ENERGY
ADNOC awards CNPC stake
Abu Dhabi National Oil Co (ADNOC) awarded a stake in its largest oil concession to China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC, 中國石油天然氣), as it brings in more foreign investors to raise crude production capacity. CNPC is to take an 8 percent stake in the oil-production joint venture in return for paying a US$1.8 billion signing bonus, ADNOC said in a statement on Sunday. BP PLC joined the project in December for a 10 percent stake after Total SA took the same share in January 2015. Abu Dhabi, with about 6 percent of global oil reserves, aims to boost production capacity to 3.5 million barrels a day by next year, even as it trims current output.
ENERGY
Iraq reserves rise 7 percent
Iraq’s oil reserves have increased to 153 billion barrels, from a previous estimate of 143 billion barrels, Oil Minister Jabar al-Luaibi said on Sunday. Iraq is to ask OPEC to adopt the new figure as the official estimate for its reserves, he said in a statement. The increased estimate is the result of appraisals and exploration carried out at seven oil fields in central and southern Iraq, he said. Iraq’s new proven reserves estimate brings it closer to Iran’s 158 billion barrels. It is OPEC’s second-largest producer, after Saudi Arabia.
WAGES
Rentals show wage gap
Single women cannot afford to rent a small apartment in nearly all of the biggest US cities, but single men could manage to lease in a third of those locations, a reflection of the gender wage gap, research shows. The Midwestern cities of Wichita, Kansas and Tulsa, Oklahoma are the only two of the 50 largest cities where the median income of single women can pay for a studio or one-bedroom apartment, according to research by RentCafe.com, an online apartment search company. Across the US, women working full time are paid 80 percent of what men are paid, according to US Census Bureau statistics.
BANKING
RBS not selling bank unit
Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC (RBS) rose to a one-year high after the bank said it would scrap the planned sale of its Williams & Glyn consumer banking unit. The shares gained as much as 6.4 percent and were up ￡0.112 to ￡2.54 as of 8:58am, the highest among British banks in London trading yesterday. Investors are optimistic that RBS is closer to resolving some of the biggest issues that have weighed on the stock, even if it means short-term losses. The bank is to take a ￡750 million (US$930 million) provision as part of a new plan to address its EU mandate to sell Williams & Glyn. That adds to a fourth-quarter loss that includes a ￡3.1 billioncharge tied to a US probe into sales of mortgage securities.
SINGAPORE
Measures to spur growth
Singapore’s Minister of Finance Heng Swee Keat (王瑞傑) outlined a set of targeted measures in his budget speech to help the struggling oil industry and spur construction. The government is to bring forward S$700 million (US$494 million) in infrastructure spending and defer levies on foreign workers in the marine and process sectors for a year, Heng told lawmakers yesterday. He also extended rebates on corporate income taxes. The budget seeks to flesh out initiatives outlined by a government-appointed panel two weeks ago aimed at spurring growth to 2 to 3 percent a year over the next decade.
POWERING UP: PSUs for AI servers made up about 50% of Delta’s total server PSU revenue during the first three quarters of last year, the company said Power supply and electronic components maker Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) reported record-high revenue of NT$161.61 billion (US$5.11 billion) for last quarter and said it remains positive about this quarter. Last quarter’s figure was up 7.6 percent from the previous quarter and 41.51 percent higher than a year earlier, and largely in line with Yuanta Securities Investment Consulting Co’s (元大投顧) forecast of NT$160 billion. Delta’s annual revenue last year rose 31.76 percent year-on-year to NT$554.89 billion, also a record high for the company. Its strong performance reflected continued demand for high-performance power solutions and advanced liquid-cooling products used in artificial intelligence (AI) data centers,
SIZE MATTERS: TSMC started phasing out 8-inch wafer production last year, while Samsung is more aggressively retiring 8-inch capacity, TrendForce said Chipmakers are expected to raise prices of 8-inch wafers by up to 20 percent this year on concern over supply constraints as major contract chipmakers Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and Samsung Electronics Co gradually retire less advanced wafer capacity, TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said yesterday. It is the first significant across-the-board price hike since a global semiconductor correction in 2023, the Taipei-based market researcher said in a report. Global 8-inch wafer capacity slid 0.3 percent year-on-year last year, although 8-inch wafer prices still hovered at relatively stable levels throughout the year, TrendForce said. The downward trend is expected to continue this year,
Vincent Wei led fellow Singaporean farmers around an empty Malaysian plot, laying out plans for a greenhouse and rows of leafy vegetables. What he pitched was not just space for crops, but a lifeline for growers struggling to make ends meet in a city-state with high prices and little vacant land. The future agriculture hub is part of a joint special economic zone launched last year by the two neighbors, expected to cost US$123 million and produce 10,000 tonnes of fresh produce annually. It is attracting Singaporean farmers with promises of cheaper land, labor and energy just over the border.
A proposed billionaires’ tax in California has ignited a political uproar in Silicon Valley, with tech titans threatening to leave the state while California Governor Gavin Newsom of the Democratic Party maneuvers to defeat a levy that he fears would lead to an exodus of wealth. A technology mecca, California has more billionaires than any other US state — a few hundred, by some estimates. About half its personal income tax revenue, a financial backbone in the nearly US$350 billion budget, comes from the top 1 percent of earners. A large healthcare union is attempting to place a proposal before
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