GERMANY
Business optimism improves
Companies are turning increasingly optimistic that government support and a reluctance to return to wide-scale lockdowns would carry the economy through the COVID-19 pandemic. The Ifo institute’s business climate index rose to 93.4 this month from 92.5 last month. That was slightly lower than the median forecast of economists in a Bloomberg survey. A gauge of expectations also improved. “The German economy is stabilizing despite an increase in infection numbers,” Ifo president Clemens Fuest said in a statement, but added that confidence in the services sector declined.
AUSTRALIA
Bankruptcy laws overhauled
The government yesterday unveiled its biggest shakeup in bankruptcy laws in nearly three decades, allowing small businesses to trade while insolvent and take more control over debt restructuring, in a bid to help firms through the COVID-19 pandemic. The new rules, effective from Jan. 1 next year, is to help manage an expected avalanche of insolvencies early next year. They would allow businesses with liabilities of less than A$1 million (US$704,195) to keep operating for 20 business days while they come up with a debt restructuring plan, rather than be placed in the hands of administrators.
REAL ESTATE
WeWork sells China stake
WeWork has sold a majority stake in its China business as the coworking giant continues to pare down its expenses, the company said on Wednesday. Trustbridge Partners (摯信資本), an existing investor in WeWork’s China subsidiary, invested an additional US$200 million and now owns more than half of the business, WeWork said. The company opened its first Chinese location, in Shanghai, in 2016, and now operates more than 100 locations in 12 cities. Michael Jiang (姜躍平), an operating partner at Trustbridge, was named the acting chief executive officer of WeWork China, the company said in a statement.
NORWAY
Central bank holds zero rate
Norges Bank yesterday kept its key policy interest rate on hold at a record-low zero percent, as expected, and said any hike was still likely to be about two years away. The central bank has slashed rates three times since March, cutting the cost of borrowing from 1.5 percent to cushion the economy from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. “The policy rate forecast is little changed since June ... and implies a rate at the current level over the next couple of years, followed by a gradual rise as activity approaches a more normal level,” Norges Bank Governor Oeystein Olsen said in a statement.
AIRLINES
Qantas selling bar carts
Qantas Airways Ltd is salvaging almost anything to get through the COVID-19 pandemic. Now it is peddling US$1,000 loaded bar carts after stripping them from grounded planes. The airline is selling 1,000 carts taken from Boeing Co 747s before the jumbos were retired early as the virus halted overseas travel. Delivered to your home, a stocked, full-size cart is going for A$1,474.70. A half cart costs A$974.70. Qantas has already sold 10,000 sets of pajamas, all snapped up within a few hours, and is also selling tickets for sightseeing flights around Australia. The airline is cutting as many as 8,500 jobs, and this month said it might move its Sydney headquarters to another city as part of a cost review.
TARIFF TRADE-OFF: Machinery exports to China dropped after Beijing ended its tariff reductions in June, while potential new tariffs fueled ‘front-loaded’ orders to the US The nation’s machinery exports to the US amounted to US$7.19 billion last year, surpassing the US$6.86 billion to China to become the largest export destination for the local machinery industry, the Taiwan Association of Machinery Industry (TAMI, 台灣機械公會) said in a report on Jan. 10. It came as some manufacturers brought forward or “front-loaded” US-bound shipments as required by customers ahead of potential tariffs imposed by the new US administration, the association said. During his campaign, US president-elect Donald Trump threatened tariffs of as high as 60 percent on Chinese goods and 10 percent to 20 percent on imports from other countries.
Taiwanese manufacturers have a chance to play a key role in the humanoid robot supply chain, Tongtai Machine and Tool Co (東台精機) chairman Yen Jui-hsiung (嚴瑞雄) said yesterday. That is because Taiwanese companies are capable of making key parts needed for humanoid robots to move, such as harmonic drives and planetary gearboxes, Yen said. This ability to produce these key elements could help Taiwanese manufacturers “become part of the US supply chain,” he added. Yen made the remarks a day after Nvidia Corp cofounder and chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said his company and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) are jointly
United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電) expects its addressable market to grow by a low single-digit percentage this year, lower than the overall foundry industry’s 15 percent expansion and the global semiconductor industry’s 10 percent growth, the contract chipmaker said yesterday after reporting the worst profit in four-and-a-half years in the fourth quarter of last year. Growth would be fueled by demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers, a moderate recovery in consumer electronics and an increase in semiconductor content, UMC said. “UMC’s goal is to outgrow our addressable market while maintaining our structural profitability,” UMC copresident Jason Wang (王石) told an online earnings
MARKET SHIFTS: Exports to the US soared more than 120 percent to almost one quarter, while ASEAN has steadily increased to 18.5 percent on rising tech sales The proportion of Taiwan’s exports directed to China, including Hong Kong, declined by more than 12 percentage points last year compared with its peak in 2020, the Ministry of Finance said on Thursday last week. The decrease reflects the ongoing restructuring of global supply chains, driven by escalating trade tensions between Beijing and Washington. Data compiled by the ministry showed China and Hong Kong accounted for 31.7 percent of Taiwan’s total outbound sales last year, a drop of 12.2 percentage points from a high of 43.9 percent in 2020. In addition to increasing trade conflicts between China and the US, the ministry said
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