MACROECONOMICS
Japanese consumers upbeat
Japanese households are the most upbeat since at least 1998 as the labor market tightens and muted inflation boosts their purchasing power, a Bank of Japan survey found. The index for impression of livelihood rose to minus-32.4 last month, the highest on record dating to 1998, according to the quarterly survey released yesterday. Sentiment toward income was at the highest on record dating to 2006 and confidence regarding employment stood at the second-highest level since 2006, the survey found. A Japanese Cabinet Office report on Thursday showed consumer confidence at its highest level since September 2013.
AUTOMAKERS
Honda issues US recall
Honda Motor Co yesterday said it was recalling 37,000 vehicles in the US to check if replacement airbags contain the recalled Takata Corp inflators that might have been installed prior to the massive Takata recalls last year. Honda said the recall of the front airbag inflator of the 2003 two-door Accord does not affect its vehicles in other regions. No ruptures have been reported. The inflators are blamed in at least 16 deaths and more than 180 injuries worldwide. The problem set off the biggest recall in US automotive history, involving 42 million vehicles. Globally, the tally is more than 100 million.
SHIPBUILDERS
France approves STX sale
The French government on Thursday gave its approval to the sale of STX France, the last gem in the country’s once-thriving shipbuilding industry, to its Italian rival Fincantieri SpA. The shipyard has been majority owned by South Korea’s STX Offshore & Shipbuilding Co Ltd since 2008, but that company nearly went bankrupt a few years ago, and it has been looking to sell the profitable STX France business since 2013. The deal approved on Thursday calls for Fincantieri to acquire a stake of about 48 percent, while France’s state-controlled naval shipbuilding DCNS Group is to acquire 12 percent. France is to keep its 33 percent stake as well as a veto right, while an Italian investment group, Fundazione CR Trieste, is to acquire the remaining shares.
RIDE-HAILING
US state settles with Uber
Pennsylvania regulators are settling a legal dispute with the ride-hailing company Uber Technologies Inc for US$3.5 million. The Public Utility Commission, which regulates public transportation in Pennsylvania, on Thursday said the agreement ended a fight over Uber and subsidiaries that operated without authority in the state for six months in 2014. A pair of administrative judges had recommended a US$50 million fine, which the commission whittled down to US$11 million in May last year.
CROATIA
Agrokor debt prompts law
Officials on Thursday adopted a law aimed at shielding the country’s economy from failing key companies, prompted by a huge debt crisis at food giant Agrokor. The Balkans’ largest food producer and retailer employs about 60,000 people in the region, with two-thirds of them in the nation. Agrokor’s annual revenue of about 6.7 billion euros (US$7.12 billion) accounts for 15 percent of then nation’s GDP, but September last year figures showed that the food giant’s debt totaled about six billion euros. Central bank governor Boris Vujcic warned the Agrokor crisis would “almost certainly have an impact on GDP.” The new law relates to ailing firms with more than 5,000 employees and at least 1 billion euros in debt.
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
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
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