RETAIL
Slower sales growth tipped
The world’s top luggage maker, Samsonite International SA, says the trade war between the US and China is damping sentiment among Chinese consumers and will play into slower sales growth in its second-biggest market. The luggage giant expects to see overall tariffs on its luggage and travel products rise an additional 10 percent — effectively increasing levies on its products to 30 percent — if the US enacts the next round of tariffs on up to US$200 billion worth of Chinese goods.
UNITED STATES
Q2 growth upgraded
The roaring growth of the economy in the second quarter was even faster than first reported, with new numbers showing a bigger boost in corporate spending, the government reported on Wednesday. GDP advanced at an annual rate of 4.2 percent in the second quarter, one-10th of a point faster than initial estimates last month and the fastest growth in almost four years, according to the Department of Commerce. The rate also was nearly twice the pace of first quarter growth. Analysts had been expecting a slight downward revision.
AIRLINES
More Etihad losses forecast
Etihad Airways will continue losing money through 2022, Fitch Ratings forecast, citing the “high execution risk” in the state-owned carrier’s turnaround plan. The credit ratings company affirmed the airline’s long-term rating at “A” with a stable outlook, given the support provided by the government of Abu Dhabi, Etihad’s owner. Fitch expects Etihad to remain the smallest among the three Persian Gulf carriers, compared with Emirates Airline and Qatar Airways.
SOUTH AFRICA
Utility, unions ink deal
Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd, the state-owned power utility, which generates most of the nation’s electricity, reached a pay deal with labor unions after strikes that crippled the grid. The National Union of Mineworkers and National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa signed a three-year wage agreement backdated to July 1. Pay is to increase 7.5 percent in the first year and 7 percent in each subsequent year, and employees will get a one-time cash payment of 10,000 rand (US$685) after tax, the unions said.
AUTOMAKERS
Tesla official takes leave
Tesla Inc’s head of human resources and facilities has been on a leave of absence as the electric-car maker has dealt with a period of intense tumult spurred by chief executive officer Elon Musk. Gabrielle Toledano, who joined Tesla as chief people officer in May last year from Electronic Arts Inc, confirmed that she was on leave when reached by telephone on Wednesday. A Tesla spokesman said the leave was prompted by Toledano’s request and her duties are being handled by other members of the human resources team.
ELECTRONICS
Apple acquires AR start-up
Apple Inc has acquired Akonia Holographics LLC, a six-year-old maker of displays for augmented-reality (AR) glasses, as the iPhone-maker explores a foray into the burgeoning field. Apple is said to be prepping to ship an augmented-reality headset or device as early as 2020. Akonia’s “HoloMirror” technology is designed to project full-color images onto the transparent glass lenses of its headsets, according to its Web site. Apple confirmed the deal via the typical statement it uses to verify acquisitions of smaller start-ups.
Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) chairman Barry Lam (林百里) is expected to share his views about the artificial intelligence (AI) industry’s prospects during his speech at the company’s 37th anniversary ceremony, as AI servers have become a new growth engine for the equipment manufacturing service provider. Lam’s speech is much anticipated, as Quanta has risen as one of the world’s major AI server suppliers. The company reported a 30 percent year-on-year growth in consolidated revenue to NT$1.41 trillion (US$43.35 billion) last year, thanks to fast-growing demand for servers, especially those with AI capabilities. The company told investors in November last year that
United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電) forecast that its wafer shipments this quarter would grow up to 7 percent sequentially and the factory utilization rate would rise to 75 percent, indicating that customers did not alter their ordering behavior due to the US President Donald Trump’s capricious US tariff policies. However, the uncertainty about US tariffs has weighed on the chipmaker’s business visibility for the second half of this year, UMC chief financial officer Liu Chi-tung (劉啟東) said at an online earnings conference yesterday. “Although the escalating trade tensions and global tariff policies have increased uncertainty in the semiconductor industry, we have not
Power supply and electronic components maker Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) yesterday said it plans to ship its new 1 megawatt charging systems for electric trucks and buses in the first half of next year at the earliest. The new charging piles, which deliver up to 1 megawatt of charging power, are designed for heavy-duty electric vehicles, and support a maximum current of 1,500 amperes and output of 1,250 volts, Delta said in a news release. “If everything goes smoothly, we could begin shipping those new charging systems as early as in the first half of next year,” a company official said. The new
SK Hynix Inc warned of increased volatility in the second half of this year despite resilient demand for artificial intelligence (AI) memory chips from big tech providers, reflecting the uncertainty surrounding US tariffs. The company reported a better-than-projected 158 percent jump in March-quarter operating income, propelled in part by stockpiling ahead of US President Donald Trump’s tariffs. SK Hynix stuck with a forecast for a doubling in demand for the high-bandwidth memory (HBM) essential to Nvidia Corp’s AI accelerators, which in turn drive giant data centers built by the likes of Microsoft Corp and Amazon.com Inc. That SK Hynix is maintaining its
RSS