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.
UNCERTAINTY: Innolux activated a stringent supply chain management mechanism, as it did during the COVID-19 pandemic, to ensure optimal inventory levels for customers Flat-panel display makers AUO Corp (友達) and Innolux Corp (群創) yesterday said that about 12 to 20 percent of their display business is at risk of potential US tariffs and that they would relocate production or shipment destinations to mitigate the levies’ effects. US tariffs would have a direct impact of US$200 million on AUO’s revenue, company chairman Paul Peng (彭雙浪) told reporters on the sidelines of the Touch Taiwan trade show in Taipei yesterday. That would make up about 12 percent of the company’s overall revenue. To cope with the tariff uncertainty, AUO plans to allocate its production to manufacturing facilities in
Taiwan will prioritize the development of silicon photonics by taking advantage of its strength in the semiconductor industry to build another shield to protect the local economy, National Development Council (NDC) Minister Paul Liu (劉鏡清) said yesterday. Speaking at a meeting of the legislature’s Economics Committee, Liu said Taiwan already has the artificial intelligence (AI) industry as a shield, after the semiconductor industry, to safeguard the country, and is looking at new unique fields to build more economic shields. While Taiwan will further strengthen its existing shields, over the longer term, the country is determined to focus on such potential segments as
Chizuko Kimura has become the first female sushi chef in the world to win a Michelin star, fulfilling a promise she made to her dying husband to continue his legacy. The 54-year-old Japanese chef regained the Michelin star her late husband, Shunei Kimura, won three years ago for their Sushi Shunei restaurant in Paris. For Shunei Kimura, the star was a dream come true. However, the joy was short-lived. He died from cancer just three months later in June 2022. He was 65. The following year, the restaurant in the heart of Montmartre lost its star rating. Chizuko Kimura insisted that the new star is still down
While China’s leaders use their economic and political might to fight US President Donald Trump’s trade war “to the end,” its army of social media soldiers are embarking on a more humorous campaign online. Trump’s tariff blitz has seen Washington and Beijing impose eye-watering duties on imports from the other, fanning a standoff between the economic superpowers that has sparked global recession fears and sent markets into a tailspin. Trump says his policy is a response to years of being “ripped off” by other countries and aims to bring manufacturing to the US, forcing companies to employ US workers. However, China’s online warriors
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