INDISTRY
CMEC to aid smelter
China’s state-owned China Machinery Engineering Corp (CMEC, 中國機械設備工程) is to modernize Tajikistan’s flagship aluminum smelter in a US$545 million deal. A representative for Tajik Aluminium Co (Talco) on Friday said that “the contract between CMEC and Talco was signed on April 15.” Talco’s smelter is a key industrial asset in an impoverished and mostly agrarian nation of 9 million bordering China. Annual production of the smelter fell 7.2 percent last year and its Soviet-era equipment is in sore need of upgrading.
CHINA
Petition supports accuser
Hundreds of people have added their names to an online petition in support of a University of Minnesota student who said she was raped in August last year by Richard Liu (劉強東), the CEO of e-commerce retailer JD.com Inc (京東). The student, Liu Jingyao (劉靜瑤), from China, filed a civil lawsuit against Richard Liu in a Minneapolis court on Tuesday, nearly four months after prosecutors declined to press criminal charges against him. The company did not immediately respond to an e-mailed request for comment.
SINGAPORE
Fraud suspect extradited
The nation has extradited an Indian national to the US to face charges in a call center operation that allegedly defrauded millions of dollars from people in the US, the US Department of Justice announced on Friday. Hitesh Madhubhai Patel, 42, of Ahmedabad, India, was scheduled to be arraigned on Friday in a Houston, Texas, federal court for his role in a case that was first announced in 2016, charging 60 people with wire fraud and money laundering conspiracy.
BANKING
Malayan ends agreement
Malayan Banking Bhd (Maybank) ended a collaboration agreement with Tuaspring and Hyflux Ltd. The termination of the agreement is expected to have a material impact on the group’s financial performance, Hyflux said in a statement to the Singapore Exchange. Maybank also stated its intention to appoint receivers and managers over the assets of Tuaspring, save for its desalination plant and shared infrastructure, according to Hyflux. The company is saddled with S$2.8 billion (US$2.1 billion) of unsecured claims and default notices.
ENERGY
Reliance denies PDVSA link
Reliance Industries Ltd does not have any arrangement to buy crude oil from Venezuela’s state-owned oil company, Petroleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA), for payment in cash to third parties and media reports of such a mechanism are false, the company said in a statement. While releasing quarterly results on Thursday, Reliance chief financial officer V. Srikanth said it was sourcing Venezuelan crude from Russian and Chinese companies. Payment made to them for supplies are adjusted against dues owed by Venezuela to these companies, Srikanth said.
REAL ESTATE
Manhattan sale confirmed
Vornado Realty Trust sold almost half of a US$5.6 billion collection of Manhattan properties to Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund, the Qatar Investment Authority, and Crown Acquisitions Inc. The buyers would each acquire stakes of about 24 percent.
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
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: The chipmaker last month raised its capital spending by 28 percent for this year to NT$32 billion from a previous estimate of NT$25 billion Contract chipmaker Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電子) yesterday launched a new 12-inch fab, tapping into advanced chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) packaging technology to support rising demand for artificial intelligence (AI) devices. Powerchip is to offer interposers, one of three parts in CoWoS packaging technology, with shipments scheduled for the second half of this year, Powerchip chairman Frank Huang (黃崇仁) told reporters on the sidelines of a fab inauguration ceremony in the Tongluo Science Park (銅鑼科學園區) in Miaoli County yesterday. “We are working with customers to supply CoWoS-related business, utilizing part of this new fab’s capacity,” Huang said, adding that Powerchip intended to bridge
Microsoft Corp yesterday said that it would create Thailand’s first data center region to boost cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure, promising AI training to more than 100,000 people to develop tech. Bangkok is a key economic player in Southeast Asia, but it has lagged behind Indonesia and Singapore when it comes to the tech industry. Thailand has an “incredible opportunity to build a digital-first, AI-powered future,” Microsoft chairman and chief executive officer Satya Nadella said at an event in Bangkok. Data center regions are physical locations that store computing infrastructure, allowing secure and reliable access to cloud platforms. The global embrace of AI
Qualcomm Inc, the world’s biggest seller of smartphone processors, gave an upbeat forecast for sales and profit in the current period, suggesting demand for handsets is increasing after a two-year slump. Revenue in the three months ended in June will be US$8.8 billion to US$9.6 billion, the company said in a statement Wednesday. Excluding certain items, earnings will be US$2.15 to US$2.35 a share. Analysts had projected sales of US$9.08 billion and earnings of US$2.16 a share. The outlook signals that the smartphone market has begun to bounce back, tracking with Qualcomm’s forecast that demand would gradually recover this year. The San