AUSTRALIA
Property prices continue fall
Property prices in the nation fell faster in the past year than at any time since the global financial crisis, a closely watched report said yesterday, fueling speculation of a pre-election interest rate cut. House prices last month continued to tumble across the country, with Sydney declining 11.8 percent and Melbourne falling 12.6 percent, leading property analyst CoreLogic Inc said. While the slide slowed last month from the month before — raising hopes that the market might be reaching its nadir — analysts warned of knock-on effects across the economy. The economy grew just 0.2 percent in the final three months of last year, wage growth has remained soft and inflation has come in below the central bank’s target.
UNITED KINGDOM
Manufacturing growth slows
Manufacturing growth in the nation slowed last month as firms dialed back Brexit-related stockpiling and new export business fell. IHS Markit Ltd’s purchasing managers index for the sector dropped from a 13-month high as production growth also slowed and job losses in the industry mounted. While companies continued to build up stockpiles to guard against Brexit risk, the delay to nation’s departure from the EU meant that they did so to lesser extent than in previous months, the survey found. The index last month fell to a two-month low of 53.1, the firm said in a report yesterday. Overseas demand dropped, with companies saying that Brexit uncertainty was the main factor underlying the decrease. Business optimism rose to a seven-month high, although some firms noted continued concerns about leaving the EU and the possible impact of running down stockpiles.
SOUTH KOREA
Exports drop 2% annually
The nation’s exports last month fell less than expected, even as they dropped for a fifth straight month. While concerns linger about slowing growth in Asia’s fourth-largest economy, the potential signs of recovery in shipments added to hopes for a rebound in global trade this year. Shipments last month fell 2 percent by value from a year earlier, compared with the median forecast of economists for a 5.9 percent drop. Exports fell due to a continued decline in memorychip prices and as a slowdown in China’s economy was sustained, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said in a statement. Shipments of semiconductors declined 0.9 percent; overall exports excluding the memorychip sector increased 0.8 percent.
CRYPTOCURRENCIES
Crime-related losses mount
Losses from the theft of cryptocurrencies from exchanges and fraud-related activities surged in the first quarter of this year to US$1.2 billion, or 70 percent of the level for all of last year, cybersecurity firm CipherTrace said on Tuesday. The value of losses from crime in the digital currency sector last year hit US$1.7 billion, but cryptocurrency crime has ballooned as the market has slowed down, prices have plunged and business activity has stalled. In the first quarter of this year, theft of digital currencies from exchanges and scams totaled US$356 million, while losses from fraud or misappropriated funds amounted to US$851 million, the US-based firm said, adding that it included losses at Canadian digital platform QuadrigaX, where about C$180 million (US$134.4 million) in cryptocurrencies have been frozen in user accounts after the founder, the only person with the password to gain access, died suddenly in December last year.
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],”