■JAPAN
Exports rise again
Exports rose for the seventh straight month last month, driven by machinery and steel products, indicating that overseas demand continues to underpin recovery in the world’s No. 2 economy even amid a stronger yen. Exports climbed 27.7 percent from a year earlier to ¥5.87 trillion (US$67.2 billion), the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. With demand lackluster at home, the country has depended on Asia, and China in particular, to fuel its recovery. The sustained growth in shipments comes despite a rising yen, which can make exports of cars, electronic gadgets and other goods less competitive in overseas markets. Exports to China, its biggest trading partner, rose 22 percent last month, while those to the US were up 21.1 percent. Shipments to the EU expanded 9 percent.
■ REAL ESTATE
English, Welsh prices fall
House prices in England and Wales fell for the first time in 15 months this month, causing the annual rate to weaken for the first time in over a year, property data company Hometrack said yesterday. It said talk of public spending cuts had taken its toll on confidence, leading to 1.3 percent fewer new buyers registering with estate agents. The number of houses being put up for sale continued to rise, however. Hometrack research director Richard Donnell said the monthly drop marked a turning point for the housing market and warned more falls were likely.
■TELEVISION
Pace to buy 2Wire
Pace, the world’s largest set-top box maker, has agreed to buy US broadband technology firm 2Wire for US$475 million to broaden its customer base beyond cable and satellite into the Internet TV market. Analysts at JPMorgan Cazenove said they saw the deal adding 12 percent to forecast earnings next year and 18 percent in 2012. The company’s first-half results, which beat Cazenove’s forecasts, alone justified a re-rating of the shares, they added.
■TELECOMS
BlackBerry exceeds law: UAE
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) says BlackBerry smartphones operate outside of existing national security legislation, raising questions about the devices’ legality in the Middle Eastern business hub. The country’s Telecommunications Regulatory Authority said in a statement carried on Sunday on state news agency WAM that BlackBerry applications allow people to “misuse the service.” It says this can cause “serious social, judicial and national security repercussions.” BlackBerry devices have been subjected to scrutiny before. A UAE state phone company last year told customers to install software that could let outsiders view users’ private information.
■AUTOMAKERS
Maruti Suzuki shares plunge
Shares in India’s biggest carmaker Maruti Suzuki plunged more than 10 percent yesterday after it reported a surprise 20 percent fall in quarterly net profit over the weekend. The shares of the New Delhi-based company, which is majority-owned by Japan’s Suzuki Motor Corp, were down by nearly 11 percent, or 147.75 rupees (US$3.14), at Rs1210.50 on the Mumbai stock exchange in late morning trade. Maruti reported that its net profit during the fiscal first quarter had slid to Rs4.65 billion from Rs5.84 billion a year earlier, despite a 27 percent leap in sales. The fall was a shock for financial analysts who had forecast Maruti would report a profit of about Rs7 billion for the three months to June 30.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) on Wednesday said that a new chip manufacturing technology called “A16” is to enter production in the second half of 2026, setting up a showdown with longtime rival Intel over who can make the fastest chips. TSMC, the world’s biggest contract manufacturer of advanced computing chips and a key supplier to Nvidia and Apple, announced the news at a conference in Santa Clara, California, where TSMC executives said that makers of artificial intelligence (AI) chips will likely be the first adopters of the technology rather than a smartphone maker. Analysts said that the technologies announced on
NO RECIPROCITY: Taipei has called for cross-strait group travel to resume fully, but Beijing is only allowing people from its Fujian Province to travel to Matsu, the MAC said The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday criticized an announcement by the Chinese Ministry of Culture and Tourism that it would lift a travel ban to Taiwan only for residents of China’s Fujian Province, saying that the policy does not meet the principles of reciprocity and openness. Chinese Deputy Minister of Culture and Tourism Rao Quan (饒權) yesterday morning told a delegation of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers in a meeting in Beijing that the ministry would first allow Fujian residents to visit Lienchiang County (Matsu), adding that they would be able to travel to Taiwan proper directly once express ferry
CALL FOR DIALOGUE: The president-elect urged Beijing to engage with Taiwan’s ‘democratically elected and legitimate government’ to promote peace President-elect William Lai (賴清德) yesterday named the new heads of security and cross-strait affairs to take office after his inauguration on May 20, including National Security Council (NSC) Secretary-General Wellington Koo (顧立雄) to be the new defense minister and former Taichung mayor Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) as minister of foreign affairs. While Koo is to head the Ministry of National Defense and presidential aide Lin is to take over as minister of foreign affairs, Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) would be retained as the nation’s intelligence chief, continuing to serve as director-general of the National Security Bureau, Lai told a news conference in Taipei. Koo,
MANAGING DIFFERENCES: In a meeting days after the US president signed a massive foreign aid bill, Antony Blinken raised concerns with the Chinese president about Taiwan US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday met with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and senior Chinese officials, stressing the importance of “responsibly managing” the differences between the US and China as the two sides butt heads over a number of contentious bilateral, regional and global issues, including Taiwan and the South China Sea. Talks between the two sides have increased over the past few months, even as differences have grown. Blinken said he raised concerns with Xi about Taiwan and the South China Sea, along with China’s support for Russia and its invasion of Ukraine, as well as other issues