AUTOMAKERS
Renault revenue could drop
Renault SA warned that revenue might decline this year, scrapping a previous goal, after first-half profit was hit by weakening vehicle demand and an earnings collapse at alliance partner Nissan Motor Co in the wake of the scandal over former chairmam Carlos Ghosn. Net income slumped by more than half to 970 million euros (US$1.08 billion) in the January-to-June period, as revenue fell 6.4 percent to 28.05 billion, the French automaker said yesterday. Operating profit also dropped 13.6 percent to 1.654 billion euros. A broad-based downturn has rattled the sector, prompting profit warnings and compounding challenges for Renault and Nissan as they struggle to turn the page on the Ghosn era. Renault’s bottom line was hit by an 826 million euro drop in earnings from its 43.4 percent-owned alliance partner.
NORTH KOREA
GDP contracts 4.1 percent
North Korea’s economy shrank for a second straight year last year, and by the most in 21 years, as it was battered by international sanctions aimed at stopping its nuclear program and by drought, South Korea’s central bank said on Friday. North Korea’s GDP contracted by 4.1 percent last year in real terms, the worst since 1997 and the second consecutive year of decline after a 3.5 percent fall in 2017, the South’s Bank of Korea estimated. North Korea does not disclose any statistics on its economy. The South Korean central bank has been publishing its estimates since 1991, based on information from various sources, including the South’s foreign trading agencies. North Korea’s international trade fell 48.4 percent in value in last year as toughened international sanctions cut exports by nearly 90 percent.
TELECOMS
Vodafone plans separation
Vodafone Group PLC plans to carve out its phone towers into a new business and consider an initial public offering or minority stake sale to lower debt. The shares rose as much as 8.5 percent in early London trading after the carrier announced plans to separate Europe’s largest towers portfolio by May next year. The business is to consist of 61,700 masts in 10 countries, Vodafone said in a statement alongside financial results that beat expectations. Telecom infrastructure businesses that are separate from their phone-carrier customers command richer valuations, because they have steady income streams that are insulated from the underlying consumer.
CHEMICALS
Judge cuts Roundup payout
A California judge on Thursday reduced a US$2 billion jury verdict, slashing the award for a couple who blamed Bayer AG’s glyphosate-based weed killer Roundup for their cancer to US$86.7 million. Superior Court Judge Winifred Smith of the California Superior Court in Oakland said that the jury’s punitive damages awards were excessive and unconstitutional, but rejected Bayer’s request to strike the punitive award outright. Under Smith’s final order, California couple Alva and Alberta Pilliod would receive about US$17 million in compensatory and US$69 million in punitive damages, down from US$55 million and US$2 billion, respectively. The plaintiffs still have to formally accept the reduced award. Bayer said in a statement that Smith’s decision to slash the award was a step in the right direction, but added it would file an appeal.
Taiwan’s foreign exchange reserves fell below the US$600 billion mark at the end of last month, with the central bank reporting a total of US$596.89 billion — a decline of US$8.6 billion from February — ending a three-month streak of increases. The central bank attributed the drop to a combination of factors such as outflows by foreign institutional investors, currency fluctuations and its own market interventions. “The large-scale outflows disrupted the balance of supply and demand in the foreign exchange market, prompting the central bank to intervene repeatedly by selling US dollars to stabilize the local currency,” Department of Foreign
Intel Corp is joining Elon Musk’s long-shot effort to develop semiconductors for Tesla Inc, Space Exploration Technologies Corp and xAI, marking a surprising twist in the chipmaker’s comeback bid. Intel would help the Terafab project “refactor” the technology in a chip factory, the company said on Tuesday in a post on X, Musk’s social media platform. That is a stage in the development process that typically helps make chips more powerful or reliable. The chipmaker’s shares jumped 4.2 percent to US$52.91 in New York trading on Tuesday. The Terafab project is a grand plan by Musk to eventually manufacture his own chips for
Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) yesterday said it plans to resume operations at two coal-fired power generators for three months to boost security of electricity supply as liquefied natural gas (LNG) supply risks are running high due to the Middle East conflict. The two coal-fired power generators are at Mailiao Power Plant in Yunlin County’s Mailiao Township (麥寮). The plant, operated by Formosa Plastics Group (台塑集團), supplied electricity to Taipower’s power grid until the end of last year. Taipower’s decision came about one month after Minister of Economic Affairs Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) on March 10 said that the nation had no imminent
Some robotaxi passengers were left stranded in the middle of fast-moving traffic in a major Chinese city after their driverless vehicles stopped running, according to police and media reports on Wednesday. A preliminary investigation indicates more than 100 robotaxis came to a halt because of a “system malfunction,” police in the city of Wuhan said in a statement, without elaborating. No injuries were reported. One passenger told Chinese media that their robotaxi stopped after turning a corner. An instruction on a screen read: “Driving system malfunction. Staff are expected to arrive in 5 minutes.” After no one showed up, the passenger pushed
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