INDIA
Date set for US goods tariffs
The government yesterday said that delayed higher tariffs against some goods imported from the US would go into force on Sept. 18. New Delhi, incensed by Washington’s refusal to exempt it from new tariffs, in June decided to raise from Aug. 4 the import tax on some US products, including almonds, walnuts and apples, and later delayed the move. Officials from New Delhi and Washington, including US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and US Secretary of Defense James Mattis, are scheduled to hold a series of meetings, including strategic talks, with their Indian counterparts next month.
CANADA
Trade deficit falls to C$626m
The nation’s trade deficit in June fell to C$626 million (US$481.3 million), according to official data released on Friday, as the nation searched for new trading partners and eased its reliance on the US. The figure was far less than the C$2.3 billion deficit forecast by economists following a C$2.7 billion deficit posted in May. In June, total exports rose 4.1 percent to C$50.7 billion, Statistics Canada said. It was the first time exports surpassed C$50 billion. Total imports edged down 0.2 percent to C$51.3 billion.
INVESTMENT
Moody’s trims German banks
Deutsche Bank AG had the credit rating of a class of debt cut to the lowest investment-grade level by Moody’s Investors Service after a change in German law last month paved the way for a more senior kind of borrowing. Moody’s downgraded the bank’s senior debt from “Baa2” to “Baa3” and reclassified the bonds as “junior senior” debt. The German government is now less likely to support what are currently senior notes, the ratings firm said in a statement on Friday. In a separate statement, Moody’s said that it downgraded the long-term senior unsecured debt of 14 German banks.
AIRLINES
Iran Air to receive airplanes
Iran Air yesterday said that it was set to take delivery of five new airplanes from French-Italian firm ATR just before renewed US sanctions go into effect. “Based on existing agreements, five new ATR aircraft will land at Mehrabad Airport at 9 am tomorrow,” the national carrier said on its Telegram channel. The new ATR 72-600 airplanes are part of a deal for 20 new aircraft that Iran Air agreed to buy in April last year, of which eight have been delivered. The deal was thrown into doubt by Washington’s decision to withdraw from a 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and major powers and reimpose sanctions, part of which are due to resume from Tuesday.
CRYPTOCURRENCIES
ICE to launch trade platform
The New York Stock Exchange’s parent company on Friday announced plans to launch a bitcoin trading platform and partner with Starbucks Corp on a digital currency payment app. The new exchange, dubbed Bakkt, aims to bring a measure of confidence to bitcoin transactions, Intercontinental Exchange Inc (ICE) said in a statement. “We aim to build confidence in the asset class on a global scale,” ICE CEO Jeffrey Sprecher said. Bakkt CEO Kelly Loeffler described the venture as an “on-ramp” for investors that provides “greater efficiency, security and utility.”
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) is expected to miss the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump on Monday, bucking a trend among high-profile US technology leaders. Huang is visiting East Asia this week, as he typically does around the time of the Lunar New Year, a person familiar with the situation said. He has never previously attended a US presidential inauguration, said the person, who asked not to be identified, because the plans have not been announced. That makes Nvidia an exception among the most valuable technology companies, most of which are sending cofounders or CEOs to the event. That includes
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
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