AVIATION
Lufthansa crew strike
Germany’s Lufthansa yesterday said it was working on an emergency plan, but would still need to cancel numerous outgoing flights from Frankfurt and Duesseldorf airports due to a cabin crew strike. The airline said it would still be able to offer at least eight of its long-haul flights from Frankfurt after the strike starts at 2pm. It has also reserved 2,500 hotel rooms in the city. The UFO union said earlier this week its members would go on strike for a week, starting yesterday, if its demands were not met.
PHARMACEUTICALS
AstraZeneca to buy ZS
AstraZeneca PLC, the UK’s second-largest drugmaker, yesterday agreed to buy ZS Pharma Inc of California for US$2.7 billion in cash to gain a potential blockbuster medicine for a deadly condition. ZS Pharma holders will get US$90 per share, London-based AstraZeneca said in a statement. ZS’s board agreed to the transaction.
GERMANY
Industrial output drops 1.1%
Industrial production unexpectedly dropped in September as a slowdown in China and other emerging markets took its toll. Output, adjusted for seasonal swings and inflation, fell 1.1 percent from August, when it declined a revised 0.6 percent, data from the Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy showed yesterday. Industrial production fell 0.3 percent in the third quarter from the previous period as manufacturing output dropped. In September, factory production declined 1.4 percent from the previous month.
STEELMAKERS
ArcelorMittal profit falls 29%
ArcelorMittal SA’s third-quarter profit fell 29 percent on a rout in steel prices amid record Chinese exports. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) declined to US$1.35 billion from US$1.9 billion a year earlier, the world’s largest steelmaker said yesterday. The company reduced its full-year EBITDA forecast to US$5.2 billion to US$5.4 billion from US$6 billion to US$7 billion. ArcelorMittal’s earnings from its iron ore mines has dropped after a glut weighed on prices.
CHINA
Auto sales rise 11.3%
Passenger-vehicle sales increased at the fastest pace in seven months after the government cut a tax on car purchases to boost sagging demand in the world’s largest auto market. Retail deliveries of cars, SUVs and multipurpose vehicles rose 11.3 percent to 1.85 million units last month, the biggest monthly gain since March, according to the China Passenger Car Association. Retail sales through October gained 6.4 percent to 16.2 million units.
SOCIAL MEDIA
Ad-blockers hurt Facebook
Facebook Inc on Thursday warned investors in a regulatory filing that its revenue could be adversely affected by technology that blocks advertisements. Ad-blocking tools, which people use to screen out marketing messages, have occasionally affected Facebook’s revenue, especially on desktop computers, the company said in a quarterly filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
INSURANCE
Allianz profit down 15%
Allianz SE, Europe’s biggest insurer, yesterday said third-quarter profit dropped 15 percent as earnings at its property and casualty and asset management units declined. Net income fell to 1.36 billion euros (US$1.48 billion) from 1.61 billion euros a year earlier.
Shares of contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) came under pressure yesterday after a report that Apple Inc is looking to shift some orders from the Taiwanese company to Intel Corp. TSMC shares fell NT$55, or 2.4 percent, to close at NT$2,235 on the local main board, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed. Despite the losses, TSMC is expected to continue to benefit from sound fundamentals, as it maintains a lead over its peers in high-end process development, analysts said. “The selling was a knee-jerk reaction to an Intel-Apple report over the weekend,” Mega International Investment Services Corp (兆豐國際投顧) analyst Alex Huang
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is expected to remain Apple Inc’s primary chip manufacturing partner despite reports that Apple could shift some orders to Intel Corp, industry experts said yesterday. The comments came after The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that Apple and Intel had reached a preliminary agreement following more than a year of negotiations for Intel to manufacture some chips for Apple devices. Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (台灣經濟研究院) economist Arisa Liu (劉佩真) said TSMC’s advanced packaging technologies, including integrated fan-out and chip-on-wafer-on-substrate, remain critical to the performance of Apple’s A-series and M-series chips. She said Intel and Samsung
TRANSITION: With the closure, the company would reorganize its Taiwanese unit to a sales and service-focused model, Bridgestone said Bridgestone Corp yesterday announced it would cease manufacturing operations at its tire plant in Hsinchu County’s Hukou Township (湖口), affecting more than 500 workers. Bridgestone Taiwan Co (台灣普利司通) said in a statement that the decision was based on the Tokyo-based tire maker’s adjustments to its global operational strategy and long-term market development considerations. The Taiwanese unit would be reorganized as part of the closure, effective yesterday, and all related production activities would be concluded, the statement said. Under the plan, Bridgestone would continue to deepen its presence in the Taiwanese market, while transitioning to a sales and service-focused business model, it added. The Hsinchu
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has approved a capital budget of US$31.28 billion for production expansion to meet long-term development needs during the artificial intelligence (AI) boom. The company’s board meeting yesterday approved the capital appropriation plan for purposes such as the installation of advanced technology capacity and fab construction, the world’s largest contract chipmaker said in a statement. At an earnings conference last month, TSMC forecast that its capital expenditure for this year would be at the higher end of the US$52 billion to US$56 billion range it forecast in January in response to robust demand for 5G, AI and
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