MINING
BHP profit rises 77%
Mining giant BHP Group yesterday released record half-year earnings, with profit up 77 percent. The company also outpaced dividend estimates, delivering a record interim dividend to shareholders of US$1.50 for the third year running. BHP’s Western Australia iron ore business drove the miner’s US$9.4 billion attributable profit, helped along by strong prices for coking coal and copper. “We mitigated the impacts of COVID-19 and significant adverse weather events to turn in a solid operational performance, particularly from our flagship Western Australian iron ore business,” company chief executive officer Mike Henry said yesterday.
ENERGY
Engie SA returns to profit
French utility group Engie SA returned to profit last year, buoyed by soaring energy prices, company results showed yesterday. The firm posted net profit of 3.7 billion euros (US$4.2 billion) after losses of 1.5 billion euros in 2020. The company expects to deliver growth in the 2023-2024 period. This would be “mainly driven” by its investment in sources of renewable energy, as well as higher results from its Energy Solutions unit, which provides support to cities and industries transitioning to carbon neutrality.
TRANSPORTATION
Volocopter eyes Singapore
Volocopter GmbH plans to start flying electric air taxis in Singapore within two years, and is in talks to offer flights to nearby destinations in Indonesia and Malaysia. The German firm plans to operate a fleet of 10 to 20 air taxis in the popular tourist destinations of Marina Bay and Sentosa, Volocopter chief commercial officer Christian Bauer said in an interview yesterday. As part of its Asian expansion, Volocopter plans to set up maintenance operations in Singapore.
HOUSING
Singapore sales rise
Singapore home sales rose slightly last month, signaling that demand is holding up after property cooling measures were introduced in December last year. Purchases of new private apartments climbed to 673 units last month, Urban Redevelopment Authority figures showed yesterday. That is 3.5 percent higher than the 650 units sold in the previous month.
FINLAND
Economy expands 0.6%
The economy posted a sixth consecutive quarter of growth at the end of last year, putting the Nordic nation on a firmer path to a post-COVID-19 pandemic recovery, a flash estimate showed. Output expanded a seasonally adjusted 0.6 percent last quarter from the previous three-month period, Statistics Finland said yesterday, citing indicator data. The expansion was 3.7 percent from a year earlier, adjusted for the number of working days. In the near term, higher energy prices and supply-chain bottlenecks are weighing on growth, still forecast at about 3 percent this year, Ministry of Finance data showed.
SEMICONDUCTORS
Intel deal expected
Intel Corp is close to a deal to acquire Tower Semiconductor Ltd for about US$5 billion as part of its push into the outsourced chip-manufacturing business, a person familiar with negotiations said. Tower competes in a market dominated by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電), but is much smaller. Its sales are about US$1.3 billion annually. Tower makes power management chips, image sensors and other semiconductors.
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his
ADVERSARIES: The new list includes 11 entities in China and one in Taiwan, which is a local branch of Chinese cloud computing firm Inspur Group The US added dozens of entities to a trade blacklist on Tuesday, the US Department of Commerce said, in part to disrupt Beijing’s artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced computing capabilities. The action affects 80 entities from countries including China, the United Arab Emirates and Iran, with the commerce department citing their “activities contrary to US national security and foreign policy.” Those added to the “entity list” are restricted from obtaining US items and technologies without government authorization. “We will not allow adversaries to exploit American technology to bolster their own militaries and threaten American lives,” US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said. The entities
Taiwan’s official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) last month rose 0.2 percentage points to 54.2, in a second consecutive month of expansion, thanks to front-loading demand intended to avoid potential US tariff hikes, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. While short-term demand appeared robust, uncertainties rose due to US President Donald Trump’s unpredictable trade policy, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s economy this year would be characterized by high-level fluctuations and the volatility would be wilder than most expect, Lien said Demand for electronics, particularly semiconductors, continues to benefit from US technology giants’ effort
Minister of Finance Chuang Tsui-yun (莊翠雲) yesterday told lawmakers that she “would not speculate,” but a “response plan” has been prepared in case Taiwan is targeted by US President Donald Trump’s reciprocal tariffs, which are to be announced on Wednesday next week. The Trump administration, including US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, has said that much of the proposed reciprocal tariffs would focus on the 15 countries that have the highest trade surpluses with the US. Bessent has referred to those countries as the “dirty 15,” but has not named them. Last year, Taiwan’s US$73.9 billion trade surplus with the US
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