JAPAN
US beef tariffs increase
Tokyo is temporarily raising tariffs on US beef imports as volumes have exceeded levels agreed to between the two nations for the fiscal year ending on March 31, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries said yesterday. From today, the tariff would rise to 38.5 percent from 25.8 percent for 30 days through April 16, marking the first time the safeguard measure has been imposed on US beef imports since August 2017. Japan imported 242,229 tonnes of US beef by early this month, exceeding the maximum 242,000 tonnes set under the Japan-US trade agreement for this fiscal year, the ministry said. Slower imports from Australia due to drought there have boosted demand for US beef, an official at the ministry said.
JAPAN
Exports drop 4.5% annually
Exports this month fell for the first time in three months, dropping more than economists expected, as the timing of Lunar New Year holiday cut business days in China, while COVID-19 and extreme weather weighed on other key markets. The value of overseas shipments slid 4.5 percent from a year earlier, the Ministry of Finance reported yesterday. Analysts predicted a much smaller 0.2 percent drop. Exports to the US and Europe declined at a faster pace than in January, while gains to China slowed sharply.
TECHNOLOGY
Huawei to sell 5G patents
Huawei Technologies Co (華為) plans to begin charging mobile giants such as Apple Inc a “reasonable” fee for access to its trove of wireless 5G patents, potentially creating a lucrative revenue source by showcasing its global lead in next-generation networking. The company is to negotiate rates and potential cross-licensing with the iPhone maker and Samsung Electronics Co, Huawei chief legal officer Song Liuping (宋柳平) said. It promised to charge lower rates than rivals such as Qualcomm Inc, Ericsson AB and Nokia Oyj. Huawei should make about US$1.2 billion to US$1.3 billion in patent and licensing fees between 2019 and this year, executives said. It is capping per-phone royalties at US$2.50, said Jason Ding (丁建新), head of Huawei’s intellectual property department.
INTERNET
Google to lower commission
Google on Tuesday said that it would halve the controversial fee it charges developers at its online shop for digital content tailored for Android-powered mobile devices. The commission taken at Google Play would be reduced to 15 percent from 30 percent starting in July, but just on the first US$1 million of revenue taken in annually by a developer, Google product management vice president Sameer Samat said in a post. The move comes amid pressure on Google and Apple to ease policies on their online marketplaces for the dominant mobile platforms. Apple announced a similar cut for small businesses last year.
TECHNOLOGY
Firms bet on cloud gaming
Tencent Holdings Ltd (騰訊) and Sony Corp are beefing up their bet on cloud gaming by joining the latest fundraising round of Japanese venture Ubitus K.K. Ubitus, which specializes in cloud-gaming technology and services. The Japanese venture yesterday said that it completed a round with investments from Tencent, Sony Innovation Fund by Innovation Growth Ventures and Square Enix Holdings Co, without disclosing the amount raised. The investors put in about US$45 million at a valuation of less than US$400 million, a person familiar with the matter said.
Elon Musk’s lieutenants have reached out to chip industry suppliers, including Applied Materials Inc, Tokyo Electron Ltd and Lam Research Corp, for his envisioned Terafab, early steps in an audacious and likely arduous attempt to break into the production of cutting-edge chips. Staff working for the joint venture between Tesla Inc and Space Exploration Technologies Corp (SpaceX) have sought price quotes and delivery times for an array of chipmaking gear, people familiar with the matter said. In past weeks, they’ve contacted makers of photomasks, substrates, etchers, depositors, cleaning devices, testers and other tools, according to the people, who asked not to
JET JUICE: The war on Iran’s secondary effects have seen fuel prices skyrocket, knocking flight schedules down to earth in return as airlines struggle with costs Airline passengers should brace for more irritation in the next few months as carriers worldwide cancel flights and ground planes to cope with stratospheric increases in jet-fuel prices. Dutch flag carrier KLM is the latest company to cut its schedule, saying on Thursday that it would scrap 80 return flights at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport in the coming month. That puts it in the same league as United Airlines Holdings Inc, Deutsche Lufthansa AG and Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd, which have all pruned itineraries to mitigate costs. Global capacity for next month has been reduced by about 3 percentage points, with all
Taiwan is attracting a growing number of foreign jobseekers as companies increasingly recruit overseas talent to ease labor shortages and expand global reach, recruitment platform 104 Job Bank (104人力銀行) said yesterday. More than 40,000 foreign nationals searched for jobs in Taiwan through the platform last year, a 28 percent increase from a year earlier, the company said. Malaysians accounted for the largest share of overseas jobseekers at 12.2 percent, followed by Indonesians at 11.9 percent and Vietnamese at 10.8 percent. Indonesian applicants surged more than 50 percent year-on-year, while Vietnamese jobseekers rose by more than 30 percent. Applicants from the
NO SHORTCUTS: Asked about Elon Musk’s Terafab initiative, TSMC CEO C.C. Wei said it takes two to three years to build a fab and another one to two to ramp it up Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday raised its revenue growth forecast for this year to above 30 percent, up from the 25 percent it estimated three months earlier, citing extremely robust artificial intelligence (AI)-related chip demand. “Our customers and customers’ customers, who are mainly cloud service providers, continue to send us very positive signals and outlook,” TSMC chairman and CEO C.C. Wei (魏哲家) said at an earnings conference. The company also hiked its capital expenditure for this year toward the higher end of its forecast, or US$56 billion, as it aims to step up advanced chip capacity expansions, such as
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