AUTOMAKERS
Volkswagen to recall Audis
Volkswagen’s main Chinese joint venture has recalled 680,925 Audi vehicles to check and possibly replace a coolant pump it said might become clogged and overheat. The Chinese General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine yesterday said the recall applies to Audi A6L, Audi A4L and Audi Q5 vehicles manufactured in China between May 2011 and January last year. The company has also recalled imported Audi A4 Allroad sport utility vehicles and Audi A5s made between November 2011 and November 2013. The statement said the recall focuses on a coolant pump that might become clogged and overheat, possibly causing a fire in the engine compartment in extreme cases. FAW-Volkswagen Automotive Co Ltd (一汽大眾), the German automaker’s joint venture with state-owned FAW Group Corp (第一汽車), said it would check the pumps, replace any that have problems and upgrade software.
GERMANY
Industrial output rebounds
Industrial production rebounded in January, reaffirming the country’s favorable economic outlook after factory orders slumped the most in eight years. Output, adjusted for seasonal swings and inflation, rose 2.8 percent from December last year, when it dropped a revised 2.4 percent, the Federal Ministry For Economic Affairs and Energy said yesterday. The indicator’s reading compares with a median estimate for a 2.7 percent increase in a Bloomberg survey. Production was unchanged from a year earlier. The data followed a report on Tuesday that showed factory orders plunged at the steepest pace since 2009 amid markedly below-average demand for big-ticket items. Output in January was bolstered by a 6.1 advance in investment and a 2.3 percent increase in consumption, the data showed. Construction dropped 1.3 percent, while energy production slipped 0.7 percent.
CHINA
Imports surge 44.7 percent
Imports last month jumped 44.7 percent year-on-year, while exports rose 4.2 percent annually in yuan terms, the General Administration of Customs said yesterday, leaving a trade deficit of 60.4 billion yuan (US$8.7 billion at the current exchange rate). The results were skewed because of the week-long Lunar New Year holiday that shuttered factories and ports across the nation in late January, compared with February last year, distorting base year comparisons. The country faces more challenges and uncertainties this year. US President Donald Trump has accused the government of unfair trade practices and is now in a position to carry out threats with US Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross sworn in.
HUMAN RESOURCES
PageGroup sees profit rise
British recruitment firm PageGroup PLC reported an 11.7 percent rise in full-year profit as overseas growth more than offset a continued cooling in the British hiring market ahead of the country’s planned exit from the EU. “Our businesses in continental Europe, Australasia and Latin America, excluding Brazil, all performed well,” CEO Steve Ingham said in a statement. “In the UK, client and candidate confidence levels were impacted by the EU referendum result, with activity levels reduced.” The company, which mainly finds candidates to fill permanent positions, said gross profit rose to £621 million (US$755.3 million at the current exchange rate) in the year ended on Dec. 31 last year, from £556.1 million a year earlier.
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
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
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last