CHINA
Restructuring plan approved
Regulators have pushed through the debt restructuring plan of a state-owned steel trader as the government gets set for a new round of debt cleanups, a subsidiary said. Sinosteel Engineering and Technology Co Ltd (中鋼設備) on Tuesday received a notice from its controlling holder, Sinosteel Corp (中國中鋼), that its parent’s plan had been approved with guidance from government agencies, according to a statement from the unit to the Shenzhen Stock Exchange. Beijing-based Sinosteel Corp will accelerate supply-side reforms and take the restructuring as an opportunity to become an international company, the statement said.
BANKING
Tax puts jobs at risk
The Swedish Bankers’ Association says a planned tax targeting the finance industry would put some 16,000 jobs at risk. The ruling coalition in Sweden, where assets in the four largest banks are four times the size of the economy, has proposed a new payroll tax that the association says might be set at 15 percent of financial industry salaries. Citing “signals” from a government-ordered review on the levy that has yet to be published, the group said such a move would jeopardize almost one-fifth of Sweden’s 85,000 finance jobs.
GERMANY
Consumers’ moods brighten
Consumers’ moods brightened slightly this month, a monthly survey showed yesterday, but researchers spotlighted fears of trouble in the wake of Brexit and a summer of violence. The headline consumer sentiment index from market research firm GfK crept up to 10.2 points this month. However, the pollsters said that “just the announcement that Britain would leave the EU has caused increased uncertainty” and forecast a slight fall in consumer confidence next month.
CHINA
Rebalancing ‘reverses’
Economic rebalancing to consumer-led growth is reversing, according to the China Beige Book, which said third-quarter growth engines are exclusively in the “old economy.” Manufacturing, property and commodities strengthened while retail, services and transportation — crucial parts of the “new economy” — all saw weaker results, the private survey by CBB International shows. Employment held up while profits and cash flow deteriorated, the New York-based research group said.
FOOD AND DRINK
Chicken nuggets recalled
Tyson Foods Inc on Tuesday said it is voluntarily recalling more than 59.87 tonnes of chicken nuggets after receiving reports that “hard, white plastic” was found in some nuggets. The Springdale, Arkansas-based company said that the 2.27kg bags of fully cooked panko chicken nuggets were sold at Costco stores nationwide. A small number of 9kg cases of chicken patties, sold under the Spare Time brand, were sold to a single wholesaler in Pennsylvania.
E-COMMERCE
Walmart to invest in Flipkart
Wal-Mart Stores Inc is in advanced discussions to invest as much as US$1 billion into India’s Flipkart Online Services Pvt, as the two companies battle Amazon.com Inc in e-commerce, according to a person familiar with the matter. Walmart, the world’s largest retailer, would take a minority stake in Flipkart, the person said, asking not to be identified because the matter is private. Final terms of the deal have not been worked out and negotiations are still under way, the person said.
HORMUZ ISSUE: The US president said he expected crude prices to drop at the end of the war, which he called a ‘minor excursion’ that could continue ‘for a little while’ The United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Kuwait started reducing oil production, as the near-closure of the crucial Strait of Hormuz ripples through energy markets and affects global supply. Abu Dhabi National Oil Co (ADNOC) is “managing offshore production levels to address storage requirements,” the company said in a statement, without giving details. Kuwait Petroleum Corp said it was lowering production at its oil fields and refineries after “Iranian threats against safe passage of ships through the Strait of Hormuz.” The war in the Middle East has all but closed Hormuz, the narrow waterway linking the Persian Gulf to the open seas,
Apple Inc increased iPhone production in India by about 53 percent last year and now makes a quarter of its marquee devices there, reflecting the US company’s efforts to avoid tariffs on China. The company assembled about 55 million iPhones in India last year, up from 36 million a year earlier, people familiar with the matter said, asking not to be named because the numbers aren’t public. Apple makes about 220 million to 230 million iPhones a year globally, with India’s share of the total increasing rapidly. Apple has accelerated its expansion in the world’s most populous country in recent years, bolstered
HEADWINDS: The company said it expects its computer business, as well as consumer electronics and communications segments to see revenue declines due to seasonality Pegatron Corp (和碩) yesterday said it aims to grow its artificial intelligence (AI) server revenue more than 10-fold this year from last year, driven by orders from neocloud solutions clients and large cloud service providers. The electronics manufacturing service provider said AI server revenue growth would be driven primarily by the Nvidia Corp GB300 server platform. Server shipments are expected to increase each quarter this year, with the second half likely to outperform the first half, it said. The AI server market is expected to broaden this year as more inference applications emerge, which would drive demand for system-on-chip, application-specific integrated circuits
PROJECTION: TSMC said it expects strong growth this year, with revenue in US dollars projected to grow by about 30 percent, outperforming the industry Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday reported consolidated sales last month reached NT$317.66 billion (US$9.98 billion), the highest ever for the month of February, driven by robust demand for chips built using the company’s advanced 3-nanometer (3nm) process. Last month’s figure was up 22.2 percent from a year earlier, but fell 20.8 percent from January, the world’s largest contract chipmaker said in a statement. For the first two months of the year, TSMC posted cumulative sales of NT$718.91 billion, up 29.9 percent from a year earlier. Analysts attributed the growth to sustained global demand for artificial intelligence (AI) products
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