SPAIN
Recession to worsen: IMF
The IMF warned on Friday that the country’s recession would be worse than initially expected, with a forecast contraction of 1.7 percent this year and of 1.2 percent in 2013. In addition, the global financial body said that worsening market tensions could disrupt the country’s ability to finance itself, despite a eurozone bailout agreed for Spanish banks and emergency financial reforms for the 17-nation bloc. Meanwhile, the country’s unemployment rate rose to 24.63 percent in the second quarter, up 0.19 percentage points from the previous three months, the National Statistics Institute said.
FUEL
Canada oil firm deal frozen
The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said on Friday that it froze assets of Hong Kong traders who bought stock in a Canadian company before a firm owned by the Chinese government announced plans to buy it this week. The SEC said that Well Advantage and other traders used accounts in Hong Kong and Singapore to make over US$13 million trading shares in Canadian oil and gas company Nexen Inc based on inside information. China’s CNOOC Ltd (中國海洋石油) announced plans to buy Nexen on Monday for US$15.1 billion. Zhang Zhi Rong (張志熔), a billionaire Hong Kong businessman, controls Well Advantage, according to the SEC. The agency said he also runs another company that has a “cooperation agreement” with CNOOC.
OIL
Refinery profits lift Chevron
A soaring profit at Chevron’s refineries eased some of the lower gains it saw during a weaker second quarter. The oil giant said on Friday that net income fell nearly 7 percent to US$7.21 billion, or US$3.66 per share, but that the results beat expectations after a strong performance from its refinery arm. The company’s stock price rose US$0.99 to close at US$109.26 on Friday. Like its peers, the oil giant is struggling to find and replace petroleum sources. Second quarter profits also fell for Royal Dutch Shell, Occidental Petroleum Corp and ConocoPhillips.
MEDIA
McClatchy eyes paywalls
McClatchy Co, one of the largest US newspapers groups, said on Friday it would begin moving toward paywalls for its news Web sites in response to the industry’s economic woes. The publisher of 30 dailies including the Miami Herald, Fort Worth Star-Telegram and Kansas City Star said it would begin “metered” Web access in five of its markets starting in the third quarter. The New York Times began charging in March last year for full access to NYTimes.com and it launched a subscription-only Web site for the Boston Globe in October. Gannett, the largest US newspaper chain, has also begun moving toward charging for online access at some of its dailies, along with MediaNews Group Inc.
AUTOMAKERS
Mazda in big vehicle recall
Mazda said on Friday it will recall 217,500 vehicles in the US due to a problem with unintended acceleration that led to the recall of nearly 485,000 Ford vehicles. The Mazda Tribute shares most of its parts with the Ford Escape SUV, including the faulty cruise control cable. The defect can cause the throttle to stick, causing the vehicle to speed out of control.
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
A proposed 100 percent tariff on chip imports announced by US President Donald Trump could shift more of Taiwan’s semiconductor production overseas, a Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (TIER) researcher said yesterday. Trump’s tariff policy will accelerate the global semiconductor industry’s pace to establish roots in the US, leading to higher supply chain costs and ultimately raising prices of consumer electronics and creating uncertainty for future market demand, Arisa Liu (劉佩真) at the institute’s Taiwan Industry Economics Database said in a telephone interview. Trump’s move signals his intention to "restore the glory of the US semiconductor industry," Liu noted, saying that
STILL UNCLEAR: Several aspects of the policy still need to be clarified, such as whether the exemptions would expand to related products, PwC Taiwan warned The TAIEX surged yesterday, led by gains in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), after US President Donald Trump announced a sweeping 100 percent tariff on imported semiconductors — while exempting companies operating or building plants in the US, which includes TSMC. The benchmark index jumped 556.41 points, or 2.37 percent, to close at 24,003.77, breaching the 24,000-point level and hitting its highest close this year, Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) data showed. TSMC rose NT$55, or 4.89 percent, to close at a record NT$1,180, as the company is already investing heavily in a multibillion-dollar plant in Arizona that led investors to assume
AI: Softbank’s stake increases in Nvidia and TSMC reflect Masayoshi Son’s effort to gain a foothold in key nodes of the AI value chain, from chip design to data infrastructure Softbank Group Corp is building up stakes in Nvidia Corp and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the latest reflection of founder Masayoshi Son’s focus on the tools and hardware underpinning artificial intelligence (AI). The Japanese technology investor raised its stake in Nvidia to about US$3 billion by the end of March, up from US$1 billion in the prior quarter, regulatory filings showed. It bought about US$330 million worth of TSMC shares and US$170 million in Oracle Corp, they showed. Softbank’s signature Vision Fund has also monetized almost US$2 billion of public and private assets in the first half of this year,
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