SWITZERLAND
GDP increases 0.3%
Economic growth slowed in the second quarter, with investment suffering amid fallout from the US-China trade dispute and a slump in Germany. GDP rose 0.3 percent, with equipment investment down 1 percent, which the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs blamed on an “uncertain environment.”
TRADE
US announces steel tariffs
Washington on Wednesday announced new import duties on more than US$1 billion in imported structural steel from China and Mexico, saying that manufacturers in those countries dumped products in the US market. The US Department of Commerce’s findings, which are preliminary and could be reversed, follow a similar decision in June concerning Chinese alloy aluminum imports valued at nearly US$1 billion. Chinese and Mexican producers allegedly dumped fabricated structural steel — such as I-beams, rods and joists — at margins of between 0 percent and 141.4 percent, the department said.
ELECTRONICS
Galaxy Fold hits stores
Samsung Electronics Co yesterday announced that its Galaxy Fold would go on sale today in its home market of South Korea following a months-long delay caused by the discovery of a defect in the original design. The Galaxy Fold, a US$1,980 luxury Android device that opens like a book, is expected to arrive in the US on Sept. 27, people familiar with Samsung’s plans said. Samsung itself lists the US market as one of its expansion geographies after the South Korean launch, alongside France, Germany, Singapore and the UK.
TRANSPORTATION
Grab to focus on AI
Southeast Asian ride-hailing start-up Grab Holdings Inc intends to invest US$150 million in artificial intelligence (AI) research in the next year, accelerating the expansion of a business that now includes food delivery, digital payments and digital content. Grab would build on the US$100 million it has previously invested in AI technology, and improve its fraud prevention and natural language processing tech, company cofounder Tan Hooi Ling (陳慧玲) said on Wednesday. “We want to go from AI-powered to AI everywhere,” Tan said.
INTERNET
Facebook records exposed
Phone numbers linked to more than 400 million Facebook Inc accounts were listed online in a privacy lapse for the social media giant, US media reported on Wednesday. An exposed server stored 419 million records on users across several databases — including 133 million US accounts, more than 50 million in Vietnam and 18 million in Britain, news site TechCruch reported. The databases listed Facebook user IDs, the profiles’ telephone numbers, as well as the gender listed by some accounts and their geographical locations, TechCrunch said.
ELECTRONICS
Apple sells US$7bn of debt
Apple Inc on Wednesday borrowed US$7 billion in its first bond sale in nearly two years, as cheap funding costs tempt even companies flush with cash. Apple, which has more than US$200 billion in cash and securities on its books, sold senior unsecured bonds in five parts. The longest portion of the offering, a US$1.5 billion 30-year security, would yield 1.03 percentage points above Treasuries, after an initially discussed spread of about 1.25 percentage points, a person with knowledge of the matter said.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last