AVIATION
Airbus becomes No. 1
Airbus SE has become the world’s largest plane maker for the first time since 2011 after delivering a forecast-beating 863 aircraft last year, seizing the crown from embattled US rival Boeing Co, airport and tracking sources said on Wednesday. Airbus, which last year was forced by its own industrial problems to cut its delivery goal by 2 to 3 percent, deployed extra resources until hours before midnight to reach 863 aircraft for the year from a revised target of 860 jets. Deliveries rose 7.9 percent from 800 aircraft in 2018.
BANKING
Anbang to drop bank stakes
Anbang Insurance Group Co (安邦保險集團) is looking to offload stakes in a number of rural commercial banks as it continues to unwind its holdings. Beijing-based Anbang and its affiliates are selling 5.5 billion shares in Chengdu Rural Commercial Bank Co (成都農商銀行) for 26.2 billion yuan (US$3.76 billion), a company filing with the Beijing Financial Assets Exchange showed. Anbang is also looking to sell stakes in 11 other banks for a total of 85 million yuan, a separate filing showed. The China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission in July last year said that risks surrounding Anbang have been curbed.
BANKING
Ant applies for digital permit
Billionaire Jack Ma’s (馬雲) Ant Financial Services Group (螞蟻金服) has applied for a digital banking license in Singapore. Ant submitted an application to the Monetary Authority of Singapore for a wholesale license, which would allow it to serve corporate clients, the company said. “We look forward to contributing to the development of the digital banking landscape in Singapore,” it added in an e-mailed statement. The authority is offering as many as five digital banking permits to non-banks in a bid to open up the financial sector to new competitors.
OIL
Crude hits post-Soviet high
Russian crude oil and condensate output last year hit a post-Soviet high even as the nation curbed production under an agreement with OPEC. It produced 560.2 million tonnes of oil, up 0.8 percent from 2018, preliminary data from the Russian Ministry of Energy showed. That is equivalent to 11.25 million barrels a day, Bloomberg calculations showed. A record 11.416 million barrels a day were produced in 1987, BP PLC data showed.
SINGAPORE
Private home prices cool
Private home prices rose just 0.3 percent in the fourth quarter of last year, further evidence that government cooling measures levied in the middle of 2018 have taken the heat out of the city-state’s residential real-estate market. The increase compared with a 1.3 percent rise in the third quarter, a flash estimate released yesterday by the Urban Redevelopment Authority showed. For the whole of last year, apartment prices rose 2.5 percent, well below a jump of 7.9 percent in 2018.
INDIA
Gujarat Narmada faces fees
Gujarat Narmada Valley Fertilizers and Chemicals Ltd said that the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has asked it to pay 150.2 billion rupees (US$2.11 billion) in overdue fees by Jan. 23. The firm is seeking legal advice on the matter, which pertains to licenses for satellite phones and Internet services held from 2005 to last year, its exchange filing on Wednesday showed. The amount sought is 20 times Gujarat Narmada’s 7.4 billion rupee net profit for the year ended March last year.
Three experts in the high technology industry have said that US President Donald Trump’s pledge to impose higher tariffs on Taiwanese semiconductors is part of an effort to force Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) to the negotiating table. In a speech to Republicans on Jan. 27, Trump said he intends to impose tariffs on Taiwan to bring chip production to the US. “The incentive is going to be they’re not going to want to pay a 25, 50 or even a 100 percent tax,” he said. Darson Chiu (邱達生), an economics professor at Taichung-based Tunghai University and director-general of
‘LEGACY CHIPS’: Chinese companies have dramatically increased mature chip production capacity, but the West’s drive for secure supply chains offers a lifeline for Taiwan When Powerchip Technology Corp (力晶科技) entered a deal with the eastern Chinese city of Hefei in 2015 to set up a new chip foundry, it hoped the move would help provide better access to the promising Chinese market. However, nine years later, that Chinese foundry, Nexchip Semiconductor Corp (合晶集成), has become one of its biggest rivals in the legacy chip space, leveraging steep discounts after Beijing’s localization call forced Powerchip to give up the once-lucrative business making integrated circuits for Chinese flat panels. Nexchip is among Chinese foundries quickly winning market share in the crucial US$56.3 billion industry of so-called legacy
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday held its first board of directors meeting in the US, at which it did not unveil any new US investments despite mounting tariff threats from US President Donald Trump. Trump has threatened to impose 100 percent tariffs on Taiwan-made chips, prompting market speculation that TSMC might consider boosting its chip capacity in the US or ramping up production of advanced chips such as those using a 2-nanometer technology process at its Arizona fabs ahead of schedule. Speculation also swirled that the chipmaker might consider building its own advanced packaging capacity in the US as part
A move by US President Donald Trump to slap a 25 percent tariff on all steel imports is expected to place Taiwan-made steel, which already has a 25 percent tariff, on an equal footing, the Taiwan Steel & Iron Industries Association said yesterday. Speaking with CNA, association chairman Hwang Chien-chih (黃建智) said such an equal footing is expected to boost Taiwan’s competitive edge against other countries in the US market, describing the tariffs as "positive" for Taiwanese steel exporters. On Monday, Trump signed two executive orders imposing the new metal tariffs on imported steel and aluminum with no exceptions and exemptions, effective