TRADE
Indonesia posts surplus
Indonesia recorded a trade surplus for the seventh consecutive month last month, official data showed yesterday, due to a steep fall in imports. The statistics agency said Indonesia posted a narrower surplus of US$477 million compared with a revised US$1.08 billion recorded in May. Exports last month slid 12.7 percent on-year to US$13.44 billion, while imports plunged 17.42 percent, down US$12.96 billion from a year before.
PROPERTY
Singapore home sales dip
Singapore home sales dropped 42 percent last month to the lowest this year, as fewer projects were offered. Developers sold 375 units last month compared with a revised 643 units in May, according to data released yesterday by the Urban Redevelopment Authority. Among companies that put up projects for sale, Watervine Homes Pte sold six of 145 units marketed in a northeastern suburb, while Sims Urban Oasis Pte sold 11 units of the 50 it offered in the east, data showed.
RETAIL
US sales edge down 0.3%
US retail sales slid 0.3 percent last month, as consumers pulled back spending in a broad array of areas, including auto purchases, the US Department of Commerce reported on Tuesday. Total retail and food services sales fell to US$442 billion last month, against analysts’ forecast of a 0.3 percent rise. The department also revised lower the May gain to 1 percent from 1.2 percent. Last month’s data suggested the economy was still struggling after a particularly harsh first quarter.
STEEL
POSCO to cut non-core units
POSCO Co Ltd is to reduce its domestic-market businesses by 50 percent and those overseas by 30 percent, as South Korea’s biggest steelmaker increases efforts to fight falling profits amid a global slump in prices. The company will “aggressively” leave non-core operations, CEO Kwon Oh-joon said at a briefing yesterday. The company has already agreed to sell a 38 percent stake in its engineering unit to the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia for 1.24 trillion won (US$1.1 billion).
LUXURY GOODS
Burberry quarterly sales up
Burberry Group PLC, the UK’s largest luxury-goods maker, reported a 10 percent increase in fiscal first-quarter sales, as strong demand in Europe compensated for a slump in Hong Kong. Retail revenue advanced to ￡407 million (US$637 million) in the three months through June, London-based Burberry yesterday said in a statement. Analysts predicted ￡414 million, according to the median of 17 estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Currencies should boost full-year profit by about ￡20 million if they stay at current rates, Burberry added, raising its forecast from May by ￡10 million.
BANKING
JPMorgan Q2 profit up 4%
JPMorgan Chase & Co said on Tuesday that its second-quarter profit rose 4 percent from a year earlier, as the bank continued to trim expenses and notched a solid performance at its investment banking division. The largest US bank by assets earned US$5.78 billion after payments to preferred shareholders, up from a profit of US$5.57 billion a year earlier. On a per-share basis, the bank earned US$1.54 per share, compared with US$1.46 per share a year earlier.
Intel Corp chief executive officer Lip-Bu Tan (陳立武) is expected to meet with Taiwanese suppliers next month in conjunction with the opening of the Computex Taipei trade show, supply chain sources said on Monday. The visit, the first for Tan to Taiwan since assuming his new post last month, would be aimed at enhancing Intel’s ties with suppliers in Taiwan as he attempts to help turn around the struggling US chipmaker, the sources said. Tan is to hold a banquet to celebrate Intel’s 40-year presence in Taiwan before Computex opens on May 20 and invite dozens of Taiwanese suppliers to exchange views
Application-specific integrated circuit designer Faraday Technology Corp (智原) yesterday said that although revenue this quarter would decline 30 percent from last quarter, it retained its full-year forecast of revenue growth of 100 percent. The company attributed the quarterly drop to a slowdown in customers’ production of chips using Faraday’s advanced packaging technology. The company is still confident about its revenue growth this year, given its strong “design-win” — or the projects it won to help customers design their chips, Faraday president Steve Wang (王國雍) told an online earnings conference. “The design-win this year is better than we expected. We believe we will win
Power supply and electronic components maker Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) yesterday said it plans to ship its new 1 megawatt charging systems for electric trucks and buses in the first half of next year at the earliest. The new charging piles, which deliver up to 1 megawatt of charging power, are designed for heavy-duty electric vehicles, and support a maximum current of 1,500 amperes and output of 1,250 volts, Delta said in a news release. “If everything goes smoothly, we could begin shipping those new charging systems as early as in the first half of next year,” a company official said. The new
Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) chairman Barry Lam (林百里) is expected to share his views about the artificial intelligence (AI) industry’s prospects during his speech at the company’s 37th anniversary ceremony, as AI servers have become a new growth engine for the equipment manufacturing service provider. Lam’s speech is much anticipated, as Quanta has risen as one of the world’s major AI server suppliers. The company reported a 30 percent year-on-year growth in consolidated revenue to NT$1.41 trillion (US$43.35 billion) last year, thanks to fast-growing demand for servers, especially those with AI capabilities. The company told investors in November last year that
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