JAPAN
Confidence down: Tankan
Confidence among the country’s biggest manufacturers fell sharply this quarter, the Bank of Japan’s quarterly business survey showed yesterday. The central bank’s Tankan report — a quarterly survey of about 10,000 companies — showed a reading of 12 among major manufacturers, a steep fall from 19 in the previous quarter. Economists said a slowdown in the Chinese economy was partly to blame, with worries that a rise in crude oil prices could eat into profits also weighing on business confidence. The index for non-manufacturers slipped to 21 from 24 in the previous quarter.
MACROECONOMICS
Eurozone PMI slips
A closely watched survey yesterday showed that the manufacturing sector across the 19-country eurozone is shrinking at its fastest rate in six years. Financial information firm IHS Markit said its purchasing managers’ index (PMI) for the sector fell to 47.5 last month from 49.3 the previous month. Anything below 50 indicates a contraction in activity. There were a number of reasons behind the fall, including uncertainty over Brexit and worries over the global trade outlook, IHS said.
SINGAPORE
Home prices continue to fall
Home prices in the city-state fell for a second straight quarter, with values of luxury dwellings falling the most in almost a decade as property curbs imposed in the middle of last year took some heat out of the market. Private residential prices declined 0.6 percent in the three months that ended on Sunday from the previous quarter, when they fell 0.1 percent, the Urban Redevelopment Authority said yesterday. Luxury home prices dropped 2.9 percent, the most since the quarter that ended on June 2009.
ITALY
Rome expects zero growth
The country is headed for zero economic growth this year, Minister of Economy and Finances Giovanni Tria said on Sunday, while brushing off possible changes to the government’s budget. “We face a widespread slowdown in growth across Europe, and in Italy we are headed for zero” growth, Tria told an economic forum. The central bank and the IMF have estimated that the economy would expand by 0.6 percent this year, while the European Commission was more pessimistic, penciling growth of just 0.2 percent.
ENERGY
Saipem mulls selling units
Italian oil field services firm Saipem SpA is in discussions to sell both its offshore and onshore drilling units in separate transactions that would slice off about one-10th of the company’s annual sales, people familiar with the matter said. The ailing offshore division, which last year suffered a 24 percent decline in revenue, could go to a competitor, the people said. No final decisions have been made and Saipem might still decide to keep the assets, they said. The people did not give values for the units.
UNITED KINGDOM
Minimum wage raised
Millions of workers yesterday celebrated the 20th anniversary of the national minimum wage — with another inflation-busting wage rise. The legal minimum wage rose by 4.3 percent for 21-to-24-year-olds and by 4.9 percent for those age 25 and over. The floor has lifted pay for the lowest earners and there is no evidence it has led to job losses, the Resolution Foundation think tank 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],”