SOUTH KOREA
Chips lead export fall
South Korea’s flagging chip sales are set to send exports for a 10th monthly slide, dashing hopes of a near-term rebound in global tech demand. Exports during the first 20 days of this month tumbled 22 percent from a year earlier, data from the Korea Customs Service yesterday showed. That compares with growth of 15 percent from Aug. 1 to 20. Shipments to China, its biggest trading partner, plunged 30 percent, while exports to the US dropped 21 percent and shipments to Japan fell 14 percent.
GERMANY
PMI dips to seven-year low
The private sector is suffering its worst downturn in almost seven years as a manufacturing slump deepens. A purchasing managers’ index (PMI) fell to 49.1 this month from 51.7 a month earlier, IHS Markit said. The reading was the lowest since October 2012 and the first below 50, signaling contraction, since April 2013. “The manufacturing numbers are simply awful,” Markit economist Phil Smith said. “The economy is limping toward the final quarter of the year and, on its current trajectory, might not see any growth before the end of 2019.”
TRADE
Australia lifts sheep ban
Australia has lifted a temporary ban on controversial live sheep exports, with the first ship due to depart for the Middle East this week with about 60,000 animals on board. The live export trade has been under scrutiny since horrific footage of dead and dying heat-stressed sheep on vessels bound for the Middle East was released in April last year, prompting a public outcry and forcing sweeping reforms to the industry.
TECHNOLOGY
Baidu gets driveless license
Baidu Inc (百度) was on Sunday among three technology firms to receive China’s first batch of self-driving commercial licenses, the state-run Global Times reported. The permits were issued by the city government in Wuhan, Hubei Province, as it launched a testing area for intelligent network automobiles, the report said. The credentials will enable the companies to conduct tests as well as carry out commercial operations in the area. Haylion Technologies Co (海梁科技) and DeepBlue Technology Co (深藍科技) also received licenses, the Global Times reported.
REAL ESTATE
Vonovia acquires Hembla
Vonovia SE is set to become the largest landlord in Sweden after buying Stockholm-based apartment owner Hembla AB for about US$1.3 billion. Following its purchase of Victoria Park last year, the deal is the German company’s second in the Swedish market and would increase its portfolio in the country to more than 38,000 apartments, overtaking Rikshem and Heimstaden, according to Vonovia. Germany’s biggest landlord agreed with a unit of Blackstone Group Inc to acquire 61.2 percent of the share capital in Hembla for 215 kronor a share, it said in a statement yesterday.
TELECOMS
Chinese firms eye Brazil
Huawei Technologies Co (華為) and China Mobile Ltd (中國移動) are exploring a partnership to bid for Brazilian phone company Oi SA, O Globo Newspaper reported, without citing a source. Huawei is seeking the bid as an opportunity to enter the Brazilian market and expand its reach for 5G technology, the newspaper said. The plan also comes as the Brazilian government wants a solution for the indebted company, O Globo added.
DECOUPLING? In a sign of deeper US-China technology decoupling, Apple has held initial talks about using Baidu’s generative AI technology in its iPhones, the Wall Street Journal said China has introduced guidelines to phase out US microprocessors from Intel Corp and Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) from government PCs and servers, the Financial Times reported yesterday. The procurement guidance also seeks to sideline Microsoft Corp’s Windows operating system and foreign-made database software in favor of domestic options, the report said. Chinese officials have begun following the guidelines, which were unveiled in December last year, the report said. They order government agencies above the township level to include criteria requiring “safe and reliable” processors and operating systems when making purchases, the newspaper said. The US has been aiming to boost domestic semiconductor
Nvidia Corp earned its US$2.2 trillion market cap by producing artificial intelligence (AI) chips that have become the lifeblood powering the new era of generative AI developers from start-ups to Microsoft Corp, OpenAI and Google parent Alphabet Inc. Almost as important to its hardware is the company’s nearly 20 years’ worth of computer code, which helps make competition with the company nearly impossible. More than 4 million global developers rely on Nvidia’s CUDA software platform to build AI and other apps. Now a coalition of tech companies that includes Qualcomm Inc, Google and Intel Corp plans to loosen Nvidia’s chokehold by going
ENERGY IMPACT: The electricity rate hike is expected to add about NT$4 billion to TSMC’s electricity bill a year and cut its annual earnings per share by about NT$0.154 Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has left its long-term gross margin target unchanged despite the government deciding on Friday to raise electricity rates. One of the heaviest power consuming manufacturers in Taiwan, TSMC said it always respects the government’s energy policy and would continue to operate its fabs by making efforts in energy conservation. The chipmaker said it has left a long-term goal of more than 53 percent in gross margin unchanged. The Ministry of Economic Affairs concluded a power rate evaluation meeting on Friday, announcing electricity tariffs would go up by 11 percent on average to about NT$3.4518 per kilowatt-hour (kWh)
OPENING ADDRESS: The CEO is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing and artificial intelligence at the trade show’s opening on June 3, TAITRA said Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) chairperson and chief executive officer Lisa Su (蘇姿丰) is to deliver the opening keynote speech at Computex Taipei this year, the event’s organizer said in a statement yesterday. Su is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing (HPC) in the artificial intelligence (AI) era to open Computex, one of the world’s largest computer and technology trade events, at 9:30am on June 3, the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) said. Su is to explore how AMD and the company’s strategic technology partners are pushing the limits of AI and HPC, from data centers to