TRADE
EU, India to set up council
The EU and India yesterday agreed to set up a trade and technology council to step up cooperation between them, they said in a joint statement as the EU chief met government officials in New Delhi. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is on a two-day visit to India’s capital. She is expected to offer to increase sales of European military equipment to India and relaunch talks on a free-trade deal when she meets Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The visit came days after British Prime Minister Boris Johnson met Modi, and agreed to increase bilateral defense and business cooperation.
TOURISM
Singapore eases virus rules
More people are looking to travel to Singapore as the city-state eases virus rules. Travel-related searches on Google for the island destination have jumped, particularly from neighboring Malaysia, as well as Indonesia, India and Australia, according to data tracked by economists at Maybank Investment Bank Bhd. Last week, Singapore became one of the first major regional economies to announce it would end all testing for vaccinated travelers, starting today. Short-term visitor numbers “will likely accelerate in the second quarter driven by the reopening of borders in neighboring ASEAN countries,” Maybank said.
RETAIL
UK grocers cut prices
Asda Stores Ltd and WM Morrison Supermarket PLC said they would yesterday cut the prices of essential items, ratcheting up competition in Britain’s food retail sector against a backdrop of soaring inflation. Surging prices are causing the biggest squeeze on household incomes since at least the 1950s in Britain, where grocery price inflation hit 5.2 percent over the four weeks to March 20, the highest level since April 2012, industry data last month showed. Supermarket groups typically try to keep down the prices of so-called known value goods, of which shoppers instinctively know the cost, while pushing up the prices of others.
AUTOMAKERS
Ferrari merger unlikely: CEO
Ferrari NV is interested in expanding its partnerships network, but a combination with another group in not on the cards, the Italian luxury automaker’s new CEO Benedetto Vigna said in an interview with the Sole 24 Ore daily on Sunday. “Ferrari is not only a car brand, it’s essentially a luxury brand,” Vigna said. “Having so many passionate people working in the same place it is an incredible asset that could lead us everywhere,” he added when asked if Ferrari was in a position to go it alone. Vigna said he sees room for the luxury automaker to grow in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, where the company saw deliveries grow 5 to 8 percent last year.
FINANCE
HNA finishes restructuring
HNA Group Co (海航集團), the conglomerate that collapsed with billions of dollars of debt, has completed its restructuring work after a joint working group was set up more than two years ago to handle the task. All four restructuring plans related to HNA Group have been completed with court approvals, the conglomerate said on its Wechat account, adding that the “risk-disposal work” is basically finished. HNA was effectively seized in February 2020 by the Hainan provincial government. The company in October last year reached an agreement with creditors on a debt-restructuring plan.
Taiwan’s exports soared 56 percent year-on-year to an all-time high of US$64.05 billion last month, propelled by surging global demand for artificial intelligence (AI), high-performance computing and cloud service infrastructure, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. Department of Statistics Director-General Beatrice Tsai (蔡美娜) called the figure an unexpected upside surprise, citing a wave of technology orders from overseas customers alongside the usual year-end shopping season for technology products. Growth is likely to remain strong this month, she said, projecting a 40 percent to 45 percent expansion on an annual basis. The outperformance could prompt the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and
Two Chinese chipmakers are attracting strong retail investor demand, buoyed by industry peer Moore Threads Technology Co’s (摩爾線程) stellar debut. The retail portion of MetaX Integrated Circuits (Shanghai) Co’s (上海沐曦) upcoming initial public offering (IPO) was 2,986 times oversubscribed on Friday, according to a filing. Meanwhile, Beijing Onmicro Electronics Co (北京昂瑞微), which makes radio frequency chips, was 2,899 times oversubscribed on Friday, its filing showed. The bids coincided with Moore Threads’ trading debut, which surged 425 percent on Friday after raising 8 billion yuan (US$1.13 billion) on bets that the company could emerge as a viable local competitor to Nvidia
BARRIERS: Gudeng’s chairman said it was unlikely that the US could replicate Taiwan’s science parks in Arizona, given its strict immigration policies and cultural differences Gudeng Precision Industrial Co (家登), which supplies wafer pods to the world’s major semiconductor firms, yesterday said it is in no rush to set up production in the US due to high costs. The company supplies its customers through a warehouse in Arizona jointly operated by TSS Holdings Ltd (德鑫控股), a joint holding of Gudeng and 17 Taiwanese firms in the semiconductor supply chain, including specialty plastic compounds producer Nytex Composites Co (耐特) and automated material handling system supplier Symtek Automation Asia Co (迅得). While the company has long been exploring the feasibility of setting up production in the US to address
OPTION: Uber said it could provide higher pay for batch trips, if incentives for batching is not removed entirely, as the latter would force it to pass on the costs to consumers Uber Technologies Inc yesterday warned that proposed restrictions on batching orders and minimum wages could prompt a NT$20 delivery fee increase in Taiwan, as lower efficiency would drive up costs. Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi made the remarks yesterday during his visit to Taiwan. He is on a multileg trip to the region, which includes stops in South Korea and Japan. His visit coincided the release last month of the Ministry of Labor’s draft bill on the delivery sector, which aims to safeguard delivery workers’ rights and improve their welfare. The ministry set the minimum pay for local food delivery drivers at
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