EQUITIES
BEA, port operator leaving
Hong Kong’s benchmark Hang Seng Index bade farewell to local lender Bank of East Asia Ltd (BEA, 東亞銀行) and terminal operator China Merchants Port Holdings Co (招商局控股港口有限公司) in the latest review. The two stocks in the 50-member index are to be replaced by Sino Biopharmaceutical Ltd (中國生物製藥), only the second biotech firm to join, and textiles manufacturer Shenzhou International Group Holdings Ltd (申洲國際), the Hang Seng Indexes Co said in an e-mailed release on Friday. The changes are to take effect Sept. 10. There is no change in the Hang Seng China Enterprises Index.
TRANSPORTATION
VinFast to supply Siemens
VinFast Trading and Production LLC has signed two contracts with Siemens Vietnam, a unit of Siemens AG, for the supply of technology and components to manufacture electric buses in the Southeast Asian nation. VinFast, a unit of Vietnam’s biggest private conglomerate, Vingroup JSC, yesterday said the deals would enable it to launch the first electric bus by the end of next year. VinFast will also produce electric motorcycles, electric cars and gasoline cars from its US$1.5 billion factory being built in Haiphong City, it said.
ENERGY
PetroChina to halt US buying
PetroChina Co (中國石油天然氣集團) may temporarily halt purchases of US liquefied natural gas (LNG) spot cargoes through the winter to avoid a potential 25 percent tariffs amid a trade conflict between the US and China, sources with knowledge of the strategy said. PetroChina is to boost buying of spot cargoes from other countries or swap US shipments with other nations in East Asia to avoid paying additional tariffs, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the information is not public. PetroChina, a unit of the state-owned China National Petroleum Corp (中國石油天然氣集團公司), could not immediately comment when contacted by Bloomberg. The move comes ahead of the winter heating season when demand and prices typically peak and shows that Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) may be willing to suffer some pain to avoid backing down from US President Donald Trump’s trade dispute.
PHARMACEUTICALS
Monsanto ruling hits Bayer
Shares of Bayer AG plunged by the most in more than two years in Germany after Monsanto Co, the US agrochemical giant it acquired, was socked with US$289 million in damages in the first trial over claims that the Roundup weed killer causes cancer. Lee Johnson, a former school groundskeeper prevailed on Friday in San Francisco state court. Jurors awarded Johnson US$39 million for his losses and US$250 million to punish the company after finding it liable for a design defect and failing to warn of Roundup’s risks. Shares of Bayer slumped 8.7 percent, the most since June 2016, to 85.27 euros in Frankfurt morning trading yesterday.
BANKING
Mega to stop Iran clearing
Mega International Commercial Bank (兆豐銀行) plans to terminate its payment clearing mechanism between Taiwan and Iran after November in a response to the US’ sanctions on Iran, three people familiar with the matter said yesterday. “Our business with Iran is too sensitive, and we should no longer get involved in it,” an official from the bank told Reuters, adding that the bank has informed clients the payment clearing mechanism is likely to be terminated after November. New US sanctions on Iran took effect last week, despite pleas from Washington’s allies.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
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
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
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],”