ENERGY
Bidders line for refineries
More than 20 potential bidders are interested in the refineries that Brazil’s state-controlled oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA plans to sell, chief executive officer Roberto Castello Branco said on Tuesday. More than 20 groups are interested in the four refineries in a first phase of privatizations, he said. Two are in the northeastern states of Pernambuco and Bahia, and two are in the southern states of Parana and Rio Grande do Sul. Four more refineries are to be put on the block in the second phase.
ENTERTAINMENT
Student suing Walt Disney
A Chinese student is suing Walt Disney Co alleging double standards because the company bans visitors to its Asian theme parks from taking their own food. The lawsuit filed in China against Shanghai Disneyland takes the company to task because the same strictures do not apply in its US or European parks. The student, surnamed Wang, said she had her “rights violated” after being barred from bringing in her own meal, forcing her to buy “overpriced” food inside the park.
AGRICULTURE
Trump hawks farm products
US President Donald Trump has directly asked Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to buy farm products worth a “huge amount,” Kyodo news agency reported on Tuesday, citing unidentified government sources. Trump had requested that Japan buy specific products, such as soybeans and wheat, Kyodo reported, adding that the request was separate from the framework of trade talks between Washington and Tokyo. The purchase would be worth several hundred million US dollars, including transport costs, Kyodo said.
DENMARK
Economic growth surprises
The economy posted a surprisingly strong growth rate in the second quarter of this year, with manufacturing and exports showing resilience amid a global slowdown. GDP rose 0.8 percent, according to a trend indicator from Statistics Denmark. The economy grew 0.1 percent in the first three months. Tore Stramer at Nykredit Bank A/S described the latest estimate as a “big positive surprise,” but said that the trend indicator carries a significant margin of error.
FRANCE
Unemployment down to 8.5%
The unemployment rate dipped slightly in the second quarter to 8.5 percent, its lowest level in a decade, the national statistics agency Insee said yesterday. In the mainland, the rate fell by 0.2 points compared with the first quarter to 8.2 percent, or 2.4 million jobless. The level stood at 8.5 percent when overseas territories were included, also down 0.2 points over the first three months to the lowest level since 2009.
INVESTMENT
US funds hit by asset decline
A dramatic decline in Argentina’s assets is wreaking havoc on some of the largest US money managers. Funds with high exposure to the nation tumbled on Monday after Argentine President Mauricio Macri’s stunning defeat in primary elections on Sunday. The biggest loser among emerging-market funds with at least US$1 billion was the US$11.3 billion Templeton Emerging Markets Bond Fund, which fell 3.5 percent, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That was its largest daily drop since the 2008 global financial crisis.
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
FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six