UNITED STATES
Post office loses US$1.9bn
The Postal Service ended its second quarter with a net loss of US$1.9 billion as first-class mail volume continued to tumble and legislators remained at odds over providing any financial relief, the agency said on Friday. The Postal Service’s net loss for the fiscal second quarter ended March 31 surpassed the first quarter’s loss of US$354 million, but it remained flat from the previous year. It was the 20th of the last 22 quarters that the agency has posted a loss, it said. The volume of first-class mail, the agency’s most profitable product, fell 4.1 percent in the second quarter as more residents chose to communicate and pay bills via the Internet. In the meantime, its shipping and packaging business remained a bright spot, with volume increasing 7.3 percent as e-commerce grows.
AUTOMAKERS
Ford recalls 692,000 SUVs
Ford is recalling more than 692,000 Escape small SUVs and C-Max gas-electric hybrids in North America to fix two safety problems. The recalls cover vehicles from the 2013 and 2014 model years. Most of the Escapes have both problems. The first case covers 692,500 Escape and C-Max vehicles. A software glitch can stop the side curtain air bags from inflating in certain types of rollover crashes. The company says it has no reports of crashes or injuries. Dealers will reprogram the air-bag control computer for free. About 65,000 of the recalled vehicles are C-Max models, and the rest are Escapes. About 591,000 are in the US, with 3,500 more in US territories. The affected Escapes were built from Oct. 5, 2011 through Feb. 14 this year. The C-Max vehicles were built from Jan. 19, 2012, through Feb. 24 this year. The second case covers about 692,700 Escapes. Exterior door handles can bind and stop the door from latching properly. This could allow doors to open while the SUVs are in motion.
BANKING
Swisspartners settles with US
Swiss asset management firm, Swisspartners Group, agreed to pay US$4.4 million to the US to settle a probe over whether it helped US taxpayers evade their federal income taxes, the US Department of Justice said on Friday. From about 2001 to about 2011, Swisspartners helped its US clients open and maintain undeclared foreign bank accounts, which allowed them to avoid paying taxes in full, a US Department of Justice statement said. US Attorney for the Southern District of New York Preet Bharara — whose office negotiated the settlement — said Swisspartners avoided criminal charges “as a direct result of its decision to self-report misconduct.”
ENERGY
Obama reveals solar plans
US President Barack Obama unveiled new solar energy plans on Friday, hailing the measures as a vital job-creating tool in the fight against climate change. Obama, wrapping up a three-day fundraising tour of California, announced commitments to develop solar power and energy efficiency by more than 300 private and public sector groups. Separate energy-efficiency investments will lower utility bills for more than 93 million m2 of buildings, the White House said. Obama also unveiled executive actions set to provide for an extra US$2 billion in energy-efficiency investments, improved buildings and smarter appliances.
AI REVOLUTION: The event is to take place from Wednesday to Friday at the Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center’s halls 1 and 2 and would feature more than 1,100 exhibitors Semicon Taiwan, an annual international semiconductor exhibition, would bring leaders from the world’s top technology firms to Taipei this year, the event organizer said. The CEO Summit is to feature nine global leaders from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), ASE Technology Holding Co (ASE, 日月光投控), Applied Materials Inc, Google, Samsung Electronics Co, SK Hynix Inc, Microsoft Corp, Interuniversity Microelectronic Centre and Marvell Technology Group Ltd, SEMI said in a news release last week. The top executives would delve into how semiconductors are positioned as the driving force behind global technological innovation amid the artificial intelligence (AI) revolution, the organizer said. Among them,
Demand for artificial intelligence (AI) chips should spur growth for the semiconductor industry over the next few years, the CEO of a major supplier to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) said, dismissing concerns that investors had misjudged the pace and extent of spending on AI. While the global chip market has grown about 8 percent annually over the past 20 years, AI semiconductors should grow at a much higher rate going forward, Scientech Corp (辛耘) chief executive officer Hsu Ming-chi (許明琪) told Bloomberg Television. “This booming of the AI industry has just begun,” Hsu said. “For the most prominent
Former Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) yesterday warned against the tendency to label stakeholders as either “pro-China” or “pro-US,” calling such rigid thinking a “trap” that could impede policy discussions. Liu, an adviser to the Cabinet’s Economic Development Committee, made the comments in his keynote speech at the committee’s first advisers’ meeting. Speaking in front of Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰), National Development Council (NDC) Minister Paul Liu (劉鏡清) and other officials, Liu urged the public to be wary of falling into the “trap” of categorizing people involved in discussions into either the “pro-China” or “pro-US” camp. Liu,
Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) yesterday said Taiwan’s government plans to set up a business service company in Kyushu, Japan, to help Taiwanese companies operating there. “The company will follow the one-stop service model similar to the science parks we have in Taiwan,” Kuo said. “As each prefecture is providing different conditions, we will establish a new company providing services and helping Taiwanese companies swiftly settle in Japan.” Kuo did not specify the exact location of the planned company but said it would not be in Kumamoto, the Kyushu prefecture in which Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC, 台積電) has a
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