NEW ZEALAND
Budget surplus posted
The government yesterday delivered its first budget surplus in six years, producing a family-friendly document ahead of a general election later this year. Finance Minister Bill English announced a bigger-than-forecast surplus of NZ$372 million (US$322.5 million) and took his foot off the brakes on spending after years of austerity to get the books back in the black. The government forecast increasing surpluses in future and said it was targeting a reduction in net debt to below 20 percent of GDP by 2020. The surplus follows two years of balanced budgets and an NZ$18.4 billion deficit in 2010-2011.
BANKING
Eleven sacked over loans
Citigroup’s Mexican bank subsidiary on Wednesday said it has fired 11 employees for not following proper procedures in dealing with a Mexican oil services company that allegedly defrauded Citigroup of up to US$400 million. Grupo Financiero Banamex said in a statement that the 11 employees of various ranks “did not follow the supervisory standards expected as part of their responsibilities.” It said more employees might face sanctions, as a result of an internal company investigation. Banamex in February said that the oil services company Oceanografia had used falsified invoices as collateral to obtain US$585 million in loans. After an investigation, Citigroup could verify only US$185 million of invoices.
GREEN ENERGY
Siemens wins turbine deal
German engineering giant Siemens yesterday said it has won a 1.5 billion euro (US$2 billion) contract to supply wind turbines to a huge offshore wind park being built off the Dutch coast. Siemens said in a statement it will deliver 150 wind turbines with a capacity of 4 megawatt for a wind power plant in the North Sea, 85km from the coast of Groningen. With an installed capacity of 600 megawatt in total, the “Gemini” wind park will yield 2.6 terawatt-hours of electricity per year and supply clean energy for 1.5 million people after being fully commissioned.
SOFTWARE
Blink to disappear
Self-destructing message application Blink is vanishing into Yahoo’s growing mountain of mobile technology company take-overs. A post on Wednesday at the Blink Web site announced that the start-up is becoming part of Yahoo, but did not disclose financial terms of the deal. Blink said that in coming weeks it will shut down its applications for mobile devices powered by Apple or Android. No mention was made regarding what Yahoo planned to do with Blink technology that is competing with Snapchat by letting people send digital messages, pictures or voice files designed to erase themselves shortly after being opened.
CRIME
Mexican seeks US asylum
Fugitive Mexican businessman Gaston Azcarraga, who controlled Mexicana Airlines before it went bankrupt and was recently charged with illegal use of the airline’s funds, has asked for asylum in the US, Mexican Assistant Attorney General Mariana Benitez said on Wednesday. She said that US officials notified Mexico that Azcarraga is in their country a few days ago. Benitez added that Mexico requested that he be extradited, but US authorities must first rule on his asylum request. Mexicana declared bankruptcy last month, almost four years after it stopped flying because of financial problems.
POWERING UP: PSUs for AI servers made up about 50% of Delta’s total server PSU revenue during the first three quarters of last year, the company said Power supply and electronic components maker Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) reported record-high revenue of NT$161.61 billion (US$5.11 billion) for last quarter and said it remains positive about this quarter. Last quarter’s figure was up 7.6 percent from the previous quarter and 41.51 percent higher than a year earlier, and largely in line with Yuanta Securities Investment Consulting Co’s (元大投顧) forecast of NT$160 billion. Delta’s annual revenue last year rose 31.76 percent year-on-year to NT$554.89 billion, also a record high for the company. Its strong performance reflected continued demand for high-performance power solutions and advanced liquid-cooling products used in artificial intelligence (AI) data centers,
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,
Vincent Wei led fellow Singaporean farmers around an empty Malaysian plot, laying out plans for a greenhouse and rows of leafy vegetables. What he pitched was not just space for crops, but a lifeline for growers struggling to make ends meet in a city-state with high prices and little vacant land. The future agriculture hub is part of a joint special economic zone launched last year by the two neighbors, expected to cost US$123 million and produce 10,000 tonnes of fresh produce annually. It is attracting Singaporean farmers with promises of cheaper land, labor and energy just over the border.
A proposed billionaires’ tax in California has ignited a political uproar in Silicon Valley, with tech titans threatening to leave the state while California Governor Gavin Newsom of the Democratic Party maneuvers to defeat a levy that he fears would lead to an exodus of wealth. A technology mecca, California has more billionaires than any other US state — a few hundred, by some estimates. About half its personal income tax revenue, a financial backbone in the nearly US$350 billion budget, comes from the top 1 percent of earners. A large healthcare union is attempting to place a proposal before
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