BANKING
Lloyds to pay US$3.3bn fine
Britain’s state-rescued bank Lloyds said yesterday that it will pay almost £2 billion (US$3.3 billion) to cover so-called “mis-selling” claims. Lloyds will take a provision of £1.8 billion for claims relating to the sale of payment protection insurance, and £130 million relating to the sale of interest rate hedging products to small businesses, it said in an update before annual results on Feb. 13, adding it expects to make a “small” pretax profit.
BEVERAGES
Plant closures spur protest
Several thousand people have marched from a Spanish Coca-Cola bottling plant in a southwestern suburb to downtown Madrid to protest the company’s plan to close four plants in the country and lay off workers. Employees, family members, trade union members and sympathizers left the plant in Fuenlabrada and walked 24km on Sunday to Puerta del Sol square, giving away Pepsi cans and chanting: “No to the closures.” Coca-Cola Iberian Partners plans to close four of its 11 plants and lay off 1,253 workers.
MINING
Metalworkers plan strike
Metalworkers at the South African operations of Anglo American Platinum (Amplats) are to strike over pay, the country’s largest trade union said on Sunday in Johannesburg. Between 1,000 and 2,000 Amplats metalworkers were to begin the strike yesterday, the union said. South African miners for the world’s top producer of the precious metal are already on strike. The union demands double-digit pay increases and a doubling of the salaries of the worst-paid workers to 2,500 rand (US$224) per month, said Irvin Jim, general secretary of the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa. Amplats already faces a platinum miners strike that also affects rival firms Implats and Lonmin.
AVIATION
UAE to decide on airline
The United Arab Emirates’ (UAE) national airline suggested on Sunday it is nearing a decision on taking a stake in struggling Italian carrier Alitalia as a high-level Italian delegation promoted investment opportunities during a visit to the Middle East country. In Abu Dhabi, officials signed a number of accords on business deals ranging from energy projects to tourism and fitness centers. They also left Abu Dhabi hopeful that progress is being made in ongoing talks between Etihad Airways and debt-saddled Italian airline Alitalia. The airlines said they have “entered the final phase of a due-diligence process about a possible investment” into the Italian carrier. They will work toward developing a common strategy over the next 30 days, they said.
AUSTRALIA
Fund sees record returns
The Future Fund, the country’s sovereign wealth manager, returned a record 17.2 percent last year as it increased its allocation to global equities at the expense of debt securities. The A$97 billion (US$85 billion) Melbourne-based fund, which was established in May 2006, boosted its allocation in stocks worldwide to 33.1 percent in the fourth quarter of last year from 23.4 percent a year earlier, it said in an e-mailed statement. It reduced its holdings of bonds to 12.2 percent from 19.1 percent over the same period. The returns last year were up from 12.8 percent in 2012, according to the fund.
TEXTILES
ITRI makes heat fiber
The Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI, 工研院) has developed a fiber that it said is ideal for heat-generating apparel because of its ability to absorb light and turn it into heat. The Hsinchu-based research body said the fiber will mainly absorb infrared light from sun rays and lighting and even from body heat. Researchers who worked on the project incorporated inorganic nano powder in the fiber and used surface chemistry techniques to help the fiber absorb or reflect infrared light more evenly. As a result, the fiber is exposed to the infrared light for a longer period of time, which generates more heat and helps the resulting fabric keep people warmer. The ITRI said it has transferred the technology to manufacturers to mass-produce clothing with fabric using the new heat-generating fibers.
TOURISM
HK cruises to increase
The nation’s main cruise hubs should soon get more visitors as Star Cruises plans to offer new routes between Hong Kong and Taiwan on the biggest ship in its Asian fleet later this year to satisfy rising demand. From April 7 to Oct. 26, Star Cruises (麗星郵輪) is to offer three to four four-day/three-night cruises per month from Hong Kong to Greater Kaohsiung and Greater Taichung and one seven-day/six-night cruise a month from Hong Kong to Greater Kaohsiung, Greater Taichung and Keelung on the 15-tonne SuperStar Virgo. Bookings for the Hong Kong-Taiwan cruises have begun, with most of the passengers Chinese travelers, Star Cruises said. The new routes are expected to bring in a combined 50,000 additional passengers to the three port cities, the world’s third-largest cruise line said.
AUTOMAKERS
Kuozui raising production
Kuozui Motor Ltd (國瑞汽車), a Taiwanese manufacturer of Toyota cars, is targeting higher production volume this year after a record-setting year of overseas sales last year. Kuozui assembled 173,705 vehicles last year, accounting for more than half of total domestic car production volume, to bring in revenues of NT$125 billion (US$4.16 billion), it said. Its target in the new year is to make 200,000 cars. Overseas sales of the Kuozui-made Toyota Corolla Altis hit a new high of 80,000 units last year, up 21 percent from the year before thanks to the manufacturer’s major markets in the Middle East growing from six to nine. The company said it plans to build 100,000 more of the model on stable order growth from both domestic and overseas customers.
TECHNOLOGY
Apple gadgets to boost firms
The anticipated launch of bigger smartphones and tablets by Apple Inc later this year should benefit its Taiwanese suppliers Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) and Largan Precision Co (大立光), according to analysis by Bank of America Merrill Lynch. The bank said that Apple remains the most important customer for Taiwan’s technology firms, while the US electronics giant’s potential plan to make bigger iPhones and iPads would strengthen its product portfolio, leading to increasing average selling prices and component value for its supply-chain firms. Merrill Lynch analyst Robert Cheng (鄭勝榮) wrote in a note to clients last week that Hon Hai’s sales momentum is likely to resume this year and its margin expansion is likely to continue. He also forecast that Largan will continue to gain from an industry upgrade in smartphone camera features.
Taiwan’s technology protection rules prohibits Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) from producing 2-nanometer chips abroad, so the company must keep its most cutting-edge technology at home, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. Kuo made the remarks in response to concerns that TSMC might be forced to produce advanced 2-nanometer chips at its fabs in Arizona ahead of schedule after former US president Donald Trump was re-elected as the next US president on Tuesday. “Since Taiwan has related regulations to protect its own technologies, TSMC cannot produce 2-nanometer chips overseas currently,” Kuo said at a meeting of the legislature’s
GEOPOLITICAL ISSUES? The economics ministry said that political factors should not affect supply chains linking global satellite firms and Taiwanese manufacturers Elon Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies Corp (SpaceX) asked Taiwanese suppliers to transfer manufacturing out of Taiwan, leading to some relocating portions of their supply chain, according to sources employed by and close to the equipment makers and corporate documents. A source at a company that is one of the numerous subcontractors that provide components for SpaceX’s Starlink satellite Internet products said that SpaceX asked their manufacturers to produce outside of Taiwan because of geopolitical risks, pushing at least one to move production to Vietnam. A second source who collaborates with Taiwanese satellite component makers in the nation said that suppliers were directly
Top Taiwanese officials yesterday moved to ease concern about the potential fallout of Donald Trump’s return to the White House, making a case that the technology restrictions promised by the former US president against China would outweigh the risks to the island. The prospect of Trump’s victory in this week’s election is a worry for Taipei given the Republican nominee in the past cast doubt over the US commitment to defend it from Beijing. But other policies championed by Trump toward China hold some appeal for Taiwan. National Development Council Minister Paul Liu (劉鏡清) described the proposed technology curbs as potentially having
EXPORT CONTROLS: US lawmakers have grown more concerned that the US Department of Commerce might not be aggressively enforcing its chip restrictions The US on Friday said it imposed a US$500,000 penalty on New York-based GlobalFoundries Inc, the world’s third-largest contract chipmaker, for shipping chips without authorization to an affiliate of blacklisted Chinese chipmaker Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯). The US Department of Commerce in a statement said GlobalFoundries sent 74 shipments worth US$17.1 million to SJ Semiconductor Corp (盛合晶微半導體), an affiliate of SMIC, without seeking a license. Both SMIC and SJ Semiconductor were added to the department’s trade restriction Entity List in 2020 over SMIC’s alleged ties to the Chinese military-industrial complex. SMIC has denied wrongdoing. Exports to firms on the list