AUTOMOBILES
Nissan recalls vehicles
Nissan said yesterday it is recalling 2.14 million vehicles in the US, Japan, Europe and Asia, including the popular March and Mycra subcompacts, for an ignition problem that may stall the engine. No accidents have been reported that are suspected of being related to the defect, according to Yokohama-based Nissan Motor Co. A problem was found in an ignition-system part called the relay for vehicles produced from 2003 through 2006, including small cars like the March, Cube and Note, and about a dozen other models, such as the -Tiida sedan, Titan pickup and Infiniti QX56 luxury model.
SOUTH KOREA
Exports help double surplus
The nation’s current account surplus almost doubled last month compared to August on robust exports of ships and other key products, the central bank said yesterday. The surplus was US$4.06 billion last month compared to a revised US$2.19 billion the previous month. The figure was widely expected to bolster the won, which has risen steadily against the dollar this year despite repeated government intervention on the currency markets. In the January--September period, the surplus totaled US$23.73 billion, surpassing the central bank’s full-year target.
CHEMICALS
Bayer misses forecasts
German chemical company Bayer, maker of aspirin, said yesterday that its third--quarter net profit gained 12.4 percent to 280 million euros (US$386 million), well below analyst expectations. Bayer said it had taken 436 million euros in provisions for US court cases, including 386 million euros to settle legal action involving its Crop Science division in connection with genetically modified rice. Meanwhile, Bayer’s sales gained 16.1 percent to 8.58 billion euros in the three-month period, while core earnings before special items gained 10.5 percent to 1.66 billion euros.
CHEMICALS
Profits quintuple at BASF
German chemical group BASF said yesterday that strong demand worldwide pushed its third quarter net profit five times higher than in the same period a year earlier to 1.25 billion euros. The results confirmed a preliminary release last week, when BASF said sales had jumped by 23 percent to 15.8 billion euros amid a rebound in global economic activity. Sales in almost all of the group’s sectors increased in the third quarter, with the exception of agricultural solutions, it said.
ELECTRONICS
LG Q3 profit plunges 99%
LG Electronics said yesterday third-quarter net profit plunged 99 percent year-on-year, because of growing losses in its handset business and weak US and European demand for consumer electronics. The South Korean company, the world’s third-largest handset maker after Nokia and Samsung Electronics, posted a net profit of 7.57 billion won (US$6.7 million) in the July-to-September period, from 911.3 billion won a year earlier. It incurred an operating loss of 185.18 billion won compared to an 851 billion won profit a year earlier.
ELECTRONICS
NEC back in black
Japanese electronics maker NEC Corp said yesterday it returned to the black in the latest quarter after cutting costs and slashing its stake in a money-losing chip business. Net profit for the July-to-September quarter was ￥16.1 billion (US$200 million), reversing from a net loss of ￥9.8 billion a year earlier.
AI SPLURGE: The four major US tech companies have lost more than US$950 billion in value since releasing earnings and outlooks, while equipment makers were gaining Four of the biggest US technology companies together have forecast capital expenditures that would reach about US$650 billion this year — a flood of cash earmarked for new data centers and all the gear within them. The spending planned by Alphabet Inc, Amazon.com Inc, Meta Platforms Inc and Microsoft Corp, all in pursuit of dominance in the still-nascent market for artificial intelligence (AI) tools, is a boom without a parallel this century. Each of the companies’ estimates for this year is expected either near or surpass their budgets for the past three years combined. They would set a high-watermark for capital spending
China’s top chipmaker has warned that breakaway spending on artificial intelligence (AI) chips is bringing forward years of future demand, raising the risk that some data centers could sit idle. “Companies would love to build 10 years’ worth of data center capacity within one or two years,” Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯) cochief executive officer Zhao Haijun (趙海軍) said yesterday on a call with analysts. “As for what exactly these data centers will do, that hasn’t been fully thought through.” Moody’s Ratings projects that AI-related infrastructure investment would exceed US$3 trillion over the next five years, as developers pour eye-watering sums
Bank of America Corp nearly doubled its forecast for the nation’s economic growth this year, adding to a slew of upgrades even after a rip-roaring last year propelled by demand for artificial intelligence (AI). The firm lifted its projection to 8 percent from 4.5 percent on “relentless global demand” for the hardware that Taiwanese companies make, according to a note dated yesterday by analysts including Xiaoqing Pi (皮曉青). Taiwan’s GDP expanded 8.63 percent last year, the fastest pace since 2010. The increase “reflects our sustained optimism over Taiwan’s technology driven expansion and is reinforced by several recent developments,” including a more stable currency,
COLLABORATION: Taiwan and the US could jointly find solutions to weaknesses in supply chain resilience for critical materials, focusing on mining and initial refinement Taiwan is likely to purchase rare earths from the US in the future, and is also in talks with Australia and Canada to strengthen global rare earth supply chain security, Minister of Economic Affairs Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) said yesterday. Taiwan and the US last month concluded the sixth Economic Prosperity Partnership Dialogue, during which both sides signed a joint statement endorsing the principles of the Pax Silica Declaration, pledging to deepen cooperation in areas including critical minerals. At the time, Kung said the two sides would establish working groups to advance cooperation in areas including artificial intelligence, digital infrastructure, critical materials and
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