PANAMA
Canal expansion complete
The nation is to inaugurate its newly expanded canal on June 26, nearly two years behind schedule, the head of the state canal authority said on Wednesday. The massive, US multibillion-dollar project had originally been scheduled to end in October 2014, but has been successively pushed back. The project’s cost is estimated to have ballooned from an initially budgeted US$5.3 billion to about US$7 billion. About 5 percent of the world’s commercial shipping passes through the Panama Canal.
BEVERAGES
Starbucks to offer rewards
Starbucks Corp on Wednesday said it would introduce a prepaid card by the end of the year that lets people earn points for its rewards program. The Seattle-based company plans to offer the card through Chase and says people would be able to use it wherever Visa is accepted. Chase declined to disclose the terms of its financial arrangement with Starbucks for the prepaid card, but said it has a “large strategic partnership” with the coffee chain.
BANKING
Merrill Lynch down sizing
Bank of America Corp’s Japanese brokerage unit plans to reduce office space in Tokyo to cut expenses, people with knowledge of the matter said. Merrill Lynch Japan Securities Co, which rents six floors of the Nihonbashi 1-chome Mitsui Building, is to vacate one level later this year, the people said. Merrill Lynch Japan is to vacate the 12th floor, which houses its investment-banking division, and transfer employees to other levels, the people said. The company currently occupies the sixth and eighth to 12th floors.
MINING
US$15m diamond mined
Petra Diamonds Ltd yesterday said it had recovered and sold an exceptional 32.33 carat pink diamond from the Williamson mine in Tanzania for US$15 million. The company, which owns the historic Finsch and Cullinan mines, said it would retain a 10 percent interest in the polished proceeds. The diamond was bought by Golden Yellow Diamonds on behalf of diamond manufacturer M.A. Anavi Diamond Group, Petra said.
ENERGY
PetroChina profits dive
Chinese oil giant PetroChina Co (中石油) has posted its lowest profit since 1999 with the company citing a struggling world economy and slump in international oil prices last year. State-owned PetroChina’s net profit tumbled 66.7 percent year-on-year to 35.65 billion yuan (US$5.47 billion) last year, the company said in a statement on Wednesday. The profit figure was the weakest since 1999, Bloomberg News said. Annual revenue dropped 24.4 percent on the year to 1.73 trillion yuan, the statement said, as benchmark crude oil prices slumped by nearly a half.
GERMANY
Consumer confidence fading
Consumer confidence is beginning to feel the heat from international economic risks, a poll found yesterday. “Optimism among German consumers faded somewhat in March,” market research company GfK said in a statement. “It is unlikely that weak demand for German goods in a number of key countries will not have any effect on German economic growth,” the statement said. Looking to next month, GfK’s headline household confidence index was forecast to ease fractionally to 9.4 points from 9.5 points, the institute said.
Three experts in the high technology industry have said that US President Donald Trump’s pledge to impose higher tariffs on Taiwanese semiconductors is part of an effort to force Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) to the negotiating table. In a speech to Republicans on Jan. 27, Trump said he intends to impose tariffs on Taiwan to bring chip production to the US. “The incentive is going to be they’re not going to want to pay a 25, 50 or even a 100 percent tax,” he said. Darson Chiu (邱達生), an economics professor at Taichung-based Tunghai University and director-general of
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) is reportedly making another pass at Nissan Motor Co, as the Japanese automaker's tie-up with Honda Motor Co falls apart. Nissan shares rose as much as 6 percent after Taiwan’s Central News Agency reported that Hon Hai chairman Young Liu (劉揚偉) instructed former Nissan executive Jun Seki to connect with French carmaker Renault SA, which holds about 36 percent of Nissan’s stock. Hon Hai, the Taiwanese iPhone-maker also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), was exploring an investment or buyout of Nissan last year, but backed off in December after the Japanese carmaker penned a deal
WASHINGTON POLICY: Tariffs of 10 percent or more and other new costs are tipped to hit shipments of small parcels, cutting export growth by 1.3 percentage points The decision by US President Donald Trump to ban Chinese companies from using a US tariff loophole would hit tens of billions of dollars of trade and reduce China’s economic growth this year, according to new estimates by economists at Nomura Holdings Inc. According to Nomura’s estimates, last year companies such as Shein (希音) and PDD Holdings Inc’s (拼多多控股) Temu shipped US$46 billion of small parcels to the US to take advantage of the rule that allows items with a declared value under US$800 to enter the US tariff-free. Tariffs of 10 percent or more and other new costs would slash such
SENSOR BUSINESS: The Taiwanese company said that a public tender offer would begin on May 7 through its wholly owned subsidiary Yageo Electronics Japan Yageo Corp (國巨), one of the world’s top three suppliers of passive components, yesterday said it is to launch a tender offer to fully acquire Japan’s Shibaura Electronics Co for up to ¥65.57 billion (US$429.37 million), with an aim to expand its sensor business. The tender offer would be a crucial step for the company to expand its sensor business, Yageo said. Shibaura Electronics is the world’s largest supplier of thermistors, with a market share of 13 percent, research conducted in 2022 by the Japanese firm showed. If a deal goes ahead, it would be the second acquisition of a sensor business since