AVIATION
Korean Air, Delta hold talks
Korean Air Lines Co is in talks with Delta Air Lines Inc for a joint venture in a move that would give the second-largest US carrier a bigger foothold in Asia, where rising incomes are fueling a boom in air travel. Details of the partnership would be disclosed later, Korean Air president Walter Cho yesterday told reporters at a briefing in Seoul’s Incheon Airport, declining to elaborate. Atlanta, Georgia-based Delta, which has said it will rely on tie-ups in Asia to improve connectivity to the region’s largest economies, is extending an existing pact with Korean Air beyond code-sharing. While a joint venture would provide the US carrier a hub in Seoul and help it compete with other US rivals, its partner could get greater access in North America as South Korea prepares to host the 2018 Winter Olympics.
TRADE
Japan hosts first RCEP talks
Negotiators from 16 Asia-Pacific countries yesterday held their first round of free-trade talks since hopes faded of reaching a separate regional deal after the US pulled out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). The five-day Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) talks in Kobe are being attended by senior officials from the 16 countries involved, a Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry official said. The US is not part of RCEP, which has been pushed by China. Apart from Beijing, the planned pact would group the 10 members of ASEAN and India, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand. The TPP had been seen as an economic guarantee of US commitment to the region in the face of the growing influence of China, which was not a member. RCEP is seen as a more modest deal that calls for lower and more limited regulatory standards.
SPAIN
Inflation exceeds ECB limit
Inflation accelerated further above the European Central Bank’s (ECB) price stability mandate, coinciding with an increase in utility bills. Consumer prices, calculated using an EU-harmonized method, rose 3 percent this month from a year earlier, according to preliminary data released by the Madrid-based National Statistics Office. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg predicted an increase of 3.1 percent. The euro area’s fourth-largest economy is has recorded one of the region’s fastest inflation rates that by far exceeds the ECB’s goal of just under 2 percent.
TECHNOLOGY
Ericsson betting on cloud
Ericsson AB is betting on cloud technology to capture as much as possible of the US$1.2 trillion market it expects 5G mobile broadband services to spur, chief executive officer Borje Ekholm said. “5G is really starting to happen,” Ekholm said in an interview with Bloomberg TV at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain. “What we’re starting to see is operators positioning their 4G networks and starting to evolve into 5G.” 5G services are not expected to be commercially available until 2020. In the meantime, Ericsson has signed development agreements with more than 30 carriers, and some, like Verizon Communications Inc and its closest rival AT&T Inc, are preparing for trials of the new technology. Verizon last week said it will work with equipment partners, including Ericsson and Samsung Electronics Co, to test faster 5G mobile broadband service in 11 markets in the first half of this year.
To many, Tatu City on the outskirts of Nairobi looks like a success. The first city entirely built by a private company to be operational in east Africa, with about 25,000 people living and working there, it accounts for about two-thirds of all foreign investment in Kenya. Its low-tax status has attracted more than 100 businesses including Heineken, coffee brand Dormans, and the biggest call-center and cold-chain transport firms in the region. However, to some local politicians, Tatu City has looked more like a target for extortion. A parade of governors have demanded land worth millions of dollars in exchange
An Indonesian animated movie is smashing regional box office records and could be set for wider success as it prepares to open beyond the Southeast Asian archipelago’s silver screens. Jumbo — a film based on the adventures of main character, Don, a large orphaned Indonesian boy facing bullying at school — last month became the highest-grossing Southeast Asian animated film, raking in more than US$8 million. Released at the end of March to coincide with the Eid holidays after the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan, the movie has hit 8 million ticket sales, the third-highest in Indonesian cinema history, Film
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) revenue jumped 48 percent last month, underscoring how electronics firms scrambled to acquire essential components before global tariffs took effect. The main chipmaker for Apple Inc and Nvidia Corp reported monthly sales of NT$349.6 billion (US$11.6 billion). That compares with the average analysts’ estimate for a 38 percent rise in second-quarter revenue. US President Donald Trump’s trade war is prompting economists to retool GDP forecasts worldwide, casting doubt over the outlook for everything from iPhone demand to computing and datacenter construction. However, TSMC — a barometer for global tech spending given its central role in the
Alchip Technologies Ltd (世芯), an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) designer specializing in server chips, expects revenue to decline this year due to sagging demand for 5-nanometer artificial intelligence (AI) chips from a North America-based major customer, a company executive said yesterday. That would be the first contraction in revenue for Alchip as it has been enjoying strong revenue growth over the past few years, benefiting from cloud-service providers’ moves to reduce dependence on Nvidia Corp’s expensive AI chips by building their own AI accelerator by outsourcing chip design. The 5-nanometer chip was supposed to be a new growth engine as the lifecycle
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