MALAYSIA
Takata airbags kill two
Two people have died in the nation after airbag inflators made by Japan’s Takata Corp exploded, carmaker Honda Motor Co announced, raising the global toll to 13 in a scandal that has led to the biggest auto recall in US history. The deaths came last month in Sabah State and in the northern Kedah State this month. Honda said that it had issued a recall notice for the Honda City vehicles in 2014 and last year requiring the driver’s front airbag inflators to be replaced.
BREWERS
Australia approves buyout
Australia’s corporate regulator yesterday approved brewing giant Anheuser-Busch InBev’s buyout of rival SABMiller, which is now awaiting the go-ahead from authorities in other key markets including Europe. The Belgium-based group’s US$122 billion acquisition, which was announced in November last year, would be the third-largest in history if it clears all regulatory hurdles. The green light came a day after AB InBev confirmed the acquisition was on track to be completed this year, as it reported first-quarter profits fell 10 percent to US$9.4 billion due to weakness in the Brazilian market.
MACROECONOMICS
US productivity fell in Q1
US productivity declined at an annual rate of 1 percent in the first quarter, following a 1.7 percent decline in the fourth quarter of last year, the US Department of Labor reported on Wednesday. The weakness in productivity for the first quarter was not surprising since the US’ overall output, as measured by GDP, grew at a rate of just 0.5 percent in the first three months of the year, the slowest pace in two years. Meanwhile, labor costs rose at a rate of 4.1 percent in the first quarter, reflecting rising wages.
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],”