UNITED KINGDOM
Building slowdown deepens
Construction growth last month slowed more than forecast, providing further evidence that the nation’s economy is losing momentum. IHS Markit’s purchasing managers’ index for the industry fell to 52.9 from a 14-month high of 55.8 in July, the firm said yesterday. The reading was the lowest since May and below the 54.9 forecast by economists. A reading above 50 indicates expansion. Markit’s survey showed a “sharp slowdown” in house building, while work on civil engineering projects decreased for the first time in five months. New business growth also ebbed, with some respondents saying that Brexit-related uncertainty was holding back investment. The report is the latest to suggest the economy is cooling. A gauge for manufacturing showed growth last month unexpectedly slowed to the weakest in two years, just as the Bank of England opted to hike interest rates to the highest level since 2009.
ADVERTISING
WPP to spend for growth
WPP PLC’s new CEO Mark Read signaled he would spend more to revive growth at the world’s biggest advertising group. WPP forecast a profit margin squeeze in the full year, in line with a 0.4 percentage point like-for-like decline in the first half to 13.3 percent. It suggests that Read is willing to forgo some earnings for now to defend business with big clients, especially in the US, where consumer goods giants are cutting their ad spending and as power in online advertising shifts to Alphabet Inc’s Google and Facebook Inc. Read also boosted the company’s revenue outlook slightly for the year. Like-for-like revenue less pass-through costs, a key measure of WPP’s operating performance, is expected to grow in line with the first half of the year, when it rose 0.3 percent. It had previously forecast no change.
VENEZUELA
Fuel prices to increase
The price of heavily subsidized gasoline is to rise by next month, President Nicolas Maduro said on Monday, as the crisis-stricken government seeks to shore up its coffers amid hyperinflation that is accelerating a broad economic collapse. Despite the crisis, fuel prices are set so low that the equivalent of US$1 buys nearly 1.51 million liters of fuel. That cripples the state’s hard currency earnings and drives a lucrative smuggling trade. The government yesterday launched a new payment system that would increase prices to international levels once it is in place. Any increase would mark the first time in 20 years that the nation has significantly raised fuel prices, which have been a sensitive issue ever since riots broke out in 1989 in response to austerity measures. Government regulations have kept prices steady at the pump despite inflation that is expected to hit 1 million percent this year, the IMF said.
SOUTH AFRICA
Discovery to start bank
Discovery Ltd is on track to start a bank by the end of this year after agreeing to buy FirstRand Ltd’s stake in a credit-card venture, which had delayed the lender’s launch. Johannesburg-based Discovery is joining a rush into retail banking by a range of new entrants. The insurer is to pay 1.8 billion rand (US$118.45 million) for FirstRand’s 25 percent stake in Discovery Card, which it started with the nation’s second-largest banking group in 2004, Discovery said in a statement yesterday. The deal would be implemented “as soon as practically possible” to meet one of the conditions imposed by the central bank when the regulator granted Discovery its banking license, the company said.
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],”