■ Airlines
Japan Air reverses loss
Japan's biggest air carrier, the Japan Airlines Corp, said it earned ¥82.96 billion (US$79 million) in the first half of the year, reversing a loss from a year earlier as an increase in international travelers more than offset a rise in fuel prices. The profit compared with a loss of ¥57.59 (US$545 million) last year. Revenue in the period, which ended June 30, rose 14 percent to ¥1.08 trillion as the number of travelers increased following a slump related to the SARS outbreak last year. Rising exports of high-tech goods from Japan increased the airline's freight revenue. However, Japan Airlines warned that profit for the full year would fall short of its previous forecast because it expected fuel prices to remain high. The airline now forecasts net profit of ¥23 billion for the year ending next March, down from its earlier forecast of ¥36 billion, but up from a loss last year of ¥88.6 billion.
■ Fast food
McDonald's triples profits
The Japanese operation of McDonald's said its profit tripled for the first nine months of the year after it remodeled hundreds of stores and closed dozens of unprofitable outlets. McDonald's Holdings Japan, which is half-owned by the McDonald's Corp, reported net profit rose to ¥2.05 billion (US$19.2 million) for the nine months ended Sept. 30 from ¥672 million a year earlier. Revenue rose 3.2 percent to ¥230 billion, while same-store sales rose 4.5 percent for the period, the company said. New menu items such as the Chicken Filet-O and Hello Kitty happy meals helped drive the growth in sales.
■ Marketing
Golfer sues shipbuilder
A judge ordered a shipbuilder in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to stop using Tiger Woods' name and a photograph of his yacht for financial gain. The golfer's lawyers sued in federal court Oct. 29, contending his contract barred the boat manufacturer from using Woods to promote the company, but it did so anyway. US District Judge William Zloch said Christensen Shipyards agreed to a preliminary injunction stopping it from disclosing information about the 46.5m yacht and using or displaying Woods' name and likeness for any purpose. Lawyers for both parties didn't immediately return a call on Friday. A hearing is set for Monday. Woods' lawsuit accuses the Vancouver, Washington, shipyard of starting a "widespread national campaign" using his name and photos of the yacht. The lawsuit claims more than US$75,000 damages for Woods, citing privacy violation. Compen-satory damages could reach US$50 million because of Woods' celebrity, the lawsuit claims. Woods married Swedish model Elin Nordegren on Oct. 5 at a Barbados resort, and they later set out on the yacht Privacy with a crew.
■ Software
Microsoft widens warnings
Criticized for a program that only provided some of its largest customers with warnings on security problems in its products, Microsoft Corp now says it will give all computer users early word on such issues. Beginning this month, the Redmond software giant will make public in advance how many security fixes it plans to release in its regular monthly bulletin, how severe the problems are and what products are affected. Microsoft typically releases security patches on the second Tuesday of each month, with the early warnings posted on its security Web site the previous Thursday.
HORMUZ ISSUE: The US president said he expected crude prices to drop at the end of the war, which he called a ‘minor excursion’ that could continue ‘for a little while’ The United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Kuwait started reducing oil production, as the near-closure of the crucial Strait of Hormuz ripples through energy markets and affects global supply. Abu Dhabi National Oil Co (ADNOC) is “managing offshore production levels to address storage requirements,” the company said in a statement, without giving details. Kuwait Petroleum Corp said it was lowering production at its oil fields and refineries after “Iranian threats against safe passage of ships through the Strait of Hormuz.” The war in the Middle East has all but closed Hormuz, the narrow waterway linking the Persian Gulf to the open seas,
Apple Inc increased iPhone production in India by about 53 percent last year and now makes a quarter of its marquee devices there, reflecting the US company’s efforts to avoid tariffs on China. The company assembled about 55 million iPhones in India last year, up from 36 million a year earlier, people familiar with the matter said, asking not to be named because the numbers aren’t public. Apple makes about 220 million to 230 million iPhones a year globally, with India’s share of the total increasing rapidly. Apple has accelerated its expansion in the world’s most populous country in recent years, bolstered
HEADWINDS: The company said it expects its computer business, as well as consumer electronics and communications segments to see revenue declines due to seasonality Pegatron Corp (和碩) yesterday said it aims to grow its artificial intelligence (AI) server revenue more than 10-fold this year from last year, driven by orders from neocloud solutions clients and large cloud service providers. The electronics manufacturing service provider said AI server revenue growth would be driven primarily by the Nvidia Corp GB300 server platform. Server shipments are expected to increase each quarter this year, with the second half likely to outperform the first half, it said. The AI server market is expected to broaden this year as more inference applications emerge, which would drive demand for system-on-chip, application-specific integrated circuits
PROJECTION: TSMC said it expects strong growth this year, with revenue in US dollars projected to grow by about 30 percent, outperforming the industry Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday reported consolidated sales last month reached NT$317.66 billion (US$9.98 billion), the highest ever for the month of February, driven by robust demand for chips built using the company’s advanced 3-nanometer (3nm) process. Last month’s figure was up 22.2 percent from a year earlier, but fell 20.8 percent from January, the world’s largest contract chipmaker said in a statement. For the first two months of the year, TSMC posted cumulative sales of NT$718.91 billion, up 29.9 percent from a year earlier. Analysts attributed the growth to sustained global demand for artificial intelligence (AI) products
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