ENERGY
Shell earnings rise 18%
Royal Dutch Shell yesterday said that third-quarter earnings rose 18 percent, boosted by increased production after the acquisition of BG Group. The company said that profit adjusted for one-time items and the fluctuating value of inventories rose to US$2.79 billion from US$2.38 billion in the same period last year. Gains from increased production more than offset falling oil prices. Oil and gas production rose 25 percent to the equivalent of 3.6 million barrels of oil per day. That included 806,000 barrels per day from BG assets. Chief executive officer Ben van Beurden said that lower oil prices continue to be a “significant challenge across the business and the outlook remains uncertain.” Brent crude oil averaged US$46 per barrel in the third quarter, down from more than US$100 per barrel in September 2014.
ENERGY
BP profits skyrocket
BP yesterday said that net profits rocketed in the third quarter, aided partly by cost cutting, and announced further spending cuts in response to low oil prices. Earnings after tax soared to US$1.6 billion in the three months to September, compared with just US$46 million in the same period a year earlier, BP said in a results statement. Chief financial officer Brian Gilvary said BP was making “good progress” in adapting to a “challenging” oil price environment, while it cut this year’s capital expenditure to US$16 billion, compared with the previous guidance of US$17 billion to US$19 billion.
? ELECTRONICS
Strong yen hits Sony profits
Sony yesterday said its net profit last quarter plunged 86 percent from a year earlier, as its profitability was hammered by a strong yen and lagging smartphone sales. The Japanese electronics and entertainment giant reported ¥4.8 billion (US$45.8 million) net profit in the July-to-September period. Net profit was ¥33.6 billion in the same period a year earlier. The company said that sales last quarter dropped about 11 percent to ¥1.69 trillion, down from ¥1.89 trillion a year earlier. On Monday, Sony announced it expects a larger loss than anticipated in connection with the ¥17.5 billion sale of its battery business to Murata Group.
EGYPT
Currency rates to be unified
The central bank is to unify the Egyptian pound’s official and black-market exchange rates as soon as possible, Prime Minister Sherif Ismail said, boosting expectations that policymakers will devalue the currency ahead of an expected IMF loan. The nation’s economy has been suffering from a shortage of hard currency that officials have said a US$12 billion loan from the IMF would help solve.
THAILAND
Foreign investors depart
Overseas investors are pulling money from the nation’s stocks at the fastest pace this year. Foreign funds sold a net US$514 million of local equities last month, more than five times as much as from the Philippines, with the bulk of the outflows coming after the Oct. 13 death of King Bhumibol Adulyadej, who had been a source of political stability in a nation wracked by numerous coups. While the SET Index has recovered most of its losses from a plunge in the days before the 88-year-old monarch died, valuations remain a concern at a level 22 percent above the 10-year average.
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