AUTOMAKERS
Ford to cut jobs: report
US automaker Ford Motor Co is poised to cut thousands of jobs worldwide, with reductions expected to total about 10 percent of its global workforce, the Wall Street Journal reported late on Monday. A source confirmed to reporters that massive job cuts are planned at Ford in the coming days, affecting as many as 20,000 salaried workers. The US’ second-largest automaker, Ford employs about 202,000 workers worldwide. The announcement came as the company grapples with slowing sales after several years of growth. The automaker sold 214,695 vehicles last month, 7.2 percent fewer than during the same period last year. Ford spokesman Mike Moran said the company’s immediate goals “include fortifying the profit pillars in our core business, transforming traditionally underperforming areas of our core business and investing aggressively, but prudently, in emerging opportunities.”
TUNISIA
The economy picks up
The nation’s embattled economy picked up in the first quarter and there was a slight fall in unemployment, according to data published on Monday by the National Statistics Institute. Economic growth in the first quarter was 2.1 percent, slightly more than the 1 percent mark registered last year, as GDP grew by 0.9 percent, the report said. An uptick in tourism revenues, agriculture and mining activity, namely phosphates, were among the sectors that contributed to growth. At the same time unemployment dropped slightly to 15.3 percent, compared with 15.5 percent in the previous quarter. While Tunisia is hailed as a success story of the Arab Spring uprisings, authorities have failed to redress the economy since the 2011 revolution.
TRADE
Australia, HK eye FTA
Australia and Hong Kong began talks to secure a free-trade agreement (FTA), Australian Minister for Trade and Investment Steven Ciobo said yesterday, adding that he would focus on securing increased access for service providers and it could be firmed up within one year. Ciobo, who met Hong Kong Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development Gregory So (蘇錦樑) in Hong Kong, said that as tariffs on Australian goods are already at zero, talks would focus on improving access for financial, education, travel, construction, mining, energy and transport companies. Ciobo told Sky News that Canberra would “look and try to negotiate as comprehensive an FTA as possible over the next 12 months or thereabouts.” Hong Kong was Australia’s eighth-largest export market and 12th-largest trading partner overall from 2015 to last year, Australian government data showed.
CHINA
US Treasury holdings surge
The nation in March increased its holdings of US Treasuries by the most in two years, a sign that the world’s second-biggest economy is stabilizing and stricter capital controls have helped to stem capital flight. The nation raised its ownership of US government bonds, notes and bills by US$27.9 billion to US$1.09 trillion, the biggest increase since March 2015, according to a monthly US Department of the Treasury report released on Monday. That means China remains the second-largest foreign holder of US debt. Adding the US$3.7 billion surge in Belgium’s ownership, which is often seen as a home to China’s custodial accounts, the total increase was the biggest since 2014.
KEEPING UP: The acquisition of a cleanroom in Taiwan would enable Micron to increase production in a market where demand continues to outpace supply, a Micron official said Micron Technology Inc has signed a letter of intent to buy a fabrication site in Taiwan from Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電) for US$1.8 billion to expand its production of memory chips. Micron would take control of the P5 site in Miaoli County’s Tongluo Township (銅鑼) and plans to ramp up DRAM production in phases after the transaction closes in the second quarter, the company said in a statement on Saturday. The acquisition includes an existing 12 inch fab cleanroom of 27,871m2 and would further position Micron to address growing global demand for memory solutions, the company said. Micron expects the transaction to
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.
US actor Matthew McConaughey has filed recordings of his image and voice with US patent authorities to protect them from unauthorized usage by artificial intelligence (AI) platforms, a representative said earlier this week. Several video clips and audio recordings were registered by the commercial arm of the Just Keep Livin’ Foundation, a non-profit created by the Oscar-winning actor and his wife, Camila, according to the US Patent and Trademark Office database. Many artists are increasingly concerned about the uncontrolled use of their image via generative AI since the rollout of ChatGPT and other AI-powered tools. Several US states have adopted
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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