MACHINERY
Orders beat expectations
Japan’s core machinery orders, a leading indicator of corporate capital spending, rose by a bigger-than-expected 5.7 percent in April from the previous month, data showed yesterday in a positive sign for the nation’s hard-hit economy. The core private-sector data, which exclude volatile demand from power companies and for ships, turned up after a 2.8 percent drop in March, according to official data from the Cabinet Office. The market had expected a rise of 1.5 percent in April.
SOUTH KOREA
Unemployment drops
The unemployment rate declined last month mainly because of more new jobs in the service sector, official figures showed yesterday. Statistics Korea said the figure was 3.1 percent last month compared with 3.5 percent in April. Seasonally adjusted, last month’s figure was 3.2 percent compared with 3.4 percent the previous month. The number of employed people rose by 472,000 last month from a year earlier, slightly better than April’s 455,000 increase, to 25.133 million.
SINGAPORE
GDP expected to hit 3%
Singapore’s central bank says a survey of analysts shows the economy will likely grow 3 percent this year, more than the previous estimate. The survey of 21 analysts released yesterday by the central bank showed that growth would likely be led by construction expanding 6.2 percent and manufacturing up 3 percent. Analysts had expected the economy would grow 2.5 percent this year in a March survey. The government expects GDP to expand between 1 percent and 3 percent this year, down from 4.9 percent last year. The survey predicts the inflation rate will probably fall to 4.2 percent this year from 5.5 percent last year.
GERMANY
Inflation drops below 2%
Inflation in Europe’s biggest economy slowed to 1.9 percent last month, the first time since December 2010 that it has been below the key level of 2 percent, final data showed yesterday. Inflation stood at 2.1 percent in April and slowing fuel prices were the main reason for the slowdown last month, the national statistics office Destatis said in a statement. On a monthly basis, the cost of living in Germany declined 0.2 percent last month from April.
AVIATION
AirAsia moves to Indonesia
Budget carrier AirAsia is moving its strategic planning center to Indonesia from its Malaysian headquarters, it said yesterday, as it looks to expand its regional operations. Asia’s largest budget airline has only 18 planes in Indonesia — which has a population of 240 million — compared to 24 in Thailand and 58 in Malaysia, the firm said in a statement. The Jakarta base will also help it lobby the 10-member ASEAN, whose secretariat is in the Indonesian capital, it said.
AUTOMAKERS
Honda recalls 50,000 cars
Honda plans to recall about 50,000 Civic sedans in the US to fix a problem with the driveshaft, the Japanese automaker said on Tuesday. Honda said the drive shaft in certain models from last year were not properly assembled and could come loose. The automaker will cover the cost of all repairs. No crashes or injuries have been reported related to the defect, Honda added.
COMPETITION: AMD, Intel and Qualcomm are unveiling new laptop and desktop parts in Las Vegas, arguing their technologies provide the best performance for AI workloads Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD), the second-biggest maker of computer processors, said its chips are to be used by Dell Technologies Inc for the first time in PCs sold to businesses. The chipmaker unveiled new processors it says would make AMD-based PCs the best at running artificial intelligence (AI) software. Dell has decided to use the chips in some of its computers aimed at business customers, AMD executives said at CES in Las Vegas on Monday. Dell’s embrace of AMD for corporate PCs — it already uses the chipmaker for consumer devices — is another blow for Intel Corp as the company
ADVANCED: Previously, Taiwanese chip companies were restricted from building overseas fabs with technology less than two generations behind domestic factories Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), a major chip supplier to Nvidia Corp, would no longer be restricted from investing in next-generation 2-nanometer chip production in the US, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. However, the ministry added that the world’s biggest contract chipmaker would not be making any reckless decisions, given the weight of its up to US$30 billion investment. To safeguard Taiwan’s chip technology advantages, the government has barred local chipmakers from making chips using more advanced technologies at their overseas factories, in China particularly. Chipmakers were previously only allowed to produce chips using less advanced technologies, specifically
MediaTek Inc (聯發科) yesterday said it is teaming up with Nvidia Corp to develop a new chip for artificial intelligence (AI) supercomputers that uses architecture licensed from Arm Holdings PLC. The new product is targeting AI researchers, data scientists and students rather than the mass PC market, the company said. The announcement comes as MediaTek makes efforts to add AI capabilities to its Dimensity chips for smartphones and tablets, Genio family for the Internet of Things devices, Pentonic series of smart TVs, Kompanio line of Arm-based Chromebooks, along with the Dimensity auto platform for vehicles. MeidaTek, the world’s largest chip designer for smartphones
BRAVE NEW WORLD: Nvidia believes that AI would fuel a new industrial revolution and would ‘do whatever we can’ to guide US AI policy, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp cofounder and chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) on Tuesday said he is ready to meet US president-elect Donald Trump and offer his help to the incoming administration. “I’d be delighted to go see him and congratulate him, and do whatever we can to make this administration succeed,” Huang said in an interview with Bloomberg Television, adding that he has not been invited to visit Trump’s home base at Mar-a-Lago in Florida yet. As head of the world’s most valuable chipmaker, Huang has an opportunity to help steer the administration’s artificial intelligence (AI) policy at a moment of rapid change.
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