CURRENCIES
Turkish lira at historical low
The Turkish lira fell to near record lows yesterday, a day after a surprise rate cut from the Turkish central bank, while broader emerging markets currencies headed for their third straight weekly loss due to fears that China’s Evergrande Group (恆大集團) might default. The lira was down nearly 1 percent at 8.855 to the US dollar, its weakest since June 2. The currency, down nearly 16 percent this year, is among the worst performers in emerging markets, with Turkey’s heavy foreign debt and the independence of its central bank seen as the main concerns for investors. The central bank was widely expected to hold interest rates steady at 19 percent, but instead on Thursday delivered stimulus long sought by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
AUTOMAKERS
Daimler in battery venture
Daimler AG is to team up with Stellantis NV and TotalEnergies SE in a European battery venture set to cost more than 7 billion euros (US$8.2 billion) to secure supplies for electric Mercedes-Benz vehicles. The world’s biggest luxury-vehicle maker is to take a 33 percent stake in battery manufacturer Automotive Cells Co (ACC) and finance the move through equity, debt and subsidies. The new venture is to build capacity of at least 120 gigawatt-hours in Europe by the end of the decade. Mercedes would invest about 500 million euros next year, but expects its total spending to remain below 1 billion euros. The deal marks the latest step by the maker of the EQS sedan to accelerate toward fully electric vehicles, expecting that affluent buyers will be at the forefront of the shift.
EUROZONE
Inflation temporary: ECB
Many drivers of a recent spike in eurozone inflation are temporary and due to fade in the next year, European Central Bank (ECB) President Christine Lagarde said yesterday. Prices have been rebounding faster than expected as economies reopened after COVID-19-induced lockdowns, and several ECB policymakers think inflation will be close to or above the ECB’s target of 2 percent next year, she said. Lagarde blamed much of the rise on supply disruptions and said inflation should stabilize next year. “When you look at what’s causing [inflation], a lot of it has to do with energy prices,” Lagarde said. She added “things will fall into place” when new sources of supply are found.
UNITED STATES
Household net worth rises
Household net worth surged to a fresh record in the second quarter as Americans have enjoyed an ebullient stock market and the largest-ever increase in the value of their real estate holdings. Household net worth increased by US$5.8 trillion, or 4.3 percent, to US$141.7 trillion in the second quarter, a Federal Reserve report showed on Thursday. The advance included a US$3.5 trillion gain in the value of equities and a US$1.2 trillion improvement in real estate held by households. Stocks have surged to record highs, and low borrowing costs have supported a flurry of home buying — and ultimately home price appreciation. Equity shares as a percent of total household assets rose in the second quarter to almost 29.5 percent, up from 25.6 percent in 2019, the report showed. However, a large share of Americans are not invested in the stock market, and for many renters, the sharp rise in housing prices pushed the prospect of owning a home further out of reach.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”