JAPAN
Bond sales top US$1 billion
Sales of Japanese government bonds for rebuilding from the March 11 disaster reached ￥100 billion (US$1.3 billion), about twice the amount of similiarly yielding bonds sold for retail investors in September, the Nikkei Shimbun said, without saying where it got the information. Japan’s three mega-banks and four smaller banks are estimated to account for about 20 percent of the total sales, the Nikkei said. The country’s top publicly traded lenders are Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc and Mizuho Financial Group Inc.
HUMAN RESOURCES
Adecco to buy VSN
Adecco SA said it has agreed to buy VSN Inc, a provider of professional staffing services in Japan, for an enterprise value of 90 million euros (US$117 million). VSN doubles Adecco’s exposure to professional staffing in Japan and reinforces its strong position in an attractive structural growth market, Adecco said yesterday.
ITALY
Public deficit drops
The government, struggling to balance its books and keep in favor with the credit markets, said on Monday that its public finances were better than expected last year. The Ministry of Finance said the country had a public deficit — the shortfall between tax income and spending — of 61.5 billion euros (US$80 billion), down from 67 billion euros in 2010. The government had expected a deficit of 64.8 billion euros for last year and the better-than-expected showing reflected improved tax revenues and lower spending, the ministry said.
UNITED KINGDOM
Business confidence plunges
Business confidence in the country’s economic outlook plunged last month to its lowest level in three years, according to Lloyds Bank Corporate Markets, which said there was a 74 percent chance of a recession. An index of British companies’ optimism about the economy compared with three months earlier dropped by three points from November to minus 23, the unit of Lloyds Banking Group PLC said in an e-mailed report released in London yesterday. Last month’s reading was the lowest since January 2009. The Lloyds unit questioned 304 companies, all with sales of more than ￡1 million (US$1.55 million), between Nov. 28 and Dec. 15 for the report.
AUSTRALIA
Manufacturing expands
Manufacturing in the country expanded for the first time in six months last month, driven by gains in basic metals, transport and publishing, a private survey showed. The manufacturing index was 50.2 last month compared with 47.8 in November, the Australian Industry Group and PricewaterhouseCoopers said in a survey released yesterday. It was the third reading for last year that was above 50, the dividing line between expansion and contraction.
MACAU
Gambling revenue surges
Casino gambling revenue in the territory surged by nearly half last year as the world’s biggest gambling market continued to boom. According to data posted on the gaming department’s Web site yesterday, gross revenue from Macau’s 34 casinos last year totaled 267.87 billion patacas (US$33.5 billion). That’s 42 percent higher than 188.34 billion patacas in 2010. Macau’s economic growth has rocketed since the government broke up a four-decade monopoly in 2002 and allowed foreign operators in.
SEMICONDUCTORS: The German laser and plasma generator company will expand its local services as its specialized offerings support Taiwan’s semiconductor industries Trumpf SE + Co KG, a global leader in supplying laser technology and plasma generators used in chip production, is expanding its investments in Taiwan in an effort to deeply integrate into the global semiconductor supply chain in the pursuit of growth. The company, headquartered in Ditzingen, Germany, has invested significantly in a newly inaugurated regional technical center for plasma generators in Taoyuan, its latest expansion in Taiwan after being engaged in various industries for more than 25 years. The center, the first of its kind Trumpf built outside Germany, aims to serve customers from Taiwan, Japan, Southeast Asia and South Korea,
Gasoline and diesel prices at domestic fuel stations are to fall NT$0.2 per liter this week, down for a second consecutive week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) announced yesterday. Effective today, gasoline prices at CPC and Formosa stations are to drop to NT$26.4, NT$27.9 and NT$29.9 per liter for 92, 95 and 98-octane unleaded gasoline respectively, the companies said in separate statements. The price of premium diesel is to fall to NT$24.8 per liter at CPC stations and NT$24.6 at Formosa pumps, they said. The price adjustments came even as international crude oil prices rose last week, as traders
SIZE MATTERS: TSMC started phasing out 8-inch wafer production last year, while Samsung is more aggressively retiring 8-inch capacity, TrendForce said Chipmakers are expected to raise prices of 8-inch wafers by up to 20 percent this year on concern over supply constraints as major contract chipmakers Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and Samsung Electronics Co gradually retire less advanced wafer capacity, TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said yesterday. It is the first significant across-the-board price hike since a global semiconductor correction in 2023, the Taipei-based market researcher said in a report. Global 8-inch wafer capacity slid 0.3 percent year-on-year last year, although 8-inch wafer prices still hovered at relatively stable levels throughout the year, TrendForce said. The downward trend is expected to continue this year,
POWERING UP: PSUs for AI servers made up about 50% of Delta’s total server PSU revenue during the first three quarters of last year, the company said Power supply and electronic components maker Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) reported record-high revenue of NT$161.61 billion (US$5.11 billion) for last quarter and said it remains positive about this quarter. Last quarter’s figure was up 7.6 percent from the previous quarter and 41.51 percent higher than a year earlier, and largely in line with Yuanta Securities Investment Consulting Co’s (元大投顧) forecast of NT$160 billion. Delta’s annual revenue last year rose 31.76 percent year-on-year to NT$554.89 billion, also a record high for the company. Its strong performance reflected continued demand for high-performance power solutions and advanced liquid-cooling products used in artificial intelligence (AI) data centers,
RSS