AUTOMAKERS
Toyota’s output increases
Toyota Motor yesterday said domestic production rose for the first time in 12 months last month as it recovers from the impact of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami disaster. Total domestic production of cars, trucks and buses produced by Toyota and its two affiliates, Daihatsu Motor and Hino Motors, rose 12 percent from a year earlier to 311,153 vehicles. Domestic output by Toyota alone rose 11.9 percent to 252,374, it said. However, the Toyota group’s domestic sales fell 18.4 percent to 148,085 last month with exports up 18.4 percent at 146,250.
BEVERAGES
Foster’s bid wins approval
Australia’s competition regulator approved brewing giant SABMiller’s US$10.1 billion bid for Australian brewer Foster’s yesterday, saying the London-based company’s proposed takeover would not reduce competition. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission said in a statement it would not oppose the deal because the merger was unlikely to seriously lessen competition for the supply of beer in Australia. The deal is still subject to shareholder approval.
ECONOMY
US consumers remain wary
Americans worried about their incomes as they struggled to find work this month, holding consumer confidence near 2-and-a-half year lows and pointing to weak spending in the months ahead. The Conference Board, an industry group, said its index of consumer attitudes was little changed at 45.4 this month from 45.2 last month. Economists had expected a rise to 46. Other reports on Tuesday on regional manufacturing and services showed some improvement this month, and house prices stabilized in July.
Napoleon Osorio is proud of being the first taxi driver to have accepted payment in bitcoin in the first country in the world to make the cryptocurrency legal tender: El Salvador. He credits Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele’s decision to bank on bitcoin three years ago with changing his life. “Before I was unemployed... And now I have my own business,” said the 39-year-old businessman, who uses an app to charge for rides in bitcoin and now runs his own car rental company. Three years ago the leader of the Central American nation took a huge gamble when he put bitcoin
TECH RACE: The Chinese firm showed off its new Mate XT hours after the latest iPhone launch, but its price tag and limited supply could be drawbacks China’s Huawei Technologies Co (華為) yesterday unveiled the world’s first tri-foldable phone, as it seeks to expand its lead in the world’s biggest smartphone market and steal the spotlight from Apple Inc hours after it debuted a new iPhone. The Chinese tech giant showed off its new Mate XT, which users can fold three ways like an accordion screen door, during a launch ceremony in Shenzhen. The Mate XT comes in red and black and has a 10.2-inch display screen. At 3.6mm thick, it is the world’s slimmest foldable smartphone, Huawei said. The company’s Web site showed that it has garnered more than
PARTNERSHIPS: TSMC said it has been working with multiple memorychip makers for more than two years to provide a full spectrum of solutions to address AI demand Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said it has been collaborating with multiple memorychip makers in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) used in artificial intelligence (AI) applications for more than two years, refuting South Korean media report's about an unprecedented partnership with Samsung Electronics Co. As Samsung is competing with TSMC for a bigger foundry business, any cooperation between the two technology heavyweights would catch the eyes of investors and experts in the semiconductor industry. “We have been working with memory partners, including Micron, Samsung Memory and SK Hynix, on HBM solutions for more than two years, aiming to advance 3D integrated circuit
Vanguard International Semiconductor Corp (世界先進) and Episil Technologies Inc (漢磊) yesterday announced plans to jointly build an 8-inch fab to produce silicon carbide (SiC) chips through an equity acquisition deal. SiC chips offer higher efficiency and lower energy loss than pure silicon chips, and they are able to operate at higher temperatures. They have become crucial to the development of electric vehicles, artificial intelligence data centers, green energy storage and industrial devices. Vanguard, a contract chipmaker focused on making power management chips and driver ICs for displays, is to acquire a 13 percent stake in Episil for NT$2.48 billion (US$77.1 million).
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