AIRLINES
EasyJet narrows losses
British airline EasyJet PLC yesterday posted narrowing annual losses as air travel reopened, but said that it was “too soon” to assess the effects of the fallout of the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 on the sector. “However, we have prepared ourselves for periods of uncertainty such as this,” EasyJet said in a results statement. The airline posted a pretax loss of £1.14 billion (US$1.52 billion) for the year through September. There had been “some softening of trading” in the current quarter, but next year would see “a return to near pre-pandemic” capacity levels as people take long-awaited summer holidays, it said.
UNITED KINGDOM
Costs to trigger price hikes
Half of businesses expect to increase their prices in response to rising wage costs and supply-chain difficulties, a survey conducted by Lloyds Bank found. Acute labor shortages persisted into last month, the results showed. One-quarter of companies expect to increase wages by 3 percent or more in the next year in an effort to retain and attract workers, it showed. The findings are likely to fuel expectations that the Bank of England would raise interest rates as early as this month. Inflation is running at double the 2 percent target, largely due to surging energy prices.
CRYPTOCURRENCY
Huobi picks city-state base
Huobi Group (火幣), the operator of China’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, has picked Singapore as its regional headquarters, while choosing to have another location for Europe, company cofounder Du Jun (杜均) said. Singapore became the company’s new base after it shifted focus outside its original home of Beijing, Du said. He has been based in the city-state since he returned to Huobi at the end of last year. The firm is planning to set up another regional headquarters in either France or the UK in 2023, he said.
CHINA
Plan urges safer data flow
The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology called for improved cross-border security management of big data, in a five-year plan published yesterday. The plan comes as the country has pushed forward its regulatory framework for data and technology. It contains six key tasks, including improving the “marketization” of data, improving computing power and playing a leading role in developing global technology standards. It also called for enhanced management of cross-border data flows and more support for open-source initiatives. By the end of 2025, the scale of China’s big data industry is to exceed 3 trillion yuan (US$470.9 billion), the ministry said.
INSURERS
Syn Mun Kong stake for sale
The controlling shareholders of Thai insurer Syn Mun Kong Insurance PCL are exploring the sale of a majority stake in the firm and have picked several strategic players to advance into the next round of bidding, people familiar with the matter said. Assicurazioni Generali SpA and Liberty Mutual Group are among those selected to advance, they said. Syn Mun Kong is working with an adviser on the deal, which could be valued at about US$200 million, they said. The sale could include a fresh investment of about US$100 million, they added. Founded in 1951, the Bangkok-based insurer offers auto, health, accident and travel insurance, among others.
CHIP WAR: Tariffs on Taiwanese chips would prompt companies to move their factories, but not necessarily to the US, unleashing a ‘global cross-sector tariff war’ US President Donald Trump would “shoot himself in the foot” if he follows through on his recent pledge to impose higher tariffs on Taiwanese and other foreign semiconductors entering the US, analysts said. Trump’s plans to raise tariffs on chips manufactured in Taiwan to as high as 100 percent would backfire, macroeconomist Henry Wu (吳嘉隆) said. He would “shoot himself in the foot,” Wu said on Saturday, as such economic measures would lead Taiwanese chip suppliers to pass on additional costs to their US clients and consumers, and ultimately cause another wave of inflation. Trump has claimed that Taiwan took up to
A start-up in Mexico is trying to help get a handle on one coastal city’s plastic waste problem by converting it into gasoline, diesel and other fuels. With less than 10 percent of the world’s plastics being recycled, Petgas’ idea is that rather than letting discarded plastic become waste, it can become productive again as fuel. Petgas developed a machine in the port city of Boca del Rio that uses pyrolysis, a thermodynamic process that heats plastics in the absence of oxygen, breaking it down to produce gasoline, diesel, kerosene, paraffin and coke. Petgas chief technology officer Carlos Parraguirre Diaz said that in
SUPPORT: The government said it would help firms deal with supply disruptions, after Trump signed orders imposing tariffs of 25 percent on imports from Canada and Mexico The government pledged to help companies with operations in Mexico, such as iPhone assembler Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), shift production lines and investment if needed to deal with higher US tariffs. The Ministry of Economic Affairs yesterday announced measures to help local firms cope with the US tariff increases on Canada, Mexico, China and other potential areas. The ministry said that it would establish an investment and trade service center in the US to help Taiwanese firms assess the investment environment in different US states, plan supply chain relocation strategies and
Japan intends to closely monitor the impact on its currency of US President Donald Trump’s new tariffs and is worried about the international fallout from the trade imposts, Japanese Minister of Finance Katsunobu Kato said. “We need to carefully see how the exchange rate and other factors will be affected and what form US monetary policy will take in the future,” Kato said yesterday in an interview with Fuji Television. Japan is very concerned about how the tariffs might impact the global economy, he added. Kato spoke as nations and firms brace for potential repercussions after Trump unleashed the first salvo of