STEEL
Tata Steel deal finalized
Tata Steel Ltd yesterday said that it had completed the sale of its European piping business to British-based investment firm Greybull Capital as it sells off its loss-making UK assets. Tata, which is struggling to find a buyer for its major steelworks in South Wales, announced that a deal which had been agreed in principle in April for its “long products” has been finalized. The deal sees Greybull acquire Tata’s steelworks in Scunthorpe, as well as two mills in northeast England and other assets where steel pipes and tubes are made.
INDIA
Economy grew 7.6 percent
The government on Tuesday said the economy grew 7.6 percent in the fiscal year that ended on March 31 and a stronger 7.9 percent in the last quarter of the year, keeping its position as the world’s fastest-growing major economy. The economy grew 7.2 percent in the previous fiscal year.
SWITZERLAND
Economy slumped in Q1
The economy unexpectedly lost pace at the start of the year, as government consumption contracted. GDP increased just 0.1 percent in the first quarter from the previous three months, when it expanded 0.4 percent, the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs in Bern said yesterday. Private consumption grew 0.7 percent compared with the fourth quarter, the data showed. Government expenditure decreased by 0.8 percent and exports of goods rose by 2.1 percent.
CANADA
Q1 growth reached 2.4%
The economy grew at an annualized rate of 2.4 percent in the first quarter, bolstered by a rebound in exports and domestic consumption, the government statistical agency said on Tuesday. The GDP from January to March was lower than forecast, after the Bank of Canada last week said that wildfires in Alberta would shave as much as 1.25 percentage points off growth in the second quarter.
CHINA
New home prices up 1.7%
New home prices grew at their fastest pace in more than two years last month, a survey by the China Index Academy (CIA), the research unit of real estate Web site operator SouFun Holdings Ltd (搜房). It found that new apartment prices in 100 major cities rose 1.7 percent since April and were up 10.34 percent year on year — their fastest growth in 27 months. Soufun said the average price was 11,662 yuan (US$1,770) per square meter.
SHIPBUILDING
Hyundai Heavy wins backing
South Korea’s Hyundai Heavy Industries has received the green light for a near US$3 billion restructuring program — including asset sales and job cuts — to keep the world’s largest shipbuilder afloat. A spokesman for KEB Hana Bank, one of the company’s chief creditors, yesterday confirmed that it had approved the 3.5 trillion won (US$2.94 billion) plan, to be implemented over the next three years. Hyundai Heavy, along with Daewoo Marine and Shipbuilding, and Samsung Heavy Industries, racked up a collective loss of 8.5 trillion won last year.
CASINOS
Ex-CEO reaches settlement
Billionaire Sheldon Adelson’s casino firm is ending its long-running US lawsuit with the former head of its Chinese division. Macau-based Sands China Ltd yesterday said in a statement to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange that it had “reached a comprehensive and confidential settlement” with ex-CEO Steven Jacobs.
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],”
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
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained