MANUFACTURING
Revenues down 1.7 percent
The revenues of manufacturing companies listed on the local bourse totaled NT$23 trillion (US$711 billion) last year, down 1.7 percent from the previous year, Ministry of Economic Affairs data released on Friday showed. It was the first time in six years that revenues slid on a year-on-year basis, the ministry said, attributing the weakness to the global economic slowdown, drops in crude oil and steel prices and stiffer competition in the world market. The listed manufacturers’ net profits totaled NT$1.2 trillion last year, with an average net profit margin of 5.2 percent, data showed.
ARGENTINA
IMF checks to resume
The country is to resume annual fiscal checkups with the IMF this year after a 10-year hiatus, an IMF official said on Friday. The move marks a repairing of relations that soured in the wake of the country’s default on US$100 billion in debt in 2001. The IMF is to restart its Article IV missions, in which it assesses the strengths and weaknesses of the economies of each member country every year.
SPAIN
Government plans cuts
Minister of Finance Cristobal Montoro on Friday said the government would cut spending by 2 billion euros (US$2.3 billion) after the government overshot its public deficit target last year. However, Montoro said the cuts did not “affect social spending or spending on items linked to security.” The country’s public deficit stood at 5 percent of GDP last year, far higher than the target of 4.2 percent set by the conservative government.
FINANCE
Citigroup profit falls 27%
Citigroup Inc’s profit fell nearly 27 percent in the first quarter, hurt by weak results at its consumer bank and trading business. However, the company’s earnings still beat Wall Street expectations. The New York-based financial conglomerate reported net income of US$3.5 billion, or US$1.10 per share, in the three months ending last month, compared with US$4.77 billion, or US$1.51 per share, the year before. The results beat analysts’ US$1.03 per share forecast. Revenue in the quarter fell 11 percent to US$17.56 billion, beating the US$17.44 billion that analysts expected.
AUTOMAKERS
Volkswagen sales fall
German automaker Volkswagen AG saw sales fall in its home market, as it struggles to overcome a scandal over cars that cheated on diesel emissions tests. Sales figures out on Friday for the Volkswagen brand fell 8.2 percent in Germany to 53,400 vehicles. That was part of a worldwide drop of 2.7 percent. However, sales in China rose by 3.6 percent to 245,400. They were up 9 percent in central and Eastern Europe at 18,900.
INTERNET
Twitter names China head
Twitter Inc introduced a new head of operations on Friday for what it calls Greater China — despite still being banned in China — as it attempts to boost already booming advertising. Twitter chief executive officer Jack Dorsey sent a tweet from his @jack account welcoming former Microsoft Corp and Cisco Systems Inc general manager Kathy Chen (陳葵) as managing director of Twitter’s Greater China operations.
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
EUROPE ON HOLD: Among a flurry of announcements, Intel said it would postpone new factories in Germany and Poland, but remains committed to its US expansion Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger has landed Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a customer for the company’s manufacturing business, potentially bringing work to new plants under construction in the US and boosting his efforts to turn around the embattled chipmaker. Intel and AWS are to coinvest in a custom semiconductor for artificial intelligence computing — what is known as a fabric chip — in a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar framework,” Intel said in a statement on Monday. The work would rely on Intel’s 18A process, an advanced chipmaking technology. Intel shares rose more than 8 percent in late trading after the
GLOBAL ECONOMY: Policymakers have a choice of a small 25 basis-point cut or a bold cut of 50 basis points, which would help the labor market, but might reignite inflation The US Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut in more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the US presidential election. Senior officials at the US central bank including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool. The Fed, which has a dual mandate from the US Congress to act independently to ensure