■FINANCE
D&B responds to report
More than 90 percent of companies in Taiwan have low financial risk, an executive of the Taiwan branch of the world’s largest business information provider, Dun & Bradstreet Corp (D&B), said on Friday. The statement came one day after D&B International Ltd Taiwan was quoted by the Chinese-language Economic Daily News as saying that more than 20 publicly listed companies were in dire financial straits. Alexander Lo (羅立基), general manager of the Taiwan branch, said the US-based company had not provided any such data. Lo said the D&B Paydex report cited in the news story was simply one of the factors used to evaluate a company’s financial risk. A D&B statement also explained that 92 percent of the 94,926 Taiwanese companies in its database were at the lowest level of financial risk.
■ENERGY
Electricity bills down
More than 4.7 million households and public schools around the country benefited from pricing incentives to conserve energy, collectively saving NT$1.74 billion (US$54.17 million) on their electricity bills for July and last month, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said on Friday. The Bureau of Energy said in a statement that because of the incentives, families and schools had saved 1.17 billion kilowatts per hour in electricity compared with a year earlier. The savings represent a 740,000-tonne reduction in carbon dioxide emissions, based on the formula of 1.637kg of emissions per 1kWh of electricity, the statement said.
■CLOTHING
H&M opens shop in Japan
Swedish clothing giant Hennes and Mauritz (H&M) opened its first outlet in Japan yesterday, where competition in the casual fashion industry is fierce. More than 3,000 people, mostly women in their 20s and 30s, lined up at the company’s first store in Tokyo’s shopping district of Ginza ahead of a ribbon-cutting ceremony. Japan becomes the 30th country with H&M outlets. The company has 1,600 shops and 800 production bases worldwide. Rolf Eriksen, chief executive of the Stockholm-based company, recently told Japanese media that he plans to expand outlets across the country. It has already decided to open two more stores in the capital’s leading fashion districts of Harajuku and Shibuya.
■TELECOMS
PRC firms win contracts
Chinese telecom firms Huawei (華為) and ZTE (中興通訊) have won contracts worth US$75 million to expand the mobile phone network in Libya, the state-run telecommunications office said on Friday. A total of US$58 million has been awarded to expand the existing network of the Libyana public mobile phone company from 1 million lines to 6.5 million lines, a statement said. ZTE and Huawei will also expand the mobile network along the Libyan coast.
■FOOD
Campbell recalls soup
Campbell Soup Asia Ltd has recalled 330,000 cans of soup in Hong Kong and Macau after fielding complaints that some cans emitted an “objectionable smell,” the company said on Friday. It is the first time Campbell has called back products in Asia, Campbell commercial director Heidi Nam said through a spokeswoman. The recall covered cans of condensed cream of mushroom soup and creamy chicken mushroom soup manufactured in Malaysia, Nam said. All cans were exclusively distributed in Hong Kong and Macau, she said.
US SANCTIONS: The Taiwan tech giant has ended all shipments to China-based Sophgo Technologies after one of their chips was discovered in a Huawei phone Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) suspended shipments to China-based chip designer Sophgo Technologies Ltd (算能科技) after a chip it made was found on a Huawei Technologies Co (華為) artificial intelligence (AI) processor, according to two people familiar with the matter. Sophgo had ordered chips from TSMC that matched the one found on Huawei’s Ascend 910B, the people said. Huawei is restricted from buying the technology to protect US national security. Reuters could not determine how the chip ended up on the Huawei product. Sophgo said in a statement on its Web site yesterday that it was in compliance with all laws
SPEED OF LIGHT: US lawmakers urged the commerce department to examine the national security threats from China’s development of silicon photonics technology US President Joe Biden’s administration on Monday said it is finalizing rules that would limit US investments in artificial intelligence (AI) and other technology sectors in China that could threaten US national security. The rules, which were proposed in June by the US Department of the Treasury, were directed by an executive order signed by Biden in August last year covering three key sectors: semiconductors and microelectronics, quantum information technologies and certain AI systems. The rules are to take effect on Jan. 2 next year and would be overseen by the Treasury’s newly created Office of Global Transactions. The Treasury said the “narrow
TECH TITANS: Nvidia briefly overtook Apple again on Friday after becoming the world’s largest company for a short period in June, as Microsoft fell to third place Nvidia Corp dethroned Apple Inc as the world’s most valuable company on Friday following a record-setting rally in the stock, powered by insatiable demand for its specialized artificial intelligence (AI) chips. Nvidia’s stock market value briefly touched US$3.53 trillion, slightly above Apple’s US$3.52 trillion, London Stock Exchange Group data showed. Nvidia ended the day up 0.8 percent, with a market value of US$3.47 trillion, while Apple’s shares rose 0.4 percent, valuing the iPhone maker at US$3.52 trillion. In June, Nvidia briefly became the world’s most valuable company before it was overtaken by Microsoft Corp and Apple. The tech trio’s market capitalizations have been
Two scoops of pistachio, one of corruption. For years holidaymakers have guzzled Sicilian gelato at famous parlors in Palermo, unaware that the booming businesses were controlled by organized crime. The fraud was a textbook case for detectives trained to sniff out dirty money, but even with three mobster classics — a suspicious bankruptcy, a front man and a scheming “Godfather” — it took years for investigators to shut the operation down. The Brioscia brand, made up of two ice cream parlors, was thriving at the end of the 2010s, attracting locals and foreign visitors alike with its glittering gold stars on travel