ENERGY
OPEC might ease oil curbs
OPEC and its allies, including Russia, might next year ease the crude output curbs that have helped prices recover from the worst crash in a generation, Saudi Arabian Minister of Energy and Industry Khalid al-Falih said. With the market moving toward equilibrium and bloated inventories shrinking, the next step for global producers will be to phase out the reductions, al-Falih said on Saturday, adding that the nations taking part in the supply curbs are studying what a crude rebalancing would entail.
AUTOMAKERS
VW profit up 55.5 percent
Volkswagen AG (VW) has said its net profit last year increased by more than half, while revenue climbed more than 6 percent. The German automaker on Friday said it earned 4.35 billion euros (US$5.35 billion) last year, a 55.5 percent increase over the previous year’s 2.8 billion euros. Rvenue grew 6.2 percent year-on-year to 230.7 billion euros. The company on Friday said that it “expects to moderately exceed its latest record delivery figures” this year, while revenue might rise as much as 5 percent.
TECHNOLOGY
Court tosses Apple complaint
A French court on Friday threw out a complaint by Apple Inc demanding a ban on protests at its stores by the tax campaign group Attac. Attac had staged a sit-in at Apple’s flagship Paris store on Dec. 2 last year, blocking access for several hours in protest at what they claimed was “massive tax evasion” by the US tech giant. Apple sought a court order barring the activists from further protests inside its stores, but a Paris court dismissed the firm’s claim as long as these were peaceful and did not block access to the store.
BANKING
InvestaBank rethinks deal
InvestaBank, the Mexican lender that in 2016 agreed to buy Deutsche Bank AG’s Mexico units, is considering steps to renegotiate the US$175 million purchase, according to people with direct knowledge of the matter. The Mexico-based firm might seek to lower the price after regulatory changes wiped out most of the revenue the German lender generated through its monopoly on custodial services in the corner of the Mexican stock market where foreign securities trade, the people said.
JAPAN
Firms sell super-long bonds
Companies are selling super-long bonds amid expectations that Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda’s reappointment will prolong easy monetary policy, even as increases in overseas yields put pressure on market rates to rise. Less than a week after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe nominated Kuroda for another term, Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings Corp on Wednesday sold what was its first 20-year debt in about a year and a half. Next week, trading firm Toyota Tsusho Corp plans to price 20-year notes and Sumitomo Forestry Co is to sell its first 15-year securities ever, people said.
SMELTERS
Century waiting for US tariffs
The main US producer of high-purity aluminum used in military aircraft is poised to begin restarting idled production lines at its smelter in eastern Kentucky and recall about 350 workers if US President Donald Trump imposes aluminum import curbs. Century Aluminum Co chief executive Michael Bless said the US Department of Commerce’s recommendations for aluminum tariffs or quotas would allow aluminum producers to restore all of “what’s left” of their idled capacity to production.
FALLING BEHIND: Samsung shares have declined more than 20 percent this year, as the world’s largest chipmaker struggles in key markets and plays catch-up to rival SK Hynix Samsung Electronics Co is laying off workers in Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand as part of a plan to reduce its global headcount by thousands of jobs, sources familiar with the situation said. The layoffs could affect about 10 percent of its workforces in those markets, although the numbers for each subsidiary might vary, said one of the sources, who asked not to be named because the matter is private. Job cuts are planned for other overseas subsidiaries and could reach 10 percent in certain markets, the source said. The South Korean company has about 147,000 in staff overseas, more than half
Taipei is today suspending its US$2.5 trillion stock market as Super Typhoon Krathon approaches Taiwan with strong winds and heavy rain. The nation is not conducting securities, currency or fixed-income trading, statements from its stock and currency exchanges said. Yesterday, schools and offices were closed in several cities and counties in southern and eastern Taiwan, including in the key industrial port city of Kaohsiung. Taiwan, which started canceling flights, ship sailings and some train services earlier this week, has wind and rain advisories in place for much of the island. It regularly experiences typhoons, and in July shut offices and schools as
An Indian factory producing iPhone components resumed work yesterday after a fire that halted production — the third blaze to disrupt Apple Inc’s local supply chain since the start of last year. Local industrial behemoth Tata Group’s plant in Tamil Nadu, which was shut down by the unexplained fire on Saturday, is a key linchpin of Apple’s nascent supply chain in the country. A spokesperson for subsidiary Tata Electronics Pvt yesterday said that the company would restart work in “many areas of the facility today.” “We’ve been working diligently since Saturday to support our team and to identify the cause of the fire,”
TECH PARTNERSHIP: The deal with Arizona-based Amkor would provide TSMC with advanced packing and test capacities, a requirement to serve US customers Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is collaborating with Amkor Technology Inc to provide local advanced packaging and test capacities in Arizona to address customer requirements for geographical flexibility in chip manufacturing. As part of the agreement, TSMC, the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, would contract turnkey advanced packaging and test services from Amkor at their planned facility in Peoria, Arizona, a joint statement released yesterday said. TSMC would leverage these services to support its customers, particularly those using TSMC’s advanced wafer fabrication facilities in Phoenix, Arizona, it said. The companies would jointly define the specific packaging technologies, such as TSMC’s Integrated
RSS