CHINA
EU, US imports probed
Authorities yesterday launched an anti-dumping probe into chemical imports from the EU and US, the government said. Beijing’s commerce ministry said it has started investigating whether EU and US firms were selling perchlorethylene at below cost after complaints from domestic companies. Perchlorethylene, also called tetrachloroethylene, is a colorless fluid widely used in dry cleaning. It is the second such anti-dumping procedure by China against European and US industries in less than a month, after it launched an investigation into companies making unwelded pipes.
SOUTH KOREA
Third stock market to open
The nation will open a third stock market next month focused on small business ventures looking to raise capital, market operators said yetserday. The Korea New Exchange (KONEX), part of President Park Geun-hye’s plan to foster a “creative economy” that encourages innovation and entrepreneurship, will open on July 1, Korea Exchange vice chairman Choi Hong-sik said. Various incentives would be offered, with angel investors receiving tax cuts and allowed to defer tax payments as long as they reinvest their returns in fresh business ventures.
FRANCE
Consumers cut food budgets
Consumers cut back on their budgets for food in April, causing overall household consumption to fall by 0.3 percent from the level in March, official data showed yesterday. However, this was because consumption of food in March had surged by 2.7 percent owing to the Easter holiday weekend. In April, consumption of food fell back by 3.3 percent as a consequence, said the national statistics office INSEE which published the data.
NUCLEAR POWER
Power plant to request funds
The operator of Japan’s crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant will ask for more public money to pay compensation, a report said yesterday, taking its total cash handouts to US$38 billion. Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO) will go cap-in-hand to a government-backed fund asking for further help to meet payout demands that continue to swell two years after the tsunami-sparked crisis, the Nikkei Shimbun said. TEPCO will request additional aid to the tune of more than ￥600 billion (US$5.9 billion) as early as Friday, the daily said.
MINING
Chile OKs mine construction
Chile’s visiting president said on Thursday that Canadian firm Barrick Gold can resume operations at its massive gold mine in Chile as long as environmental rules are followed. Construction of the Pascua Lama project, which Barrick Gold launched in 2009, was suspended in April when a Chilean court accepted a complaint filed by indigenous groups on environmental grounds. Chilean President Sebastian Pinera said that 23 environmental areas where Barrick “will have to improve their behavior.”
TECHNOLOGY
HTC One to run new Android
Google is adding the recently released HTC One to its lineup of smartphones running on an unmodified version of its latest Android software. An HTC One model relying on the same version of Android as Google’s Nexus brand will go on sale on June 26 for US$599. That is the same day Google Inc will start selling a Samsung Galaxy 4S that runs on a pure version of Android for US$649.
To many, Tatu City on the outskirts of Nairobi looks like a success. The first city entirely built by a private company to be operational in east Africa, with about 25,000 people living and working there, it accounts for about two-thirds of all foreign investment in Kenya. Its low-tax status has attracted more than 100 businesses including Heineken, coffee brand Dormans, and the biggest call-center and cold-chain transport firms in the region. However, to some local politicians, Tatu City has looked more like a target for extortion. A parade of governors have demanded land worth millions of dollars in exchange
An Indonesian animated movie is smashing regional box office records and could be set for wider success as it prepares to open beyond the Southeast Asian archipelago’s silver screens. Jumbo — a film based on the adventures of main character, Don, a large orphaned Indonesian boy facing bullying at school — last month became the highest-grossing Southeast Asian animated film, raking in more than US$8 million. Released at the end of March to coincide with the Eid holidays after the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan, the movie has hit 8 million ticket sales, the third-highest in Indonesian cinema history, Film
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) revenue jumped 48 percent last month, underscoring how electronics firms scrambled to acquire essential components before global tariffs took effect. The main chipmaker for Apple Inc and Nvidia Corp reported monthly sales of NT$349.6 billion (US$11.6 billion). That compares with the average analysts’ estimate for a 38 percent rise in second-quarter revenue. US President Donald Trump’s trade war is prompting economists to retool GDP forecasts worldwide, casting doubt over the outlook for everything from iPhone demand to computing and datacenter construction. However, TSMC — a barometer for global tech spending given its central role in the
Alchip Technologies Ltd (世芯), an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) designer specializing in server chips, expects revenue to decline this year due to sagging demand for 5-nanometer artificial intelligence (AI) chips from a North America-based major customer, a company executive said yesterday. That would be the first contraction in revenue for Alchip as it has been enjoying strong revenue growth over the past few years, benefiting from cloud-service providers’ moves to reduce dependence on Nvidia Corp’s expensive AI chips by building their own AI accelerator by outsourcing chip design. The 5-nanometer chip was supposed to be a new growth engine as the lifecycle
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