SOUTH KOREA
Consumer sentiment rises
Consumers this month turned optimistic for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic struck early last year, adding to signs that the economy is set for a strong rebound this year, the Bank of Korea said yesterday. The consumer sentiment index rose by 3.1 points to reach 100.5, the highest since January last year, the central bank said. The improved confidence comes as the country started to vaccinate its population late last month, while managing to keep its daily infection cases under 500 since the start of the month. The IMF said it is raising the outlook for the country to 3.6 percent from 3.1 percent in January, while Goldman Sachs and Barclays Bank Plc also revised up their forecasts this week.
ELECTRONICS
Vizio shares fall 9 percent
Smart-TV maker Vizio Holding Corp, backed by affiliates of Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團) outside of Taiwan, fell 9 percent after its downsized initial public offering (IPO). Vizio’s shares opened trading on Thursday at US$17.50 after selling for US$21 in the IPO. The company and some of its investors sold 12.25 million shares on Wednesday to raise US$257 million, after marketing 15 million shares for US$21 to US$23. The shares closed at US$19.10 in New York trading, giving the company a market value of about US$3.5 billion. The Irvine, California-based company said it shipped 7.1 million smart TVs last year, a 20 percent increase over the previous year.
FOOD DELIVERY
Meituan warns of losses
Chinese food delivery company Meituan (美團) yesterday warned it might continue to post operating losses for several quarters after reporting its fastest pace of sales growth in a year, underscoring the cost of expanding into newer arenas like online groceries. Revenue climbed to a record 37.92 billion yuan (US$5.8 billion) in the fourth quarter, compared with the 36.8 billion yuan average forecast of analysts. The company swung to a net loss of 2.2 billion yuan, due to spending on new initiatives like community group buying. China’s economic recovery has helped the world’s largest meal delivery service increase orders, while its hotels and travel business has benefited from a rebound in domestic travel, as the country succeeded in reining in the COVID-19 pandemic. Sales across Meituan’s business lines might continue to improve as COVID-19 is contained across most of China, Bloomberg Intelligence said.
AUTOMAKERS
NIO halts some production
Chinese electric vehicle maker NIO Inc (蔚來汽車) is to temporarily halt production at one of its factories in Anhui Province because of a semiconductor shortage, it said yesterday, becoming the first high-profile Chinese automaker to succumb to a chip snarl that has silenced auto manufacturers’ factory lines globally. NIO’s JAC-NIO plant in the central provincial capital of Hefei is to cease operations for five working days from Monday, the company said in a statement. “The overall supply constraint of semiconductors has impacted the company’s production volume in March,” Shanghai-based NIO said. “The company expects to deliver approximately 19,500 vehicles in the first quarter, adjusted from previously released outlook of 20,000 to 20,500 vehicles.” NIO posted a wider-than-expected loss in the fourth quarter, a year after a government cash injection saved the company from bankruptcy.
Apple Inc increased iPhone production in India by about 53 percent last year and now makes a quarter of its marquee devices there, reflecting the US company’s efforts to avoid tariffs on China. The company assembled about 55 million iPhones in India last year, up from 36 million a year earlier, people familiar with the matter said, asking not to be named because the numbers aren’t public. Apple makes about 220 million to 230 million iPhones a year globally, with India’s share of the total increasing rapidly. Apple has accelerated its expansion in the world’s most populous country in recent years, bolstered
HEADWINDS: The company said it expects its computer business, as well as consumer electronics and communications segments to see revenue declines due to seasonality Pegatron Corp (和碩) yesterday said it aims to grow its artificial intelligence (AI) server revenue more than 10-fold this year from last year, driven by orders from neocloud solutions clients and large cloud service providers. The electronics manufacturing service provider said AI server revenue growth would be driven primarily by the Nvidia Corp GB300 server platform. Server shipments are expected to increase each quarter this year, with the second half likely to outperform the first half, it said. The AI server market is expected to broaden this year as more inference applications emerge, which would drive demand for system-on-chip, application-specific integrated circuits
Chinese entrepreneur Frank Gao used to spend long hours running his social media accounts but now outsources the chore to artificial intelligence (AI) agent tool OpenClaw, which is taking China by storm despite official warnings over cybersecurity. OpenClaw, created in November by an Austrian coder, differs from bots such as ChatGPT because it can execute real-life tasks such as sending e-mails, organizing files or even booking flight tickets. “Since January, I’ve spent hours on the lobster every day,” Gao said in an interview, referring to OpenClaw’s red crustacean mascot. “We’re family.” After downloading OpenClaw, users connect it to artificial intelligence models of their
At a massive shipyard in North Vancouver, Canadian workers grind metal beams for a powerful new icebreaker crucial to cementing the country’s presence in the increasingly contested arctic. Icebreakers are specialized, expensive vessels able to navigate in the frozen far north. And “this is the crown jewel,” said Eddie Schehr, vice president of production at the Seaspan shipyard. For Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, who heads to Norway next Friday to observe arctic defense drills involving troops from 14 NATO states, Canada’s extreme north has emerged as a strategic priority. “Canada is and forever will be an Arctic nation,” he said ahead of
RSS