SMARTPHONES
Xiaomi jumps to No. 2
Xiaomi Corp (小米) has become the second-biggest smartphone vendor in the world over the past quarter following an 83 percent jump in shipments, preliminary estimates by Canalys showed. This marks the first occasion that Xiaomi has broken into the top two, historically dominated by Samsung Electronics Co and Apple Inc. Samsung had a 19 percent share in the second quarter, Xiaomi had 17 percent and Apple was at 14 percent, Canalys’ data showed. Huawei Technologies Co (華為) had briefly disrupted the rankings, until sanctions cut it off from essential chip supplies last year. Overseas expansion was the biggest driver of Xiaomi’s growth, with the company increasing shipments by more than 300 percent in Latin America, 150 percent across Africa and 50 percent in Western Europe, Canalys said.
TELECOMS
Ericsson to supply Verizon
Swedish telecommunications group Ericsson yesterday unveiled an US$8.3 billion contract to provide US operator Verizon with equipment for its 5G network, its biggest single contract ever. Ericsson also said that its net profit in the second quarter jumped 51 percent, but noted a sharp decline in sales in China after rival Huawei was barred from selling its equipment in Sweden. “It is prudent to forecast a materially lower market share in mainland China for Networks and Digital Services as the earlier decision to exclude Chinese vendors from the Swedish 5G networks might influence market share awards,” Ericsson CEO Borje Ekholm was quoted as saying. In the US, the group “signed another five-year contract, this one amounting to US$8.3 billion, with a leading customer. This is the single largest deal in the history of Ericsson,” the earnings statement said.
AUTOMAKERS
Sales in Europe fall by 2m
Automakers sold almost 2 million fewer cars in Europe during the first half compared with two years ago, as the industry’s recovery in the region falls short of the rebound seen in the US and China. Registrations rose 13 percent last month from a year earlier, bringing the total in the first six months to 6.49 million cars, the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association said. While that is a 27 percent increase from the first half of last year, it is well below levels the industry was accustomed to prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. Europe’s slower pace of vaccinations and longer-lasting measures to contain COVID-19’s spread kept a lid on sales early in the year, while a global shortage of semiconductors also constrained automakers’ ability to maintain inventory. The dearth of chips would continue to pinch production for years to come, the CEOs of Volkswagen AG, BMW AG and Renault SA said.
AIRLINES
AA calls crew to work
American Airlines (AA) is canceling extended leaves for about 3,300 flight attendants and telling them to come back to work in time for the holiday season. The airline also plans to hire 800 new flight attendants by March next year, vice president of flight services Brady Byrnes told flight attendants in a memo on Thursday. The moves are the latest indication that leisure travel in the US is recovering more quickly from the pandemic than airlines expected. “Increasing customer demand and new routes starting later this year mean we need more flight attendants to operate the airline,” Byrnes said, adding that cabin crews who are coming back from leave would return to flights in November or December.
SPEED OF LIGHT: US lawmakers urged the commerce department to examine the national security threats from China’s development of silicon photonics technology US President Joe Biden’s administration on Monday said it is finalizing rules that would limit US investments in artificial intelligence (AI) and other technology sectors in China that could threaten US national security. The rules, which were proposed in June by the US Department of the Treasury, were directed by an executive order signed by Biden in August last year covering three key sectors: semiconductors and microelectronics, quantum information technologies and certain AI systems. The rules are to take effect on Jan. 2 next year and would be overseen by the Treasury’s newly created Office of Global Transactions. The Treasury said the “narrow
SPECULATION: The central bank cut the loan-to-value ratio for mortgages on second homes by 10 percent and denied grace periods to prevent a real-estate bubble The central bank’s board members in September agreed to tighten lending terms to induce a soft landing in the housing market, although some raised doubts that they would achieve the intended effect, the meeting’s minutes released yesterday showed. The central bank on Sept. 18 introduced harsher loan restrictions for mortgages across Taiwan in the hope of curbing housing speculation and hoarding that could create a bubble and threaten the financial system’s stability. Toward the aim, it cut the loan-to-value ratio by 10 percent for second and subsequent home mortgages and denied grace periods for first mortgages if applicants already owned other residential
EXPORT CONTROLS: US lawmakers have grown more concerned that the US Department of Commerce might not be aggressively enforcing its chip restrictions The US on Friday said it imposed a US$500,000 penalty on New York-based GlobalFoundries Inc, the world’s third-largest contract chipmaker, for shipping chips without authorization to an affiliate of blacklisted Chinese chipmaker Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯). The US Department of Commerce in a statement said GlobalFoundries sent 74 shipments worth US$17.1 million to SJ Semiconductor Corp (盛合晶微半導體), an affiliate of SMIC, without seeking a license. Both SMIC and SJ Semiconductor were added to the department’s trade restriction Entity List in 2020 over SMIC’s alleged ties to the Chinese military-industrial complex. SMIC has denied wrongdoing. Exports to firms on the list
ASE Technology Holding Co (ASE, 日月光投控), the world’s biggest chip assembly and testing manufacturing (ATM) service provider, expects to double its leading-edge advanced technology services revenue next year to more than US$1 billion, benefiting from strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) chips, a company executive said on Thursday. That would be the second year that ASE has doubled its advanced chip packaging and testing technology revenue, following an estimate of more than US$500 million for this year. ASE is one of the major beneficiaries from the AI boom as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is outsourcing production of advanced chip