FOOD
Arcor seeks partner in Asia
The world’s biggest maker of hard candies is seeking a strategic partner to help it expand outside Latin America. Arcor SAIC, the closely held Argentine food conglomerate, is willing to do a stock swap with a partner to get access to more overseas markets, especially in Asia. Luis Pagani, the chairman and a majority owner with family members, said that while talks have not yet begun, Arcor’s family ownership might appeal to other global candy makers that value similar structures. Ferrero International SA and Mars Inc are among those kind of family owned confectionery companies, he said.
LUMBER
Mill fire may extend rally
Lumber prices that have soared amid a Canada-US trade dispute could rise even higher after a fire at a British Columbia sawmill cuts supplies. Futures are trading at a 23-year high amid rising demand for housing and after the US imposed tariffs on softwood imports from Canada. The rally could extend after a major fire at Tolko Industries’ Lakeview mill, which accounts for about 2 percent of production in British Columbia’s interior, CIBC analyst Hamir Patel said on Monday in a note. Canada is the world’s largest softwood lumber exporter and the US is its biggest market. Lumber futures have gained as much as 40 percent this year to US$459.60 per 1,000 board feet, the second-best performing commodity, according to data tracked by Bloomberg.
EMPLOYMENT
Tight supply boosts UK pay
A marked decline in the availability of workers across the UK helped push up pay last month, according to IHS Markit and the Recruitment and Employment Confederation. Recruiters’ struggle to meet rising demand for staff in both temporary and permanent roles is boosting wages, especially starting salaries, the groups said in a report published yesterday. They added that it shows the need to clarify the rights of overseas workers as part of Brexit negotiations. Full-time workers in the accounting and financial industries were most in demand, followed by information technology and computing, and engineering, while employers were seeking nursing, medical and care workers for part-time roles.
RETAIL
M&S to step up closures
Marks & Spencer Group PLC (M&S) plans to accelerate store closures and chief financial officer Helen Weir is to leave as the UK retailer steps up efforts to turn around its clothing business. M&S is to speed up plans to close 30 stores and relocate or shrink 45 others over five years, reflecting a shift to more online apparel spending. In food, where the company has recently stumbled after relying on its grocery business for profits, it is also scaling back intentions to open 250 new stores over the next two-and-a-half years.
THAILAND
Central bank keeps rates
The Bank of Thailand kept its benchmark interest rate unchanged near a record low to boost an economic recovery while inflation pressure remains low. The one-day bond repurchase rate was left at 1.5 percent, with monetary policy committee members voting unanimously in favor, the central bank said in Bangkok yesterday. After years of sluggish growth, the nation’s economy is showing signs of recovery on the back of an export boom and rising tourism. The Ministry of Finance last month raised its economic growth forecast for this year to 3.8 percent, which would be the fastest pace in five years.
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
Nvidia Corp’s GB300 platform is expected to account for 70 to 80 percent of global artificial intelligence (AI) server rack shipments this year, while adoption of its next-generation Vera Rubin 200 platform is to gradually gain momentum after the third quarter of the year, TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said. Servers based on Nvidia’s GB300 chips entered mass production last quarter and they are expected to become the mainstay models for Taiwanese server manufacturers this year, Trendforce analyst Frank Kung (龔明德) said in an interview. This year is expected to be a breakout year for AI servers based on a variety of chips, as
Global semiconductor stocks advanced yesterday, as comments by Nvidia Corp chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) at Davos, Switzerland, helped reinforce investor enthusiasm for artificial intelligence (AI). Samsung Electronics Co gained as much as 5 percent to an all-time high, helping drive South Korea’s benchmark KOSPI above 5,000 for the first time. That came after the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index rose more than 3 percent to a fresh record on Wednesday, with a boost from Nvidia. The gains came amid broad risk-on trade after US President Donald Trump withdrew his threat of tariffs on some European nations over backing for Greenland. Huang further
HSBC Bank Taiwan Ltd (匯豐台灣商銀) and the Taiwan High Prosecutors Office recently signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to enhance cooperation on the suspicious transaction analysis mechanism. This landmark agreement makes HSBC the first foreign bank in Taiwan to establish such a partnership with the High Prosecutors Office, underscoring its commitment to active anti-fraud initiatives, financial inclusion, and the “Treating Customers Fairly” principle. Through this deep public-private collaboration, both parties aim to co-create a secure financial ecosystem via early warning detection and precise fraud prevention technologies. At the signing ceremony, HSBC Taiwan CEO and head of banking Adam Chen (陳志堅)
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