REAL ESTATE
Wanda to invest in India
Chinese billionaire Wang Jianlin’s (王健林) Dalian Wanda Group Co (萬達集團) agreed to invest US$10 billion to build an industrial zone in India, in what could become one of the biggest development projects in the country. Wanda Group, China’s biggest commercial property developer, signed a preliminary agreement with the northern Indian state of Haryana to build an industrial zone, the company said yesterday. The first phase of the development zone spans 13km2 and construction might begin this year. Details of the spending were not immediately available.
AEROSPACE
Boeing to cut 747-8 output
Boeing Co on Thursday said it plans to cut production of its 747-8 cargo airplane in half in September due to a slowdown in the air freight business. Boeing said it would record a US$569 million charge against fourth-quarter earnings. Instead of producing one 747-8 per month, Boeing plans to turn out one every other month. The firm had previously announced it would cut 747-8 production from 1.3 airplanes per month to one from March.
INVESTMENT
NTT DoCoMo eyes start-ups
NTT DoCoMo Inc’s venture capital arm is looking at start-ups involved with drones, artificial intelligence or financial technology as potential investment targets, as Japan’s largest mobile phone operator searches for growth industries. The investment arm is planning to spend about ¥8 billion (US$67.7 million) on start-ups over the next three years, NTT DoCoMo Ventures chief operating officer Nobuyuki Akimoto said on Thursday in Tokyo. NTT DoCoMo Ventures has disclosed investments in 42 companies and exited from eight.
ENERGY
Oil prices hit Santos sales
Santos Ltd, Australia’s third-biggest oil and gas producer, yesterday reported a 24 percent drop in fourth-quarter sales and flagged asset write-downs after a further decline in oil prices since its November last year announcement of a A$3.5 billion (US$2.5 billion) program to cut debt. Quarterly sales fell to A$828 million from A$1.09 billion a year earlier, the Adelaide-based company said. Output dropped 1 percent to 14.9 million barrels of oil equivalent, and spending decreased 43 percent to A$477 million.
INTERNET
IBM acquires Ustream
IBM Corp has boosted its Internet cloud offerings with the takeover of live video streaming services firm Ustream Inc. IBM did not disclose financial terms of the acquisition announced on Wednesday, but said it would enable the company to expand the array of cloud-based services it can provide to businesses or broadcasters. San Francisco-based Ustream specializes in streaming live or on-demand video. IBM said that Ustream delivers video to about 80 million viewers monthly for customers such as NASA, Facebook Inc, Samsung Electronics Co and The Discovery Channel.
UNITED STATES
Unemployment claims rise
The number of people in the US filing for unemployment benefits rose to a six-month high last week, suggesting some loss of momentum in the labor market. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits increased by 10,000 to a seasonally adjusted 293,000 for the week ended on Saturday last week, the highest reading since early July last year, the US Department of Labor said. It was the second straight week of gains and confounded economists’ expectations for a drop to 278,000.
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
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],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day