SRI LANKA
Food import tariffs raised
The cash-strapped country raised tariffs on a wide range of goods including wine and cheese, in a new drive to discourage imports and preserve foreign currency reserves, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. The government has scrapped licensing for 369 items and replaced it with sharply higher taxes, officials said. From Wednesday, foreign cheese and yogurt attract a new tax of 2,000 rupees (US$5.50) per kilogram. Duty on chocolates was raised by 200 percent. Additional levies also apply to imported fruit, while duties on all alcoholic drinks and on electronic appliances were doubled.
TOURISM
Singapore cruises restart
After nearly two years of cruises to nowhere, holidaymakers from Singapore can set sail for Malaysia, Royal Caribbean International said in a statement. The company’s Spectrum of the Seas would begin sailing to Penang and Kuala Lumpur from June 30, it said. Cruise lines operating out of Singapore launched cruises to nowhere — essentially multiday trips on the high seas — in November 2020. They became popular among the city-state’s residents seeking holiday options while the nation’s borders, and those of its near neighbors, remained largely closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
E-COMMERCE
Amazon to shut China unit
Amazon.com Inc is to shut its Chinese e-book store next year, pulling a small, but prominent business from a market where it has failed to make major inroads against local rivals. The US firm would discontinue the Kindle eBook store on June 30 next year, a spokesperson said in an e-mailed statement. It promised to continue supporting Kindle readers or refund any device purchases made after January this year. The company said the withdrawal was not due to Chinese government pressure or censorship, and was part of a periodic re-evaluation of its offerings around the world.
AIRLINES
Delta eyes revenue rebound
Delta Air Lines Ltd on Wednesday said that it expects second-quarter revenue would be back to pre-COVID-19 pandemic levels, even with fewer flights. The airline said revenue per seat should be up to 8 percentage points better than it originally expected. However, the Atlanta, Georgia-based airline is facing surging prices for jet fuel. Other expenses — primarily labor — are spiking too. Delta expects non-fuel costs to soar up to 22 percent above 2019 levels on a per-seat basis, more severe than an April forecast of 17 percent. Heading into summer, travelers are paying more for any type of seat, from basic to premium, Delta CEO Ed Bastian told an investors’ conference.
ELECTRONICS
Hewlett Packard cuts outlook
Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co lowered its full-year profit forecast, citing unfavorable currency movements, supply chain disruptions and the effects of exiting the Russian market. Profit, excluding some items, would be as much as US$2.10 a share in the fiscal year. Earnings in the current period, which ends in July, would be US$0.44 to US$0.54 per share, the company said in a statement. While earnings were affected by supply chain challenges and the costs of pulling out of Russia in the aftermath of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, customer demand remains strong, Hewlett Packard CEO Antonio Neri said in an interview. “We have an amazing high-quality backlog that is firm,” Neri said.
ENERGY ISSUES: The TSIA urged the government to increase natural gas and helium reserves to reduce the impact of the Middle East war on semiconductor supply stability Chip testing and packaging service provider ASE Technology Holding Co (日月光投控) yesterday said it planned to invest more than NT$100 billion (US$3.15 billion) in building a new advanced chip testing facility in Kaohsiung to keep up with customer demand driven by the artificial intelligence (AI) boom. That would be included in the company’s capital expenditure budget next year, ASE said. There is also room to raise this year’s capital spending budget from a record-high US$7 billion estimated three months ago, it added. ASE would have six factories under construction this year, another record-breaking number, ASE chief operating officer Tien Wu
The EU and US are nearing an agreement to coordinate on producing and securing critical minerals, part of a push to break reliance on Chinese supplies. The potential deal would create incentives, such as minimum prices, that could advantage non-Chinese suppliers, according to a draft of an “action plan” seen by Bloomberg. The EU and US would also cooperate on standards, investments and joint projects, as well as coordinate on any supply disruptions by countries like China. The two sides are additionally seeking other “like-minded partners” to join a multicountry accord to help create these new critical mineral supply chains, which feed into
For weeks now, the global tech industry has been waiting for a major artificial intelligence (AI) launch from DeepSeek (深度求索), seen as a benchmark for China’s progress in the fast-moving field. More than a year has passed since the start-up put Chinese AI on the map in early last year with a low-cost chatbot that performed at a similar level to US rivals. However, despite reports and rumors about its imminent release, DeepSeek’s next-generation “V4” model is nowhere in sight. Speculation is also swirling over the geopolitical implications of which computer chips were chosen to train and power the new
TECH WINNERS: Taiwan and South Korea reported robust trade, which suggests that they have critical advantages in the rapidly expanding AI supply chain, an official said Exports last month surged to a new high, as booming demand tied to artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure fueled shipments of advanced technology components, underscoring the nation’s pivotal role in the global semiconductor supply chain. Outbound shipments climbed to US$80.18 billion, the highest ever for a single month, rising 61.8 percent from a year earlier and marking the 29th consecutive month of growth, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. “The surge was driven primarily by global investment in AI infrastructure,” Department of Statistics Director-General Beatrice Tsai (蔡美娜) said. The mass production of next-generation AI computing systems has accelerated procurement across the semiconductor supply
RSS