RECYCLING
China limits steel, aluminum
China is from July 1 to restrict imports of scrap steel and aluminum, the Chinese Ministry of Ecology and Environment said yesterday. Scrap steel and aluminum would be moved from an unrestricted import list of solid waste products usable as raw materials to a restricted import list, the ministry said in a statement. Relevant departments were researching the formulation of standards for recycled copper and aluminum, it said. Copper and aluminum raw materials meeting relevant standards would not be considered solid waste and could be imported, it said.
REAL ESTATE
Philippine prices drop in Q3
Philippine home prices declined in the third quarter from the previous three months, reversing a short-lived rebound as interest rates increased. Housing values fell 0.6 percent quarter-on-quarter, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas said. The price declines were more profound outside the capital area. Housing values slid 1.3 percent in the provinces, compared with a 0.2 percent drop in Metro Manila, the central bank said. On a year-on-year basis, third-quarter home prices climbed 4.4 percent, slowing from a 4.8 percent increase in the previous quarter, the bank said.
KOSOVO
Tax on Serb goods expanded
The Cabinet on Friday extended a 100 percent tax on Serb imports to all international brand goods produced in Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina. It is expected to affect goods including auto products, food, construction materials and computer devices. Kosovo last month set regional tensions soaring when it introduced the 100 percent tax on Serb imports, saying that it would not be lifted until Belgrade recognizes its sovereignty and stops preventing it from joining international organizations.
BANKING
Wells Fargo to settle probe
Wells Fargo & Co is to pay US$575 million in a settlement with attorneys-general from all 50 US states and the District of Columbia, which are investigating fake accounts opened without the knowledge of customers and a string of other dodgy practices. Under the agreement announced on Friday, the bank would also create teams to review and respond to customer complaints about its banking and sales practices.
TECHNOLOGY
Tesla adds board members
Tesla Inc on Friday named two independent board members as part of a settlement with US regulators, who demanded more oversight of CEO Elon Musk. Oracle Corp cofounder Larry Ellison and Kathleen Wilson-Thompson, an executive vice president at Walgreens Boots Alliance, are joining the board as independent directors, effective immediately.
CANNABIS
Aphria rejects hostile bid
Canadian marijuana producer Aphria Inc rejected a planned C$2.8 billion (US$2.05 billion) hostile offer by US cannabis retailer Green Growth Brands Ltd, saying that it significantly undervalues the company. The proposed bid would be about 23 percent below Aphria’s average share price over a 20-day period, the Canadian company said in a statement.
BUSINESS UPDATE: The iPhone assembler said operations outlook is expected to show quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year growth for the second quarter Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported strong growth in sales last month, potentially raising expectations for iPhone sales while artificial intelligence (AI)-related business booms. The company, which assembles the majority of Apple Inc’s smartphones, reported a 19.03 percent rise in monthly sales to NT$510.9 billion (US$15.78 billion), from NT$429.22 billion in the same period last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 14.16 percent, it said. The company in a statement said that last month’s revenue was a record-breaking April performance. Hon Hai, known also as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), assembles most iPhones, but the company is diversifying its business to
Apple Inc has been developing a homegrown chip to run artificial intelligence (AI) tools in data centers, although it is unclear if the semiconductor would ever be deployed, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. The effort would build on Apple’s previous efforts to make in-house chips, which run in its iPhones, Macs and other devices, according to the Journal, which cited unidentified people familiar with the matter. The server project is code-named ACDC (Apple Chips in Data Center) within the company, aiming to utilize Apple’s expertise in chip design for the company’s server infrastructure, the newspaper said. While this initiative has been
GlobalWafers Co (環球晶圓), the world’s No. 3 silicon wafer supplier, yesterday said that revenue would rise moderately in the second half of this year, driven primarily by robust demand for advanced wafers used in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, a key component of artificial intelligence (AI) technology. “The first quarter is the lowest point of this cycle. The second half will be better than the first for the whole semiconductor industry and for GlobalWafers,” chairwoman Doris Hsu (徐秀蘭) said during an online investors’ conference. “HBM would definitely be the key growth driver in the second half,” Hsu said. “That is our big hope
The consumer price index (CPI) last month eased to 1.95 percent, below the central bank’s 2 percent target, as food and entertainment cost increases decelerated, helped by stable egg prices, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday. The slowdown bucked predictions by policymakers and academics that inflationary pressures would build up following double-digit electricity rate hikes on April 1. “The latest CPI data came after the cost of eating out and rent grew moderately amid mixed international raw material prices,” DGBAS official Tsao Chih-hung (曹志弘) told a news conference in Taipei. The central bank in March raised interest rates by