AUTOMAKERS
Rolls-Royce cuts staff
Rolls-Royce Holdings PLC was to make a second round of cuts to senior management yesterday after about a dozen top executives were let go last month as part of a continuing cost-reduction program. Fewer than 50 managers were to be given notice internally as part of Rolls-Royce’s plan to shave between ￡150 million and ￡200 million (US$215 million and US$287 million) in costs per year by next year, a spokesman said in an e-mail. Last month’s cuts included Tony Wood, head of the engine maker’s aerospace division, and Lawrie Haynes, head of land and sea.
RETAIL
Germany posts robust sales
Retailers in Germany clocked up their strongest annual increase in sales in 21 years last year, with business expanding by 2.7 percent, official data showed yesterday. Retail sales, a closely watched measure of household confidence, eased by a fractional 0.2 percent last month alone, the German federal statistics office Destatis said in a statement. However, retailers’ sales jumped by 2.7 percent during the whole of last year, which was the strongest increase since 1994, Destatis said.
AUTOMAKERS
Honda sees profit slip
Honda Motor Co’s quarterly profit slipped 19 percent as costs related to air-bag recalls eroded the benefits from growing sales. The Japanese firm yesterday reported an October-December profit of ￥124.1 billion (US$1 billion), while sales for fiscal third quarter edged up 3.4 percent to ￥3.617 trillion. Honda, which makes the Odyssey minivan, Civic sedan and Asimo humanoid robot, stuck to its forecast for profit to rise 3 percent to ￥525 billion for the fiscal year ending March.
SOFTWARE
Microsoft beats forecasts
Microsoft Corp on Thursday posted better-than-projected sales and profit, fueled by cloud services and Office productivity programs, as CEO Satya Nadella’s efforts to transform the software maker gain ground. Profit excluding certain items in the second fiscal quarter, which ended on Dec. 31, was US$0.78 per share, and sales adjusted for deferrals were US$25.7 billion, Microsoft said. Analysts on average estimated profit would be US$0.71 on revenue of US$25.3 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
ENERGY
PetroChina tips profit drop
Chinese energy giant PetroChina Co Ltd (中國石油天然氣) yesterday said it expects profits for last year to have fallen by 60 to 70 percent from a year earlier. Net profit is forecast to fall because of the slump in oil and domestic natural gas prices, the company said in a statement to the Shanghai Stock Exchange. The earnings estimates were compiled according to Chinese accounting standards.
ELECTRONICS
Apple recalls adapters
Apple Inc on Thursday announced a recall of 12 years’ worth of wall plug adapters it sold outside the US, warning of the risk of electric shock. The recall was sparked by the danger of the two-prong AC wall plug adapters breaking and shocking people who touch them, the California-based technology giant said in an online post. Apple said that it was aware of 12 incidents worldwide involving the adapters. The units targeted in the recall were designed for use in Argentina, Brazil, much of Europe, New Zealand and South Korea.
TECH PARTNERSHIP: The deal with Arizona-based Amkor would provide TSMC with advanced packing and test capacities, a requirement to serve US customers Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is collaborating with Amkor Technology Inc to provide local advanced packaging and test capacities in Arizona to address customer requirements for geographical flexibility in chip manufacturing. As part of the agreement, TSMC, the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, would contract turnkey advanced packaging and test services from Amkor at their planned facility in Peoria, Arizona, a joint statement released yesterday said. TSMC would leverage these services to support its customers, particularly those using TSMC’s advanced wafer fabrication facilities in Phoenix, Arizona, it said. The companies would jointly define the specific packaging technologies, such as TSMC’s Integrated
An Indian factory producing iPhone components resumed work yesterday after a fire that halted production — the third blaze to disrupt Apple Inc’s local supply chain since the start of last year. Local industrial behemoth Tata Group’s plant in Tamil Nadu, which was shut down by the unexplained fire on Saturday, is a key linchpin of Apple’s nascent supply chain in the country. A spokesperson for subsidiary Tata Electronics Pvt yesterday said that the company would restart work in “many areas of the facility today.” “We’ve been working diligently since Saturday to support our team and to identify the cause of the fire,”
China’s economic planning agency yesterday outlined details of measures aimed at boosting the economy, but refrained from major spending initiatives. The piecemeal nature of the plans announced yesterday appeared to disappoint investors who were hoping for bolder moves, and the Shanghai Composite Index gave up a 10 percent initial gain as markets reopened after a weeklong holiday to end 4.59 percent higher, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index dived 9.41 percent. Chinese National Development and Reform Commission Chairman Zheng Shanjie (鄭珊潔) said the government would frontload 100 billion yuan (US$14.2 billion) in spending from the government’s budget for next year in addition
Sales RecORD: Hon Hai’s consolidated sales rose by about 20 percent last quarter, while Largan, another Apple supplier, saw quarterly sales increase by 17 percent IPhone assembler Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) on Saturday reported its highest-ever quarterly sales for the third quarter on the back of solid global demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團) globally, said it posted NT$1.85 trillion (US$57.93 billion) in consolidated sales in the July-to-September quarter, up 19.46 percent from the previous quarter and up 20.15 percent from a year earlier. The figure beat the previous third-quarter high of NT$1.74 trillion recorded in 2022, company data showed. Due to rising demand for AI, Hon Hai said its cloud and networking division enjoyed strong sales
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