FINLAND
GDP growth picks up
The country’s economy grew faster last quarter than the average for the 17-nation single currency bloc, which may face a recession as the sovereign-debt crisis deepens. The country’s third-quarter GDP adjusted for seasonal variations grew 0.9 percent from the three months through June, compared with a revised 0.1 percent growth in the second quarter, Helsinki-based Statistics Finland said on its Web site yesterday. In the year, GDP adjusted for working days increased 2.7 percent. The country’s economy is expanding at about four times the pace of the average in the euro area, which grew 0.2 percent in the three months through September as the debt crisis erodes demand, according to preliminary data by the European statistics office on Nov. 15.
PETROCHEMICALS
Qatar, Shell sign deal
Qatar signed a deal with Royal Dutch Shell on Sunday to develop a US$6.4 billion petrochemicals complex in the Ras Laffan industrial city in the Gulf Arab state. Qatari Energy Minister Mohammed al-Sada and Shell CEO Peter Voser signed the agreement in Doha. “We estimate the cost to be [US]$6.4 billion, but at this stage one should be cautious,” Sada said. Asked whether the agreement replaced a similar one signed with US group Exxon Mobil, Sada said: “No, this is not a replacement. This is a continuation of our strategy. There will be other petrochemical plants in the pipeline.”
AVIATION
Vietnam expands airport
Vietnam has begun construction of a second terminal to ease overcrowding at the only airport in the nation’s capital, the government said. Officials held a ceremony at the Noi Bai airport on Sunday to break ground on the four-story facility, which is being funded by more than ￥75 billion (US$962 million) in Japanese aid, the Vietnamese government said. “Terminal 2, expected to be completed by the end of 2014, was designed to handle 10 million passengers per year,” it said in a statement released on Sunday. The existing terminal handled about 9.5 million passengers last year, exceeding its capacity of 6 million, the official English-language Vietnam News reported.
TECHNOLOGY
Executive may face charges
Police say a senior executive of Canada’s Research In Motion Ltd (RIM) is a suspect in last month’s stampede at a BlackBerry promotion in Indonesia. Police spokesman Colonel Baharudin Djafar said yesterday that several people fainted and dozens were injured at the global debut of the BlackBerry Bold 9790. The US$540 phones — commonly known as Bellagios — were being sold at half price to the first 1,000 shoppers. Djafar said Canadian Andy Cobham, the outgoing country director for RIM, is among four suspects who could face charges of negligence leading to injury.
BANKING
Berlin prepared to help
Government officials are prepared to step in and nationalize Germany’s second-largest bank if the stricken institution cannot raise extra capital next year, a magazine reported on Sunday. Der Spiegel, citing anonymous government sources, reported Berlin could reactivate a rescue fund and buy up Commerzbank shares if it could not raise capital by the end of June. The German government already owns a 25 percent stake in Commerzbank. European banking officials estimate Commerzbank needs to recapitalize 2.9 billion euros (US$3.9 billion) by July, Der Spiegel reported.
HORMUZ ISSUE: The US president said he expected crude prices to drop at the end of the war, which he called a ‘minor excursion’ that could continue ‘for a little while’ The United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Kuwait started reducing oil production, as the near-closure of the crucial Strait of Hormuz ripples through energy markets and affects global supply. Abu Dhabi National Oil Co (ADNOC) is “managing offshore production levels to address storage requirements,” the company said in a statement, without giving details. Kuwait Petroleum Corp said it was lowering production at its oil fields and refineries after “Iranian threats against safe passage of ships through the Strait of Hormuz.” The war in the Middle East has all but closed Hormuz, the narrow waterway linking the Persian Gulf to the open seas,
Apple Inc increased iPhone production in India by about 53 percent last year and now makes a quarter of its marquee devices there, reflecting the US company’s efforts to avoid tariffs on China. The company assembled about 55 million iPhones in India last year, up from 36 million a year earlier, people familiar with the matter said, asking not to be named because the numbers aren’t public. Apple makes about 220 million to 230 million iPhones a year globally, with India’s share of the total increasing rapidly. Apple has accelerated its expansion in the world’s most populous country in recent years, bolstered
HEADWINDS: The company said it expects its computer business, as well as consumer electronics and communications segments to see revenue declines due to seasonality Pegatron Corp (和碩) yesterday said it aims to grow its artificial intelligence (AI) server revenue more than 10-fold this year from last year, driven by orders from neocloud solutions clients and large cloud service providers. The electronics manufacturing service provider said AI server revenue growth would be driven primarily by the Nvidia Corp GB300 server platform. Server shipments are expected to increase each quarter this year, with the second half likely to outperform the first half, it said. The AI server market is expected to broaden this year as more inference applications emerge, which would drive demand for system-on-chip, application-specific integrated circuits
PROJECTION: TSMC said it expects strong growth this year, with revenue in US dollars projected to grow by about 30 percent, outperforming the industry Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday reported consolidated sales last month reached NT$317.66 billion (US$9.98 billion), the highest ever for the month of February, driven by robust demand for chips built using the company’s advanced 3-nanometer (3nm) process. Last month’s figure was up 22.2 percent from a year earlier, but fell 20.8 percent from January, the world’s largest contract chipmaker said in a statement. For the first two months of the year, TSMC posted cumulative sales of NT$718.91 billion, up 29.9 percent from a year earlier. Analysts attributed the growth to sustained global demand for artificial intelligence (AI) products
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