AVIATION
Delta pilots want 40% rise
The union representing Delta Air Lines Inc’s pilots wants raises of almost 40 percent compounded over three years, attempting to reverse some of the pay and benefit cuts adopted in the early 2000s. The union cites the carrier’s surging profits in saying it had requested a 22 percent raise for this year, followed by 7 percent raises in the following two years, a memo from the Air Line Pilots Association said. The union and Delta declined to comment on the memo. Delta spokesman Morgan Durrant said the company looks forward to negotiating with the union to reach an agreement that is mutually beneficial.
AVIATION
China Express orders jets
China Express Airlines Co (華夏航空) has placed an order for 10 Bombardier CRJ900 jets worth US$462 million, the Canadian aircraft builder said on Thursday. The order would increase the China Express’ all-Bombardier fleet to 38, a statement said. Based in the southwest city of Chongqing, the nine-year-old carrier serves 62 cities in China. The CRJ900 is a regional jet that seats up to 90 passengers and with the China Express deal, Bombardier has racked up 409 firm orders for the aircraft.
ENERGY
GE to build Saudi plant
General Electric Co (GE) on Thursday said that it had won a contract worth nearly US$1 billion from Saudi Electricity Co to build and supply a power plant in northern Saudi Arabia. Under the contract, the US industrial giant is to build the Waad al-Shamal combined-cycle power plant and provide four advanced gas turbines, a steam turbine and turbine maintenance services. The 1,390-megawatt plant, which is to include solar technology, is expected to be able to provide the equivalent power needed to supply more than 500,000 Saudi homes.
RETAIL
V and D declares bankruptcy
The largest Dutch chain of department stores, US-owned Vroom and Dreesman (V and D), on Thursday declared itself bankrupt after years of losses, but said it expected a buyer to come to its rescue. Founded in 1887 in Amsterdam, the chain employs 10,000 people in 64 outlets. V and D failed to reverse a loss-making trend despite reducing the payroll and cutting wages in recent years. It reported losses of 49 million euros (US$53 million) in 2014, 42 million euros in 2013 and 19 million euros in 2012. A warm winter added to the chain’s problems at the end of this year, causing its winter collection to flop.
INVESTMENT
Canadian funds set record
Canadian pension funds, money managers and corporations acquired a record-setting US$205 billion in foreign assets last year, driving the nation’s deal total to an eight-year high. In all, there were US$281 billion worth of mergers and acquisitions involving Canadian firms through Wednesday last week, up 34 percent from a year earlier, data compiled by Bloomberg showed. It was the second-highest total on record behind 2007, when Canadians were involved in US$315 billion worth of transactions. The size of the deals involving Canadian firms were also uncharacteristically large last year with the four biggest deals worth in excess of US$10 billion for the first time since 2006, the data showed.
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
FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six