MACHINERY
Hitachi cuts profit outlook
Hitachi Construction Machinery Co cut its full-year profit forecast by 27 percent, as weaker global demand adds to pressure from China’s economic slowdown. Japan’s second-biggest building and mining-equipment maker swung to a small loss over the first nine months after posting net income of ¥20.8 billion (US$175 million) a year ago. It now expects profit of ¥9.5 billion for the year though March, from an earlier forecast of ¥13 billion. The company blamed its revision on sales declines in both construction and mining, and foreign exchange losses due to drops in emerging market currencies.
STEELMAKERS
Posco posts smallest profit
Posco, South Korea’s biggest steelmaker, posted its smallest annual profit ever after a deluge of Chinese exports pushed global prices to their lowest in at least a decade. The consolidated net income, excluding minority interests, was 181 billion won (US$150 million) last year, down from 626.1 billion won a year earlier, the Pohang-based company said yesterday. The company’s shares lost 36 percent in the past year in Seoul and this month reached their lowest since 2004. The stock that hit a record 765,000 won in 2007 when Chinese demand was booming closed at 172,500 won Wednesday.
RETAILERS
H&M misses estimates
Hennes & Mauritz AB (H&M) reported fourth-quarter earnings that missed analysts’ estimates as the clothing retailer’s margins suffered from the strength of the US dollar. Pretax profit fell 8.4 percent to 7.15 billion kronor (US$839 million) in the three months through November last year, the Stockholm-based company said yesterday. “The strong US dollar exchange rate has made our purchasing much more expensive,” chief executive officer Karl- Johan Persson said in a statement. “Our growth target of increasing the number of stores by 10 to 15 percent per year with continued high profitability remains intact.” H&M is expanding online while broadening its offer with an extended range of shoes and sportswear as the company seeks to fend of competition from Web rivals including Asos PLC.
ENERGY
Unipetrol earnings fall
Unipetrol AS, the largest Czech oil refiner, said earnings in the fourth quarter fell after last year’s fire damaged its profitable steam cracker unit and reduced refining capacity. Net income in the three months through last month fell 70 percent to 182 million koruna (US$7.3 million) from 598 million koruna a year earlier, the company said yesterday. Full-year profit was 7 billion koruna compared with a 556 million koruna loss a year earlier. Aside from the fire’s impact, the company has benefited from higher demand for refinery and petrochemical products as the Czech economy has expanded for eight quarters through September last year.
FINANCE
Mitsubishi picks president
Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc (MUFG), Japan’s largest lender, appointed Takashi Oyamada as president of its banking unit. Effective on April 1, Oyamada, 60, is to replace Nobuyuki Hirano, 64, who is to remain as chief executive officer of MUFG, the Tokyo-based lender said yesterday in a statement. Oyamada is deputy president and chief operating officer of the financial group. He graduated from the University of Tokyo’s economics faculty in 1979 before joining Mitsubishi Bank Ltd, one of the lenders that merged to form MUFG in 2005.
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
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
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last