GERMANY
Production beats estimates
Industrial production fell by less than expected in March and trade proved resilient, Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy data showed yesterday, supporting robust growth expectations for the first quarter. The reports followed by one day data showing the nation’s industrial orders rose for the second consecutive month in March, the first time since 2015. Industrial output edged down by 0.4 percent on the month, yesterday’s data showed. This was better than the consensus forecast in a Reuters poll for a drop of 0.6 percent. The decline was driven by a 2.5 percent fall in energy output. Manufacturing production was down 0.5 percent while construction output rose 1.5 percent. In the first quarter as a whole, industrial production rose 1.4 percent on the quarter, the ministry said. The ministry said the industrial upswing in the first quarter had momentum.
FINANCE
Wells Fargo eyes unit sale
Wells Fargo & Co is weighing a sale of its insurance brokerage business, which could fetch about US$2 billion, people familiar with the matter said. The San Francisco-based lender has begun reaching out to private equity firms to gauge interest in Wells Fargo Insurance Services USA Inc, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the matter is not public. While the company is planning to move forward with a sale, it has not set a timeline for holding a formal auction, one of the people said. If Wells Fargo fetches US$2 billion for the insurance services unit, it would be the company’s largest divestiture on record, topping the US$1.05 billion sale last year of its crop insurance business to Zurich Insurance Group AG, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
BANKING
Credit Suisse to cut staff
Credit Suisse Group AG is cutting as many as 35 positions at its equities business in Asia after the unit’s revenue slumped, a person with knowledge of the matter said. The firm is mainly culling trading, sales, prime brokerage and research positions in the region, according to the person, who asked not to be identified discussing private information. The latest round of reductions, which started about two months ago, is to be completed by next month, the person said. Credit Suisse is shaking up a markets business that was singled out as unprofitable and suffering from “significantly reduced client activity” by the firm’s chief executive officer Tidjane Thiam when reporting first-quarter earnings last month. Equities trading revenue dropped 16 percent in the Asia-Pacific region in the quarter, stung by a slump in derivatives sales.
TRADE
EU pushes China on access
Europe hopes China would deliver its pro-globalization pledges by increasing foreign access to its own markets, EU Ambassador to China Hans Dietmar Schweisgut said yesterday ahead of a summit to discuss Beijing’s signature New Silk Road development plan. Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January painted a picture of China as a wide-open economy in contrast to a rising wave of global protectionism. However, the Chinese government has faced increasingly fervent criticism from foreign business groups and governments, who say China has done little to remove discriminatory policies and market barriers that favor Chinese companies. Schweisgut said Europe was impressed by Xi’s defense of globalization and open markets in Davos, calling them important messages.
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
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