CHINA
Exchange reserves fall
Foreign-exchange reserves fell to US$3.19 trillion last month, People’s Bank of China data showed yesterday, in line with market expectations and the lowest level since December 2011. Reserves fell by US$15.89 billion, the biggest drop since May. Economists polled by Reuters had predicted reserves would fall to US$3.19 trillion from US$3.20 trillion at the end of July. The nation’s gold reserves fell to US$77.18 billion at the end of last month, down from US$78.89 billion at the end of July, the bank said.
GERMANY
Industrial output declines
Industrial production dropped 1.5 percent in July from June, feeding worries of a slowing economy at the start of the third quarter, the Ministry of the Economy said yesterday. Analysts had predicted a 0.1 percent rise. Production in industry, excluding energy and construction, was down 2.3 percent, with the largest drop in the production of capital goods, which fell 3.6 percent, data showed.
AUTOMAKERS
Software tie-up announced
Chinese-owned Volvo Cars and Swedish-based automotive safety group Autoliv Inc say they are creating a jointly owned company to develop autonomous driving software. The automaker on Tuesday said that the new company, which has yet to be named, would develop advanced driver-assistance systems and autonomous driving systems. It is to begin operations in Gothenburg, Sweden, early next year. The systems are to be used by Volvo and offered for sale to other automakers.
ENERGY
Enbridge to buy Spectra
Canada’s Enbridge Inc is buying Houston-based Spectra Energy Corp for about US$28 billion, creating North America’s largest energy infrastructure company. Both companies operate pipelines that deliver oil and natural gas. According to the terms of the deal announced on Tuesday, Spectra Energy shareholders are to receive 0.984 per share of the combined company, or about US$40.33 for each Spectra Energy share they own. When the deal closes, which is expected to happen in the in the first quarter of next year, the new firm will be called Enbridge Inc and keep its current headquarters in Calgary, Canada.
AGROCHEMICALS
Syngenta executive to retire
Syngenta AG chief financial officer John Ramsay announced he will retire at the end of this month, marking the end of his career with the sale of the world’s largest agrochemical producer to China National Chemical Corp (中國化工) for US$43 billion. The Swiss maker of pesticides and herbicides named commercial finance head Mark Patrick to be finance chief when Ramsay steps down at the end of the month, the Basel-based company said yesterday. The transaction is expected to close by the end of the year after US national security officials gave it the go-ahead.
AIRLINES
KLM labor deal reached
Dutch labor leaders and KLM airline on Tuesday announced they had struck a pay deal for ground staff, hailed by the union as a breakthrough after weeks of tensions. The Dutch Trade Union Federation said the deal reached was “significantly better” than what had been on the table, as all ground staff will get a better profit-sharing scheme, including a guaranteed dividend of 1,600 euros (US$1,798.4) this year and a one-time 1 percent dividend next year. And from 2018 there would be a guaranteed 1 percent pay rise.
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