GREECE
Finance chief sworn in
Greek Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras was yesterday sworn into office, along with two deputy ministers. Stournaras’ televised oath-taking ceremony at the presidential mansion in Athens was the first time Prime Minister Antonis Samaras appeared in public since undergoing eye surgery nearly two weeks ago, shortly after forming a coalition government with another two parties following inconclusive national elections. Stournaras, a prominent economist, was to hold his first meeting yesterday with Greece’s international debt inspectors from the European Central Bank, the European Commission and the IMF.
TRANSPORTATION
Volvo to sell Aero to GKN
Swedish truck maker AB Volvo yesterday said it would sell its aeronautics unit Aero to British engineering group GKN for 6.9 billion kronor (US$995 million) in a move to focus more on its core heavy vehicle operations. The company said the deal would be completed this quarter and was expected to generate a capital gain of about 400 million kronor. Volvo said GKN won a bidding process to acquire the unit, adding that it offered the best conditions for Volvo Aero’s development and future.
AUTOMAKERS
GM posts record PRC sales
US auto giant General Motors (GM) yesterday said that sales in China for the first half of this year reached a record 1.42 million vehicles, despite an economic slowdown in the world’s biggest car market. GM’s sales in the country jumped 11.3 percent in the first six months from a year earlier, it said in a statement. For last month alone, its China sales rose 10.1 percent year-on-year to 213,495 vehicles, also setting a new record for the month, GM said.
PHARMACEUTICALS
Cancer drug disappoints
German pharmaceuticals maker Merck KGaA yesterday said that phase III clinical trials of its gastric cancer drug Erbitux had shown no benefits for patients. The trials found that in combination with standard chemotherapy, Erbitux did not extend “the length of time that patients live without their disease getting worse,” Merck KGaA said in a statement.
PHILIPPINES
Manila lauds S&P upgrade
The Philippines said a credit rating upgrade by Standard & Poor’s (S&P) would help the country carry out reforms without weakening its financial position. The agency on Wednesday raised the Philippines’ long-term foreign currency credit rating to “BB+” from “BB,” one notch below investment grade. It kept the rating outlook at stable. Presidential spokesman Ricky Carandang said that while some other countries are being forced to tighten belts to get high debt under control, the Philippines can still afford to undertake public spending without jeopardizing its overall financial position.
INVESTMENTS
Temasek’s profit drops
Singapore state investment company Temasek Holdings said growth in the value of its investments slowed in the last fiscal year as a weakening global economy undermined the value of Asian companies. Temasek said in its annual report yesterday that the value of its investments rose 2.6 percent to S$198 billion (US$157 billion) in the fiscal year ended March 31. The portfolio rose 3.8 percent in the previous year. Temasek said its net profit fell to S$11 billion from S$13 billion the previous year amid lower earnings from the companies it has stakes in.
WEAKER ACTIVITY: The sharpest deterioration was seen in the electronics and optical components sector, with the production index falling 13.2 points to 44.5 Taiwan’s manufacturing sector last month contracted for a second consecutive month, with the purchasing managers’ index (PMI) slipping to 48, reflecting ongoing caution over trade uncertainties, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The decline reflects growing caution among companies amid uncertainty surrounding US tariffs, semiconductor duties and automotive import levies, and it is also likely linked to fading front-loading activity, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said. “Some clients have started shifting orders to Southeast Asian countries where tariff regimes are already clear,” Lien told a news conference. Firms across the supply chain are also lowering stock levels to mitigate
IN THE AIR: While most companies said they were committed to North American operations, some added that production and costs would depend on the outcome of a US trade probe Leading local contract electronics makers Wistron Corp (緯創), Quanta Computer Inc (廣達), Inventec Corp (英業達) and Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶) are to maintain their North American expansion plans, despite Washington’s 20 percent tariff on Taiwanese goods. Wistron said it has long maintained a presence in the US, while distributing production across Taiwan, North America, Southeast Asia and Europe. The company is in talks with customers to align capacity with their site preferences, a company official told the Taipei Times by telephone on Friday. The company is still in talks with clients over who would bear the tariff costs, with the outcome pending further
Six Taiwanese companies, including contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), made the 2025 Fortune Global 500 list of the world’s largest firms by revenue. In a report published by New York-based Fortune magazine on Tuesday, Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), ranked highest among Taiwanese firms, placing 28th with revenue of US$213.69 billion. Up 60 spots from last year, TSMC rose to No. 126 with US$90.16 billion in revenue, followed by Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) at 348th, Pegatron Corp (和碩) at 461st, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) at 494th and Wistron Corp (緯創) at
NEGOTIATIONS: Semiconductors play an outsized role in Taiwan’s industrial and economic development and are a major driver of the Taiwan-US trade imbalance With US President Donald Trump threatening to impose tariffs on semiconductors, Taiwan is expected to face a significant challenge, as information and communications technology (ICT) products account for more than 70 percent of its exports to the US, Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said on Friday. Compared with other countries, semiconductors play a disproportionately large role in Taiwan’s industrial and economic development, Lien said. As the sixth-largest contributor to the US trade deficit, Taiwan recorded a US$73.9 billion trade surplus with the US last year — up from US$47.8 billion in 2023 — driven by strong
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