SINGAPORE
Economy rebounds in Q2
Singapore’s economy expanded in the second quarter, helped by rising manufacturing and construction, even as growth missed economists’ forecasts. GDP rose an annualized 0.4 percent from the first quarter, according to preliminary estimates from the Ministry of Trade and Industry yesterday. That compares with a revised contraction of 1.9 percent in the first quarter. Compared to the same period last year, GDP rose 2.5 percent in the second quarter, lower than the 2.7 percent median estimate in a Bloomberg survey. The government is projecting an improvement this year from last year’s 2 percent expansion.
UNITED STATES
June budget deficit spikes
The US federal budget deficit rose sharply last month compared with a year ago, although much of the increase reflected calendar quirks. The US Department of the Treasury said the June deficit totaled US$90.2 billion, up from a surplus in June last year of US$6.3 billion. However, outlays grew by US$39 billion this year because benefit payments that normally would have been distributed this month were made last month, as July 1 fell on a Saturday. Through the first nine months of this budget year, the budget deficit totals US$523.1 billion, up from a deficit of US$399.2 billion during the same period a year ago.
AUTOMAKERS
EU demand hits 10-year high
European car demand rose at a slower pace last month, as fewer selling days in Germany and Brexit-related concerns in the UK weighed on a peaking vehicle market. Industrywide registrations increased 2.1 percent from a year earlier to 1.54 million vehicles last month, with Toyota Motor Corp and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV models posting the biggest gains, the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association said yesterday in a statement. While the sales figure marked the strongest June since 2007, the growth lagged behind May’s 7.7 percent jump. First-half registrations rose 4.6 percent to 8.46 million vehicles. The Brussels-based association compiles numbers from the EU’s 28 member states, excluding Malta, plus Switzerland, Norway and Iceland.
AIRLINES
EasyJet to register in Austria
British budget airline easyJet has chosen to apply for an air operator certificate in Austria, and is to establish a new airline, easyJet Europe, to protect its flying rights once Britain leaves the EU. The new airline is to be based in Vienna. The budget airline must have an air operator’s certificate (AOC) in an EU member state to allow it to continue flying between EU member countries after Brexit. “The accreditation process is now well-advanced and easyJet hopes to receive the AOC and license in the near future,” easyJet said in a statement.
TECHNOLOGY
Infosys targets AI
Indian IT giant Infosys Ltd yesterday said artificial intelligence (AI) was key to future profits as it bids to satisfy clients’ demands for innovative new technologies. The company reported an increase of 1.4 percent in consolidated net profit year-on-year for the first quarter, marginally beating analysts’ expectations. Net profit in the three months to June 30 came in at 34.83 billion rupees (US$540 million), marginally above the 34.36 billion rupees it reported in the same period last year, Infosys said. Shares rose nearly 3 percent in early trade after the company forecast revenue growth of between 6.5 to 8.5 percent for the current financial year.
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
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
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: The US company could switch orders from TSMC to alternative suppliers, but that would lower chip quality, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), whose products have become the hottest commodity in the technology world, on Wednesday said that the scramble for a limited amount of supply has frustrated some customers and raised tensions. “The demand on it is so great, and everyone wants to be first and everyone wants to be most,” he told the audience at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc technology conference in San Francisco. “We probably have more emotional customers today. Deservedly so. It’s tense. We’re trying to do the best we can.” Huang’s company is experiencing strong demand for its latest generation of chips, called
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