OIL
Shell to build FLNG plant
Royal Dutch Shell PLC said it has decided to construct a massive natural gas plant for use off the Australian coast. Shell did not say how much the “Prelude FLNG” (floating liquid natural gas) facility would cost to build, but claimed that it would be the world’s largest floating manmade object. It would be designed to take in the equivalent of 110,000 barrels a day in gas from undersea fields 200km off the coast and cool it into liquefied natural gas. Shell said the facility, to be built in a South Korean shipyard, will be longer than six football fields and made of 260,000 tonnes of steel. Shell said yesterday that Prelude would operate for 25 years, and be able to withstand the worst hurricanes.
CHINA
High savings a problem
Central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan (周小川) said yesterday that too many people were saving too much money, which could lead to asset bubbles, adding that Beijing needed to find a way to promote growth and curb inflation. The nation’s savings rate is one of the highest in the world, standing at about 50 percent of GDP last year — much higher than developed economies. Zhou also reiterated that Beijing would take a “gradual” approach to making the yuan fully convertible, as it continues to promote the international status of the currency.
JAPAN
Sales tax hike considered
The government is considering raising sales tax from 5 percent to 10 percent by 2015 to fund rising social security costs, the Yomiuri newspaper said yesterday, although the economics minister said he had held no discussions on such a proposal. Prime Minister Naoto Kan has made social security and tax reform key to his policy agenda and the government wants to include the tax hike proposal in a welfare and tax reform plan it aims to draft by next month, the Yomiuri reported without citing sources. The sales tax rate in Japan, saddled with public debt double the size of its US$5 trillion economy, is among the lowest in major economies. The extra revenue generated from the 5 percentage-point hike, likely to be about ￥12.5 trillion (US$153 billion) a year, would be used to fund welfare costs such as medical and nursing care for the elderly, the Yomiuri said.
Intel Corp chief executive officer Lip-Bu Tan (陳立武) is expected to meet with Taiwanese suppliers next month in conjunction with the opening of the Computex Taipei trade show, supply chain sources said on Monday. The visit, the first for Tan to Taiwan since assuming his new post last month, would be aimed at enhancing Intel’s ties with suppliers in Taiwan as he attempts to help turn around the struggling US chipmaker, the sources said. Tan is to hold a banquet to celebrate Intel’s 40-year presence in Taiwan before Computex opens on May 20 and invite dozens of Taiwanese suppliers to exchange views
Application-specific integrated circuit designer Faraday Technology Corp (智原) yesterday said that although revenue this quarter would decline 30 percent from last quarter, it retained its full-year forecast of revenue growth of 100 percent. The company attributed the quarterly drop to a slowdown in customers’ production of chips using Faraday’s advanced packaging technology. The company is still confident about its revenue growth this year, given its strong “design-win” — or the projects it won to help customers design their chips, Faraday president Steve Wang (王國雍) told an online earnings conference. “The design-win this year is better than we expected. We believe we will win
Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) chairman Barry Lam (林百里) is expected to share his views about the artificial intelligence (AI) industry’s prospects during his speech at the company’s 37th anniversary ceremony, as AI servers have become a new growth engine for the equipment manufacturing service provider. Lam’s speech is much anticipated, as Quanta has risen as one of the world’s major AI server suppliers. The company reported a 30 percent year-on-year growth in consolidated revenue to NT$1.41 trillion (US$43.35 billion) last year, thanks to fast-growing demand for servers, especially those with AI capabilities. The company told investors in November last year that
Power supply and electronic components maker Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) yesterday said it plans to ship its new 1 megawatt charging systems for electric trucks and buses in the first half of next year at the earliest. The new charging piles, which deliver up to 1 megawatt of charging power, are designed for heavy-duty electric vehicles, and support a maximum current of 1,500 amperes and output of 1,250 volts, Delta said in a news release. “If everything goes smoothly, we could begin shipping those new charging systems as early as in the first half of next year,” a company official said. The new
RSS