MANUFACTURING
Hon Hai to recycle water
Foxconn Technology Group (富士康), known in Taiwan as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), plans to invest in a US$30 million recycling system that would significantly reduce the amount of water it has to draw from Lake Michigan for its proposed manufacturing complex in Wisconsin, the company said on Tuesday. Foxconn announced that the “zero liquid discharge” system would virtually eliminate the return of manufacturing wastewater into the lake. The system is expected to reduce water intake by more than 13.25 million liters per day, it said in an e-mailed statement, adding that the system would eliminate manufacturing process wastewater by distilling it. The water could then be recycled, recovered and reused. The city of Racine estimated that the plant’s operations and evaporation would consume about 10.2 million liters daily.
ELECTRONICS
Dialog attempting takeover
Dialog Semiconductor PLC shares rose after the technology company said it is proceeding with an attempted takeover of Synaptics Inc, helping it step forward in its effort to reduce its reliance on sales to Apple Inc. Dialog is conducting due diligence and detailed discussions related to the potential deal, it said on Tuesday in a statement. Dialog gained as much as 3.7 percent and was trading 2.7 percent higher at 15.40 euros as of 9:27am yesterday in Frankfurt, Germany, giving the Reading, England-based company a market value of 1.2 billion euros (US$1.39 billion). Synaptics would help Dialog expand its product portfolio by adding sensors, touchscreens and touch pads, which it sells to Apple, Samsung Electronics Co and other smartphone makers.
FINTECH
Norway gets Apple Pay
Apple Pay yesterday became available in Norway for customers of Nordea Bank AB and Santander Bank. The payment system is also to be rolled out to clients in Sbanken ASA, Visa Inc said in a statement. “We are pleased we can provide Apple Pay to our customers in close cooperation with Mastercard,” Nordea Norge CEO Snorre Storset said in a separate statement. Apple Pay would likely offer a challenge to Vipps, a system launched by DNB ASA and downloaded by nearly 3 million Norwegians.
COFFEE
Starbucks to boost closings
Starbucks said it would accelerate its store closings in the US next year as it tries to boost sluggish sales. The Seattle-based company on Tuesday announced that it would close 150 underperforming stores in heavily penetrated markets, up from the usual rate of 50 closings a year. The company also said it expects 1 percent growth in global sales for the third quarter, a period that encompassed an uproar over the arrest of two black men at a Starbucks in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
SENTIMENT
Confidence down in Asia
Business confidence among Asian companies slipped for the first time in three quarters, on mounting worries that US President Donald Trump’s protectionist policies would trigger tit-for-tat reprisals. The Thomson Reuters/INSEAD Asian Business Sentiment Index, representing a six-month outlook from 61 firms, fell to 74 in the second quarter from a seven-year high of 79 in the prior three months. The survey was conducted from June 1 to Friday last week. While a reading above 50 indicates a positive outlook, this is the first time the number has dropped since September last year.
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