FRANCE
Industrial output falls 0.9%
The country’s industrial output fell by a worse-than-expected 0.9 percent in March due to lower production in the farm and transport sectors and a sharp drop in refining activity, official data showed yesterday. The drop, in part an adjustment from a 0.8 percent rebound in February driven by the restarting of a refinery, was worse than the 0.3 percent dip predicted by economists in a Reuters poll. Output over the first quarter in the moribund industrial sector — which makes up about 12 percent of the country’s economy — was down 0.4 percent from the previous quarter.
TELECOMS
EU backs Apple
The European Commission said Motorola Mobility may have abused its dominant market position to deny Apple the right to use technology essential for mobile phones. It is a violation of EU antitrust rules for a patent-holder to deny use to technologically essential patents to companies willing to pay a fair and reasonable price. Motorola Mobility, now owned by Google, obtained an injunction preventing Apple from using certain patented technologies. The preliminary finding could lead to formal anti-trust charges.
AUTOMAKERS
GM recalls 43,500 hybrids
General Motors (GM) is recalling nearly 43,000 hybrid vehicles in the US and about 500 in Canada to fix a defect that could cause a fire in the trunk, the automaker said on Monday. The recall affects this year’s Chevrolet Malibu Eco models and Buick LaCrosse and Regal sedans from last year and this year that are equipped with eAssist hybrid gas-electric engines. “The issue is the potential overheating of the circuit boards in the generator control module, but it does not involve the eAssist battery,” GM said.
AUTOMAKERS
Fiat investing in Brazil
Italian carmaker Fiat is upping its stake in Brazil, pouring about US$7 billion into local investments by 2016, according to a plan its CEO Sergio Marchionne handed Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff on Monday. The company’s plans expand — dramatically so — on an earlier outline that called for about US$4 billion in investment between 2011 and next year, state news agency Agencia Brasil reported. The outlays will fund building and expansions of factories in Brazil, the agency said.
FINANCE
BofA settles mortgage suit
Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BofA Merrill Lynch) agreed to pay bond insurer MBIA US$1.7 billion to settle a dispute over faulty mortgage securities issued during the US housing boom. In exchange for the payment, the bond insurer will drop the litigation it brought against the mortgage lender Countrywide in 2008, according to a statement released by MBIA on Monday. Countrywide was acquired by BofA Merrill Lynch in 2008. Also, MBIA will have no further payment obligations on any of its insurance policies held by BofA Merrill Lynch.
LIQUOR
Diageo names Menezes CEO
Spirits company Diageo named chief operating officer Ivan Menezes its new chief executive yesterday, choosing an insider to replace Paul Walsh, who has been at the helm of the British firm since 2000. Menezes will take over the top job from July 1 and Walsh will remain with the company over the next year to focus on moving “critical partner relationships” to Menezes, the maker of Guinness stout and Tanqueray gin said in a statement.
SEMICONDUCTORS: The German laser and plasma generator company will expand its local services as its specialized offerings support Taiwan’s semiconductor industries Trumpf SE + Co KG, a global leader in supplying laser technology and plasma generators used in chip production, is expanding its investments in Taiwan in an effort to deeply integrate into the global semiconductor supply chain in the pursuit of growth. The company, headquartered in Ditzingen, Germany, has invested significantly in a newly inaugurated regional technical center for plasma generators in Taoyuan, its latest expansion in Taiwan after being engaged in various industries for more than 25 years. The center, the first of its kind Trumpf built outside Germany, aims to serve customers from Taiwan, Japan, Southeast Asia and South Korea,
Gasoline and diesel prices at domestic fuel stations are to fall NT$0.2 per liter this week, down for a second consecutive week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) announced yesterday. Effective today, gasoline prices at CPC and Formosa stations are to drop to NT$26.4, NT$27.9 and NT$29.9 per liter for 92, 95 and 98-octane unleaded gasoline respectively, the companies said in separate statements. The price of premium diesel is to fall to NT$24.8 per liter at CPC stations and NT$24.6 at Formosa pumps, they said. The price adjustments came even as international crude oil prices rose last week, as traders
SIZE MATTERS: TSMC started phasing out 8-inch wafer production last year, while Samsung is more aggressively retiring 8-inch capacity, TrendForce said Chipmakers are expected to raise prices of 8-inch wafers by up to 20 percent this year on concern over supply constraints as major contract chipmakers Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and Samsung Electronics Co gradually retire less advanced wafer capacity, TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said yesterday. It is the first significant across-the-board price hike since a global semiconductor correction in 2023, the Taipei-based market researcher said in a report. Global 8-inch wafer capacity slid 0.3 percent year-on-year last year, although 8-inch wafer prices still hovered at relatively stable levels throughout the year, TrendForce said. The downward trend is expected to continue this year,
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which supplies advanced chips to Nvidia Corp and Apple Inc, yesterday reported NT$1.046 trillion (US$33.1 billion) in revenue for last quarter, driven by constantly strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) chips, falling in the upper end of its forecast. Based on TSMC’s financial guidance, revenue would expand about 22 percent sequentially to the range from US$32.2 billion to US$33.4 billion during the final quarter of 2024, it told investors in October last year. Last year in total, revenue jumped 31.61 percent to NT$3.81 trillion, compared with NT$2.89 trillion generated in the year before, according to
RSS