AUTOMAKER
Tesla halts China land buy
Tesla Inc halted a plan to buy land in Shanghai to expand its manufacturing plant and turn it into a worldwide export hub because of trade tensions between China and the US. US tariffs of 25 percent on electric vehicles imported from China — imposed under former US president Donald Trump — mean that Tesla would instead restrict the proportion of its global production that is made in China, Reuters reported, citing people familiar with the matter. The extra acreage would have allowed the company to increase manufacturing capacity, the report said. In a statement to Reuters, the California-based automaker said that its Shanghai factory was “developing as planned.”
AIRLINES
‘Supermoon’ flights unveiled
Flights to a supermoon are the latest offering in airlines’ merry-go-round of flights to nowhere, with Qantas Airways Ltd promising a night of cosmic cocktails and cake aboard one of its Boeing Co 787 Dreamliners. Australia’s flagship carrier is to start selling tickets from today for a trip on May 26 to see the rising supermoon, which that evening also happens to be a total lunar eclipse. For A$1,499 (US$1,176) for business class, the night flight is to climb above any cloud cover and should touch 13,000m, the maximum cruising altitude of a 787.
AIRLINES
Lufthansa raises equity
Deutsche Lufthansa AG is working with banks on a plan to raise about 3 billion euros (US$3.65 billion) in equity to help repay its state COVID-19 bailout, people familiar with the matter said. The timing and size of the capital increase are to be subject to market conditions, and the company could raise the money as soon as next month, the people said. Europe’s largest airline received a 9 billion euro state bailout last year after the COVID-19 pandemic ended a decades-long boom in air travel. The new funding would provide enough cash to repay most of a 5.5 billion euro silent participation still held by the German government.
MEAT PROCESSING
Tyson hit by call for chicken
Tyson Foods Inc has said that it is struggling to meet rebounding chicken demand because of a worker shortage and slow hatchings, even as a strong beef market is set to boost overall sales. The biggest US meat company is seeing robust demand as the world economy mends from the pandemic, and it is raising prices across businesses to pass through higher animal-feed costs and other expenses. That would help make up for thinner returns in chicken, where labor tightness means that plants are operating at about 80 percent of capacity. Tyson also said that it cannot maximize profit in its pork unit because of a dearth of skilled labor to strip down carcasses.
TECHNOLOGY
IBM automation product
International Business Machines Corp (IBM) is rolling out a new product that would help businesses automate tasks, capitalizing on the rise of chatbots and virtual assistants during the pandemic and taking another step in its pivot toward cloud services and artificial intelligence. The tool, called Watson Orchestrate, uses artificial intelligence to select and sequence the prepackaged skills needed to perform a task across sales, human resources or operations functions. It is to be compatible with Slack Technologies Inc and e-mail, as well as connect to business applications such as Salesforce.com Inc, SAP SE and Workday Inc.
SEEKING CLARITY: Washington should not adopt measures that create uncertainties for ‘existing semiconductor investments,’ TSMC said referring to its US$165 billion in the US Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) told the US that any future tariffs on Taiwanese semiconductors could reduce demand for chips and derail its pledge to increase its investment in Arizona. “New import restrictions could jeopardize current US leadership in the competitive technology industry and create uncertainties for many committed semiconductor capital projects in the US, including TSMC Arizona’s significant investment plan in Phoenix,” the chipmaker wrote in a letter to the US Department of Commerce. TSMC issued the warning in response to a solicitation for comments by the department on a possible tariff on semiconductor imports by US President Donald Trump’s
The government has launched a three-pronged strategy to attract local and international talent, aiming to position Taiwan as a new global hub following Nvidia Corp’s announcement that it has chosen Taipei as the site of its Taiwan headquarters. Nvidia cofounder and CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) on Monday last week announced during his keynote speech at the Computex trade show in Taipei that the Nvidia Constellation, the company’s planned Taiwan headquarters, would be located in the Beitou-Shilin Technology Park (北投士林科技園區) in Taipei. Huang’s decision to establish a base in Taiwan is “primarily due to Taiwan’s talent pool and its strength in the semiconductor
Industrial production expanded 22.31 percent annually last month to 107.51, as increases in demand for high-performance computing (HPC) and artificial intelligence (AI) applications drove demand for locally-made chips and components. The manufacturing production index climbed 23.68 percent year-on-year to 108.37, marking the 14th consecutive month of increase, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said. In the first four months of this year, industrial and manufacturing production indices expanded 14.31 percent and 15.22 percent year-on-year, ministry data showed. The growth momentum is to extend into this month, with the manufacturing production index expected to rise between 11 percent and 15.1 percent annually, Department of Statistics
An earnings report from semiconductor giant and artificial intelligence (AI) bellwether Nvidia Corp takes center stage for Wall Street this week, as stocks hit a speed bump of worries over US federal deficits driving up Treasury yields. US equities pulled back last week after a torrid rally, as investors turned their attention to tax and spending legislation poised to swell the US government’s US$36 trillion in debt. Long-dated US Treasury yields rose amid the fiscal worries, with the 30-year yield topping 5 percent and hitting its highest level since late 2023. Stocks were dealt another blow on Friday when US President Donald
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