AUTOMAKERS
Japan backs hydrogen cars
Japan is backing a push for pollution-free vehicles that run on hydrogen and plans to build more hydrogen fueling stations so that fuel-cell vehicles on roads will grow from the current handful to 40,000 by 2020. The collaboration on fuel cells, announced yesterday, brings together 11 companies, including automakers Toyota Motor Corp, Nissan Motor Co and Honda Motor Co; energy and gas companies; and a bank. Fuel-cell vehicles run on power produced when hydrogen combines with oxygen in the air to create water. Only a handful of such vehicles are on roads, partly because of the scarcity of hydrogen stations. For example, Honda has delivered only 245 of its latest Clarity fuel-cell vehicles in Japan and the US.
MEXICO
Central bank increases rate
The central bank has raised its benchmark interest rate by a quarter-point to 6.75 percent as inflation continues to outpace targets. The Bank of Mexico said the move seeks to calm the rise in consumer prices, as well as expectations for increases, gradually bringing inflation back to the target of 3 percent. The central bank on Thursday said in a statement that inflation hit 5.82 percent last month. The bank foresees inflation remaining high in the near-term, but heading toward 3 percent late this year and next year. The bank said that investment has lagged due to uncertainty in the country’s relationship with the US.
TELECOMS
Altice breached rules: EU
The EU on Thursday said Altice NV breached EU rules by prematurely taking over PT Portugal Telecom SGPS SA without full clearance from regulators. The European Commission can fine the company up to 10 percent of its annual worldwide turnover. Netherlands-listed Altice, which is owned by French-Israeli billionaire Patrick Drahi, said it “does not agree with the European Commission’s preliminary conclusions and will submit a full response ... and contest all the objections.” Thursday’s announcement would not affect regulatory approval granted for the 7.4 billion euros transaction in April 2015, the commission said.
BANKING
SBI more than doubles profit
State Bank of India (SBI), the country’s largest lender by assets, more than doubled its fourth-quarter profit as its bad loan ratio narrowed. Net income climbed to 28.1 billion rupees (US$432.7 million), or 3.55 rupees per share, in the three months ended March 31, compared with 12.6 billion rupees, or 1.64 rupees per share, a year earlier, the Mumbai-based lender said yesterday. Profit beat the 27.9 billion rupee average of 21 analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Lawmakers recently approved a proposal giving the Reserve Bank of India more powers to resolve the nation’s US$180 billion pile of stressed loans.
APPAREL
Gap profit tops expectations
Gap Inc on Thursday reported a quarterly profit that topped Wall Street expectations. The San Francisco-based company said that from February to last month net income totaled US$143 million, or US$0.36 per share, up from US$127 million, or US$0.32 per share, in the same period a year earlier. Wall Street had predicted earnings of US$0.29 per share. Overall revenue was unchanged at US$3.44 billion, beating Wall Street’s estimate of US$3.41 billion. “The retail environment continues to be challenging,” CEO Art Peck said in a statement, but added that Gap is improving its “product quality and fit,” and getting better at reacting to changes in fashion trends.
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
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
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],”
MAJOR BENEFICIARY: The company benefits from TSMC’s advanced packaging scarcity, given robust demand for Nvidia AI chips, analysts said ASE Technology Holding Co (ASE, 日月光投控), the world’s biggest chip packaging and testing service provider, yesterday said it is raising its equipment capital expenditure budget by 10 percent this year to expand leading-edge and advanced packing and testing capacity amid strong artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing chip demand. This is on top of the 40 to 50 percent annual increase in its capital spending budget to more than the US$1.7 billion to announced in February. About half of the equipment capital expenditure would be spent on leading-edge and advanced packaging and testing technology, the company said. ASE is considered by analysts