SOUTH KOREA
Expansion meets expectations
The nation’s economic expansion met expectations in the second quarter as exports held up despite global trade friction. Semiconductor shipments led the way, while domestic demand showed weakness. GDP expanded 0.7 percent in the quarter ended last month from the previous quarter, when it expanded 1.0 percent, the Bank of Korea said yesterday. Economists had expected GDP to grow 0.7 percent quarter-on-quarter. From a year earlier, the economy expanded 2.9 percent, matching a median estimate of economists.
BANKING
Credit card data published
Hackers gained access to about 14,000 credit card numbers in Chile and published them on social media, the Chilean government said late on Wednesday. The government’s bank regulatory agency said the hack was carried out by a group called the Shadow Brokers, who published the credit card numbers, expiration dates and security codes. The banks affected by the attack included Santander, Itau, Scotiabank and Banco de Chile. The government did not say what the potential financial loss was.
CHIPMAKERS
Hynix posts record profits
The world’s second-largest memorychip maker, SK Hynix Inc, posted record profits in the second quarter, the South Korean company said yesterday, citing strong global demand. Net profit surged 75 percent year-on-year to 4.3 trillion won (US$3.8 billion) in the three months to last month, while operating profit jumped 83 percent to 5.6 trillion won during the same period. SK Hynix said it expects the upward trend to continue in the latter half of the year.
FINANCE
Nomura profit plunges
Nomura Holdings Inc’s profit plunged to the lowest in two years as its wholesale business lost money because of a slump in fixed-income trading, while the domestic retail operation lost steam. Net income fell 91 percent to ¥5.2 billion (US$47 million) in the quarter ended last month from a year earlier, Japan’s biggest brokerage said yesterday. The firm posted its second consecutive quarterly loss overseas, led by Europe.
AUTOMAKERS
Daimler revenue, profits fall
Daimler AG yesterday reported falling revenue and profits in the second quarter, despite selling more cars. The Mercedes-Benz and Smart manufacturer booked net profit attributable to shareholders of 1.73 billion euros (US$2 billion) between April and last month, down 29 percent year-on-year. While the group sold 1 percent more cars and trucks, at 833,005 vehicles, revenue fell 1 percent to 40.8 billion euros. Operating profits fell 27 percent to 2.6 billion euros.
DISTILLERS
Diageo unveils buy back
Diageo PLC plans to buy back up to £2 billion (US$2.6 billion) of stock as earnings shift into higher gear at the world’s largest distiller. The latest move to return cash to shareholders follows a buyback of £1.5 billion worth of stock in the first six months of the year. The move came as the owner of Johnnie Walker whisky reported sales and earnings slightly above expectations for the period. For the full year, organic net sales rose 5 percent, the company said yesterday. Operating profit before exceptional items gained 8 percent. Both figures were just above analysts’ estimates.
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
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
MAJOR BENEFICIARY: The company benefits from TSMC’s advanced packaging scarcity, given robust demand for Nvidia AI chips, analysts said ASE Technology Holding Co (ASE, 日月光投控), the world’s biggest chip packaging and testing service provider, yesterday said it is raising its equipment capital expenditure budget by 10 percent this year to expand leading-edge and advanced packing and testing capacity amid strong artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing chip demand. This is on top of the 40 to 50 percent annual increase in its capital spending budget to more than the US$1.7 billion to announced in February. About half of the equipment capital expenditure would be spent on leading-edge and advanced packaging and testing technology, the company said. ASE is considered by analysts