CHINA
Consumer inflation rebounds
The nation’s consumer inflation rebounded this month after vegetable prices jumped due to an unusually frigid winter. Prices rose 1.5 percent over a year earlier, accelerating from October’s 1.3 percent, data showed yesterday. That was driven by a 9.4 percent rise in prices of fresh vegetables. Also wholesale prices measured as goods left the factory last month fell for a 44th straight month, declining by 5.9 percent from a year earlier. Inflation in non-food consumer prices edged up to 1.1 percent from October’s 0.9 percent.
GERMANY
Exports decline 1.2%
Exports declined in October as demand for goods and services from Europe’s biggest economy slowed outside the region, official data showed yesterday. Exports fell by a seasonally adjusted 1.2 percent to 99 billion euros (US$108 billion), the German Federal Statistics Office calculated. However, imports fell even more sharply, dropping 3.4 percent to 78.3 billion euros, meaning that the trade surplus grew to 20.7 billion euros, the office said. In unadjusted terms, exports edged up by 0.4 percent, while imports grew by 0.8 percent, meaning the unadjusted trade surplus contracted slightly to 22.5 billion euros, the office said.
MERGERS
Warning on Staples’ bid
Staples Inc’s proposed takeover of Office Depot Inc would collapse if the companies are forced to delay their deal to face a government challenge in the US Federal Trade Commission’s in-house court scheduled for May, a lawyer said. The commission, which says the merger is anticompetitive, is asking a federal court judge in Washington to stop the transaction from closing pending that trial. Matt Reilly, an attorney for Office Depot, on Tuesday said during a court hearing that the company is “in limbo” and that going through a drawn-out administrative process is not an option if the judge rules against them.
BANKING
PSBC sells one-sixth stake
China’s broadest bank by branch numbers has sold a one-sixth stake to strategic investors for more than 45 billion yuan (US$7 billion) ahead of an expected flotation, Xinhua news agency reported yesterday. The 10 firms buying into the state-owned Postal Savings Bank of China (PSBC, 中國郵政儲蓄銀行) include Internet giants Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (阿里巴巴) and Tencent Holdings Ltd (騰訊), UBS Group AG and Singapore’s Temasek Holdings Ltd, Xinhua said. The institution has 40,000 branches and its total assets reached 6.8 trillion yuan in September. However, its bad loans ratio has been rising for the past three years, climbing to 0.64 percent by the end of last year.
ELECTRONICS
Electrolux to cut costs, jobs
Electrolux AB will cut costs and jobs and pay a breakup fee to General Electric Co after the collapse earlier this week of a US$3.3 billion deal by the Swedish manufacturer to buy the household appliance business of the US company. Electrolux will reduce costs at its small appliances division to save an expected 120 million kronor (US$14 million) annually starting at the end of next year, the Stockholm-based company said yesterday. Costs related to the program will amount to 190 million kronor with staff reductions and downsizing in the US, Sweden and China.
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],”