AUTOMAKERS
Europe car sales hit record
The number of new cars sold in Europe topped the 15 million mark for the first time in a decade last year, according to data published yesterday by the bloc’s industry body. New car registrations rose for the fourth consecutive year, growing by 3.4 percent to 15.1 million units last year, the European Automobile Manufacturers Association said in a statement. The strongest increases in sales last year were seen in Italy and Spain, where new registrations were up 7.9 percent and 7.7 percent respectively. Sales were up 4.7 percent in France and 2.7 percent in Germany, but slumped 5.7 percent in Britain, the data showed.
BIOTECHNOLOGY
Celgene, Juno in talks
Celgene Corp is in talks to buy Seattle-based Juno Therapeutics Inc, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday. Juno is a leader in the effort to use the immune system to treat cancer. If a deal is reached, it would continue a string of acquisitions by Celgene, which is under pressure to find ways to offset generic competition for top-selling cancer treatment Revlimid. Celgene, based in Summit, New Jersey, last week agreed to buy closely held Impact Biomedicines for US$1.1 billion up-front, gaining an experimental blood cancer treatment. The value of that deal could climb to as much as US$7 billion over time if the drug reaches certain milestones.
FASHION
Burberry sales miss forecast
Burberry Group PLC’s holiday sales rose 2 percent on a comparable basis for the quarter ended Dec. 31 last year, the London-based company said yesterday, missing the 4 percent growth predicted by analysts in a Bloomberg News survey. The company yesterday left its guidance for operating profit in the full fiscal year unchanged, saying it was on track toward new chief executive Marco Gobbetti’s strategic goals. Quarterly revenue in the US, a persistent problem area, was flat.
TRANSPORT
Uber curbs UK drivers’ hours
US ride-hailing app creator Uber Technologies Inc on Tuesday said it would cap the number of hours its drivers can work in Britain from next week in a bid to increase safety after heavy criticism of its business practices. The new policy means that drivers must take an uninterrupted six-hour break after 10 hours and would not be able to log on to the app during that time. The company had already been messaging drivers who were working too long to switch off its app.
INVESTMENT
Dagong downgrades US debt
A Chinese credit ratings firm has downgraded US debt, citing political “deficiencies” and “factional rivalries.” The move comes after China’s own credit rating was cut by two US agencies — Standard & Poor’s Financial Services LLC and Moody’s Investors Service — last year over concerns about the Asian country’s growing debt. Dagong Global Credit Rating Co (大公信評) cited massive tax cuts as a concern, but it also zeroed in on the political atmosphere in the US in a report on Tuesday. The firm downgraded both local and foreign currency sovereign credit ratings of the US from “A-” to “BBB+” and gave the world’s largest economy a “negative outlook.” Dagong is recognized as China’s foremost credit rating agency and claims to be the only one with joint approval from both the People’s Bank of China and the State Economic and Trade Commission.
WASHINGTON’S INCENTIVES: The CHIPS Act set aside US$39 billion in direct grants to persuade the world’s top semiconductor companies to make chips on US soil The US plans to award more than US$6 billion to Samsung Electronics Co, helping the chipmaker expand beyond a project in Texas it has already announced, people familiar with the matter said. The money from the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act would be one of several major awards that the US Department of Commerce is expected to announce in the coming weeks, including a grant of more than US$5 billion to Samsung’s rival, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), people familiar with the plans said. The people spoke on condition of anonymity in advance of the official announcements. The federal funding for
HIGH DEMAND: The firm has strong capabilities of providing key components including liquid cooling technology needed for AI servers, chairman Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday revised its revenue outlook for this year to “significant” growth from a “neutral” view forecast five months ago, due to strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers from cloud service providers. Hon Hai, a major assembler of iPhones that is also known as Foxconn, expects AI server revenues to soar more than 40 percent annually this year, chairman Young Liu (劉揚偉) told investors. The robust growth would uplift revenue contribution from AI servers to 40 percent of the company’s overall server revenue this year, from 30 percent last year, Liu said. In the three-year period
LONG HAUL: Largan Energy Materials’ TNO-based lithium-ion batteries are expected to charge in five minutes and last about 20 years, far surpassing conventional technology Largan Precision Co (大立光) has formed a joint venture with the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI, 工研院) to produce fast-charging, long-life lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles, mobile electronics and electric storage units, the camera lens supplier for Apple Inc’s iPhones said yesterday. Largan Energy Materials Co (萬溢能源材料), established in January, is developing high-energy, fast-charging, long-life lithium-ion batteries using titanium niobium oxide (TNO) anodes, it said. TNO-based batteries can be fully charged in five minutes and have a lifespan of 20 years, a major advantage over the two to four hours of charging time needed for conventional graphite-anode-based batteries, Largan said in a
Taiwan is one of the first countries to benefit from the artificial intelligence (AI) boom, but because that is largely down to a single company it also represents a risk, former Google Taiwan managing director Chien Lee-feng (簡立峰) said at an AI forum in Taipei yesterday. Speaking at the forum on how generative AI can generate possibilities for all walks of life, Chien said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) — currently among the world’s 10 most-valuable companies due to continued optimism about AI — ensures Taiwan is one of the economies to benefit most from AI. “This is because AI is