ENTERTAINMENT
Music business growth flat
The US retail music business was essentially flat last year, as growth in streaming revenue helped offset further decline in sales of CDs, a report from the Recording Industry Association of America said on Wednesday. Overall, retail revenue declined by about 0.5 percent to US$6.97 billion. Meanwhile, wholesale revenue for the recorded music industry grew by 2 percent to US$4.86 billion, the association said. Of the revenue mix, permanent downloads made up 37 percent of the total market, down from 40 percent in 2013. Streaming revenue was 27 percent of the total, up from 21 percent a year earlier, while physical shipment revenue was 32 percent of the total, down from 35 percent, it said.
FOOD & BEVERAGE
Charoen plans expansion
Charoen Pokphand Foods PCL, Thailand’s largest meat and animal feed producer, plans to spend 20 billion baht to 25 billion baht (US$611 million to US$763 million) this year, mostly on the expansion of its international operations and overseas acquisitions. Charoen Pokphand will keep its annual investment budget at that level over the next five years, aiming to meet a sales growth target of 10 percent a year, chief executive Adirek Sripratak said yesterday. The company also plans to spin off the non-core assets of its Hong Kong-listed CP Pokphand, and put the new entity on the Hong Kong stock exchange sometime in the middle of the year, Adirek said.
OIL
ConocoPhillips to cut jobs
American oil firm ConocoPhillips Co on Wednesday announced the slashing of about 200 jobs in Canada, or 7 percent of its staff in that country, in response to plunging oil prices. This follows hundreds of job cuts announced recently by others with mines in the Alberta oil sands, including China National Offshore Oil Corp (中國海洋石油) subsidiary Nexen Inc, Suncor Energy Inc and Royal Dutch Shell PLC in response to falling oil prices. According to government statistics, 20,000 jobs have been shed in Canada’s oil sands since September last year.
FASHION
Jimmy Choo earnings up
Luxury shoemaker Jimmy Choo reported a 7.2 percent rise in annual earnings and said it would continue to grow by expanding its store portfolio in China. Adjusted core earnings reached ￡50.2 million (US$75 million) last year, compared with ￡46.9 million in 2013. Underlying sales rose 5.7 percent at its retail arm last year. That growth would come from opening 10 to 15 new directly owned shops this year, with a focus on China, as the company continues to perform well in Asia. In Europe, the Middle East and Africa, Jimmy Choo said that it was being impacted by fewer Russian travelers.
TRADE
US to challenge Indonesia
US trade and agriculture officials on Wednesday announced that the US is bringing a case against Indonesia at the WTO in Geneva. The US has long complained about Indonesian trade policies, including a ban on chicken and other meats, and licensing requirements that limit US farm exports. Without those barriers, Indonesia — whose population of 254 million is the world’s fourth-largest — would be a more lucrative market for US farmers, US officials said. New Zealand is joining the US in the case.
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his
ADVERSARIES: The new list includes 11 entities in China and one in Taiwan, which is a local branch of Chinese cloud computing firm Inspur Group The US added dozens of entities to a trade blacklist on Tuesday, the US Department of Commerce said, in part to disrupt Beijing’s artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced computing capabilities. The action affects 80 entities from countries including China, the United Arab Emirates and Iran, with the commerce department citing their “activities contrary to US national security and foreign policy.” Those added to the “entity list” are restricted from obtaining US items and technologies without government authorization. “We will not allow adversaries to exploit American technology to bolster their own militaries and threaten American lives,” US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said. The entities
Minister of Finance Chuang Tsui-yun (莊翠雲) yesterday told lawmakers that she “would not speculate,” but a “response plan” has been prepared in case Taiwan is targeted by US President Donald Trump’s reciprocal tariffs, which are to be announced on Wednesday next week. The Trump administration, including US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, has said that much of the proposed reciprocal tariffs would focus on the 15 countries that have the highest trade surpluses with the US. Bessent has referred to those countries as the “dirty 15,” but has not named them. Last year, Taiwan’s US$73.9 billion trade surplus with the US
Prices of gasoline and diesel products at domestic gas stations are to fall NT$0.2 and NT$0.1 per liter respectively this week, even though international crude oil prices rose last week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) said yesterday. International crude oil prices continued rising last week, as the US Energy Information Administration reported a larger-than-expected drop in US commercial crude oil inventories, CPC said in a statement. Based on the company’s floating oil price formula, the cost of crude oil rose 2.38 percent last week from a week earlier, it said. News that US President Donald Trump plans a “secondary
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