GERMANY
Industrial output falls
Industrial output unexpectedly dropped in October, reviving worries about the nation’s economic growth outlook as its manufacturing backbone is hurt by global trade conflicts and disruption in the auto sector. Industrial output dropped 1.7 percent on the month against expectations for a 0.1 percent rise, Statistics Office figures showed yesterday. Production of capital goods slumped by 4.4 percent on the month, the steepest decline in more than five years. Europe’s biggest economy is going through a soft patch as its export-oriented manufacturers struggle against a backdrop of trade friction, an ailing auto industry and uncertainties over Britain’s planned departure from the EU. “Now the trepidation starts again about GDP growth in the final quarter,” Landesbank Baden-Wuerttemberg economist Jens-Oliver Niklasch said.
PERU
US deal nears signing
Lima and Washington are in the final stages of talks on a deal to promote US investments in the South American nation as part of a US initiative to counter Chinese influence in the region, said Cecilia Galarreta, director of the ministry’s North American affairs department. “The [US President Donald] Trump administration is interested in balancing Chinese influence in the region a bit,” Galarreta said. The US launched its “Growth in the Americas” initiative last year to bolster private-sector investments in energy and infrastructure in Latin America after China invited countries in the region to join its global Belt and Road Initiative. So far, the US has signed memorandums of understanding (MOU) within the Growth in the Americas framework with Argentina, Chile, Jamaica and Panama. Chile, Jamaica, Panama and Peru have also signed MOUs with China to join its initiative.
UNITED STATES
GM, LG to build plant
General Motors (GM) and South Korea’s LG Chem have formed a joint venture to build an electric-vehicle battery cell factory near Lordstown, Ohio, east of Cleveland. The companies are to work together on battery technology to bring down the cost for future GM electric vehicles. The new plant is expected to create more than 1,100 jobs in the Youngstown, Ohio, area and the joint venture plans to invest US$2.3 billion in the plant and for battery development. GM said that it would be among the largest battery factories in the world. Ground is to be broken at the site sometime next year, but the exact location was not disclosed. The new plant comes after GM closed a sprawling small-car assembly plant in Lordstown this year.
AIRLINES
Jetstar pilots to strike
The pilots of Jetstar are to conduct a limited number of four-hour work stoppages on Saturday and Sunday next week following a failure to agree on a pay deal with the budget airline, the Australian Federation of Air Pilots said yesterday. The union, representing most pilots at the Qantas Airways Ltd subsidiary, voted in favor of industrial action, which it said would also include bans on working on days off and outside a published roster, as well as not agreeing to extend flying duties beyond the existing limits. Action will not be taken over the Christmas to New Year period to protect the holiday for the traveling public, the federation said. Jetstar Group chief executive officer Gareth Evans said that the airline had offered pilots a 3 percent wage increase in line with other employee groups, but they were seeking the equivalent of a 15 percent pay rise in the first year.
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
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],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day