CHINA
Firm to buy 50 Airbus jets
An aircraft leasing company on Thursday said it plans to buy 50 Airbus A320neo jets for US$5.42 billion as part of a drive to capitalize on ever-growing demand for air travel in China. Hong Kong-listed China Aircraft Leasing Group Holdings Ltd (中國飛機租賃) is to take delivery of the airliners in stages through to 2023, it said in a statement. The company said the announcement takes its total orders with Airbus to 202 aircraft, adding it would “purchase 15 additional Airbus A320neo aircraft next month subject to the fulfillment of certain conditions.”
ENERGY
SandRidge drops Bonanza buy
SandRidge Energy Inc, succumbing to a campaign led by activist investor Carl Icahn, gave up on its proposed purchase of rival oil and natural gas explorer Bonanza Creek Energy Inc. After consultation with its largest shareholders, the company’s board concluded that it would not receive approval for the transaction at its planned special meeting, SandRidge said in a statement on Thursday. SandRidge is to reimburse as much as US$3.7 million to Bonanza Creek for expenses related to transactions. The shares gained as much as 1.9 percent in after-hours trading.
FINANCE
Citigroup pays big for claims
Citigroup Inc is to pay US$11.5 million to resolve Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) claims that a brokerage unit harmed retail customers by displaying inaccurate research ratings for hundreds of securities for nearly five years. Citigroup Global Markets Inc showed incorrect ratings — such as “buy” instead of “sell” — to brokers, customers and supervisors on 38 percent of the equities covered by its research department from February 2011 to December 2015, FINRA said in a statement on Thursday.
UNITED STATES
Home values hit record
In a hot housing market, the value of all homes soared to a record this year, as did the monthly payments by renters, online real-estate giant Zillow said on Thursday. With the steady increase in demand for housing driving prices and rents higher, the value of all homes was up nearly US$2 trillion, according to year-end data. The 6.5 percent increase over last year was the biggest gain in four years and drove the total to nearly US$32 trillion. The value is up US$9 trillion from the worst point in the global recession, the report said.
AIRLINES
IAG to take over Niki
British Airways owner IAG has emerged as the preferred bidder to take over bankrupt Austrian airline Niki, German news agency DPA reported on Thursday. Niki insolvency administrator Lucas Floether earlier announced that creditors had agreed to begin final talks with a chosen bidder.
METALS
Copper on 30-year run
Copper is on a run that is set to be the best in almost 30 years. The metal is on course for the longest winning streak since 1989, topping US$7,300 a tonne in London, on optimism about increased demand, supply disruptions in China and a weaker US dollar. Three-month copper rose as much as 1 percent to US$7,312.50 on the London Metal Exchange, the highest since January 2014, and traded at US$7,267 at 12:20pm in London on Thursday. The metal is up for a 10th straight day.
TARIFF TRADE-OFF: Machinery exports to China dropped after Beijing ended its tariff reductions in June, while potential new tariffs fueled ‘front-loaded’ orders to the US The nation’s machinery exports to the US amounted to US$7.19 billion last year, surpassing the US$6.86 billion to China to become the largest export destination for the local machinery industry, the Taiwan Association of Machinery Industry (TAMI, 台灣機械公會) said in a report on Jan. 10. It came as some manufacturers brought forward or “front-loaded” US-bound shipments as required by customers ahead of potential tariffs imposed by the new US administration, the association said. During his campaign, US president-elect Donald Trump threatened tariffs of as high as 60 percent on Chinese goods and 10 percent to 20 percent on imports from other countries.
Taiwanese manufacturers have a chance to play a key role in the humanoid robot supply chain, Tongtai Machine and Tool Co (東台精機) chairman Yen Jui-hsiung (嚴瑞雄) said yesterday. That is because Taiwanese companies are capable of making key parts needed for humanoid robots to move, such as harmonic drives and planetary gearboxes, Yen said. This ability to produce these key elements could help Taiwanese manufacturers “become part of the US supply chain,” he added. Yen made the remarks a day after Nvidia Corp cofounder and chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said his company and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) are jointly
United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電) expects its addressable market to grow by a low single-digit percentage this year, lower than the overall foundry industry’s 15 percent expansion and the global semiconductor industry’s 10 percent growth, the contract chipmaker said yesterday after reporting the worst profit in four-and-a-half years in the fourth quarter of last year. Growth would be fueled by demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers, a moderate recovery in consumer electronics and an increase in semiconductor content, UMC said. “UMC’s goal is to outgrow our addressable market while maintaining our structural profitability,” UMC copresident Jason Wang (王石) told an online earnings
MARKET SHIFTS: Exports to the US soared more than 120 percent to almost one quarter, while ASEAN has steadily increased to 18.5 percent on rising tech sales The proportion of Taiwan’s exports directed to China, including Hong Kong, declined by more than 12 percentage points last year compared with its peak in 2020, the Ministry of Finance said on Thursday last week. The decrease reflects the ongoing restructuring of global supply chains, driven by escalating trade tensions between Beijing and Washington. Data compiled by the ministry showed China and Hong Kong accounted for 31.7 percent of Taiwan’s total outbound sales last year, a drop of 12.2 percentage points from a high of 43.9 percent in 2020. In addition to increasing trade conflicts between China and the US, the ministry said
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