INTERNET
Baidu opens internal probe
Chinese search engine giant Baidu (百度) yesterday said it has launched anti-corruption investigations into its own employees after reports three department heads were being probed. Baidu did not reveal any details of its inquiries, nor confirm how many were being investigated or their names. “Internal anti-corruption action creates a just and transparent working environment, and a sound environment for workers’ development,” the company said in a statement to reporters. Chinese Internet portal Sina (新浪) yesterday reported that Baidu was investigating three departmental directors. Baidu fired five executives in November last year for bribery and illicit appropriation and dismissed four of its employees for bribery in August 2012, according to media reports.
MINING
Baosteel project delayed
A Chinese-led A$7.4 billion (US$5.8 billion) iron ore project in Western Australia looks to be the latest casualty of the price decline, with Wood Mackenzie Ltd estimating it is unlikely to begin output before 2020. “Mindful of the volatility in the iron ore market,” the partners in the Baosteel Group Corp-led West Pilbara iron ore mine, port and rail development, have deferred until late next year a decision on whether to proceed, Aurizon Holdings Ltd —one of the participants — said yesterday in a statement. A decision had previously been planned for early next year, Aurizon said. To deliver the initial capacity of 40 million tonnes a year the project requires the construction of 280km of heavy rail and a port facility at Anketell Point, Aurizon and Baosteel said on June 20 last year, when Chinese benchmark iron ore was trading at US$92.13 a tonne. It traded at US$61.40 a ton on Friday last week. “You are looking at a minimum of four years to do all of that, and that’s the best case scenario,” Sydney-based Wood Mackenzie analyst Andrew Hodge said by telephone. Under that timetable, the project would not begin production before 2020, Hodge said. Baosteel and Aurizon previously said first shipments were expected in 2017 or 2018.
ELECTRONICS
Toshiba’s value plunges
Toshiba Corp yesterday lost US$2.8 billion in market value after the Japanese industrial and electronics group withdrew its earnings forecast pending an internal probe into improper accounting on infrastructure projects. Its shares fell 17 percent, the biggest drop since March 2011, to ￥403.3 in Tokyo. The company announced it was extending an accounting probe and withdrawing its earnings forecast for last fiscal year Friday last week, after trading had closed. Toshiba also said it may have to revise earnings from fiscal year 2013 and earlier. The company had projected net income of ￥120 billion (US$1 billion) on sales of ￥6.7 trillion in the year ended March.
INVESTMENT
Chinese futures top trade
Chinese stock index futures have surpassed S&P 500 futures in turnover to become the world’s most traded equity futures as global investors expanded their exposure to the market. Turnover in the CSI300 futures contract expiring on Friday has soared in recent weeks, in step with surging shares in China. Daily volumes rose to 1.5 million contracts on Friday last week, according to Thomson Reuters data, exceeding the 1.4 million “e-mini” S&P 500 contracts traded on that day. Analysts predict the CSI 300 looks set to overtake futures contracts in other asset classes such as US Treasuries, the most heavily traded futures contract in the world for any asset type.
NEW IDENTITY: Known for its software, India has expanded into hardware, with its semiconductor industry growing from US$38bn in 2023 to US$45bn to US$50bn India on Saturday inaugurated its first semiconductor assembly and test facility, a milestone in the government’s push to reduce dependence on foreign chipmakers and stake a claim in a sector dominated by China. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi opened US firm Micron Technology Inc’s semiconductor assembly, test and packaging unit in his home state of Gujarat, hailing the “dawn of a new era” for India’s technology ambitions. “When young Indians look back in the future, they will see this decade as the turning point in our tech future,” Modi told the event, which was broadcast on his YouTube channel. The plant would convert
Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技) yesterday said the DRAM supply crunch could extend through 2028, as the artificial intelligence (AI) boom has led the world’s major memory makers to dramatically reduce production of standard DRAM and allocate a significant portion of their capacity for high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips. The most severe supply constraints would stretch to the first half of next year due to “very limited” increases in new DRAM capacity worldwide, Nanya Technology president Lee Pei-ing (李培瑛) told a news briefing. The company plans to increase monthly 12-inch wafer capacity to 20,000 in the first half of 2028 after a
Property transactions in the nation’s six special municipalities plunged last month, as a lengthy Lunar New Year holiday combined with ongoing credit tightening dampened housing market activity, data compiled by local land administration offices released on Monday showed. The six cities recorded a total of 10,480 property transfers last month, down 42.5 percent from January and marking the second-lowest monthly level on record, the data showed. “The sharp drop largely reflected seasonal factors and tighter credit conditions,” Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房屋) deputy research manager Chen Chin-ping (陳金萍) said. The nine-day Lunar New Year holiday fell in February this year, reducing
New vehicle sales in Taiwan plunged about 37 percent sequentially last month as the long Lunar New Year holiday and 228 Peace Memorial Day holiday cut short the number of working days, along with the lingering uncertainty over import tax cuts on US vehicles, market researcher U-Car said in a report yesterday. New car sales last month totaled 22,043, slumping from 35,073 units in January and down 19.89 percent from 37,515 in February last year, U-Car data showed. Sales of imported luxury cars, led by Mercedes-Benz, plummeted about 45 percent to 3,109 units last month from 5,663 units in the previous month,
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