CHINA
CPI rises 4.5% annually
Consumer inflation last month steadied, while factory price declines moderated, leaving room for monetary easing to cement a stabilization in economic growth. The consumer price index rose 4.5 percent last month from a year earlier, matching November’s rate and halting an acceleration fueled by surging pork prices. The producer price index declined 0.5 percent from a year earlier and from a 1.4 percent drop in November. While pork prices — a key element in the country’s CPI basket — rose 97 percent from a year earlier, that was actually slower than increases seen in October and November. They fell 5.6 percent last month from November.
UNITED KINGDOM
Final deal needs ‘more time’
A comprehensive agreement on the relationship between the kingdom and the EU would take longer to negotiate than the 11-month transition period that begins when it leaves the bloc at the end of this month, European Commission Chief Negotiator for Brexit Michel Barnier said yesterday. After the kingdom exits on Jan. 31, the sides would have until the end of the year to negotiate a new trade relationship — a short period given the complexity of the discussions. “We are ready to do our best and to do the maximum in the 11 months to secure a basic agreement with the UK, but we will need more time to agree on each and every point of this political declaration,” Barnier said in a speech in Stockholm.
CHINA
Vehicle sales continue to fall
Vehicle sales last month continued to fall, capping a second straight annual decline for the world’s biggest market, which is showing few signs of emerging from its historic slump. Sales of sedans, sport utility vehicles, minivans and multipurpose vehicles fell 3.6 percent last month from a year earlier to 2.17 million units, the China Passenger Car Association said yesterday. The drop was the 18th in the past 19 months, with the only gain coming in June last year, when dealers offered large discounts to clear inventory. The full-year decline was 7.5 percent. Automakers and dealerships are struggling as a slowing economy and tariff uncertainties caused by trade tensions keep consumers away from showrooms. General Motors Co on Tuesday said that sales in the nation last year plunged 15 percent and warned that pressure on its business would continue this year. Local manufacturers are also reeling, with BYD Co (比亞迪) posting a 11 percent drop in last year’s sales and SAIC Motor Corp (上海汽車) reporting an 11.5 percent decline.
RETAIL
Fast Retailing lowers outlook
Uniqlo owner Fast Retailing Co lowered its full-year profit outlook after Japan’s weather and a sales-tax hike delivered a double blow to its first-quarter results. Asia’s largest retailer said that earnings for the year through August would be ¥245 billion (US$2.24 billion), the company said in a statement yesterday. Fast Retailing in October last year predicted annual operating profit of ¥275 billion. The first quarter is typically a strong one, but Uniqlo’s domestic same-store sales fell for three straight months as consumer spending was dampened by a typhoon and an increase in the country’s sales tax in October. A warm November also deterred shoppers from buying the company’s popular cold-weather clothing. Fast Retailing reported operating profit of ¥91.7 billion for the quarter ended in November, missing analysts’ average estimate of ¥109.7 billion.
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
FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six