BANKING
EU to probe ECB links
EU Ombudsman Emily O’Reilly on Friday said she has opened an investigation into ties European Central Bank (ECB) President Mario Draghi and his aides have with private banks, following a complaint from a research group. The non-governmental organization Corporate Europe Observatory filed the complaint over top ECB staff links to the G30, which brings together the leaders of both the public and private financial sector. O’Reilly said her office would ask the ECB to allow inspection of documents linked to the G30, as well as to meet with central bank officials to discuss aspects of the complaint. Her office is then likely to ask the ECB for a written response to the complaint.
NETHERLANDS
Agriculture exports hit record
Agricultural exports set a record last year at about 94 billion euros (US$100 billion), ensuring the country remains the world’s No. 2 exporter of such goods after the US. The Dutch Ministry of Agriculture on Friday announced the country of just 17 million people had exported about 85 billion euros of agricultural goods and about 9 billion euros in “materials, know-how and technology” in the sector. The bumper crop ensures the nation retains its place as Europe’s biggest exporter of agricultural goods, the statistics office said in a statement.
AUTOMAKERS
Ford income to be cut
Ford Motor Co said that a change in the way it values pension obligations would cut last year’s net income by US$2 billion. According to a regulatory filing, in 2015, Ford changed the way it measures pension gains and losses so they are counted in the year they occur. The company is to record a pretax pension charge of about US$3 billion for the year. It said the loss is a special item so it would not affect adjusted pretax profit. Ford still expects to meet guidance of about US$10.2 billion in adjusted pretax profit for last year.
AUTOPARTS
New Mexico to sue Takata
New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas is suing Japanese manufacturer Takata Corp and a long list of automakers in connection with the sale of cars with dangerous air bag inflators. The attorney general’s office said in a lawsuit filed on Friday that the manufacturers had a duty to ensure their products were safe and that concealment of air bag defects amounted to unfair, deceptive and unconscionable trade practices under New Mexico law. Takata already has agreed to pay US$1 billion in fines and restitution as part of plea agreement with the US Department of Justice over the years-long scheme to conceal the deadly defect in its inflators.
VIETNAM
Gambling ban to be lifted
Local gamblers are soon to be allowed into the nation’s casinos under a three-year pilot project. Under a decree signed by Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc that takes effect in the middle of March, Vietnamese over 21 years of age with a monthly income of at least 10 million dong (US$441) are to be allowed in casinos. After three years, the government would decide whether to continue with the arrangement. There are about a dozen casinos in the nation, but only foreigners are allowed.
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