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.
Intel Corp chief executive officer Lip-Bu Tan (陳立武) is expected to meet with Taiwanese suppliers next month in conjunction with the opening of the Computex Taipei trade show, supply chain sources said on Monday. The visit, the first for Tan to Taiwan since assuming his new post last month, would be aimed at enhancing Intel’s ties with suppliers in Taiwan as he attempts to help turn around the struggling US chipmaker, the sources said. Tan is to hold a banquet to celebrate Intel’s 40-year presence in Taiwan before Computex opens on May 20 and invite dozens of Taiwanese suppliers to exchange views
Application-specific integrated circuit designer Faraday Technology Corp (智原) yesterday said that although revenue this quarter would decline 30 percent from last quarter, it retained its full-year forecast of revenue growth of 100 percent. The company attributed the quarterly drop to a slowdown in customers’ production of chips using Faraday’s advanced packaging technology. The company is still confident about its revenue growth this year, given its strong “design-win” — or the projects it won to help customers design their chips, Faraday president Steve Wang (王國雍) told an online earnings conference. “The design-win this year is better than we expected. We believe we will win
Chizuko Kimura has become the first female sushi chef in the world to win a Michelin star, fulfilling a promise she made to her dying husband to continue his legacy. The 54-year-old Japanese chef regained the Michelin star her late husband, Shunei Kimura, won three years ago for their Sushi Shunei restaurant in Paris. For Shunei Kimura, the star was a dream come true. However, the joy was short-lived. He died from cancer just three months later in June 2022. He was 65. The following year, the restaurant in the heart of Montmartre lost its star rating. Chizuko Kimura insisted that the new star is still down
While China’s leaders use their economic and political might to fight US President Donald Trump’s trade war “to the end,” its army of social media soldiers are embarking on a more humorous campaign online. Trump’s tariff blitz has seen Washington and Beijing impose eye-watering duties on imports from the other, fanning a standoff between the economic superpowers that has sparked global recession fears and sent markets into a tailspin. Trump says his policy is a response to years of being “ripped off” by other countries and aims to bring manufacturing to the US, forcing companies to employ US workers. However, China’s online warriors
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