AUTOMAKERS
US car sales down
Passenger car sales plummeted again last month, dragging US auto sales to their third straight monthly decline, a strong indication that years of sales growth have come to an end. Sales fell 1.6 percent to just over 1.55 million vehicles, surprising analysts who expected a small increase. However, the auto industry is not worried for now, as it is making solid money selling reams of SUVs and trucks to consumers who are loading up on expensive features, but some analysts see large inventories of cars as a looming problem. Car sales were down almost 11 percent, while truck and SUV sales rose 5.2 percent, according to Autodata Corp. Hyundai suffered the biggest decline at 8 percent, followed by Ford at 7.5 percent.
AUSTRALIA
Economy still on hold
The nation kept interest rates unchanged, remaining in a form of policy paralysis as housing is too hot to allow an easing and the economy lacks the strength to absorb a tightening. Reserve Bank of Australia Governor Philip Lowe and his board left the cash rate at a record-low 1.5 percent yesterday, after Sydney property prices soared last month at the fastest annual pace in almost 15 years and unemployment climbed to its highest level since the beginning of last year. The decision was expected by all 29 economists surveyed by Bloomberg. “Recent data are consistent with ongoing moderate growth,” Lowe said in a statement. “Some indicators of conditions in the labor market have softened recently. In particular, the unemployment rate has moved a little higher and employment growth is modest.” Australia’s economy is in a holding pattern as growth fails to spur significant hiring, resulting in weak wages and subdued inflation.
AUTOMAKERS
Robo-taxi partnership forms
Mercedes-Benz parent Daimler AG and supplier Robert Bosch GmbH are teaming up to develop self-driving cars in an alliance primarily aimed at accelerating the production of “robo-taxis.” The pact between the world’s largest maker of premium cars and the world’s largest automotive supplier forms a powerful counterweight to new industry players such as Uber and Didi, which are working on self-driving cars with a business model geared toward clients who want to use rather than own cars. The alliance, which marks an end to Daimler’s efforts to develop an autonomous car largely on its own, comes as tech companies and automakers such as BMW are forming rival strategic partnerships. Bosch is to develop software and algorithms needed for autonomous driving together with the Stuttgart-based automaker.
GAMING
Rakuten starts game division
Rakuten Inc is betting on a future without apps. The e-commerce company unveiled Rakuten Games yesterday, seeking to deliver titles that do not have to be installed on phones or personal computers. The games can be played on Web browsers or within other apps, making it easier for users to play with each other without having to wait for new software to be loaded onto their devices. Titles based on Pacman and Space Invaders are among the 15 games available on the platform. Facebook Inc and Tencent Holdings Ltd (騰訊) have also embraced similar initiatives, seeking to keep users within their apps and services instead of venturing to app stores. Rakuten is aiming for a slice of revenue in the mobile gaming-app market, which made up 81 percent of total app sales of US$62 billion last year, according to App Annie.
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
EUROPE ON HOLD: Among a flurry of announcements, Intel said it would postpone new factories in Germany and Poland, but remains committed to its US expansion Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger has landed Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a customer for the company’s manufacturing business, potentially bringing work to new plants under construction in the US and boosting his efforts to turn around the embattled chipmaker. Intel and AWS are to coinvest in a custom semiconductor for artificial intelligence computing — what is known as a fabric chip — in a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar framework,” Intel said in a statement on Monday. The work would rely on Intel’s 18A process, an advanced chipmaking technology. Intel shares rose more than 8 percent in late trading after the
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has appointed Rose Castanares, executive vice president of TSMC Arizona, as president of the subsidiary, which is responsible for carrying out massive investments by the Taiwanese tech giant in the US state, the company said in a statement yesterday. Castanares will succeed Brian Harrison as president of the Arizona subsidiary on Oct. 1 after the incumbent president steps down from the position with a transfer to the Arizona CEO office to serve as an advisor to TSMC Arizona’s chairman, the statement said. According to TSMC, Harrison is scheduled to retire on Dec. 31. Castanares joined TSMC in