AUTOMAKERS
Honda eyes China sales
Honda Motor Co yesterday raised its forecast for full-year profit as demand for Vezel and XR-V sport utility vehicle models surged in China, the automakers’ second-largest market. Net income will probably rise to ¥415 billion (US$3.95 billion) in the fiscal year ending March next year, more than the ¥390 billion forecast in May, the Tokyo-based firm said in a statement. The projection compares with the ¥491.8 billion average of 20 analysts’ estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Honda boosted deliveries of the Vezel and XR-V models by more than 50 percent each, as automakers selling in the world’s biggest auto market benefited from a sales tax cut for vehicles with smaller engines. The Chinese government is looking at extending the levy reduction set to expire this year, potentially helping Honda rebound from unprecedented recalls of faulty Takata Corp airbags.
GERMANY
Open to foreign buyers
The nation welcomes foreign takeovers of its companies, including from China, but needs to ensure that its firms are protected from unfair competition, a government spokesman said on yesterday. “The whole government is convinced that it is right that the market is open to investments from abroad, including from China,” Steffen Seibert told a regular news conference in Berlin. “Germany as an industrial center must, however, be effectively protected from unfair competitive situations.” His comments came ahead of a trip to China this week by Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy Sigmar Gabriel.
ELECTRONICS
Toshiba raises forecast
Toshiba Corp yesterday raised its forecast for first-half operating profit by 36 percent to ¥95 billion, crediting growth in memory chips and hard disk drives, as well as cost-cutting measures. Revenue was also revised slightly higher, to ¥2.58 trillion from ¥2.55 trillion, the Japanese company said in a statement. Analysts were projecting, on average, operating profit of about ¥62 billion on sales of ¥2.57 billion, according to estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Toshiba’s shares erased an earlier decline to increase as much as 1.4 percent in Tokyo. This is the second earnings forecast upgrade since August, when Toshiba reported its first operating profit in six quarters.
ELECTRONICS
Panasonic downbeat
Japanese electronics company Panasonic Corp yesterday cut its forecast for full-year net profit citing the impact of a strong currency and weaker earnings from sales of its solar energy systems for home use. The Osaka-based company said that it expects ¥120 billion in net profit in the fiscal year ending March 31 next year. Its earlier forecast was for ¥145 billion in net profit. It cut its sales forecast for the current fiscal year to ¥7.2 trillion from ¥7.6 trillion. Panasonic said its net profit rose 7.7 percent year-on-year in the April-to-September period to ¥119.9 billion. Sales fell 7 percent to ¥3.5 trillion.
ENTERTAINMENT
China park building begins
Construction has begun on a US$7 billion Universal Studios theme park in Beijing, Xinhua news agency said yesterday, as the studio looks to challenge Disney in China’s leisure market. The complex is due to open in 2020 and has secured investment of 50 billion yuan (US$7.38 billion), Xinhua said. Theme parks are being built in China faster than anywhere else in the world, with more than 300 projects reportedly funded in recent years.
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
FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six