AVIATION
ANA is back in black
All Nippon Airways Co (ANA) pivoted back into the black in the period between April and December last year, as robust travel demand and cost cuts bolstered the carrier’s bottom line. Japan’s No. 2 airline said yesterday it booked a net profit of ¥37.54 billion ($457.1 million), compared with a loss of ¥35.2 billion during the same nine months last year. Revenue rose more than 12 percent to ¥1.04 trillion. Operating profit came to ¥77.7 billion, a turnaround from a loss of ¥37.8 billion a year earlier. ANA credited a strong rebound in business travel for bolstering revenue on international routes.
STOCKS
UK, US seeking protection
Stock exchanges in Britain and the US have enlisted the help of the security services after finding out they were the victims of cyber attacks, the Times newspaper reported yesterday. The London Stock Exchange is investigating a terrorist cyber-attack on its headquarters last year, while US officials have traced an attack on one of its exchanges to Russia, according to the newspaper. Officials suspect the attacks were designed to spread panic among markets and destabilize Western financial institutions. A leading UK cyber security expert told the Times: “Make no mistake, the UK’s critical infrastructure is under attack. The threat is advanced and persistent.”
PHILIPPINES
Economy grew 7.3 percent
The economy has galloped to its highest annual growth in more than two decades, expanding 7.3 percent last year on strong foreign trade and election spending. Head of the government’s statistical board Romulo Virola said yesterday the rise surpassed official growth projections of 5 percent to 6 percent. The economy grew only 1.1 percent in 2009, hit by the global financial crisis. Virola said expansion in industry supported by growth in the services sector propelled the economy in the first half. Agriculture, which employs four in every 10 Filipinos, also recovered in the last three months after four consecutive quarters of decline due to a dry spell.
MANUFACTURING
S Korean output up 2.8%
South Korea’s industrial output grew faster than expected in December thanks to strong exports of computer chips and cars, official figures showed yesterday. Mining and manufacturing output rose 2.8 percent in December from a month earlier, Statistics Korea said, faster than the 1.6 percent increase forecast by economists polled by Dow Jones Newswires. In November, it rose month-on-month by a revised 1.5 percent. The December figure was up 9.8 percent from December 2009, compared with November’s revised 10.7 percent year-on-year increase. For the whole of last year, industrial production increased 16.7 percent. Figures released last week showed last year’s economic growth at an eight-year high of 6.1 percent, while the government expects growth of around 5 percent this year.
AVIATION
Ryanair on track to hit target
Europe’s biggest low-cost airline Ryanair reaffirmed its full-year profit target yesterday after rising passenger numbers and average fares helped offset disruption from strike action and bad weather. The Irish airline said it was on track to make a full-year net profit toward the upper end of its 380 million euro (US$517 million) to 400 million euro target range. Ryanair said it made a net loss of 10 million euros in the third quarter to the end of December, compared with an 11 million euro loss a year earlier.
Three experts in the high technology industry have said that US President Donald Trump’s pledge to impose higher tariffs on Taiwanese semiconductors is part of an effort to force Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) to the negotiating table. In a speech to Republicans on Jan. 27, Trump said he intends to impose tariffs on Taiwan to bring chip production to the US. “The incentive is going to be they’re not going to want to pay a 25, 50 or even a 100 percent tax,” he said. Darson Chiu (邱達生), an economics professor at Taichung-based Tunghai University and director-general of
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) is reportedly making another pass at Nissan Motor Co, as the Japanese automaker's tie-up with Honda Motor Co falls apart. Nissan shares rose as much as 6 percent after Taiwan’s Central News Agency reported that Hon Hai chairman Young Liu (劉揚偉) instructed former Nissan executive Jun Seki to connect with French carmaker Renault SA, which holds about 36 percent of Nissan’s stock. Hon Hai, the Taiwanese iPhone-maker also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), was exploring an investment or buyout of Nissan last year, but backed off in December after the Japanese carmaker penned a deal
WASHINGTON POLICY: Tariffs of 10 percent or more and other new costs are tipped to hit shipments of small parcels, cutting export growth by 1.3 percentage points The decision by US President Donald Trump to ban Chinese companies from using a US tariff loophole would hit tens of billions of dollars of trade and reduce China’s economic growth this year, according to new estimates by economists at Nomura Holdings Inc. According to Nomura’s estimates, last year companies such as Shein (希音) and PDD Holdings Inc’s (拼多多控股) Temu shipped US$46 billion of small parcels to the US to take advantage of the rule that allows items with a declared value under US$800 to enter the US tariff-free. Tariffs of 10 percent or more and other new costs would slash such
‘LEGACY CHIPS’: Chinese companies have dramatically increased mature chip production capacity, but the West’s drive for secure supply chains offers a lifeline for Taiwan When Powerchip Technology Corp (力晶科技) entered a deal with the eastern Chinese city of Hefei in 2015 to set up a new chip foundry, it hoped the move would help provide better access to the promising Chinese market. However, nine years later, that Chinese foundry, Nexchip Semiconductor Corp (合晶集成), has become one of its biggest rivals in the legacy chip space, leveraging steep discounts after Beijing’s localization call forced Powerchip to give up the once-lucrative business making integrated circuits for Chinese flat panels. Nexchip is among Chinese foundries quickly winning market share in the crucial US$56.3 billion industry of so-called legacy