CHINA
Producer prices slump
Factory gate prices last month fell the most in five months, with deflation deepening and set to worsen in the coming months due to the economic damage wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic at home and abroad. The National Bureau of Statistics data suggested a durable recovery was some way off, with the producer price index falling 1.5 percent year-on-year, the biggest decline since October last year. It compared with a median forecast of a 1.1 percent in a Reuters poll of analysts and a 0.4 percent drop in February. The overall decline in the factory gate gauge was exacerbated by a slump in global crude oil and commodities prices, the bureau said in a statement accompanying the data.
RIDE HAILERS
Uber plans to ship masks
Uber Technologies Inc on Thursday said that it plans to ship millions of masks to its drivers and food delivery employees around the world to help prevent the spread of COVID-19. Uber vice president of safety and insurance Gus Fuldner in a company blog post also said that the company plans to ship nearly 500,000 masks to US drivers located in the cities hardest hit by the coronavirus outbreak. The initial mask order would come from a Chinese company that typically manufactures electronics and now produces ear-loop masks, but the company would be sourcing masks from all over the world as a long-term commitment, a company spokesman said.
AUTOMAKERS
Renault seeking US$5.5bn
Renault SA is seeking up to 5 billion euros (US$5.5 billion) in government-backed loans to weather the COVID-19 pandemic, chairman Jean-Dominique Senard said, while dismissing the possibility of nationalization. Renault on Thursday scrapped its dividend to conserve cash after plant and showroom closures strangled operations. Senard and interim chief executive Clotilde Delbos are taking a 25 percent pay cut for at least the second quarter. The dividend, which had already been reduced, would have totaled 325 million euros.
AVIATION
Airbus cuts plane output
Airbus SE has slashed its aircraft output by a third in a stark concession to the COVID-19 pandemic that has upended the aviation industry. The world’s biggest commercial aircraft manufacturer now plans to produce about 48 planes a month across its A320, A330 and A350 programs, it said in a statement. It had gone into the year with a goal of producing about 880 planes, or an average of 73 per month. Airbus is to produce about 40 of its top-selling A320 narrow-body each month, it said, while reducing production of the advanced A350 wide-body to six per month. A330 production is to be cut to two per month, raising a question about whether the program can remain viable. The company plans to assess production on a monthly basis, chief executive Guillaume Faury told reporters.
INTERNET
Amazon plans testing lab
Amazon.com Inc is building a laboratory that would enable it to test employees for COVID-19, the latest step the online retailer is taking to try to protect its warehouse workers and delivery drivers, who are getting essential products to customers locked down at home. Amazon said that its effort might not accomplish much during the current pandemic, but it is still assigning a team of scientists, software engineers and procurement specialists to build a laboratory that would enable the company to “start testing small numbers of our front-line employees soon.”
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”