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.
MULTIFACETED: A task force has analyzed possible scenarios and created responses to assist domestic industries in dealing with US tariffs, the economics minister said The Executive Yuan is tomorrow to announce countermeasures to US President Donald Trump’s planned reciprocal tariffs, although the details of the plan would not be made public until Monday next week, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. The Cabinet established an economic and trade task force in November last year to deal with US trade and tariff related issues, Kuo told reporters outside the legislature in Taipei. The task force has been analyzing and evaluating all kinds of scenarios to identify suitable responses and determine how best to assist domestic industries in managing the effects of Trump’s tariffs, he
TIGHT-LIPPED: UMC said it had no merger plans at the moment, after Nikkei Asia reported that the firm and GlobalFoundries were considering restarting merger talks United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電), the world’s No. 4 contract chipmaker, yesterday launched a new US$5 billion 12-inch chip factory in Singapore as part of its latest effort to diversify its manufacturing footprint amid growing geopolitical risks. The new factory, adjacent to UMC’s existing Singapore fab in the Pasir Res Wafer Fab Park, is scheduled to enter volume production next year, utilizing mature 22-nanometer and 28-nanometer process technologies, UMC said in a statement. The company plans to invest US$5 billion during the first phase of the new fab, which would have an installed capacity of 30,000 12-inch wafers per month, it said. The
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
‘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
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