DEFENSE
Lockheed to furlough staff
Lockheed Martin says it will furlough 3,000 employees tomorrow due to the US government shutdown. The big defense contractor on Friday said that the number of employees put on furlough will increase weekly if the shutdown continues. Lockheed said the furloughs include staff who cannot work because the US government facility where they work is closed and those whose jobs require a government inspection that cannot be completed or for which the company has received a stop work order. United Technologies Corp said earlier in the week that it will furlough 2,000 employees by tomorrow and more than 5,000 if the shutdown continues next month.
ECONOMY
IMF cuts Ireland forecast
The IMF on Friday slashed its growth forecasts for Ireland after predicting weaker consumer demand and export growth for the bailed-out eurozone nation. The IMF, which formed a central part of Ireland’s international rescue in 2010 that was worth 85 billion euros (US$115.2 at current exchange rates), said it expects Ireland’s economy to grow by 0.6 percent this year, compared with a previous forecast of 1.1 percent. It added that GDP was forecast to expand by 1.8 percent next year, compared with its earlier prediction of 2.2 percent. “Most importantly, export growth has been cut by 1.5 percentage points,” the IMF said in a report. “Weaker consumption and export growth are expected to dampen the pace of recovery, with growth now penciled in at 1.8 percent in 2014.”
RETAIL
Wal-Mart in talks with Bharti
Wal-Mart Stores Inc, the world’s largest retailer, said it is in talks with Indian partner Bharti Enterprises Pvt on its future business plan and aims to reach an agreement in the next few weeks. Wal-Mart has a “very good” relationship with Bharti and has had multiple conversations with billionaire owner Sunil Mittal in the past few days to determine the next steps, Scott Price, head of Wal-Mart’s Asia operations, said yesterday. His comments come after Indian media have suggested that Bharti is seeking to exit the joint venture due to Wal-Mart’s lack of progress in expanding operations in the country. While New Delhi changed laws in September last year to allow foreign retailers to own majority stakes in multi-brand retail chains, no global retailers have sought such licenses yet. Rules covering sourcing, infrastructure investment and store location were also eased to entice global chains to open retail stores in India.
ECONOMY
Challenges to growth seen
The Asia-Pacific region will have a challenging time sustaining economic growth, as it is constrained by volatility in financial markets and a slow recovery in advanced nations, Moody’s Investors Service said. The region still has a “long way to go” in shifting from export-led growth to driven by domestic demand, Michael Taylor, Moody’s chief credit officer for Asia, told reporters yesterday in Nusa Dua, Indonesia, where trade and foreign ministers from APEC members are attending a summit. “What we are sensing is that there is a change in the economic cycle and sustaining the levels of economic growth that we have seen in the region over the last five years is going to become more challenging,” Taylor said.
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) is expected to miss the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump on Monday, bucking a trend among high-profile US technology leaders. Huang is visiting East Asia this week, as he typically does around the time of the Lunar New Year, a person familiar with the situation said. He has never previously attended a US presidential inauguration, said the person, who asked not to be identified, because the plans have not been announced. That makes Nvidia an exception among the most valuable technology companies, most of which are sending cofounders or CEOs to the event. That includes
TARIFF TRADE-OFF: Machinery exports to China dropped after Beijing ended its tariff reductions in June, while potential new tariffs fueled ‘front-loaded’ orders to the US The nation’s machinery exports to the US amounted to US$7.19 billion last year, surpassing the US$6.86 billion to China to become the largest export destination for the local machinery industry, the Taiwan Association of Machinery Industry (TAMI, 台灣機械公會) said in a report on Jan. 10. It came as some manufacturers brought forward or “front-loaded” US-bound shipments as required by customers ahead of potential tariffs imposed by the new US administration, the association said. During his campaign, US president-elect Donald Trump threatened tariffs of as high as 60 percent on Chinese goods and 10 percent to 20 percent on imports from other countries.
Taiwanese manufacturers have a chance to play a key role in the humanoid robot supply chain, Tongtai Machine and Tool Co (東台精機) chairman Yen Jui-hsiung (嚴瑞雄) said yesterday. That is because Taiwanese companies are capable of making key parts needed for humanoid robots to move, such as harmonic drives and planetary gearboxes, Yen said. This ability to produce these key elements could help Taiwanese manufacturers “become part of the US supply chain,” he added. Yen made the remarks a day after Nvidia Corp cofounder and chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said his company and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) are jointly
MARKET SHIFTS: Exports to the US soared more than 120 percent to almost one quarter, while ASEAN has steadily increased to 18.5 percent on rising tech sales The proportion of Taiwan’s exports directed to China, including Hong Kong, declined by more than 12 percentage points last year compared with its peak in 2020, the Ministry of Finance said on Thursday last week. The decrease reflects the ongoing restructuring of global supply chains, driven by escalating trade tensions between Beijing and Washington. Data compiled by the ministry showed China and Hong Kong accounted for 31.7 percent of Taiwan’s total outbound sales last year, a drop of 12.2 percentage points from a high of 43.9 percent in 2020. In addition to increasing trade conflicts between China and the US, the ministry said
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