MINING
China tightens rare earths
China’s government has cut the number of permits issued for rare earths mining in a new move to tighten controls over the exotic minerals needed to manufacture mobile phones and other high-tech goods. State television yesterday said the Ministry of Land and Resources will cut the number of mining permits by 40 percent from 113 to 67. The report gave no indication how that was expected to affect the amount of rare earths produced.
SHIPPING
FedEx gloomy about future
FedEx Corp says the global economy is stalling, and it is going to get worse next year. On Tuesday, the world’s second-largest package delivery company said a continued slowdown in the developed world combined with high fuel prices will keep trade volumes at low levels. FedEx sharply cut its earnings forecast for the fiscal year ending in May. It cut its forecast for the full year to between US$6.2 and US$6.6 per share, from US$6.9 to US$7.4 previously.
TELECOMS
Brazil spurs innovation
Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff has approved new tax incentives to boost innovation in the information technology and telecommunications sectors, the official Agencia Brasil reported on Tuesday. The measures, published in the Official Gazette, are part of the government’s Brasil Maior (“Bigger Brazil”) plan unveiled in August last year to strengthen the productivity and competitiveness of Brazilian industries. The plan provides incentives, financing and tax relief for domestic sectors, including information and communication technology.
CREDIT
Australia still rated ‘AAA’
International credit agency Standard & Poor’s yesterday affirmed mining-driven Australia’s “AAA” rating with a stable outlook, but warned about its growing reliance on the Chinese economy. Australia is one of only a handful of nations to hold the top rating, with its economy growing a solid 0.6 percent in the three months to June and 3.7 percent from a year earlier. However, the figure was less than half the upwardly revised 1.4 percent in the first quarter of this year and below analyst predictions of 0.8 percent.
VIDEO GAMES
PlayStation 3 gets smaller
Sony Corp is introducing a smaller, slimmer and lighter version of its PlayStation 3 home console ahead of the year-end holidays as it gears up for growing competition in games from smartphones. The announcement yesterday from the Japanese company comes a day ahead of the annual Tokyo Game Show, where game makers show their wares. The new PlayStation 3, closer to the size of a laptop, is half the size of the original model, introduced in 2006. It also offers more hard-drive memory at 500 gigabytes and 250 gigabytes, up from the current 320 and 160 options. The global rollout starts on Sept. 25 in North America.
FINANCE
Goldman Sachs CFO retires
Goldman Sachs Group Inc’s chief financial officer is retiring, and his replacement is a longtime executive at the investment bank. David Viniar, 57, is stepping down after 32 years with Goldman, the last 12 as CFO. Harvey Schwartz, 48, will replace him at the end of January, the bank said on Tuesday. After Viniar leaves the post, he will join Goldman’s board as a non-independent director.
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his
ADVERSARIES: The new list includes 11 entities in China and one in Taiwan, which is a local branch of Chinese cloud computing firm Inspur Group The US added dozens of entities to a trade blacklist on Tuesday, the US Department of Commerce said, in part to disrupt Beijing’s artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced computing capabilities. The action affects 80 entities from countries including China, the United Arab Emirates and Iran, with the commerce department citing their “activities contrary to US national security and foreign policy.” Those added to the “entity list” are restricted from obtaining US items and technologies without government authorization. “We will not allow adversaries to exploit American technology to bolster their own militaries and threaten American lives,” US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said. The entities
Minister of Finance Chuang Tsui-yun (莊翠雲) yesterday told lawmakers that she “would not speculate,” but a “response plan” has been prepared in case Taiwan is targeted by US President Donald Trump’s reciprocal tariffs, which are to be announced on Wednesday next week. The Trump administration, including US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, has said that much of the proposed reciprocal tariffs would focus on the 15 countries that have the highest trade surpluses with the US. Bessent has referred to those countries as the “dirty 15,” but has not named them. Last year, Taiwan’s US$73.9 billion trade surplus with the US
Prices of gasoline and diesel products at domestic gas stations are to fall NT$0.2 and NT$0.1 per liter respectively this week, even though international crude oil prices rose last week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) said yesterday. International crude oil prices continued rising last week, as the US Energy Information Administration reported a larger-than-expected drop in US commercial crude oil inventories, CPC said in a statement. Based on the company’s floating oil price formula, the cost of crude oil rose 2.38 percent last week from a week earlier, it said. News that US President Donald Trump plans a “secondary
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