■RESOURCES
Sierra Leone, PRC ink deal
Sierra Leone’s mineral resources minister Alpha Kanu on Friday said a US$1.5 billion iron-ore agreement with a Chinese firm would create jobs and boost the economy in the resource-rich, but poor country. Speaking to reporters on a conference call from London, Kanu said the 25 percent investment by China’s Shandong Iron and Steel Group (山東鋼鐵集團) in the Tonkolili iron ore mine “would provide an added boost to impact the country’s weak economy.” Kanu said Shandong’s stake in London-listed African Minerals’ Sierra Leonean mine project would create some 2,000 jobs, increasing to about 5,000 in the next two years.
■TECHNOLOGY
Google purchases Metaweb
Search giant Google Inc says it has bought Metaweb Inc, a company that helps connect Internet search words to real-world things. Terms were not disclosed. Google director of product management, Jack Menzel, said in a blog post on Friday that the acquisition would help “improve search and make the Web richer and more meaningful.” In a video on its Web site, San Francisco-based Metaweb says search words themselves can be interpreted in too many ways to be useful. Instead, it has created an open database of more 12 million things, such as people, companies, movies and books, and how they relate to each other.
■RESOURCES
Honam acquires Titan Corp
Honam Petrochemical Corp will acquire Malaysia’s Titan Chemicals Corp in an all-cash deal valued at US$1.25 billion in South Korea’s biggest overseas acquisition this year. South Korea’s second-largest ethylene maker will buy all of Titan’s stock for 2.35 ringgit (US$0.73) a share, the Malaysian company said in a statement on Friday. That’s a 27 percent premium to Titan’s closing price of RM1.85 on Thursday. Honam will pay 1.5 trillion won (US$1.25 billion) for the purchase, the Seoul-based company said in an e-mailed statement.
■TRANSPORT
Narita-Tokyo line opens
A new high-speed railway line linking Narita International Airport with central Tokyo opened yesterday. The 64km line, Narita Sky Access, cuts the travel time between Nippori Station in Tokyo and the airport in Chiba, southeast of the capital, by 15 minutes to 36 minutes. Fashion designer Kansai Yamamoto designed the new “Skyliner” train for the service, which can run at 160km per hour.
■AUTOMOBILES
Daimler posts strong figures
German automotive giant Daimler posted strong quarterly figures on Friday on the back of soaring demand for its Mercedes cars and trucks, a weaker euro boosting exports and cost cutting measures. Daimler reported a second quarter operatng profit of 2.1 billion euros (US$2.7 billion), reversing a year-earlier loss of 1 billion euros and exceeding market expectations. The group said its sales in the three months to last month jumped to 25.1 billion euros from 19.6 billion euros a year earlier.
■BANKING
More US banks shut down
US regulators on Friday shut down three banks in Florida, two in South Carolina and one in Michigan, bringing to 96 the number of US banks to succumb this year to the recession and mounting loan defaults. With 96 closures nationwide so far this year, the pace of bank failures far outstrips that of last year, which was already a brisk year for shutdowns. By this time last year, regulators had closed 57 banks.
WEAKER ACTIVITY: The sharpest deterioration was seen in the electronics and optical components sector, with the production index falling 13.2 points to 44.5 Taiwan’s manufacturing sector last month contracted for a second consecutive month, with the purchasing managers’ index (PMI) slipping to 48, reflecting ongoing caution over trade uncertainties, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The decline reflects growing caution among companies amid uncertainty surrounding US tariffs, semiconductor duties and automotive import levies, and it is also likely linked to fading front-loading activity, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said. “Some clients have started shifting orders to Southeast Asian countries where tariff regimes are already clear,” Lien told a news conference. Firms across the supply chain are also lowering stock levels to mitigate
IN THE AIR: While most companies said they were committed to North American operations, some added that production and costs would depend on the outcome of a US trade probe Leading local contract electronics makers Wistron Corp (緯創), Quanta Computer Inc (廣達), Inventec Corp (英業達) and Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶) are to maintain their North American expansion plans, despite Washington’s 20 percent tariff on Taiwanese goods. Wistron said it has long maintained a presence in the US, while distributing production across Taiwan, North America, Southeast Asia and Europe. The company is in talks with customers to align capacity with their site preferences, a company official told the Taipei Times by telephone on Friday. The company is still in talks with clients over who would bear the tariff costs, with the outcome pending further
Six Taiwanese companies, including contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), made the 2025 Fortune Global 500 list of the world’s largest firms by revenue. In a report published by New York-based Fortune magazine on Tuesday, Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), ranked highest among Taiwanese firms, placing 28th with revenue of US$213.69 billion. Up 60 spots from last year, TSMC rose to No. 126 with US$90.16 billion in revenue, followed by Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) at 348th, Pegatron Corp (和碩) at 461st, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) at 494th and Wistron Corp (緯創) at
NEGOTIATIONS: Semiconductors play an outsized role in Taiwan’s industrial and economic development and are a major driver of the Taiwan-US trade imbalance With US President Donald Trump threatening to impose tariffs on semiconductors, Taiwan is expected to face a significant challenge, as information and communications technology (ICT) products account for more than 70 percent of its exports to the US, Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said on Friday. Compared with other countries, semiconductors play a disproportionately large role in Taiwan’s industrial and economic development, Lien said. As the sixth-largest contributor to the US trade deficit, Taiwan recorded a US$73.9 billion trade surplus with the US last year — up from US$47.8 billion in 2023 — driven by strong
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