REAL ESTATE
US home construction rises
New US home construction and new building permits both jumped last month, demonstrating rising strength in the housing market, the US Department of Commerce reported on Friday. New construction was up 9.8 percent from May to an annual pace of 1.17 million units, while permitting rose 7.4 percent to an annual pace of 1.34 million units. For the first six months of the year, housing starts were 10.9 percent higher than the year-before period, while permits, an indicator of future construction, were up 16.2 percent.
ECONOMY
Canada consumer prices up
Consumer prices in Canada rose 1 percent on an annual basis last month, up from 0.9 percent the previous month, official data showed on Friday. Statistics Canada said the modest inflation rate was due, in large part, to lower energy prices. The Consumer Price Index rose 2.1 percent during the same period when energy prices are taken out of the equation, officials said. The core inflation rate rose a notch last month to 2.3 percent, compared with 2.2 percent in May, remaining above the central bank’s 2 percent target.
AUTOMAKERS
Ferrari to recall 800 cars
Italian luxury automaker Ferrari is recalling about 800 cars in North America after discovering it had improperly installed Takata Corp airbags. According to the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Ferrari North America is recalling 814 certain model-year 2015 458 Italia, 458 Spider, 458 Speciale, 458 Speciale A, California T, FF, F12 Berlinetta and LaFerrari vehicles.
FINANCE
GE reports quarterly losses
General Electric Co (GE) on Friday reported a second-quarter loss due to restructuring costs. The company saw a loss of US$1.36 billion for the quarter ending June 30, compared with a profit of US$3.54 billion a year ago. However, operating profits from GE’s industrial segment rose 4.6 percent to US$4.36 billion. The company also said it would press on to complete the US$12 billion purchase of French company Alstom SA’s energy business and the US$3.3 billion sale of its appliances business to Sweden’s Electrolux AB.
STEEL
POSCO India project on hold
South Korea’s POSCO Co Ltd, the world’s fifth-largest steelmaker, on Friday said it was placing a US$12 billion steel project in India on hold, as part of the restructuring of its bloated business structure at home and abroad. POSCO, which has 48 subsidiaries under its wing, said the project was launched in 2005, but has made little progress due to delays in getting clearances and acquiring land from local residents.
MERGERS
CF eyes OCI agreement
CF Industries Holdings Inc, the largest US nitrogen-based fertilizer producer, is in talks with Dutch rival OCI NV about a merger, a person with knowledge of the matter said. The discussions are at a very early stage and could still fall apart, the person said, adding that there is no certainty that an agreement will be reached. In October lats year, CF terminated talks with Norway’s Yara International ASA over creating the world’s bigger maker of nitrogen fertilizer.
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
EUROPE ON HOLD: Among a flurry of announcements, Intel said it would postpone new factories in Germany and Poland, but remains committed to its US expansion Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger has landed Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a customer for the company’s manufacturing business, potentially bringing work to new plants under construction in the US and boosting his efforts to turn around the embattled chipmaker. Intel and AWS are to coinvest in a custom semiconductor for artificial intelligence computing — what is known as a fabric chip — in a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar framework,” Intel said in a statement on Monday. The work would rely on Intel’s 18A process, an advanced chipmaking technology. Intel shares rose more than 8 percent in late trading after the
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has appointed Rose Castanares, executive vice president of TSMC Arizona, as president of the subsidiary, which is responsible for carrying out massive investments by the Taiwanese tech giant in the US state, the company said in a statement yesterday. Castanares will succeed Brian Harrison as president of the Arizona subsidiary on Oct. 1 after the incumbent president steps down from the position with a transfer to the Arizona CEO office to serve as an advisor to TSMC Arizona’s chairman, the statement said. According to TSMC, Harrison is scheduled to retire on Dec. 31. Castanares joined TSMC in
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