UNITED STATES
Tariff hearing length doubled
The US Trade Representative’s office on Friday said it doubled the length of tariff hearings on the next US$200 billion of Chinese goods to six days — from tomorrow to Friday — from the previously planned three due to overwhelming demand from companies to testify. The agency released a list of 359 people who would present testimony, representing a wide swath of US companies producing goods ranging from home building supplies to technology products, bicycles and apparel. Most have registered complaints about the higher costs they say that they would face due to the tariffs.
INTERNET
Qutoutiao files for US IPO
Qutoutiao Inc (趣頭條), a Chinese news and video aggregation app backed by Tencent Holdings Ltd (騰訊), filed for a US initial public offering (IPO), saying it had an almost sevenfold increase in revenue for the first half of the year, as losses also grew. The Shanghai-based company on Friday listed its offering size as US$300 million in its filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. The amount might be a placeholder and could change. Qutoutiao, whose name means “fun headlines,” has about 17.1 million daily active users who spend about 56 minutes on the app daily, the filing said. Monthly active users total about 48.8 million.
STEEL
Firm aims for US$100m IPO
Steel pipe and tube manufacturing giant Zekelman Industries Inc filed for an initial public offering in what could be one of the highest-profile industrial listings in the US this year. The company on Friday listed an offering size of US$100 million in its filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. The initial number is typically a placeholder amount that later changes. Including debt, Chicago-based Zekelman is aiming for a valuation of about US$5 billion, people familiar with the matter said last month. The company is aiming to list as soon as this year, the people said.
INTERNET
Hooker-ad agent pleads
The sales and marketing director of Backpage.com on Friday pleaded guilty to conspiring to facilitate prostitution, acknowledging that he participated in a scheme to give free ads to prostitutes in a bid to draw them away from competitors and win over their future business. Dan Hyer is the second Backpage.com employee to plead guilty in cases in Arizona in which the site has been accused of ignoring warnings to stop running prostitution ads, some of which involved children. The site has brought in US$500 million in prostitution-related revenue since its inception in 2004, authorities said.
UNITED STATES
Six-month reports mulled
US President Donald Trump is calling on federal regulators to consider scrapping the requirement for public companies to report quarterly results, after business executives told him that twice-yearly reports would make better economic sense. In a tweet early on Friday, Trump said that after speaking with several top business leaders, he is asking the US Securities and Exchange Commission to determine whether shifting to a six-month reporting requirement would help companies grow faster and create more jobs. “That would allow greater flexibility & save money” for companies, he tweeted.
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
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