OIL
PDVSA to pay bond interest
Struggling Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA says it has begun paying US$539 million in interest payments on four bonds just hours before a grace period expires. The company, the source of 96 percent of the nation’s foreign revenue, informed bondholders in a statement on Twitter that on Thursday it began “the transfer process” for the payment of PDVSA bonds maturing in 2026, 2024, 2021 and 2035. The grace period for making those payments runs out between Friday and Sunday.
SINGAPORE
Good home sales even better
Home sales rose last month, extending gains for a year that is already the best since 2013, as developers marketed more projects. Developers sold 785 units last month, up from a revised 760 in October, Urban Redevelopment Authority data released yesterday showed. They also launched more units — 450 versus 242 — the data showed. Companies launched new projects including Parc Botannia, which sold 253 of 357 units marketed. Overall, Singapore developers have sold about 10,245 units this year through last month.
OIL
Lebanon okays group bid
Lebanon on Thursday approved a first bid from an international consortium including France’s Total SA, Italy’s ENI SpA and Russia’s Novatek OJSC to explore for oil and gas off the nation’s Mediterranean coast. The group was the only one to respond to a call for bids by the authorities in Beirut, with Lebanon’s attempts to begin offshore energy exploration in recent years hampered by political instability.
TECHNOLOGY
EU might fine Qualcomm
Qualcomm Inc is likely to be penalized in the coming weeks by the EU for paying Apple Inc to shun rival chip companies, a person familiar with the case said. Regulators are set to find that the company violated antitrust law by using incentive payments to ensure exclusivity, the person said. EU officials have been studying a September ruling involving Intel Corp that raised similar issues and could issue findings on Qualcomm as soon as next month, the person said. The person did not discuss a potential fine, which is widely expected.
INTERNET
Facebook bolsters video use
Facebook Inc on Thursday moved to bolster its appeal and money-making potential as an online platform for viewing video similar to YouTube. The leading social network is next year to test showing short ads before videos on a new “Watch” section devoted to just that activity, a blog post by product manager director Maria Angelidou-Smith and product manager Abhishek Bapna said. Facebook also said it is updating its News Feed content ranking system to ramp up distribution of videos by popular publishers.
MANUFACTURING
Robot production sees record
Annual production of industrial robots surpassed 100,000 for the first time — and it only took 10 months. Shipments were up 67 percent through October compared with a year earlier, China’s state media reported on Thursday. There is more to come: full-year output is to reach 120,000 units, China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology forecast. China produced about 90,000 robot units last year, more than South Korea and North America combined, data compiled by Bloomberg from the International Federation of Robotics showed.
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