APPAREL
Puma sales, profit soar
German sportswear maker Puma AG yesterday reported rising sales and profit in the second quarter. Net profit rose 59.7 percent year-on-year from April to June, to 49.7 million euros (US$55.5 million). Sales rose 16.9 percent to 1.2 billion euros, with Asian markets, especially China, and the Americas the main drivers with growth of more than 20 percent. Puma’s Europe, Middle East and North Africa region grew more slowly, at 8 percent. Gross profit margin added 0.7 percentage points to reach 49.3, it said.
AVIATION
Airbus sees profit take off
European aerospace giant Airbus SE yesterday reported that profit more than doubled in the first half of the year, a strong result it attributed mainly to increased production of its A320 family of aircraft. Net profit reached 1.197 billion euros, up from 496 million euros in the same period last year. The group delivered a total of 389 commercial aircraft during in the first half, up from 303 a year earlier. It aims to make 880 to 890 deliveries this year.
BANKING
BNP gains from debt trading
BNP Paribas SA posted a second straight gain at its fixed-income trading business, outshining Wall Street and European peers in what is shaping up to be the worst first half for securities trading in a decade. Debt trading revenue rose almost 9 percent to 793 million euros in the three months through June, beating competitors, including JPMorgan Chase & Co and Citigroup Inc, though falling short of a 29 percent rebound in the first quarter. Equities trading also did better than expected.
ELECTRONICS
Panasonic hurt by China sales
Japanese electronics giant Panasonic Corp yesterday said that its quarterly net profit fell more than 10 percent, partly due to weak sales in the Chinese market. The firm reported net profit of ¥50 billion (US$460 million) in the April-to-June period, down 13.2 percent from a year before, despite sales growth in automotive batteries overseas and housing-related businesses in Japan. Sales dipped 5.9 percent to ¥1.9 trillion, while operating profit plunged 43.6 percent to ¥56.4 billion.
CANADA
Huawei 5G role to be decided
Canadians will not find out until after this fall’s federal election whether Chinese tech giant Huawei Technologies Co (華為) can provide equipment for the country’s next-generation 5G wireless network, Minister of Public Safety Ralph Goodale said on Tuesday. Ottawa needs more information from the US about the nature of the potential security threat posed by the company, Goodale said. The election is to be held on Oct. 21.
TURKEY
Inflation forecast lowered
The central bank lowered its projection for inflation as it gears up for what might be the biggest easing push in emerging markets led by new Governor Murat Uysal. Under the central bank’s base-case scenario released yesterday, inflation would end this year at 13.9 percent, down from its previous forecast for 14.6 percent. It left next year’s estimate unchanged at 8.2 percent. Price growth slowed in June to an annual 15.7 percent thanks to a stronger lira and a moderation in food and energy costs.
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],”