CHINA
Credit growth too fast: IMF
The nation has made progress on reforms, but still should allow market forces to play a more decisive role and accelerate its opening up to the rest of the world, the IMF said yesterday. While credit growth has slowed, it remains too fast, and policymakers should de-emphasize growth targets and focus on higher-quality growth, the fund said in a statement. The economic expansion would likely slow to 6.6 percent this year and to about 5.5 percent by 2023, the IMF said.
GERMANY
Retail sales beat forecasts
Retail sales last month rose more than expected after four consecutive monthly drops, data showed yesterday. The private consumption data showed retail sales rose by 2.3 percent on the month in real terms, the Federal Statistics Office said. It was the strongest monthly increase since October 2016 and beat the Reuters consensus forecast of a 0.7 percent rise. On the year, retail rose by 1.2 percent, slightly weaker than the Reuters consensus forecast of a 1.3 percent increase.
AVIATION
Longest flight to return
Singapore Airlines Ltd yesterday said that it would relaunch the world’s longest commercial flight in October, a journey of almost 19 hours from the city-state to the New York City area, but it would not be available to economy travelers. The daily, non-stop journey from Singapore Changi Airport to Newark Airport in New Jersey would cover about 16,700km and take about 18 hours and 45 minutes, the airline said in a statement. The current record holder is Qatar Airways Ltd Flight 921 from Auckland to Doha, which takes 17 hours and 40 minutes.
ADVERTISING
Sorrell invests in shell firm
Martin Sorrell, the recently ousted boss of WPP PLC, has taken control of a listed shell company to use it as a vehicle to buy marketing firms, replicating the approach he took in the 1980s to build the world’s biggest advertising group. Sorrell plans to invest ￡40 million (US$53 million) of his own money into Derriston Capital, a little-known two-year-old company, which would be renamed S4 Capital, he said in a statement.
? AUTOMAKERS
Hyundai to invest in Alabama
Hyundai Motor Co is to invest US$388 million to expand and upgrade its engine manufacturing operations in Montgomery, Alabama, and create 50 new jobs. The Seoul-based automaker is to spend about US$40 million to build a new engine-head machining facility that would be completed in November and be operational by the middle of next year, it said in a statement. The rest of the investment is to go toward equipment and updating its engine plant to support production of Sonata and Elantra sedans.
ENERGY
Canada buys pipeline
The Canadian government on Tuesday said it is buying a controversial pipeline from the Alberta oil sands to the Pacific Coast to ensure it gets built. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government plans to spend C$4.5 billion (US$3.46 billion) to purchase Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain pipeline. The pipeline expansion would triple the capacity of an existing line to ship oil extracted from the oil sands in Alberta across the snow-capped peaks of the Canadian Rockies.
CHIP RACE: Three years of overbroad export controls drove foreign competitors to pursue their own AI chips, and ‘cost US taxpayers billions of dollars,’ Nvidia said China has figured out the US strategy for allowing it to buy Nvidia Corp’s H200s and is rejecting the artificial intelligence (AI) chip in favor of domestically developed semiconductors, White House AI adviser David Sacks said, citing news reports. US President Donald Trump on Monday said that he would allow shipments of Nvidia’s H200 chips to China, part of an administration effort backed by Sacks to challenge Chinese tech champions such as Huawei Technologies Co (華為) by bringing US competition to their home market. On Friday, Sacks signaled that he was uncertain about whether that approach would work. “They’re rejecting our chips,” Sacks
NATIONAL SECURITY: Intel’s testing of ACM tools despite US government control ‘highlights egregious gaps in US technology protection policies,’ a former official said Chipmaker Intel Corp has tested chipmaking tools this year from a toolmaker with deep roots in China and two overseas units that were targeted by US sanctions, according to two sources with direct knowledge of the matter. Intel, which fended off calls for its CEO’s resignation from US President Donald Trump in August over his alleged ties to China, got the tools from ACM Research Inc, a Fremont, California-based producer of chipmaking equipment. Two of ACM’s units, based in Shanghai and South Korea, were among a number of firms barred last year from receiving US technology over claims they have
BARRIERS: Gudeng’s chairman said it was unlikely that the US could replicate Taiwan’s science parks in Arizona, given its strict immigration policies and cultural differences Gudeng Precision Industrial Co (家登), which supplies wafer pods to the world’s major semiconductor firms, yesterday said it is in no rush to set up production in the US due to high costs. The company supplies its customers through a warehouse in Arizona jointly operated by TSS Holdings Ltd (德鑫控股), a joint holding of Gudeng and 17 Taiwanese firms in the semiconductor supply chain, including specialty plastic compounds producer Nytex Composites Co (耐特) and automated material handling system supplier Symtek Automation Asia Co (迅得). While the company has long been exploring the feasibility of setting up production in the US to address
OPTION: Uber said it could provide higher pay for batch trips, if incentives for batching is not removed entirely, as the latter would force it to pass on the costs to consumers Uber Technologies Inc yesterday warned that proposed restrictions on batching orders and minimum wages could prompt a NT$20 delivery fee increase in Taiwan, as lower efficiency would drive up costs. Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi made the remarks yesterday during his visit to Taiwan. He is on a multileg trip to the region, which includes stops in South Korea and Japan. His visit coincided the release last month of the Ministry of Labor’s draft bill on the delivery sector, which aims to safeguard delivery workers’ rights and improve their welfare. The ministry set the minimum pay for local food delivery drivers at
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