CHINA
Beijing pans EU steel duties
Beijing has accused the EU of hurting competition by imposing anti-dumping duties on Chinese steel, ratcheting up growing global tensions over a flood of low-cost Chinese exports. The EU duties announced on Friday are the latest in a series of measures taken by Europe, the US and other trading partners in response to what they say are improperly low prices for Chinese steel. A Ministry of Commerce statement issued on Saturday said Chinese steel exports could not affect prices because they account for just 5 percent of the European market.
DUBAI
Car plates sold for US$9m
Indian businessman Balwinder Sahani paid 33 million dirhams (US$9 million) for a Dubai license plate for one of his Rolls Royces. Plate “D5” was sold at a government auction on Saturday, according to local media reports. Sahani, who owns a property management company, also purchased another plate for 1 million dirhams. He bought the number “O9” last year at an auction for 25 million dirhams, Sahani told Gulf News. Eighty number plates went under the hammer at Saturday’s auction. Bids for the “D5” plate started at 20 million dirhams and the proceeds of the sale are to go to Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority.
AUTO PARTS
Takata weighs options
Takata Corp, whose defective air bag inflators triggered the biggest recall in auto industry history, hired law firm Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP to help it weigh options that could include bankruptcy or a sale, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The Japanese manufacturer might choose to seek court protection just for its US unit, said one of the people. No final decisions have been made and Tokyo-based Takata continues to seek buyers, the people said. The company is evaluating at least five bids as it confronts the potentially massive cost of recalling 100 million faulty air bag inflators worldwide and lawsuits tied to at least 16 deaths and numerous injuries.
EGYPT
Aid package to come soon
The country might soon receive the first tranche of a crucial US$12 billion aid package, IMF managing director Christine Lagarde said on Saturday. Officials in Cairo reached an agreement in principle with the IMF in August for the aid package, but it was conditioned on a series of reforms and remains subject to approval by the IMF’s executive board. On Friday, the IMF’s Middle East head Masood Ahmed said the IMF’s approval could come “by the end of this month” or in early December, adding that about US$6 billion in additional support was expected from other donors. The first tranche of IMF lending will amount to US$2.5 billion, he said.
PHARMACEUTICALS
Roche touts new cancer drug
Lung cancer patients who took Roche Holding AG’s new medicine Tecentriq lived about four months longer than those on chemotherapy in a study that would help position the drug to compete in the increasingly crowded field of immunotherapy. People who got Tecentriq lived an average of just under 14 months, compared with about 10 months for those on docetaxel chemotherapy, the Swiss drugmaker said on Sunday at a meeting of the European Society for Medical Oncology in Copenhagen. Tecentriq would compete with recently approved treatments from Merck & Co and Bristol-Myers Squibb Co.
SEEKING CLARITY: Washington should not adopt measures that create uncertainties for ‘existing semiconductor investments,’ TSMC said referring to its US$165 billion in the US Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) told the US that any future tariffs on Taiwanese semiconductors could reduce demand for chips and derail its pledge to increase its investment in Arizona. “New import restrictions could jeopardize current US leadership in the competitive technology industry and create uncertainties for many committed semiconductor capital projects in the US, including TSMC Arizona’s significant investment plan in Phoenix,” the chipmaker wrote in a letter to the US Department of Commerce. TSMC issued the warning in response to a solicitation for comments by the department on a possible tariff on semiconductor imports by US President Donald Trump’s
The government has launched a three-pronged strategy to attract local and international talent, aiming to position Taiwan as a new global hub following Nvidia Corp’s announcement that it has chosen Taipei as the site of its Taiwan headquarters. Nvidia cofounder and CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) on Monday last week announced during his keynote speech at the Computex trade show in Taipei that the Nvidia Constellation, the company’s planned Taiwan headquarters, would be located in the Beitou-Shilin Technology Park (北投士林科技園區) in Taipei. Huang’s decision to establish a base in Taiwan is “primarily due to Taiwan’s talent pool and its strength in the semiconductor
Industrial production expanded 22.31 percent annually last month to 107.51, as increases in demand for high-performance computing (HPC) and artificial intelligence (AI) applications drove demand for locally-made chips and components. The manufacturing production index climbed 23.68 percent year-on-year to 108.37, marking the 14th consecutive month of increase, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said. In the first four months of this year, industrial and manufacturing production indices expanded 14.31 percent and 15.22 percent year-on-year, ministry data showed. The growth momentum is to extend into this month, with the manufacturing production index expected to rise between 11 percent and 15.1 percent annually, Department of Statistics
An earnings report from semiconductor giant and artificial intelligence (AI) bellwether Nvidia Corp takes center stage for Wall Street this week, as stocks hit a speed bump of worries over US federal deficits driving up Treasury yields. US equities pulled back last week after a torrid rally, as investors turned their attention to tax and spending legislation poised to swell the US government’s US$36 trillion in debt. Long-dated US Treasury yields rose amid the fiscal worries, with the 30-year yield topping 5 percent and hitting its highest level since late 2023. Stocks were dealt another blow on Friday when US President Donald
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