AUSTRALIA
Consumer confidence falls
Consumer confidence has recorded the biggest fall in the 47-year history of a survey, bringing the index down to levels last seen during recessions, Westpac Banking Corp said yesterday. Household sentiment this month plummeted 17.7 percent to 75.6 as governments instituted widespread restrictions to stem the spread of coronavirus. The confidence survey was based on 1,200 adults across the nation last week. The details of the survey “are all very disturbing and reflect the large shocks to jobs and spending,” Westpac chief economist Bill Evans said.
SINGAPORE
Housing slumps 32%
Private home sales fell last month, as a partial lockdown forcing people to stay indoors curtailed activity. Sales in the city-state slumped 32 percent to 660 units last month from 976 in February, Urban Redevelopment Authority data released yesterday showed. Home prices fell the most in more than three years in the first quarter and sales could be harder hit in the coming months as the government imposes more draconian measures to arrest rising virus cases, which have exploded in the past month.
FRANCE
Retail sales drop 24%
Retail sales sank 24 percent last month from February, as a nationwide lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic left many shops shuttered, data from the central bank showed yesterday. Sales of industrial goods were down more than 43 percent while food sales fell only 0.9 percent, the Bank of France said. The freefall last month meant that retail sales fell 7.2 percent in the first quarter from the previous three months, with small retail outlets seeing a plunge of 9.6 percent and large general retailers seeing an increase 1.7 percent, the central bank said.
AVIATION
China passenger traffic falls
Air passenger traffic slumped 54 percent in China in the first quarter, as the COVID-19 pandemic and related travel restrictions decimated demand. The Chinese aviation industry lost 39.8 billion yuan (US$5.6 billion) in the first quarter, with airlines accounting for 33.6 billion yuan, the Civil Aviation Administration of China said yesterday. Passenger volume fell to 74.1 million, with a 72 percent tumble to 15.1 million last month. Air cargo dropped 23 percent last month from a year earlier to 484,000 tonnes, the agency said.
AVIATION
Canceled plane orders spike
Boeing Co saw a spike in canceled plane orders last month due to the travails of the 737 MAX as well as a fall in air travel due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the company said on Tuesday. Orders for 150 MAX planes were annulled last month, half of those from the Irish company Avolon that was previously announced. Boeing suffered a net decline of 307 orders throughout its commercial plane business in the first quarter, even as it continued to add orders for the 787 Dreamliner over the three-month stretch.
HOSPITALITY
Airbnb secures US$1bn loan
Airbnb Inc has secured a new US$1 billion loan just days after closing a US$1 billion debt deal, the company said on Tuesday. Parties to the new loan deal included private equity firms Silver Lake Management LLC, Apollo Global Management LLC, Sixth Street Partners LLC, Oaktree Capital Management LLC and Owl Rock Capital Corp, several sources with knowledge of the discussions said.
FALLING BEHIND: Samsung shares have declined more than 20 percent this year, as the world’s largest chipmaker struggles in key markets and plays catch-up to rival SK Hynix Samsung Electronics Co is laying off workers in Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand as part of a plan to reduce its global headcount by thousands of jobs, sources familiar with the situation said. The layoffs could affect about 10 percent of its workforces in those markets, although the numbers for each subsidiary might vary, said one of the sources, who asked not to be named because the matter is private. Job cuts are planned for other overseas subsidiaries and could reach 10 percent in certain markets, the source said. The South Korean company has about 147,000 in staff overseas, more than half
Taipei is today suspending its US$2.5 trillion stock market as Super Typhoon Krathon approaches Taiwan with strong winds and heavy rain. The nation is not conducting securities, currency or fixed-income trading, statements from its stock and currency exchanges said. Yesterday, schools and offices were closed in several cities and counties in southern and eastern Taiwan, including in the key industrial port city of Kaohsiung. Taiwan, which started canceling flights, ship sailings and some train services earlier this week, has wind and rain advisories in place for much of the island. It regularly experiences typhoons, and in July shut offices and schools as
TECH PARTNERSHIP: The deal with Arizona-based Amkor would provide TSMC with advanced packing and test capacities, a requirement to serve US customers Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is collaborating with Amkor Technology Inc to provide local advanced packaging and test capacities in Arizona to address customer requirements for geographical flexibility in chip manufacturing. As part of the agreement, TSMC, the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, would contract turnkey advanced packaging and test services from Amkor at their planned facility in Peoria, Arizona, a joint statement released yesterday said. TSMC would leverage these services to support its customers, particularly those using TSMC’s advanced wafer fabrication facilities in Phoenix, Arizona, it said. The companies would jointly define the specific packaging technologies, such as TSMC’s Integrated
An Indian factory producing iPhone components resumed work yesterday after a fire that halted production — the third blaze to disrupt Apple Inc’s local supply chain since the start of last year. Local industrial behemoth Tata Group’s plant in Tamil Nadu, which was shut down by the unexplained fire on Saturday, is a key linchpin of Apple’s nascent supply chain in the country. A spokesperson for subsidiary Tata Electronics Pvt yesterday said that the company would restart work in “many areas of the facility today.” “We’ve been working diligently since Saturday to support our team and to identify the cause of the fire,”
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