AUTOMAKERS
Honda profit declines
Honda Motor Co recorded a 6.7 percent decline in profit last quarter as vehicle sales slipped and an unfavorable exchange rate hurt earnings at the Japanese automaker. Its fiscal second-quarter profit totaled ¥196.5 billion (US$1.8 billion), down from ¥210.7 billion the previous year. Quarterly sales declined 2.9 percent to ¥3.7 trillion as auto sales declined in the US, Japan, the rest of Asia and Europe. Higher income tax expenses also hurt results, Honda said. The Tokyo-based company lowered its full-year profit forecast through March next year to ¥575 billion from the ¥645 billion given in August and below the ¥610 billion earned the previous fiscal year.
TRADE
Juncker expects no tariffs
European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker yesterday said that he believes the US will not impose new tariffs on imported European vehicles in the next few days. In an interview with the Suddeutsche Zeitung, Juncker said he was “fully informed” on the issue and that US President Donald Trump “will not do it.” He told the German newspaper that “Trump will criticize a little, but there will not be tariffs on cars.” Trump is due to decide by the middle of this month whether to impose the supplemental tariffs on vehicles built in EU countries.
INVESTMENT
Apple eyes green bonds
Apple Inc is joining Europe’s market for green bonds with one of the largest-ever corporate issues of “environmentally friendly” debt in the region, a source said. The California-based iPhone maker was poised to sell 2 billion euros (US$2.2 billion) of six and 12-year bonds, said a person familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified because they were not authorized to speak about it. The company would use the proceeds to reduce its carbon footprint, along with greener materials in its products and resource conservation, the source said.
RETAILERS
Gap CEO to step down
Gap on Thursday announced that chief executive officer Art Peck is stepping down as the company struggles to turn around a long-standing sales slump. The San Francisco-based retailer also lowered its earnings outlook for the year as sales at Gap, Banana Republic and Old Navy fell in the most recent quarter. The company’s stock tumbled 7 percent to US$16.75 in after-hours trading following the announcement. The shares were trading at about US$41 when Peck took the CEO spot in early 2015. Effective immediately, Robert Fisher, Gap’s non-executive chairman of the board, would serve as president and CEO on an interim basis, the company said. Fisher is the son of Gap cofounders Donald and Doris Fisher.
REPUBLIC OF IRELAND
Cup tax announced
The nation is to impose a so-called latte levy on disposable coffee cups by 2021 in a bid to change habits and cut the environmental impact from the use of single-use plastics, Minister for Climate Action Richard Bruton said on Wednesday. The government hopes the proposed levy of up to 0.25 euros per cup would encourage coffee drinkers to instead carry reusable “Keep Cups” that already allow people to claim discounts at some coffee shops. “One of the things we clearly have to do is cut down on single-use disposables and the most obvious one of those is disposable cups,” Bruton told broadcaster RTE. Up to 200 million single-use coffee cups are thrown away every year by the nation’s 4.9 million people, a report found last year.
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