AUTOMAKERS
Toyota issues global recall
Toyota Motor Corp is recalling about 550,000 vehicles worldwide — mostly in the US — for possible problems related to the crankshaft pulley on the engine that could make it harder to steer. The company’s US sales unit said in a statement yesterday that if the problem is not corrected the belt for the power steering pump could become detached from the pulley. The recall affects 283,200 Toyota brand cars and 137,000 Lexus vehicles in the US, including the 2004 and 2005 Camry, Highlander and Sienna models. Toyota spokesperson Dion Corbett said about 38,000 cars are being recalled in Japan, as well as 25,000 in Australia and New Zealand. There have been no reports of accidents or injuries related to the problems, Corbett said.
HOUSING
Fannie Mae posts Q3 loss
US mortgage giant Fannie Mae lost nearly US$5.1 billion in the third quarter, a 76 percent rise from the previous quarter and nearly four times the same period one year earlier, the company reported on Tuesday. The state-owned housing lender said it would ask the US Treasury for another injection of US$7.8 billion to cover both the losses and the amount of dividends it is obliged to pay the government for its rescue in 2008. Fannie blamed the quarterly results equally on US$4.5 billion in losses on pre--housing crisis lending and US$5.5 billion worth of losses on derivatives taken out during the quarter against the risk of higher interest rates. Against that, Fannie said it had earned US$5.5 billion in net revenue.
BEER
AB InBev misses Q3 target
Anheuser-Busch InBev NV (AB InBev), the world’s biggest brewer, reported third-quarter revenue that missed analysts’ estimates as it sold less beer in the US and central and eastern Europe, offsetting gains in Latin America. So-called organic sales rose 3.6 percent, the Belgium-based company said yesterday in a statement. The median estimate of eight analysts surveyed by Bloomberg was 4.1 percent. The volume of its own brands of beer sold fell 0.6 percent. The brewer of Stella Artois has raised prices in the US and shifted toward more expensive products as sales slow. Market share fell 25 basis points in the quarter as the company lost sales in so-called sub-premium brands.
RETAIL
Electronics sales to increase
Sales of electronics are set to light up an otherwise dreary US holiday shopping season, the US Consumer Electronics Association said. The trade group released figures on Tuesday predicting an increase in holiday electronics sales of 5.6 percent this year, with the average household spending US$246 on gadgets, roughly a third of its gift budget of US$769. Tablets and computers ranked second and third on the list of gifts most sought after by adults, with clothes taking the top slot. Peace, happiness, and money followed behind all three, the association said.
FRANCE
Zero growth forecast in Q4
The economy is set for zero growth in the last quarter of the year, the Bank of France warned yesterday, two days after the government announced a new round of austerity measures. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Budget, Public Accounts and Civil Administration said that the central government budget deficit, a component of the overall deficit, had fallen by 30 billion euros (US$41.5 billion) at the end of September on a 12-month basis, to 92.7 billion euros, as the result of big fall in spending and a slight rise in revenues.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) would not produce its most advanced technologies in the US next year, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. Kuo made the comment during an appearance at the legislature, hours after the chipmaker announced that it would invest an additional US$100 billion to expand its manufacturing operations in the US. Asked by Taiwan People’s Party Legislator-at-large Chang Chi-kai (張啟楷) if TSMC would allow its most advanced technologies, the yet-to-be-released 2-nanometer and 1.6-nanometer processes, to go to the US in the near term, Kuo denied it. TSMC recently opened its first US factory, which produces 4-nanometer
PROTECTION: The investigation, which takes aim at exporters such as Canada, Germany and Brazil, came days after Trump unveiled tariff hikes on steel and aluminum products US President Donald Trump on Saturday ordered a probe into potential tariffs on lumber imports — a move threatening to stoke trade tensions — while also pushing for a domestic supply boost. Trump signed an executive order instructing US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick to begin an investigation “to determine the effects on the national security of imports of timber, lumber and their derivative products.” The study might result in new tariffs being imposed, which would pile on top of existing levies. The investigation takes aim at exporters like Canada, Germany and Brazil, with White House officials earlier accusing these economies of
Teleperformance SE, the largest call-center operator in the world, is rolling out an artificial intelligence (AI) system that softens English-speaking Indian workers’ accents in real time in a move the company claims would make them more understandable. The technology, called accent translation, coupled with background noise cancelation, is being deployed in call centers in India, where workers provide customer support to some of Teleperformance’s international clients. The company provides outsourced customer support and content moderation to global companies including Apple Inc, ByteDance Ltd’s (字節跳動) TikTok and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd. “When you have an Indian agent on the line, sometimes it’s hard
PROBE CONTINUES: Those accused falsely represented that the chips would not be transferred to a person other than the authorized end users, court papers said Singapore charged three men with fraud in a case local media have linked to the movement of Nvidia’s advanced chips from the city-state to Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) firm DeepSeek (深度求索). The US is investigating if DeepSeek, the Chinese company whose AI model’s performance rocked the tech world in January, has been using US chips that are not allowed to be shipped to China, Reuters reported earlier. The Singapore case is part of a broader police investigation of 22 individuals and companies suspected of false representation, amid concerns that organized AI chip smuggling to China has been tracked out of nations such
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