TECHNOLOGY
Facebook expands in Texas
Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc is going bigger in Texas. The company has leased half of what is to be Austin’s tallest skyscraper, making the social media giant the latest major business to expand in the state. Meta is leasing 54,720m2 across 33 floors, a spokesperson said on Sunday. It would account for the entire commercial half of a 66-story tower under construction in the heart of Austin’s downtown area. Meta is seeking to hire 400 more people in the area, and would have the capacity along with other space in the region for many more, the company said. The tower is scheduled to open next year.
AGRICULTURE
Yara exits Belarus purchase
Norwegian fertilizer maker Yara yesterday said it would wind down its purchase of potash from Belarus by April 1, as international sanctions made it impossible to continue the trade. Yara is a key customer of state-owned Belaruskali, one of the world’s largest producers of potassium salt, or potash, the crop nutrient that is a major foreign currency earner for Belarus. The company said its purchase of potash from Belarus had been in full compliance with the sanctions, but would still have to come to a halt. Yara sources potash from nine suppliers globally, a company sustainability report filed last year showed.
HOTELS
Reliance to buy NY hotel
Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries Ltd has agreed to buy an indirect 73.37 percent stake in Mandarin Oriental New York for US$98.15 million, the company said in a filing on Saturday. Reliance Industrial Investments and Holdings, a wholly owned unit of Reliance Industries, would buy the entire issued share capital of Columbus Centre Corp, a company incorporated in the Cayman Islands, which indirectly owns the stake in the luxury hotel. The company said it would also seek to buy the remaining stake from other owners at the same valuation. The transaction is expected to close by the end of March.
LABOR
Sick, isolated ravage output
Staff shortages caused by COVID-19 illness and mandatory isolation could result in a ￡35 billion (US$47.57 billion) loss in output in the UK over this and next month, according to the Sunday Times. The projected loss is equivalent to 8.8 percent of GDP and based on government planning assumptions of a 25 percent absenteeism rate, the study conducted by the Centre for Economics and Business Research showed. Even a more conservative estimate of 8 percent absenteeism — which is three times the seasonal average — could result in loss in output of ￡10.2 billion, or 2.6 percent of GDP, the center said.
HONG KONG
COVID-19 toll continues
Financial Secretary Paul Chan (陳茂波) expects the territory’s economy to take a hit as a fifth wave of COVID-19 infections sparked by the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 takes hold. The government has yet to give economic forecasts for the year, which is expected during Chan’s annual budget speech next month, but he said in his blog post on Sunday that he would also take into account the global COVID-19 pandemic, supply-chain bottlenecks and changes in monetary policies by western central banks in making his predictions. Economists at Morgan Stanley and Bloomberg Economics have already cut their economic growth forecasts for Hong Kong.
Shares of contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) came under pressure yesterday after a report that Apple Inc is looking to shift some orders from the Taiwanese company to Intel Corp. TSMC shares fell NT$55, or 2.4 percent, to close at NT$2,235 on the local main board, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed. Despite the losses, TSMC is expected to continue to benefit from sound fundamentals, as it maintains a lead over its peers in high-end process development, analysts said. “The selling was a knee-jerk reaction to an Intel-Apple report over the weekend,” Mega International Investment Services Corp (兆豐國際投顧) analyst Alex Huang
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is expected to remain Apple Inc’s primary chip manufacturing partner despite reports that Apple could shift some orders to Intel Corp, industry experts said yesterday. The comments came after The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that Apple and Intel had reached a preliminary agreement following more than a year of negotiations for Intel to manufacture some chips for Apple devices. Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (台灣經濟研究院) economist Arisa Liu (劉佩真) said TSMC’s advanced packaging technologies, including integrated fan-out and chip-on-wafer-on-substrate, remain critical to the performance of Apple’s A-series and M-series chips. She said Intel and Samsung
TRANSITION: With the closure, the company would reorganize its Taiwanese unit to a sales and service-focused model, Bridgestone said Bridgestone Corp yesterday announced it would cease manufacturing operations at its tire plant in Hsinchu County’s Hukou Township (湖口), affecting more than 500 workers. Bridgestone Taiwan Co (台灣普利司通) said in a statement that the decision was based on the Tokyo-based tire maker’s adjustments to its global operational strategy and long-term market development considerations. The Taiwanese unit would be reorganized as part of the closure, effective yesterday, and all related production activities would be concluded, the statement said. Under the plan, Bridgestone would continue to deepen its presence in the Taiwanese market, while transitioning to a sales and service-focused business model, it added. The Hsinchu
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has approved a capital budget of US$31.28 billion for production expansion to meet long-term development needs during the artificial intelligence (AI) boom. The company’s board meeting yesterday approved the capital appropriation plan for purposes such as the installation of advanced technology capacity and fab construction, the world’s largest contract chipmaker said in a statement. At an earnings conference last month, TSMC forecast that its capital expenditure for this year would be at the higher end of the US$52 billion to US$56 billion range it forecast in January in response to robust demand for 5G, AI and
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