PETROLEUM
Saudis mull output cut
Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest crude exporter, might propose an eventual OPEC production cut of 1 million barrels of oil per day that might take effect next year, Energy Intelligence (EI) reported yesterday. Saudi Arabia would consider the cut only if a number of conditions are met and the output reduction would not be agreed at today’s OPEC meeting, according to the report, in EI’s International Oil Daily publication. Non-OPEC producers including Russia, Mexico, Oman and Kazakhstan would also have to participate as would Iran, the report said. Iraq would have to freeze production at current levels or agree to cut with the group, the report said.
FRANCE
Jobless rate hits 10.2%
Unemployment climbed to a near 18-year high of 10.2 percent in the third quarter, the national statistics agency said yesterday, in a setback for the Socialist government just days before regional elections. The number of unemployed rose by 75,000 over the quarter to stand at 2.9 million people, according to a survey conducted by the Insee statistics agency. The rise in the unemployment rate by 0.2 percentage points came despite the economy returning to growth in the third quarter with a 0.3 percent quarter-on-quarter expansion.
BANKING
Bank of China appeals fine
The Bank of China (中國銀行) is appealing a decision by a New York court to fine it US$50,000 per day for withholding information about counterfeiters’ accounts in China. The appeal pits one of China’s largest state banks against luxury brands seeking new tools to fight rampant counterfeiting. Gucci is seeking US$12 million from a counterfeiting ring it says wired proceeds from selling counterfeit goods in America to Bank of China accounts in China. The bank refused to comply with a September court order to provide documents about those accounts, and was slapped with a US$50,000 a day contempt penalty.
BREWERIES
AB InBev mulls sale
Anheuser-Busch InBev NV (AB InBev) said it is to explore the sale of SABMiller PLC’s European premium beer brands, including Peroni and Grolsch, to help address potential antitrust issues arising from the planned merger of the brewers. Meantime Brewing Co, the independent beermaker acquired earlier this year by SABMiller, is also among the brands being considered for sale, AB InBev said in a statement yesterday. Any sale would be conditional upon completion of AB InBev’s acquisition of SABMiller, the companies said.
CANADA
Housing rules might tighten
Government officials are pushing for tighter housing finance rules to cool soaring real-estate markets in Toronto and Vancouver, according to people familiar with the plans. The finance department recommends raising the minimum down payment on insured mortgages to as high as 10 percent from 5 percent for homes above a certain value, the people said. Former Finance Minister Joe Oliver rejected the recommendation earlier this year. Department officials raised the proposal again at a meeting in October with industry, according to one of the people. Jack Aubry, a spokesman for Finance Canada, said the department does not “comment or speculate on possible policy actions, or discuss what might be under consideration.”
Gudeng Precision Industrial Co (家登精密), the sole extreme ultraviolet pod supplier to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電), yesterday said it has trimmed its revenue growth target for this year as US tariffs are likely to depress customer demand and weigh on the whole supply chain. Gudeng’s remarks came after the US on Monday notified 14 countries, including Japan and South Korea, of new tariff rates that are set to take effect on Aug. 1. Taiwan is still negotiating for a rate lower than the 32 percent “reciprocal” tariffs announced by the US in April, which it later postponed to today. The
ELECTRONICS: Strong growth in cloud services and smart consumer electronics offset computing declines, helping the company to maintain sales momentum, Hon Hai said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) on Saturday announced that its sales for last month rose 10 percent year-on-year, driven by strong growth in cloud and networking products amid the ongoing artificial intelligence (AI) boom. The company, also known internationally as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), reported consolidated sales of NT$540.24 billion (US$18.67 billion) for the month, the highest ever for the period, and a 10.09 percent increase from a year earlier, although it was down 12.26 percent from the previous month. Hon Hai, which is Apple Inc’s primary iPhone assembler and makes servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s AI accelerators, said its cloud
Video streaming giant Netflix is launching a talent cultivation program in Taiwan aimed at producing high-quality Mandarin content, the company announced in a press release on Thursday. Netflix Chinese language content head Maya Huang (黃怡玫) said that Netflix has long invested in the Taiwanese market, citing the Netflix Fund for Creative Equity launched last year as an example. The fund would continue to dedicate resources to discovering content with the potential to be developed into Chinese-language projects, she added. The financing for the new talent projects seeks to create an ecosystem for content creators and professional development programs, she said. The talent projects
APPRECIATION: The central bank stepped in to stabilize the NT dollar after a surge in foreign institutional investment, triggered by optimism about tariffs and US Fed policy Taiwan’s foreign exchange reserves hit a record high at the end of last month, as the central bank intervened in the currency market to curb the New Taiwan dollar’s appreciation against the US dollar. Foreign exchange reserves increased by US$5.48 billion from May, reaching an all-time high of US$598.43 billion, the central bank said on Friday. While the central bank did not disclose the scale of its intervention, Department of Foreign Exchange Director-General Eugene Tsai (蔡炯民) said that the currency market remained relatively stable until the middle of last month. However, a shift occurred following the US Federal Reserve’s signal of a
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