AVIATION
Korean Air, Delta hold talks
Korean Air Lines Co is in talks with Delta Air Lines Inc for a joint venture in a move that would give the second-largest US carrier a bigger foothold in Asia, where rising incomes are fueling a boom in air travel. Details of the partnership would be disclosed later, Korean Air president Walter Cho yesterday told reporters at a briefing in Seoul’s Incheon Airport, declining to elaborate. Atlanta, Georgia-based Delta, which has said it will rely on tie-ups in Asia to improve connectivity to the region’s largest economies, is extending an existing pact with Korean Air beyond code-sharing. While a joint venture would provide the US carrier a hub in Seoul and help it compete with other US rivals, its partner could get greater access in North America as South Korea prepares to host the 2018 Winter Olympics.
TRADE
Japan hosts first RCEP talks
Negotiators from 16 Asia-Pacific countries yesterday held their first round of free-trade talks since hopes faded of reaching a separate regional deal after the US pulled out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). The five-day Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) talks in Kobe are being attended by senior officials from the 16 countries involved, a Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry official said. The US is not part of RCEP, which has been pushed by China. Apart from Beijing, the planned pact would group the 10 members of ASEAN and India, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand. The TPP had been seen as an economic guarantee of US commitment to the region in the face of the growing influence of China, which was not a member. RCEP is seen as a more modest deal that calls for lower and more limited regulatory standards.
SPAIN
Inflation exceeds ECB limit
Inflation accelerated further above the European Central Bank’s (ECB) price stability mandate, coinciding with an increase in utility bills. Consumer prices, calculated using an EU-harmonized method, rose 3 percent this month from a year earlier, according to preliminary data released by the Madrid-based National Statistics Office. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg predicted an increase of 3.1 percent. The euro area’s fourth-largest economy is has recorded one of the region’s fastest inflation rates that by far exceeds the ECB’s goal of just under 2 percent.
TECHNOLOGY
Ericsson betting on cloud
Ericsson AB is betting on cloud technology to capture as much as possible of the US$1.2 trillion market it expects 5G mobile broadband services to spur, chief executive officer Borje Ekholm said. “5G is really starting to happen,” Ekholm said in an interview with Bloomberg TV at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain. “What we’re starting to see is operators positioning their 4G networks and starting to evolve into 5G.” 5G services are not expected to be commercially available until 2020. In the meantime, Ericsson has signed development agreements with more than 30 carriers, and some, like Verizon Communications Inc and its closest rival AT&T Inc, are preparing for trials of the new technology. Verizon last week said it will work with equipment partners, including Ericsson and Samsung Electronics Co, to test faster 5G mobile broadband service in 11 markets in the first half of this year.
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
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”