AVIATION
Boeing 787 delayed
US aerospace giant Boeing Co has warned some customers its new 787 Dreamliner will face delays of up to 10 months, Aviation Week reported on Friday, citing industry sources. According to people familiar with the situation, Korean Air is the airline hardest hit so far, the industry magazine said on its Web site. Korean will get its first 787 in August 2012, 10 months later than previously planned. Air India now is believed to be scheduled to receive its first 787 in September or October next year instead of April, while Japan Airlines will take delivery of its first 787 in June next year at the earliest, Aviation Week said.
COMPUTERS
Dell mulls going private
US computer giant Dell Inc has not ruled out going private as it weighs its options for the future, chief financial officer Brian Gladden said in an interview published on Friday “We spend a whole lot of time thinking about this,” Gladden told CNNMoney.com. “There are many options for us, and we have lots of cash on hand,” he said. “We talk about everything from keeping everything the same, to doing a bigger and broader buyback, while still keeping the company public, all the way to doing a leveraged buyout and taking the company private with [chief executive Michael Dell] as the primary shareholder.” The company will discuss the issue next month in a board meeting, Gladden said.
PUBLISHING
Magazine drops subscribers
US News & World Report magazine plans to stop sending its monthly print edition to subscribers next year and go mostly online. In a memo sent to staff on Friday, Brian Kelly, the magazine’s editor, said next month’s issue will be the last monthly issue sent to subscribers. Monthly print versions will continue to be available at newsstands and it will continue to publish occasional guides on colleges, history, personal finance and other topics. Its content will continue to be available at USNews.com, which has 9 million visitors a month. Kelly told the New York Times that the move won’t result in more layoffs.
FINANCING
Fannie Mae’s losses narrow
US government-controlled mortgage buyer Fannie Mae is asking for US$2.5 billion in additional US federal aid after posting a narrower loss in the third quarter. Fannie Mae said on Friday it lost US$3.46 billion, or US$0.61 cents a share, in the July-to-September quarter. That takes into account US$2.1 billion in dividend payments to the US Treasury Department. It compares with a loss of US$19.8 billion, or US$3.47 a share, in the third quarter of last year. The US federal government rescued Washington-based Fannie Mae and sibling company Freddie Mac about two years ago and it estimates that will cost US taxpayers up to US$259 billion.
INSURANCE
AIG shows Q3 loss
American International Group Inc (AIG) is reporting a US$2.4 billion loss, or US$17.62 per share, for the third quarter, dragged down by hefty charges tied to selling off some assets. That were compared with earnings of US$92 million, or US$0.68 cents per share, a year ago. Restructuring-related charges amounted to US$4.5 billion. The sale of AIG’s 80 percent stake in consumer credit business American General Finance Inc weighed heavily on the quarter. Revenue for the three months ended Sept. 30 dipped 3 percent to US$19.09 billion from US$19.6 billion, the New York-based company said on Friday.
SEMICONDUCTORS: The German laser and plasma generator company will expand its local services as its specialized offerings support Taiwan’s semiconductor industries Trumpf SE + Co KG, a global leader in supplying laser technology and plasma generators used in chip production, is expanding its investments in Taiwan in an effort to deeply integrate into the global semiconductor supply chain in the pursuit of growth. The company, headquartered in Ditzingen, Germany, has invested significantly in a newly inaugurated regional technical center for plasma generators in Taoyuan, its latest expansion in Taiwan after being engaged in various industries for more than 25 years. The center, the first of its kind Trumpf built outside Germany, aims to serve customers from Taiwan, Japan, Southeast Asia and South Korea,
Gasoline and diesel prices at domestic fuel stations are to fall NT$0.2 per liter this week, down for a second consecutive week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) announced yesterday. Effective today, gasoline prices at CPC and Formosa stations are to drop to NT$26.4, NT$27.9 and NT$29.9 per liter for 92, 95 and 98-octane unleaded gasoline respectively, the companies said in separate statements. The price of premium diesel is to fall to NT$24.8 per liter at CPC stations and NT$24.6 at Formosa pumps, they said. The price adjustments came even as international crude oil prices rose last week, as traders
SIZE MATTERS: TSMC started phasing out 8-inch wafer production last year, while Samsung is more aggressively retiring 8-inch capacity, TrendForce said Chipmakers are expected to raise prices of 8-inch wafers by up to 20 percent this year on concern over supply constraints as major contract chipmakers Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and Samsung Electronics Co gradually retire less advanced wafer capacity, TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said yesterday. It is the first significant across-the-board price hike since a global semiconductor correction in 2023, the Taipei-based market researcher said in a report. Global 8-inch wafer capacity slid 0.3 percent year-on-year last year, although 8-inch wafer prices still hovered at relatively stable levels throughout the year, TrendForce said. The downward trend is expected to continue this year,
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which supplies advanced chips to Nvidia Corp and Apple Inc, yesterday reported NT$1.046 trillion (US$33.1 billion) in revenue for last quarter, driven by constantly strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) chips, falling in the upper end of its forecast. Based on TSMC’s financial guidance, revenue would expand about 22 percent sequentially to the range from US$32.2 billion to US$33.4 billion during the final quarter of 2024, it told investors in October last year. Last year in total, revenue jumped 31.61 percent to NT$3.81 trillion, compared with NT$2.89 trillion generated in the year before, according to
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