AUTOMAKERS
BMW recalls cars in China
German automaker BMW is to recall about 200,000 vehicles in China because of flawed airbags, according to China’s quality regulator and the company. About 168,861 imported cars produced between December 2005 and December 2011, and 24,750 vehicles produced locally between July 2005 and December 2011 are to be recalled, according to a statement posted on Friday on China’s General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine Web site. Gas generators in the defective airbags of the recalled cars could break unexpectedly, creating debris that poses a threat to riders’ safety, the administration said. The company will replace the flawed gas generators in the airbags for free, it said. Earlier this month, BMW China said it would recall about 22,543 imported BMW and Rolls-Royce vehicles also with flawed airbags.
SAUDI ARABIA
Borrowing plans laid out
The kingdom laid out key elements of its borrowing plans for next year as it seeks to capitalize on investor demand for its debut sale this year to finance the budget deficit. The world’s biggest oil exporter plans to raise between US$10 billion and US$15 billion from international bond markets, Royal Court Finance Committee secretary-general Mohammad al-Tuwaijri, told Saudi-owned Al Arabiya television. Authorities will sell about 70 billion Saudi riyals (US$18.7 billion) locally, he said. Officials have met with banks to discuss the potential sale of Shariah-compliant bonds in the first quarter, according to five people familiar with the matter. Saudi Arabia raised US$17.5 billion in October in the biggest ever emerging-market bond sale, attracting US$67 billion of bids, people familiar with the sale said.
ENERGY
Sonatrach to boost output
Algerian state energy producer Sonatrach Group plans to increase output of natural gas and crude oil by 20 percent in the next four years as new projects start up, company vice president of exploration and production Salah Mekmouche said. Sonatrach will bring on stream Tiguentourine, In Salah and Timimoune natural gas projects, as well as oil wells of the Berkine Basin, after spending US$9 billion a year on exploration and development projects since last year, Mekmouche said in an interview at the company’s Rhourde Nouss gas field southeast of Algiers. Sonatrach also plans to increase production from old oil wells in Hassi Messaoud, he said. Sonatrach plans to “invest as little as possible and produce as much as possible,” Mekmouche said. Algeria is Africa’s biggest natural-gas producer and a member of OPEC.
PETROLEUM
Halliburton settles lawsuit
Petroleum service giant Halliburton Co said it has reached a US$54 million settlement in a class-action lawsuit related to asbestos liability disclosures. The Houston-based company said in a statement that without admitting guilt, it reached an agreement to settle the Erica P. John Fund Inc class action lawsuit that has been pending in Texas courts for more than 14 years. The class action lawsuit was originally filed in 2002 asserting claims in connection with accounting for long-term construction projects, and was amended in 2003 to include claims related to asbestos liability disclosures. The case was brought by a group of investors who claimed they lost money when Halliburton’s shares plunged, accusing the company of erroneous earnings reports.
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
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
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