AUTOMOTIVE
Chinese sales rose in June
China’s vehicle sales picked up last month after provincial governments announced stimulus plans of their own to revive demand in the world’s biggest automobile market, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce told a briefing yesterday, without giving details. Provincial authorities took action after the central government last month encouraged them to provide “support” for the auto market if they had the capacity. Local governments were also barred from placing any new restrictions on car purchases or limits on new energy vehicles. China’s retail auto market grew 8.2 percent in the first half of the year compared with last year, the ministry said.
CHARITY
Buffett gives more away
Investor Warren Buffett is continuing to give his fortune away. On Monday, he disclosed a donation of US$3.6 billion in Berkshire Hathaway Inc stock to five foundations. He has now given away stock worth about US$34 billion since he started distributing parts of his fortune in 2006. The biggest donation went to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Buffett also gave stock to his own foundation and to the foundations run by each of his three children. He converted 11,250 Class A shares of Berkshire stock to 16,875,000 Class B shares, then donated 16,811,941 shares to the five foundations.
MANUFACTURING
US factory activity slows
US factory activity grew at a slower pace last month for the third straight month as measures of new orders and inventories fell. The Institute for Supply Management on Monday said that its manufacturing index slipped to 51.7 last month from 52.1 in May. Any reading above 50 signals an expansion. While the sector is still growing, the report pointed to an ongoing weakening in US manufacturing. A measure of new orders dropped to 50, which means they were unchanged. Manufacturers are also holding fewer supplies, a sign they are worried that demand could slow further.
TECHNOLOGY
Huawei waiting on US
Huawei Technologies Co (華為) on Monday said it is awaiting guidance from the US Department of Commerce on whether it can resume using Google’s Android mobile operating system on upcoming smartphones. “We acknowledge President [Donald] Trump’s comments related to Huawei over the weekend and will wait for guidance from the Department of Commerce, but have nothing further to add at this time,” Huawei vice president of risk management and partner relations Tim Danks said in response to a reporter’s question about its access to the Android operating system. Trump on Saturday softened his stance on Huawei, allowing expanded sales of technology supplies to it.
ITALY
Budget deficit reduced
The government lowered its current fiscal year budget deficit in a bid to comply with EU rules and avoid sanctions for failing to rein in debt. The deficit is now expected to be 2.04 percent of economic output, according to a person familiar with the issue who asked not to be identified. A draft budget in April envisaged a shortfall of 2.4 percent. Italian bonds yesterday rallied for a fifth day, with 10-year yields dropping five basis points to 1.91 percent, the lowest in over a year. The spread over those on their German peers, a key gauge of risk in the country, fell to 227 basis points, the lowest level since September last year, when the nation’s budget plans roiled markets.
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
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],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day