. The ratings agency, which lowered The Netherlands’ rating in November 2013, gave the country a stable outlook and pointed to “future growth prospects are stronger than we had previously expected.” After the Dutch economy expanded just one percent last year, the ratings agency said it expects growth would increase to almost two percent annually through 2018.
MEXICO
GDP beats estimates
The economy expanded at a faster pace than any economist projected in the third quarter, fueled by a rebound in domestic consumption. GDP product rose 2.6 percent from a year earlier, the national statistics institute said on Friday, topping the highest estimate of 24 economists surveyed by Bloomberg, whose median forecast was 2.4 percent. From the previous quarter, GDP advanced 0.8 percent, the quickest pace since the third quarter of 2013. Deputy Finance Minister Fernando Aportela reaffirmed the government’s forecast for this year’s growth of between 2 percent and 2.8 percent, followed by expansion of 2.6 percent to 3.6 percent next year.
CANADA
Deficit to reach US$2.9bn
The nation’s new Liberal government said it has inherited billions of dollars of deficits from the former Conservative government. Finance Minister Bill Morneau said Friday that without accounting for planned Liberal spending and stimulus measures, the deficit would be US$2.3 billion in the current fiscal year and US$2.9 billion in 2016-2017, with deficits continuing through 2018-2019. The former Conservative government had predicted a US$2.7 billion surplus in the spring. However, Morneau says the government is to fulfill its pledge to balance the books before the next election despite the weaker economic environment and the steeper fiscal obstacles.
WASHINGTON’S INCENTIVES: The CHIPS Act set aside US$39 billion in direct grants to persuade the world’s top semiconductor companies to make chips on US soil The US plans to award more than US$6 billion to Samsung Electronics Co, helping the chipmaker expand beyond a project in Texas it has already announced, people familiar with the matter said. The money from the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act would be one of several major awards that the US Department of Commerce is expected to announce in the coming weeks, including a grant of more than US$5 billion to Samsung’s rival, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), people familiar with the plans said. The people spoke on condition of anonymity in advance of the official announcements. The federal funding for
HIGH DEMAND: The firm has strong capabilities of providing key components including liquid cooling technology needed for AI servers, chairman Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday revised its revenue outlook for this year to “significant” growth from a “neutral” view forecast five months ago, due to strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers from cloud service providers. Hon Hai, a major assembler of iPhones that is also known as Foxconn, expects AI server revenues to soar more than 40 percent annually this year, chairman Young Liu (劉揚偉) told investors. The robust growth would uplift revenue contribution from AI servers to 40 percent of the company’s overall server revenue this year, from 30 percent last year, Liu said. In the three-year period
LONG HAUL: Largan Energy Materials’ TNO-based lithium-ion batteries are expected to charge in five minutes and last about 20 years, far surpassing conventional technology Largan Precision Co (大立光) has formed a joint venture with the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI, 工研院) to produce fast-charging, long-life lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles, mobile electronics and electric storage units, the camera lens supplier for Apple Inc’s iPhones said yesterday. Largan Energy Materials Co (萬溢能源材料), established in January, is developing high-energy, fast-charging, long-life lithium-ion batteries using titanium niobium oxide (TNO) anodes, it said. TNO-based batteries can be fully charged in five minutes and have a lifespan of 20 years, a major advantage over the two to four hours of charging time needed for conventional graphite-anode-based batteries, Largan said in a
Taiwan is one of the first countries to benefit from the artificial intelligence (AI) boom, but because that is largely down to a single company it also represents a risk, former Google Taiwan managing director Chien Lee-feng (簡立峰) said at an AI forum in Taipei yesterday. Speaking at the forum on how generative AI can generate possibilities for all walks of life, Chien said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) — currently among the world’s 10 most-valuable companies due to continued optimism about AI — ensures Taiwan is one of the economies to benefit most from AI. “This is because AI is