■CHINA
Agency raises growth figure
China yesterday revised upward its economic growth for last year to 9.6 percent after a nationwide census, but said the change had little impact on this year’s growth rate. That raised China’s GDP to 31.4 trillion yuan (US$4.6 trillion), compared with an earlier estimation of 30.1 trillion yuan, the national statistics agency said. The original data reported 9 percent economic growth year-on-year for last year. The revised data will be used for this year’s estimation of economic growth as a comparison base, but will have little impact on this year’s number, the statistics agency said.
■ECONOMY
More signs of recovery
New orders for long-lasting US manufactured goods excluding transportation items surged last month and new US applications for unemployment aid hit the lowest level in 15 months last week, pointing to a firmly entrenched economic recovery. The US Commerce Department said on Thursday that durable goods orders excluding transportation rose 2 percent last month, more than reversing October’s 0.7 percent drop and beating market expectations for a 1 percent rise. A separate report from the Labor Department showed initial claims for state unemployment benefits fell 28,000 to 452,000 last week. That was the lowest since September last year.
■OIL
Nippon to close units
Nippon Oil Corp and Nippon Mining Holdings Inc, set to merge in April, will shut three oil refining units and cut capacity at another plant by March 2011 as fuel demand shrinks in the world’s second-biggest economy. Nippon Oil will close three crude distillation units in Japan with a combined capacity of 204,000 barrels a day, the company said in a statement released in Tokyo. Nippon Mining will also reduce capacity at a plant in Kashima, near Tokyo. The two companies aim to shed 600,000 barrels a day, or about one-third of capacity, by March 2015 and save ¥100 billion (US$1.1 billion) a year.
■FINANCE
Daiwa to buy SMBC stake
Daiwa Securities Group Inc will pay ¥173.9 billion to Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc to buy out its stake in their investment banking venture, Daiwa Securities SMBC Co. Sumitomo Mitsui, which holds a 40 percent stake in the venture, will retain a 40 percent stake in Daiwa Securities SMBC’s private equity unit.
■INVESTMENT
Goldman seeks clearance
Goldman Sachs Group Inc is seeking regulatory clearance to create exchange-traded funds, a fast-growing segment of the money-management business. The company filed an application today with the US Securities and Exchange Commission to establish ETFs that track market indexes. The initial fund will seek to replicate an index based on the Brazilian, Chinese, Indian and South Korean stock markets, the New York-based company’s application said.
■TELECOMS
Lauer leaves Qualcomm
Qualcomm Inc said Len Lauer quit as chief operating officer of the world’s biggest maker of mobile-phone chips and accepted a chief executive officer’s role at another company. Lauer’s new employer is expected to be announced early next year, Qualcomm said in a filing on Thursday. Lauer, 52, joined Qualcomm in 2006 after spending eight years at Sprint Nextel Corp, most recently as chief operating officer.
LEVERAGE: China did not ‘need to fire a shot’ to deny Taiwan airspace over Africa when it owns ‘half the continent’s debt,’ a US official said, calling it economic warfare The EU has raised concerns about overflight rights following the delay of President William Lai’s (賴清德) planned state visit to the Kingdom of Eswatini after three African nations denied overflight clearance for his charter at the last minute. Taiwanese allies Paraguay and Saint Kitts and Nevis, as well as several US lawmakers and the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) condemned China for allegedly pressuring the countries. Lai was scheduled to fly directly to Taiwan’s only African ally from yesterday to Sunday to celebrate the 40th anniversary of King Mswati III’s accession and his 58th birthday, but Seychelles, Mauritius and Madagascar suddenly revoked
The final batch of 28 M1A2T Abrams tanks purchased from the US arrived at Taipei Port last night and were transported to the Armor Training Command in Hsinchu County’s Hukou Township (湖口), completing the military’s multi-year procurement of 108 of the tanks. Starting at 12:10am today, reporters observed more than a dozen civilian flatbed trailers departing from Taipei Port, each carrying an M1A2T tank covered with black waterproof tarps. Escorted by military vehicles, the convoy traveled via the West Coast Expressway to the Armor Training Command, with police implementing traffic control. The army operates about 1,000 tanks, including CM-11 Brave Tiger
China on Wednesday teased in a video an aircraft carrier that could be its fourth, and the first using nuclear power, while making an allusion to Taiwan and vowing to further build up its islands, as it looks to boost maritime power, secure resources and bolster territorial claims. The video, issued on the eve of the 77th founding anniversary of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy, featured fictional officers with names that are homophones of three commissioned aircraft carriers, the Liaoning (遼寧), Shandong (山東) and Fujian (福建). Titled Into the Deep, it showed a 19-year-old named “Hejian” (何劍) joining the group, sparking
BIG YEAR: The company said it would also release its A12 chip the same year to keep a ‘reliable stream of new silicon technologies’ flowing to its customers Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said its newest A13 chip is to enter volume production in 2029 as the chipmaker seeks to hold onto its tech leadership and demand for next-generation chips used in artificial intelligence (AI), high-performance-computing (HPC) and mobile applications. TSMC, the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, also unveiled its A12 chip at its annual technology symposium in Santa Clara, California. The A12 chip, which features TSMC’s super-power-rail technology to provide backside power delivery for AI and HPC applications, is also to enter volume production in 2029, a year after the scheduled release of the A14 chip. The technology moves
RSS