GERMANY
PMI hits over six-year high
The German economy showed continued strength at the end of the third quarter, with a gauge of private-sector activity hitting the highest in more than six years, beating economists’ expectations. The composite purchasing managers’ index rose to 57.8 this month from 55.8 last month, with both services and manufacturing strengthening, IHS Markit said yesterday. The German report shows the economy is in “rude health, highlighting strong broad-based growth in both business activity and employment,” Markit economist Phil Smith said.
BANKING
Banks to check legal status
UK banks will start carrying out immigration checks on all account holders from January, part of a crackdown on those in the country illegally, the government said on Thursday. “From January banks and building societies will be required to carry out regular checks on the immigration status of all current account holders against the details of known illegal migrants to establish whether their customers are known to be in the UK unlawfully,” a Home Office spokesman said. Confirmation of the date comes after parliament in December last year approved a new Immigration Act, which requires banks to check its accounts and report customers found to be breaking immigration rules to the Home Office. “This is part of our ongoing work to tackle illegal migration. People who are here legally will be unaffected,” the spokesman said.
AIRLINES
Turkey to buy 40 787-9s
Turkish Airlines said it intends to purchase 40 of Boeing Co’s 787-9 Dreamliners, a long-awaited deal that signals the carrier’s rebound following a terrorist attack on its Istanbul hub last year. When finalized, the order would be valued at almost US$11 billion before the customary discounts for large aircraft purchases. The pact, unveiled during a brief signing ceremony in New York on Thursday, came after years of market studies and negotiations for wide-body planes as the airline plotted its expansion. Boeing has landed 82 firm orders for the 787 so far this year.
FASHION
Focus on design: Prada
Prada’s chief executive and creative director Miuccia Prada on Thursday said that she did not want to be judged by sales, but that her designs offered ideas to women of how to be strong and combative. “I don’t want to be judged by sales, this is my love... My life and my job [are] more important,” Prada told reporters at the end of the show highlighting her spring-summer 2018 collection. The Italian fashion house this month reported a sharp drop in profits and a 5.5 percent fall in revenues in the first half of the year, saying it would take longer than expected to complete an ongoing revival of the company.
TECHNOLOGY
Digital Realty eyes Asia
Digital Realty Trust Inc, a global provider of data centers, is to rely on acquisitions, partnerships and the expansion of its own network in Asia as it seeks to boost its presence in the region, chief financial officer for Asia Pacific Krupal Raval said in Singapore this week. Digital Realty is seeking to expand in its core Asia markets of Japan, Australia, Singapore and Hong Kong, and would like to enter countries, such as China and India. The San Francisco-based company currently derives 76 percent of its revenue from its US business. It sees the potential for Asia’s revenue contribution to reach double digits from the current 7 percent.
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
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
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six