STOCKS
MSCI to ax Chinese telecoms
MSCI Inc is to remove China’s three major telecoms from its benchmark indices, adding fresh selling pressure to stocks that have this week swung wildly on confusion over whether they should be included in a US ban on investments in Chinese companies with military ties. The index provider’s decision to cut China Mobile Ltd (中國移動), China Telecom Corp (中國電信) and China Unicom Hong Kong Ltd (中國聯通) at the close of business yesterday is to apply to the companies’ Hong Kong-listed shares. That means it could have a substantially larger impact on investment flows than the New York Stock Exchange’s decision on Wednesday — after two about-faces — to delist the firms’ thinly traded US shares. Shares of China Unicom dropped as much as 11 percent in early trade in Hong Kong yesterday, while China Mobile and China Telecom both slid by about 10 percent.
AUTOMAKERS
Baidu, Geely to team up
Baidu Inc (百度) and Geely Automobile Holdings Ltd (吉利汽車) are to jointly make electric vehicles for the Chinese market, a person familiar with the matter said. The tie-up marks a significant expansion into automaking for Baidu, which has for years touted its Apollo open-sourced platform to help manufacturers build autonomous driving and connectivity into their products. The move precedes a Hong Kong share sale that is forecast to raise US$3.5 billion in a secondary listing in Hong Kong to fuel the search giant’s ambitions beyond advertising.
SHIPPING
Chinese exports drive prices
Global demand for Chinese goods has in the past few months been so strong that it has created a shortage of containers and drove up shipping costs, potentially impeding the nation’s exports in the next few months. Exports have been on a tear since July last year, fueled by COVID-19 pandemic-related purchases like masks and work-at-home equipment, including computers. Imports have not been growing at nearly the same pace, resulting in a lack of shipping containers returning to China to be refilled and sent out again. The cost of shipping a 40-foot container to Los Angeles from Shanghai has almost doubled from early June. The “soaring prices for China’s outward shipments due to a shortage of shipping capacity will weigh on China’s export growth, despite resilient external demand helped by the holiday season and factory lockdowns throughout Europe,” said Serena Zhou, a fixed-income analyst at Mizuho Financial Group Inc.
CHIPMAKERS
Micron forecasts profit hike
Micron Technology Inc, the largest US memorychip maker, gave a bullish forecast for the this quarter indicating improving demand for its products used in smartphones and computers. Revenue would be US$5.8 billion, plus or minus US$200 million, in the fiscal second quarter, the firm said in a statement on Thursday. That compares with an average analyst estimate of US$5.48 billion. Earnings per share, except certain items, would be US$0.75, plus or minus US$0.07, Micron said. Its earnings, which are a key indicator of demand for all devices that compute, suggest increasing sales across the industry. Micron CEO Sanjay Mehrotra is trying to broaden the firm’s reach into new markets such as vehicles. Demand related to artificial intelligence, cloud computing and 5G systems are driving the firm’s sales increases, Mehrotra said on a conference call. The need for dynamic random access memory chips will likely exceed supply, Micron forecast.
purpose: Tesla’s CEO sought to meet senior Chinese officials to discuss the rollout of its ‘full self-driving’ software in China and approval to transfer data they had collected Tesla Inc CEO Elon Musk arrived in Beijing yesterday on an unannounced visit, where he is expected to meet senior officials to discuss the rollout of "full self-driving" (FSD) software and permission to transfer data overseas, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. Chinese state media reported that he met Premier Li Qiang (李強) in Beijing, during which Li told Musk that Tesla's development in China could be regarded as a successful example of US-China economic and trade cooperation. Musk confirmed his meeting with the premier yesterday with a post on social media platform X. "Honored to meet with Premier Li
Dutch brewing company Heineken NV on Friday announced an investment of NT$13.5 billion (US$414.62 million) over the next five years in Taiwan. The first multinational brewing company to operate in Taiwan, Heineken made the statement at a ceremony held at its brewery in Pingtung County. It also outlined its efforts to make the brewery “net zero” by 2030. Heineken has been in the Taiwanese market for 20 years, Heineken Taiwan managing director Jeff Wu (吳建甫) said. With strong support from local consumers, the Dutch brewery decided to transition from sales to manufacturing in the country, Wu said. Heineken assumed majority ownership and management rights
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: The chipmaker last month raised its capital spending by 28 percent for this year to NT$32 billion from a previous estimate of NT$25 billion Contract chipmaker Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電子) yesterday launched a new 12-inch fab, tapping into advanced chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) packaging technology to support rising demand for artificial intelligence (AI) devices. Powerchip is to offer interposers, one of three parts in CoWoS packaging technology, with shipments scheduled for the second half of this year, Powerchip chairman Frank Huang (黃崇仁) told reporters on the sidelines of a fab inauguration ceremony in the Tongluo Science Park (銅鑼科學園區) in Miaoli County yesterday. “We are working with customers to supply CoWoS-related business, utilizing part of this new fab’s capacity,” Huang said, adding that Powerchip intended to bridge
Microsoft Corp yesterday said that it would create Thailand’s first data center region to boost cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure, promising AI training to more than 100,000 people to develop tech. Bangkok is a key economic player in Southeast Asia, but it has lagged behind Indonesia and Singapore when it comes to the tech industry. Thailand has an “incredible opportunity to build a digital-first, AI-powered future,” Microsoft chairman and chief executive officer Satya Nadella said at an event in Bangkok. Data center regions are physical locations that store computing infrastructure, allowing secure and reliable access to cloud platforms. The global embrace of AI