AVIATION
Boeing signs with Dassault
US aerospace giant Boeing has signed a billion-dollar contract with French industrial software company Dassault Systemes to modernize its production system, Le Figaro newspaper reported yesterday. “Boeing has signed a 30-year contract worth a billion dollars, renewable every 10 years,” Le Figaro said. The partnership is to focus on the use of 3D software “to design future products, to modernize the entire production system and to deploy new services.” The software allows all stages of production, from the design to the management of subcontractors, to be organized across a single interface. “From start to finish, Boeing will drive all levels of subcontracting, from the largest to the smallest and will be able to control exchanges between its divisions and its partners,” Dassault Systemes chief executive officer Bernard Charles was quoted as saying by the paper.
INVESTMENT
LedgerX wins approval
LedgerX LLC, a cryptocurrency trading platform operator, won approval from the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission to operate as a federally regulated exchange and clearing house for derivatives contracts settling in digital currencies. The New York-based company plans to offer one to six month bitcoin-to-dollars options contracts in late September to early October, LedgerX chief executive officer Paul Chou said in a telephone interview. Contracts for other digital currencies including for Ethereum’s ether are expected to follow. The commission said in a statement on Monday LedgerX would be authorized to provide clearing services for fully collateralized digital currency swaps. Regulators had granted the company authorization to trade digital currencies earlier this month. The company, which is backed by Alphabet Inc’s venture-capital arm, aims to provide institutional investors the ability to hedge against price swings in digital currencies in the same way they protect against volatility in other assets.
GERMANY
Bumper season expected
Domestic companies are gearing up for a bumper season after the summer lull. The business climate in Europe’s largest economy improved for a sixth month this month, Munich-based Ifo institute said. The index, based on a survey of 7,000 companies from manufacturing, trade and construction, rose to 116.0 from a revised 115.2 last month. That is the highest level since 1991 and compares with a median estimate in a Bloomberg survey for a drop to 114.9. Ebullient sentiment suggests the economy’s very strong performance at the start of the year is set to spill over into the second half. Steadily declining unemployment has been supporting domestic demand and the Bundesbank predicts that “lively” export demand will turn manufacturing into a leading growth driver. Ifo’s measure of economic conditions improved to 125.4 from a revised 124.2, and a gauge of expectations rose to 107.3 from 106.8.
MINING
BHP opens in Ecuador
BHP Billiton Ltd, the world’s biggest miner, has opened an office and is seeking to add staff in Ecuador as it advances a search for copper in a nation that is becoming the sector’s exploration hot-spot. Melbourne-based BHP’s local unit, Cerro Quebrado, is to spend about US$82 million on exploration, having established a base in Quito and advertised for workers. The value of Ecuador’s mining sector could rise to US$7.9 billion by 2021 from US$1.1 billion this year as major players arrive, Fitch Group’s BMI Research said.
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
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last