AVIATION
Court overturns Cathay ruling
A Hong Kong court yesterday overturned a ruling that ordered Cathay Pacific to pay 18 pilots about US$8 million for unfairly dismissing and defaming them. The city’s Court of Appeal cut the amount of defamation damages for each pilot to HK$700,000 (US$90,000), down from a lower court’s HK$3.3 million award last year. The appeals court’s ruling also overturned unfair dismissal claims for which the pilots were each awarded HK$150,000. “We welcome the court’s ruling that reduces the amount of damages payment to the pilots,” Cathay said in a statement. “We are reviewing the 78-page judgment with our legal counsel on other points of the ruling.” A spokesman for the former employees could not be reached.
SHIPBUILDING
Vinashin defaults on loan
Nearly-bankrupt Vietnamese shipbuilder Vinashin (Vietnam Shipbuilding Industry Group) has defaulted on a loan to international lenders and told them it will pay only interest, a report said yesterday. Citing a person familiar with the matter, the Wall Street Journal said Vinashin did not meet a deadline earlier this week to pay the first US$60 million installment on a US$600 million loan arranged by Credit Suisse in 2007. However, the paper’s source called it “positive” that the company was willing to pay the interest. Vinashin has agreed to meet creditors in the middle of next month to discuss the repayment of the loan principal, the source said.
ELECTRONICS
JVC Kenwood to downsize
JVC Kenwood Holdings Inc, a Japanese maker of audio equipment, video cameras and televisions, plans to eliminate 500 jobs at its Victor Japan unit by March 31 amid falling sales. The cuts are needed because the strong yen and competition with Asian manufacturers have reduced revenue, JVC said yesterday in a statement to the Tokyo Stock Exchange after the market closed. The company, which had about 18,000 employees as of June, said in October it planned to cut 150 jobs at its Victor Japan unit, seeking early retirement volunteers among executives aged 50 or older.
AVIATION
Dreamliner to resume tests
Boeing was to resume flight tests of its 787 jet on Thursday, six weeks after tests were suspended because of an in-flight electrical fire in the plane’s power distribution system. The company says it installed an updated, interim version of software that controls the system in the first of six flight test airplanes that will return to the skies. Boeing had hoped to deliver its first 787, which it calls the Dreamliner, to Japan’s All Nippon Airways in February until flight tests were halted. That is nearly three years after Boeing had planned to deliver its first plane. A fire broke out on a Nov. 9 flight to Laredo, Texas, causing smoke to enter the cabin and forcing an emergency landing.
OIL
Crude to hit US$100: official
Oil prices will climb to US$100 a barrel, said Shokri Ghanem, chairman of Libya’s National Oil Corp, as Arab oil ministers and officials gathered in Cairo for a weekend meeting. Ghanem told reporters that market conditions would determine whether OPEC decides to increase production quotas next year, without specifying a timeframe. Libya’s top oil official is in the Egyptian capital to attend a meeting of the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries today.
Japanese technology giant Softbank Group Corp said Tuesday it has sold its stake in Nvidia Corp, raising US$5.8 billion to pour into other investments. It also reported its profit nearly tripled in the first half of this fiscal year from a year earlier. Tokyo-based Softbank said it sold the stake in Silicon Vally-based Nvidia last month, a move that reflects its shift in focus to OpenAI, owner of the artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot ChatGPT. Softbank reported its profit in the April-to-September period soared to about 2.5 trillion yen (about US$13 billion). Its sales for the six month period rose 7.7 percent year-on-year
CRESTING WAVE: Companies are still buying in, but the shivers in the market could be the first signs that the AI wave has peaked and the collapse is upon the world Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday reported a new monthly record of NT$367.47 billion (US$11.85 billion) in consolidated sales for last month thanks to global demand for artificial intelligence (AI) applications. Last month’s figure represented 16.9 percent annual growth, the slowest pace since February last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 11 percent. Cumulative sales in the first 10 months of the year grew 33.8 percent year-on-year to NT$3.13 trillion, a record for the same period in the company’s history. However, the slowing growth in monthly sales last month highlights uncertainty over the sustainability of the AI boom even as
JITTERS: Nexperia has a 20 percent market share for chips powering simpler features such as window controls, and changing supply chains could take years European carmakers are looking into ways to scratch components made with parts from China, spooked by deepening geopolitical spats playing out through chipmaker Nexperia BV and Beijing’s export controls on rare earths. To protect operations from trade ructions, several automakers are pushing major suppliers to find permanent alternatives to Chinese semiconductors, people familiar with the matter said. The industry is considering broader changes to its supply chain to adapt to shifting geopolitics, Europe’s main suppliers lobby CLEPA head Matthias Zink said. “We had some indications already — questions like: ‘How can you supply me without this dependency on China?’” Zink, who also
Tax revenue from securities transactions last month increased 41.9 percent from a year earlier to NT$30.3 billion (US$975.8 million), rising on an annual basis for the third consecutive month and marking the highest for the month of October as Taiwanese stocks continued to perform strongly, data released by the Ministry of Finance showed yesterday. Last month, the TAIEX surged 2,412.81 points, or 9.34 percent, marking its largest-ever monthly rise for October as market sentiment was buoyed by a nearly 15 percent gain in contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which accounts for more than 40 percent of the
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