SEMICONDUCTORS
ASML profit beats forecast
Semiconductor equipment maker ASML Holding NV yesterday reported higher-than-expected quarterly profit of 627 million euros (US$691.64 million) and bookings, driven by solid demand for 5G telecom network and artificial intelligence applications. Analysts polled by Refinitiv had forecast that third-quarter net income of ASML, one of the world’s largest equipment suppliers to computer chipmakers, to come in at 609 million euros. The company posted sales of 3 billion euros and forecast that its fourth-quarter sales would come in at 3.8 billion euros.
PHARMACEUTICALS
Roche remains upbeat
Roche Holding AG for the third time this year said sales and profit might be better than expected as its push outside cancer pays off. Sales and core earnings per share would rise by a percentage in the high-single digits this year, the Basel, Switzerland-based drugmaker said in a statement. It previously expected growth in the mid to high-single-digits. The planned acquisition of Spark Therapeutics Inc is still expected to close by the end of this year, it said.
AUTOMAKERS
European vehicle sales jump
European vehicle sales rose sharply last month, but the jump had more to do with the year-ago comparison than any respite from longer-term woes in the industry. Registrations increased by 14 percent to 1.29 million vehicles, the European Automobile Manufacturers Association said yesterday. Sales suffered in the year-ago period after new emissions test rules took effect. Demand for vehicles on the continent has declined 1.6 percent this year through last month to 12.1 million vehicles.
BRAZIL
Country eyes private capital
Central bank Governor Roberto Campos Neto has told the Financial Times that the country wants to “democratize” the financial sector and usher in more private capital. “We need to reinvent ourselves with private money,” he said in an interview published yesterday, adding that public spending was not a solution to the difficulties faced by the country. Commenting on global growth, he said it was not going favorably and that people were showing signs of risk aversion.
TURKEY
Short-selling discouraged
Regulators have advised some local lenders against offering lira liquidity in the offshore money market, according to three people with knowledge of the matter, in an apparent attempt to stand in the way of short-selling of the currency. The advice came from the banking watchdog BDDK, but was not an official directive, the people said. Earlier, the stock exchange “temporarily prohibited” short-selling in seven banks, including Turkiye Halk Bankasi AS, against which the US brought a criminal case for fraud and money laundering.
GERMANY
Berlin to follow budget rules
The government intends to stick to its balanced budget rules for now and boost spending without incurring new debt, Minister of Finance Olaf Scholz told reporters on Tuesday, adding that it would use all fiscal options in a severe economic crisis. The government would lower its forecast for economic growth next year to 1 percent from an earlier estimate of 1.5 percent, a source familiar with the projection said on Tuesday. The government expects this year’s GDP to grow 0.5 percent.
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],”