BANKING
Portugal to help banks
Portugal will inject more than 6.65 billion euros (US$8.2 billion) into private banks BCP and BPI, and the state-owned CGD to meet criteria established by the European Banking Authority, the finance ministry said yesterday. “In all, the state will inject more than 6.65 billion euros in these banks,” with 5 billion euros coming from a 12 billion euro package included in a financial rescue plan drawn up in May last year, the ministry said. Portugal last year became the third eurozone country after Greece and Ireland to be bailed out, receiving an EU-IMF package worth up to 78 billion euros in return for a commitment to reform its economy and impose austerity measures.
SPAIN
Unemployment numbers dip
The number of jobseekers fell by a slight 0.63 percent to 4.71 million people, the second consecutive monthly drop after hitting a record high in March, the labor ministry said yesterday. Spain has the highest unemployment rate in the industrialized world, with 24.44 percent of the work force idle, according to the national statistics office Ine. On a 12-month comparison, the unemployment rate was still higher, with 524,463 more people looking for jobs, an increase of 12.52 percent. The government has forecast an unemployment rate of 24.3 percent this year, but expects it to edge slightly lower next year.
ELECTRONICS
Sony’s share price falls
Sony’s stock price fell below ￥1,000 yesterday for the first time since 1980 as global markets slid, but also a symptom of its decline since huge success with the Walkman three decades ago. Sony’s shares dipped to ￥990 before recovering slightly in trading on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. The Nikkei 225 stock average was down 2 percent after US hiring slowed sharply last month. The company said it was first time that its stock price had traded below ￥1,000 since August 1980 — the year after it introduced the iconic Walkman portable cassette player to the world in 1979. The stock had peaked at ￥16,950 in March 2000.
AVIATION
Lufthansa to sell caterer
German airline Lufthansa is planning to sell its onboard catering unit LSG Sky Chefs as it focuses more and more on its core airline business, the Financial Times Deutschland reported yesterday. After already selling off loss-making units, such as BMI, Lufthansa has now turned its sights on profitable subsidiaries such as LSG Sky Chefs and its IT services unit, with plans to divest the catering unit particularly far advanced, the newspaper said without revealing its sources. Initially, the carrier will sell 49 percent of LSG Sky Chefs by next year at the latest, ideally to a strategic partner in the catering sector, it said. LSG Sky Chefs is the world’s biggest onboard caterer, employs nearly 30,000 people and generates annual sales of 2.3 billion euros.
OIL
Prices fall on demand fears
Oil fell further in Asian trade yesterday as worries about demand weighed on investors still spooked by weak economic data from the US and China, analysts said. Brent North Sea crude for July shed US$1.73 to US$96.70 a barrel, and New York’s main contract, West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude for July, fell US$1.59 to US$81.64. Both contracts had closed lower on Friday in reaction to weak US jobs data. Brent oil prices had already slumped by 15 percent last month, while WTI collapsed by almost 18 percent.
Shares of contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) came under pressure yesterday after a report that Apple Inc is looking to shift some orders from the Taiwanese company to Intel Corp. TSMC shares fell NT$55, or 2.4 percent, to close at NT$2,235 on the local main board, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed. Despite the losses, TSMC is expected to continue to benefit from sound fundamentals, as it maintains a lead over its peers in high-end process development, analysts said. “The selling was a knee-jerk reaction to an Intel-Apple report over the weekend,” Mega International Investment Services Corp (兆豐國際投顧) analyst Alex Huang
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is expected to remain Apple Inc’s primary chip manufacturing partner despite reports that Apple could shift some orders to Intel Corp, industry experts said yesterday. The comments came after The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that Apple and Intel had reached a preliminary agreement following more than a year of negotiations for Intel to manufacture some chips for Apple devices. Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (台灣經濟研究院) economist Arisa Liu (劉佩真) said TSMC’s advanced packaging technologies, including integrated fan-out and chip-on-wafer-on-substrate, remain critical to the performance of Apple’s A-series and M-series chips. She said Intel and Samsung
TRANSITION: With the closure, the company would reorganize its Taiwanese unit to a sales and service-focused model, Bridgestone said Bridgestone Corp yesterday announced it would cease manufacturing operations at its tire plant in Hsinchu County’s Hukou Township (湖口), affecting more than 500 workers. Bridgestone Taiwan Co (台灣普利司通) said in a statement that the decision was based on the Tokyo-based tire maker’s adjustments to its global operational strategy and long-term market development considerations. The Taiwanese unit would be reorganized as part of the closure, effective yesterday, and all related production activities would be concluded, the statement said. Under the plan, Bridgestone would continue to deepen its presence in the Taiwanese market, while transitioning to a sales and service-focused business model, it added. The Hsinchu
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has approved a capital budget of US$31.28 billion for production expansion to meet long-term development needs during the artificial intelligence (AI) boom. The company’s board meeting yesterday approved the capital appropriation plan for purposes such as the installation of advanced technology capacity and fab construction, the world’s largest contract chipmaker said in a statement. At an earnings conference last month, TSMC forecast that its capital expenditure for this year would be at the higher end of the US$52 billion to US$56 billion range it forecast in January in response to robust demand for 5G, AI and
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