AUTOMAKERS
Stellantis halts Russia plant
US-European automaker Stellantis NV yesterday announced the suspension of production at its factory in Russia, citing a lack of parts and sanctions against Moscow over the war in Ukraine. The group had already announced last month that it was halting imports and exports to and from Russia. Production for the local market at the Kaluga factory southwest of Moscow also slowed, and the company had warned that it would have to suspend work due to shortages of components. However, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine prompted it to transfer that production to Hordain in France and Luton in England, it said.
INDONESIA
Central bank retains rates
The central bank yesterday kept its benchmark interest rate unchanged to support the economy’s recovery, while downgrading its growth outlook and saying it would keep a watch on price pressures fueled by the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Bank Indonesia held the seven-day reverse repurchase rate at a record-low 3.5 percent as expected by all 29 economists in a Bloomberg survey. The key rate was last adjusted in February last year. The central bank also lowered its economic growth forecast this year to a range of 4.5 to 5.3 percent, from 4.7 to 5.5 percent earlier.
BANKING
CMBC president removed
China Merchants Bank Co’s (CMBC, 招商銀行) shares yesterday slumped in Shanghai and Hong Kong markets after the surprising departure of its president, Tian Huiyu (田慧宇). Tian, 56, had spent nearly nine years building the lender into the nation’s king of retail banking. He was removed from his current role and subject to further assignment with immediate effect, the Shenzhen-based bank said in a statement late on Monday. Wang Liang (王良), chief financial officer and board secretary of Merchants Bank, is to be in charge in the interim, the statement said. Tian’s term was scheduled to end in June.
RETAIL
Navis selling supermarket
Asian buyout firm Navis Capital Partners has selected Rothschild & Co to help with a potential sale of its premium supermarket chains in Malaysia, which could be worth more than 1 billion ringgit (US$235 million), people with knowledge of the matter said. The Kuala Lumpur-based private equity firm and its financial adviser are preparing to start a sale process to gauge prospective investors’ interest in The Food Purveyor SDN, the people said. Other companies in the industry and private equity firms have expressed interest, one of the people said, asking not to be identified as the process is private.
FOOD
Arla to offer milk incentives
Dairy giant Arla Foods is willing to pay European farmers extra for milk based on how many carbon-reducing activities they can tick off a company list. The reward program would cover about 20 variables, such as using natural additives in feed to cut methane emissions by cows or following precision farming techniques, CEO Peder Tuborgh said in an interview. The bonus amounts still need to be determined, and the plan could be implemented as soon as next year. The incentives, which are still being hashed out, are meant to help the Denmark-based co-operative achieve its target of reducing farm-level emissions by 63 percent this decade.
POWERING UP: PSUs for AI servers made up about 50% of Delta’s total server PSU revenue during the first three quarters of last year, the company said Power supply and electronic components maker Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) reported record-high revenue of NT$161.61 billion (US$5.11 billion) for last quarter and said it remains positive about this quarter. Last quarter’s figure was up 7.6 percent from the previous quarter and 41.51 percent higher than a year earlier, and largely in line with Yuanta Securities Investment Consulting Co’s (元大投顧) forecast of NT$160 billion. Delta’s annual revenue last year rose 31.76 percent year-on-year to NT$554.89 billion, also a record high for the company. Its strong performance reflected continued demand for high-performance power solutions and advanced liquid-cooling products used in artificial intelligence (AI) data centers,
SIZE MATTERS: TSMC started phasing out 8-inch wafer production last year, while Samsung is more aggressively retiring 8-inch capacity, TrendForce said Chipmakers are expected to raise prices of 8-inch wafers by up to 20 percent this year on concern over supply constraints as major contract chipmakers Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and Samsung Electronics Co gradually retire less advanced wafer capacity, TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said yesterday. It is the first significant across-the-board price hike since a global semiconductor correction in 2023, the Taipei-based market researcher said in a report. Global 8-inch wafer capacity slid 0.3 percent year-on-year last year, although 8-inch wafer prices still hovered at relatively stable levels throughout the year, TrendForce said. The downward trend is expected to continue this year,
Vincent Wei led fellow Singaporean farmers around an empty Malaysian plot, laying out plans for a greenhouse and rows of leafy vegetables. What he pitched was not just space for crops, but a lifeline for growers struggling to make ends meet in a city-state with high prices and little vacant land. The future agriculture hub is part of a joint special economic zone launched last year by the two neighbors, expected to cost US$123 million and produce 10,000 tonnes of fresh produce annually. It is attracting Singaporean farmers with promises of cheaper land, labor and energy just over the border.
A proposed billionaires’ tax in California has ignited a political uproar in Silicon Valley, with tech titans threatening to leave the state while California Governor Gavin Newsom of the Democratic Party maneuvers to defeat a levy that he fears would lead to an exodus of wealth. A technology mecca, California has more billionaires than any other US state — a few hundred, by some estimates. About half its personal income tax revenue, a financial backbone in the nearly US$350 billion budget, comes from the top 1 percent of earners. A large healthcare union is attempting to place a proposal before
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