E-COMMERCE
Alibaba shares drop 7%
Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (阿里巴巴) shares yesterday slid 7 percent in Hong Kong, despite boosting its share buyback program to US$10 billion, amid ongoing concern over China’s inquiry into alleged monopolistic practices. Chinese regulators over the weekend ordered affiliate Ant Group Co (螞蟻集團) to return to its roots as a provider of payments services. “This Share Repurchase Program will be effective for a two-year period through the end of 2022,” Alibaba wrote in a statement late on Sunday.
UNITED KINGDOM
London seeking deals
Having clinched a deal with the EU, the government is now pursuing trade deals with Australia, the US and countries in the Indo-Pacific region, Secretary of Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs Dominic Raab wrote in the Telegraph late on Sunday. “In January, the Prime Minister will visit India to boost our economic ties with the world’s biggest democracy, and will join Prime Minister Narendra Modi for India’s Republic Day celebrations,” Raab wrote in the newspaper.
INDONESIA
Budget deficit to be reduced
The government would keep its promise to gradually reduce the budget deficit and return to fiscal discipline, after it had to raise the deficit cap this year amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Febrio Kacaribu, head of fiscal policy at the Ministry of Finance, said in an interview in Jakarta. It would also lower the funding gap next year and restore the deficit cap of 3 percent of GDP by 2023, he said. Indonesia waived the deficit cap this year via an emergency law because of the pandemic, widening this year’s projected deficit to 6.3 percent of GDP.
ENERGY
China Datang eyes plants
China Datang Corp (中國大唐) is nearing an agreement to buy a majority stake in three thermal power plants in Indonesia for about US$400 million, people familiar with the matter said. The state-backed energy giant is in advanced talks with PT Dian Swastatika Sentosa for a 75 percent stake in its three independent thermal power plants with a total capacity of 600 megawatts, the people said. An announcement could come as soon as this week, the people said. Negotiations could still be delayed or fall apart, they said.
CHINA
Industrial profit growth slows
Profits at industrial enterprises last month grew at a slower pace as producer prices continued to ease. Industrial profits rose 15.5 percent, after gaining 28.2 percent in October, National Bureau of Statistics data showed on Sunday. For the first 11 months of this year, profits were up 2.4 percent from a year earlier. The easing last month was due to a high comparison base with October, the bureau said in a statement. There is effective market stimulus and stable improvement in supply and demand, it said.
MALAYSIA
Glove maker faces charges
The country aims to file 30 charges against glove maker Brightway Holdings Sdn Bhd and two of its subsidiaries, after raids found that workers’ accommodation was not up to legal standards. The Labour Department last week conducted a raid on a glove-making factory in Kajang, where it found workers living in cramped, dirty shipping containers stacked behind the premises.
Three experts in the high technology industry have said that US President Donald Trump’s pledge to impose higher tariffs on Taiwanese semiconductors is part of an effort to force Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) to the negotiating table. In a speech to Republicans on Jan. 27, Trump said he intends to impose tariffs on Taiwan to bring chip production to the US. “The incentive is going to be they’re not going to want to pay a 25, 50 or even a 100 percent tax,” he said. Darson Chiu (邱達生), an economics professor at Taichung-based Tunghai University and director-general of
Zhang Yazhou was sitting in the passenger seat of her Tesla Model 3 when she said she heard her father’s panicked voice: The brakes do not work. Approaching a red light, her father swerved around two cars before plowing into a sport utility vehicle and a sedan, and crashing into a large concrete barrier. Stunned, Zhang gazed at the deflating airbag in front of her. She could never have imagined what was to come: Tesla Inc sued her for defamation for complaining publicly about the vehicles brakes — and won. A Chinese court ordered Zhang to pay more than US$23,000 in
‘LEGACY CHIPS’: Chinese companies have dramatically increased mature chip production capacity, but the West’s drive for secure supply chains offers a lifeline for Taiwan When Powerchip Technology Corp (力晶科技) entered a deal with the eastern Chinese city of Hefei in 2015 to set up a new chip foundry, it hoped the move would help provide better access to the promising Chinese market. However, nine years later, that Chinese foundry, Nexchip Semiconductor Corp (合晶集成), has become one of its biggest rivals in the legacy chip space, leveraging steep discounts after Beijing’s localization call forced Powerchip to give up the once-lucrative business making integrated circuits for Chinese flat panels. Nexchip is among Chinese foundries quickly winning market share in the crucial US$56.3 billion industry of so-called legacy
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday held its first board of directors meeting in the US, at which it did not unveil any new US investments despite mounting tariff threats from US President Donald Trump. Trump has threatened to impose 100 percent tariffs on Taiwan-made chips, prompting market speculation that TSMC might consider boosting its chip capacity in the US or ramping up production of advanced chips such as those using a 2-nanometer technology process at its Arizona fabs ahead of schedule. Speculation also swirled that the chipmaker might consider building its own advanced packaging capacity in the US as part