UNITED STATES
Steel tariffs to be eased
The government is to ease tariffs on steel imported from Japan, officials announced on Monday, in the latest move by the administration of President Joe Biden to resolve trade disputes started under former president Donald Trump. Beginning in April, Japan would be allowed to pay lower duties on exports to the US of up to 1.25 million tonnes of steel per year. The decision ends the 25 percent levies Trump imposed in June 2018 on metal imports from the nation and others. However, levies of 10 percent on Japan’s aluminum exports are to remain.
JAPAN
Household spending rises
Household spending edged up in December last year, capping a solid quarter for consumers and adding to signs the economy rebounded during a lull in COVID-19 infections at the end of last year. Bigger outlays on housing, transportation and education pushed up overall spending by 0.1 percent from November, the Ministry of Internal Affairs reported yesterday. Spending rose 4.6 percent in the fourth quarter, compared with the prior three months when tanking consumption caused an economic recovery to go into reverse. The data also showed household spending remained slightly below the prior year’s already weak level.
ENERGY
BP back in the black
BP PLC returned to profit last year as oil and gas prices surged following a huge loss the prior year when the COVID-19 pandemic struck, the British company said yesterday. BP posted a net profit of US$7.6 billion, compared with a loss after tax of US$20.3 billion in 2020, the company said in a statement. Group revenue ballooned 49 percent last year to US$157.7 billion, it said. The company also announced plans to accelerate its target to reduce operational carbon emissions. BP said it would return US$4.15 billion to shareholders via a share buyback thanks to surplus cash flow.
AUTOMAKERS
Nissan raises forecast
Nissan Motor Co yesterday raised its annual net profit forecast on strong interim results. The Japanese firm now expects annual net profit to March next year of ￥205 billion (US$1.78 billion), having already tripled its annual profit outlook in November last year to ￥180 billion. The company reported a net profit of ￥201.3 billion for April to December last year, compared with a net loss of ￥367.7 billion in the same period the previous year. It also posted a year-on-year increase in revenue during the nine-month period, boosted by favorable market conditions in the US and improvement in the “quality of sales in each market,” Nissan said.
TOURISM
TUI reports big loss
The world’s largest tourism operator, TUI AG, reported another big loss in the fourth quarter of last year, but passenger numbers recovered significantly from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the German group said yesterday. TUI expects traveler numbers to sit at the lower end of its bracket of “60 to 80 percent of pre-pandemic capacities” for the European winter season. Looking forward, the group sees a “very strong booking dynamic for summer 2022.” The group lost 384.3 million euros (US$438.4 million) between October and December last year, but more than halved its net loss from the same period the previous year.
Taiwan’s foreign exchange reserves fell below the US$600 billion mark at the end of last month, with the central bank reporting a total of US$596.89 billion — a decline of US$8.6 billion from February — ending a three-month streak of increases. The central bank attributed the drop to a combination of factors such as outflows by foreign institutional investors, currency fluctuations and its own market interventions. “The large-scale outflows disrupted the balance of supply and demand in the foreign exchange market, prompting the central bank to intervene repeatedly by selling US dollars to stabilize the local currency,” Department of Foreign
ENERGY ISSUES: The TSIA urged the government to increase natural gas and helium reserves to reduce the impact of the Middle East war on semiconductor supply stability Chip testing and packaging service provider ASE Technology Holding Co (日月光投控) yesterday said it planned to invest more than NT$100 billion (US$3.15 billion) in building a new advanced chip testing facility in Kaohsiung to keep up with customer demand driven by the artificial intelligence (AI) boom. That would be included in the company’s capital expenditure budget next year, ASE said. There is also room to raise this year’s capital spending budget from a record-high US$7 billion estimated three months ago, it added. ASE would have six factories under construction this year, another record-breaking number, ASE chief operating officer Tien Wu
The EU and US are nearing an agreement to coordinate on producing and securing critical minerals, part of a push to break reliance on Chinese supplies. The potential deal would create incentives, such as minimum prices, that could advantage non-Chinese suppliers, according to a draft of an “action plan” seen by Bloomberg. The EU and US would also cooperate on standards, investments and joint projects, as well as coordinate on any supply disruptions by countries like China. The two sides are additionally seeking other “like-minded partners” to join a multicountry accord to help create these new critical mineral supply chains, which feed into
For weeks now, the global tech industry has been waiting for a major artificial intelligence (AI) launch from DeepSeek (深度求索), seen as a benchmark for China’s progress in the fast-moving field. More than a year has passed since the start-up put Chinese AI on the map in early last year with a low-cost chatbot that performed at a similar level to US rivals. However, despite reports and rumors about its imminent release, DeepSeek’s next-generation “V4” model is nowhere in sight. Speculation is also swirling over the geopolitical implications of which computer chips were chosen to train and power the new
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