JAPAN
Inflation fails to reach 1%
Consumer prices rose a sluggish 0.9 percent last year, according to government data published yesterday. Last month, prices rose by 0.7 percent year-on-year, slightly lower than a 0.9 percent rise in prices in November. The annual figure is far below the central bank’s inflation target of 2 percent and came as the Bank of Japan was reportedly preparing to lower its inflation forecast for the year to March next year to about 1 percent in its quarterly report, reflecting falls in crude oil prices.
CHINA
GDP growth revised down
The government statistics office yesterday revised 2017 economic growth down to 6.8 percent from 6.9 percent, as the nation braces for a possibly worse performance last year. The size of the GDP of the world’s second-biggest economy was revised down from 82.7 trillion yuan to 82.1 trillion yuan (US$12.2 trillion to US$12.1 trillion), the government’s statistics bureau said in a statement on its Web site. Beijing is due to release its GDP growth for last year on Monday. Recent statistics point to a slowdown.
HEALTHCARE
Philips to shutter factory
Dutch health technology company Philips on Thursday said it plans to close its only factory in Britain next year with the loss of about 400 jobs, the latest firm to move manufacturing jobs out of the UK. The factory in Glemsford, England, produces babycare products, mainly for export to other European nations. Almost all its activities are to move to Philips’ plant in Drachten, the Netherlands, which already employs about 2,000 workers.
AVIATION
Union holds off on strikes
A German union that has called a string of disruptive strikes by airport security staff has said it will not hold any further walkouts ahead of and during pay talks next week. The ver.di union said it decided to put any further strikes on hold after employers on Thursday signaled that they plan to make a “conclusion-oriented offer” at the next round of talks, scheduled for Wednesday next week. It asserted that “the intensity of the strikes” contributed to that.
VIETNAM
More US imports planned
The nation is importing more US goods from companies such as Boeing Co and General Electric Co to narrow the trade gap, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc said in an interview with Bloomberg TV’s Haslinda Amin late on Thursday, a move that could help it continue to avoid punitive measures from Washington. A US buying spree would also help ease tensions with Washington over the US trade deficit of about US$33 billion with Vietnam in the first 10 months of last year.
AUTOMAKERS
Tesla to recall PRC vehicles
Tesla Inc is to recall more than 14,000 Model S electric vehicles in China as part of the global automotive sector’s effort to replace potentially dangerous airbags made by Takata Corp, the Chinese regulator announced yesterday. The US company is to recall imported Model S vehicles made between February 2014 and December 2016, the Chinese State Administration of Market Regulation said, joining other automakers in an effort affecting tens of millions of vehicles worldwide. Takata went bust in 2017 after defective airbags were blamed for a number of deaths.
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
FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six