UNITED STATES
Iran-linked firms sanctioned
Washington on Thursday imposed sanctions on 11 foreign companies, accusing them of helping to facilitate Iran’s export of petroleum, petroleum products and petrochemicals in violation of its sanctions. The Department of the Treasury slapped sanctions on six companies based in Iran, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and China that it said enable the shipment and sale of Iranian petrochemicals and support Triliance Petrochemical Co Ltd, a Hong Kong-based company blacklisted by Washington. The Treasury also blacklisted UAE-based Petrotech FZE and Trio Energy DMCC, Hong Kong-based Jingho Technology Co Ltd (晶浩科技) and Dynapex Energy Ltd, as well as China-based Dinrin Ltd (丁林有限公司), accusing them of being front companies for Triliance and Zagros.
ACQUISITIONS
TikTok India bidders sought
Softbank Group Corp is exploring assembling a group of bidders for TikTok’s India assets and has been looking for local partners, people familiar with the matter said. Over the past month, the Japanese conglomerate, which owns a stake in TikTok’s Chinese parent, ByteDance Ltd (字節跳動), has held talks with the heads of India’s Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd and Bharti Airtel Ltd, the people said, asking not to be identified because the details are private. While discussions have fizzled since then, Softbank is still exploring options, the people said.
CHIPMAKERS
Broadcom forecast bullish
Broadcom Inc, a chipmaker that has branched out into enterprise software, gave a bullish forecast helped by spending on data centers and a predicted rebound in shipments of smartphone components. Revenue in the three months ending Nov. 1 would be US$6.4 billion, plus or minus US$150 million, the San Jose, California-based company said in a statement on Thursday. That compares with an average analyst prediction of US$6.19 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Broadcom has a wide variety of products spanning components for servers, smartphones, vehicles, security software, home broadband and software that runs the biggest mainframe computers. Some elements of the global lockdown amid the COVID-19 pandemic have boosted demand, while others, such as lower spending on smartphones and government infrastructure, have hurt. “Our outlook for the fourth quarter reflects a strong anticipated ramp in wireless, as well as the continuing surge in demand for networking from cloud and telecom customers, more than offsetting expected softness in enterprise” Broadcom chief executive officer Hock Tan (陳福陽) said in the statement.
ONLINE SALES
Amazon Japan offers plan
Amazon Japan has submitted a plan to the Japan Fair Trade Commission (JFTC) on how it would improve practices suspected of contravening regulations, the Asahi Shimbun reported yesterday. The unit of Amazon.com Inc was raided by the commission in 2018 on suspicion of demanding that suppliers shoulder part of the cost incurred from selling their products at a discount on the e-commerce giant’s Web site. The proposal includes a plan to refund suppliers who were pressured to pay this “cooperation money,” the newspaper said. “We continue to have cooperative and productive discussions with the JFTC,” the company said in an e-mailed statement.
Hypermarket chain Carrefour Taiwan and upscale supermarket chain Mia C’bon on Saturday announced the suspension of their partnership with Jkopay Co (街口支付), one of Taiwan’s largest digital payment providers, amid a lawsuit involving its parent company. Carrefour and Mia C’bon said they would notify customers once Jkopay services are reinstated. The two retailers joined an array of other firms in suspending their partnerships with Jkopay. On Friday night, popular beverage chain TP Tea (茶湯會) also suspended its use of the platform, urging customers to opt for alternative payment methods. Another drinks brand, Guiji (龜記), on Friday said that it is up to individual
UNCERTAINTIES: Exports surged 34.1% and private investment grew 7.03% to outpace expectations in the first half, although US tariffs could stall momentum The Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) yesterday raised its GDP growth forecast to 3.05 percent this year on a robust first-half performance, but warned that US tariff threats and external uncertainty could stall momentum in the second half of the year. “The first half proved exceptionally strong, allowing room for optimism,” CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said. “But the growth momentum may slow moving forward due to US tariffs.” The tariff threat poses definite downside risks, although the scale of the impact remains unclear given the unpredictability of US President Donald Trump’s policies, Lien said. Despite the headwinds, Taiwan is likely
READY TO BUY: Shortly after Nvidia announced the approval, Chinese firms scrambled to order the H20 GPUs, which the company must send to the US government for approval Nvidia Corp chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) late on Monday said the technology giant has won approval from US President Donald Trump’s administration to sell its advanced H20 graphics processing units (GPUs) used to develop artificial intelligence (AI) to China. The news came in a company blog post late on Monday and Huang also spoke about the coup on China’s state-run China Global Television Network in remarks shown on X. “The US government has assured Nvidia that licenses will be granted, and Nvidia hopes to start deliveries soon,” the post said. “Today, I’m announcing that the US government has approved for us
The National Stabilization Fund (NSF, 國安基金) is to continue supporting local shares, as uncertainties in international politics and the economy could affect Taiwanese industries’ global deployment and corporate profits, as well as affect stock movement and investor confidence, the Ministry of Finance said in a statement yesterday. The NT$500 billion (US$17.1 billion) fund would remain active in the stock market as the US’ tariff measures have not yet been fully finalized, which would drive international capital flows and global supply chain restructuring, the ministry said after the a meeting of the fund’s steering committee. Along with ongoing geopolitical risks and an unfavorable
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