PENSIONS
DuPont contributes to plan
DuPont expects to contribute another US$230 million to its US pension plan this year. The News Journal reported that the Delaware-based chemicals company also added US$230 million last year. That is the first year it contributed since 2012. DuPont is also to add US$95 million to its overseas pension plans, which accounts for about 20 percent of its pension debt. The company committed US$121 million to those funds last year. However, some pensioners say the contributions are not enough to close a pension gap. Securities & Exchange Commission filings show DuPont has a pension obligation of US$24.8 billion with US$16.6 billion of assets.
RETAIL
Dunelm raises dividend
British homeware retailer Dunelm Group PLC raised its interim dividend by 8.3 percent after notching up a rise in half-year sales on strong online business. The seller of cushions, curtains and baking equipment said total sales were up 2.8 percent to £460.5 million (US$575.29 million) driven by a 20 percent surge in online sales and improvement in trading conditions in the second half. However, like-for-like sales were down 1.6 percent for the 26 weeks to Dec. 31 last year as unusually warm weather in the first quarter reduced store visits.
PHARMACEUTICALS
Sanofi downbeat on profit
Sanofi SA said profit might drop this year as the French drugmaker pursues new drivers of growth to offset declines for its best-selling diabetes treatment Lantus. Sanofi expects earnings per share excluding some items to be stable to down as much as 3 percent at constant exchange rates, the Paris-based company said in a statement yesterday. The firm’s chief executive officer Olivier Brandicourt is counting on new therapies to replace falling revenue from the insulin Lantus, which lost patent protection in 2015. The drug’s successor for diabetics, called Toujeo, has gained market share in recent months, Brandicourt said.
TECHNOLOGY
Samsung SDI reports fire
Samsung SDI Co, a supplier of batteries to explosion-prone Galaxy Note 7 smartphones, said a “minor fire” broke out at a plant in northern China, but was quickly put out. The fire did not affect production, company spokesman Shin Yong-doo said yesterday. The fire occurred at a waste depository, not a production facility, Shin said. Samsung SDI was one of two battery suppliers for the Note 7 smartphones, which was eventually killed off after a global recall. SDI said this month is has invested about 150 billion won (US$130.75 million) in safety and that its batteries would probably be used in Samsung Electronics’ next smartphone model.
JAPAN
Current-account surplus rises
The nation’s current-account surplus last year hit a nine-year high, helped by lower costs for imported oil and improved exports, data announced yesterday showed. The perennial trade surpluses the nation runs with the US are a sore point for US President Donald Trump, and the data announced yesterday came just as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was preparing for summit meetings with Trump later in the week. The current account is a wide gauge of trade and includes investment flows as well as exports and imports. The ¥20.65 trillion (US$183.87 billion) surplus was up 25 percent year-on-year and the second-highest on record. Exports fell by less than imports, leaving a trade surplus of ¥5.58 trillion, after a deficit of ¥628.8 billion in 2015.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
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
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
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