■ Food
Study on chickens unveiled
Tyson Foods Inc, the world's largest meat producer, says using gas in killing chickens does not seem to be more humane than electrocuting them. But the company is seeking further study before changing its practice. Tyson recently completed a two-year study on using "controlled atmosphere stunning" to knock chickens out before they are slaughtered. The company now uses "electrical stunning" when preparing to slaughter the birds. Tyson processes 43 million chickens a week. "While our research has concluded controlled atmosphere stunning may be an acceptable alternative, we have not currently found it to be more humane than conventional electrical stunning," Bill Lovette, senior group vice president of Poultry and Prepared Foods for Tyson Foods, said in a statement.
■ Music
Tower Records sold
Tower Records, the 46-year-old music retailer that sought bankruptcy protection in August, was sold to a group led by liquidator Great American Corp for US$134.3 million. Liquidation sales will begin this weekend at Tower's 89 stores in 20 states and all of them will probably close by the end of the year, Tom Pabst, chief administrative officer for Los Angeles-based Great American, said on Friday. Tower's 3,000 employees will lose their jobs, he said. Tower's parent, closely held MTS Inc, sought protection in August after competition from online retailers, Internet downloads and discounters caused same-store sales to slump 9 percent in a year.
■ Oil
Caracas to aid Vietnam
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said his country planned to help build an oil refinery in Vietnam and could use funds earned in his government's recent sale of its share in a Texas refinery. Chavez announced the plan on Friday night in a speech as Venezuela signed 13 accords with visiting officials from Vietnam to cooperate in areas from mining to electrical projects. He said Venezuela could use the proceeds from the August sale of its minority share in the Lyondell-Citgo refinery in Texas. The deal was valued at some US$2.1 billion.
■ Finance
Thai banker enters Cabinet
Bank of Thailand Governor Pridiyathorn Devakula said he would take two positions in the nation's new interim Cabinet and be responsible for the government's economic policies. Pridiyathorn yesterday told reporters he would head the economic team, without specifying whether he will run finance, commerce or other ministries. Thailand's economy will grow faster next year than this year as political stability, higher government spending and lower oil prices boost confidence, Pridiyathorn said on Oct. 3.
■ Investment
Indian FDI nearly doubles
India's booming economy drew a record US$2.9 billion in foreign direct investment (FDI) in the first four months of the fiscal year, nearly double last year's amount, a report said yesterday. "FDI inflows in April-July 2006-2007 increased by 92 percent to US$2.9 billion from US$1.5 billion in the same period of the last fiscal year," Commerce Minister Kamal Nath said, according to the Press Trust of India. "India is set to receive US$12 billion this year as against US$8.3 billion in 2005-2006," Nath said in New Delhi. India's economy expanded by 8.9 percent in the first quarter to June after growing by 8.4 percent in the financial year ended March 31.
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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