Sat, Mar 14, 2020 page10

• World Business Quick Take

  • Agencies
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  TELECOMS

  Trump bars Huawei gear

  US President Donald Trump on Thursday signed legislation that bars carriers from using US subsidies to purchase network equipment from Huawei Technologies Co (華為), ZTE Corp (中興) and other companies deemed a national security threat. The law also requires the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to help small providers with the costs of removing prohibited equipment or services from their networks and replacing it. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai asked the US Congress “to appropriate the necessary funding to reimburse carriers for replacing any network equipment or services found to be a national security threat.” The Rural Wireless Association praised the measure that authorizes the not-yet-appropriated US$1 billion. It marks “the first step in securing necessary funding to replace rural carriers’ Huawei and ZTE equipment so that critical network infrastructure in rural areas continues to be available,” the association said.

  SEMICONDUCTORS

  Broadcom rescinds forecast

  Chipmaker and Apple Inc supplier Broadcom Inc withdrew its annual sales forecast and gave weak near-term guidance, demonstrating how deeply the coronavirus outbreak is poised to hurt demand. Although Broadcom CEO Hock Tan (陳福陽) said that he “did not see any material impact” from the outbreak in the first quarter, “we believe it prudent to withdraw our annual guidance until visibility returns to pre-COVID-19 level.” Sales in the current period would be US$5.7 billion, plus or minus US$150 million, the company said on Thursday. That missed Wall Street expectations. While Broadcom’s supply chain is unscathed by the virus so far, Tan said it is impossible to assess yet how much consumer demand for electronics would decline.

  JAPAN

  Unions score small raise

  Workers in the nation’s biggest labor union are receiving the smallest pay raise in seven years, another blow for households facing a higher sales tax and the likelihood of a deep recession triggered by the COVID-19. Average monthly pay for members is to rise by 1.91 percent, initial results from this year’s wage negotiations released on Friday by the Japanese Trade Union Confederation show. That follows a bump of around 2.2 percent last year. With corporate profits likely to be hard hit by the virus, unions had less bargaining power than might have been expected given the country’s labor shortages. This year’s results present a further challenge for households whose budgets have been squeezed by the second sales tax hike in the span of about five years. The confederation entered this year’s negotiations demanding only about a 3 percent pay increase.

  PHARMACEUTICALS

  FDA permits faster virus test

  The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued emergency authorization for a faster coronavirus test made by Swiss diagnostics maker Roche, a move aimed at boosting screening capacity to help contain the outbreak. The new tests provide results in 3.5 hours and can produce up to 4,128 results daily, the company said yesterday, a boost to tests the company has offered until now. The emergency authorization clears the tests to be deployed in the US and markets that conform to European standards. Roche said it is “going to the limits of our production capacity” to deliver as many of the faster tests as possible.
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