JAPAN
Exports fail to improve
Exports declined the most since 2009, with shipments down for a 10th consecutive month. The continued drop highlights the difficulty of stimulating growth and pulling the economy out of the doldrums. Overseas shipments fell 14 percent last month from a year earlier, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. The median estimate of economists surveyed by Bloomberg indicated a 13.7 percent decline. Imports dropped 24.7 percent, leaving a trade surplus of ¥513.5 billion (US$5.1 billion). Exports to the US fell 11.8 percent from a year earlier, while those to the EU dropped 6.5 percent and shipments to China, Japan’s largest trading partner, fell 12.7 percent.
Philippines
Economy rapidly expanding
The economy grew 7 percent in the second quarter from the same period last year, the fastest quarterly growth in three years, officials said. Expansion in the services industry, investments and election-year spending boosted growth. The number brought first-half GDP growth to 6.9 percent from a year earlier. Last year, the economy grew 5.9 percent in the second quarter and 5.5 percent in the first six months. Secretary of Socio-economic Planning Ernesto Pernia yesterday said that the growth increases the probability of attaining the full-year target of 6 to 7 percent growth. The economy has grown by an annual average of 6.2 percent in the past six years.
FOOD
URC to buy Snack Brands
Philippine food giant Universal Robina Corp (URC) on Wednesday said it would buy Snack Brands Australia for US$460 million, the latest big deal in a global shopping spree by Philippine firms reflecting the nation’s economic rise. URC said it had sealed an agreement to buy the Australian company — maker of local brands including Kettles, Thins, CC’s and Cheezels — for A$600 million (US$460 million) as part of its ambitions to expand throughout the Asia-Pacific region. URC already has a large presence in Southeast Asian markets and in 2014 it bought 150-year-old New Zealand snack company Griffin’s for NZ$700 million (US$610 million).
FOOD and Beverage
Tax deferral sees Nestle dip
Swiss food and beverage giant Nestle SA said first-half profits dipped due to a one-time tax expense even as revenues edged up behind growth in its key North American food business and despite a slowdown in the Chinese market. The maker of Kit Kats, Lean Cuisine meals, Maggi noodles and Gerber baby foods said net profit came in at 4.10 billion Swiss francs (US$4.28 billion), down from SF4.52 billion a year earlier, due to a SF400 million deferred tax adjustment. Sales rose under 1 percent to SF43.16 billion.
TECHNOLOGY
Cisco announces job cuts
Cisco Systems said it would lay off 5,500 employees as the Internet gear maker scrambles to adapt to technology changes that have reduced demand for its main products. The shake-up announced on Wednesday means about 7 percent of Cisco’s roughly 74,000 workers are to lose their jobs beginning this summer. The company’s fiscal fourth-quarter results, also released on Wednesday, showed revenue increased by just 2 percent from last year to US$12.6 billion. Previous cost cutting helped boost Cisco’s profit 21 percent to US$2.8 billion, or US$0.56 per share.
BUSINESS UPDATE: The iPhone assembler said operations outlook is expected to show quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year growth for the second quarter Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported strong growth in sales last month, potentially raising expectations for iPhone sales while artificial intelligence (AI)-related business booms. The company, which assembles the majority of Apple Inc’s smartphones, reported a 19.03 percent rise in monthly sales to NT$510.9 billion (US$15.78 billion), from NT$429.22 billion in the same period last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 14.16 percent, it said. The company in a statement said that last month’s revenue was a record-breaking April performance. Hon Hai, known also as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), assembles most iPhones, but the company is diversifying its business to
Apple Inc has been developing a homegrown chip to run artificial intelligence (AI) tools in data centers, although it is unclear if the semiconductor would ever be deployed, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. The effort would build on Apple’s previous efforts to make in-house chips, which run in its iPhones, Macs and other devices, according to the Journal, which cited unidentified people familiar with the matter. The server project is code-named ACDC (Apple Chips in Data Center) within the company, aiming to utilize Apple’s expertise in chip design for the company’s server infrastructure, the newspaper said. While this initiative has been
GlobalWafers Co (環球晶圓), the world’s No. 3 silicon wafer supplier, yesterday said that revenue would rise moderately in the second half of this year, driven primarily by robust demand for advanced wafers used in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, a key component of artificial intelligence (AI) technology. “The first quarter is the lowest point of this cycle. The second half will be better than the first for the whole semiconductor industry and for GlobalWafers,” chairwoman Doris Hsu (徐秀蘭) said during an online investors’ conference. “HBM would definitely be the key growth driver in the second half,” Hsu said. “That is our big hope
The consumer price index (CPI) last month eased to 1.95 percent, below the central bank’s 2 percent target, as food and entertainment cost increases decelerated, helped by stable egg prices, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday. The slowdown bucked predictions by policymakers and academics that inflationary pressures would build up following double-digit electricity rate hikes on April 1. “The latest CPI data came after the cost of eating out and rent grew moderately amid mixed international raw material prices,” DGBAS official Tsao Chih-hung (曹志弘) told a news conference in Taipei. The central bank in March raised interest rates by