AUTO PARTS
Michelin to exit Russia
French tire group Michelin yesterday said it plans to transfer its activities in Russia to local management, the latest foreign firm to exit the country following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. The new entity would operate through an independent structure from Michelin, the company added. Michelin Russia employs about 1,000 people, most at the Davydovo plant near the capital, where it has an annual production capacity of up to 2 million tires. Michelin sales in Russia represented 2 percent of the group’s total sales and 1 percent of its worldwide car tire production.
TECHNOLOGY
Toshiba elects directors
Toshiba Corp shareholders yesterday approved 13 nominated directors to its board, as the Japanese technology giant struggles to restore its one-time glory and set a clear leadership direction. CEO Taro Shimada, who oversaw the annual shareholders’ meeting in Tokyo, said the majority had voted to approve that plan. He promised shareholders Toshiba would forge ahead with clean energy, infrastructure projects, data services, devices and storage. He added that the company had boosted profits for the latest fiscal year, which ended in April, to ￥194.7 billion (US$1.4 billion) from a year earlier. By 2030, Toshiba is aiming for ￥5 trillion in annual sales, up from about ￥3 trillion now.
CRYPTOCURRENCIES
FTX eyes Robinhood
Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX cryptoexchange is exploring whether it might be able to acquire Robinhood Markets Inc, people with knowledge of the matter said. FTX is deliberating internally how to buy the app-based brokerage, one of the people said. Robinhood has not received a formal takeover approach from FTX, another person said. “We are excited about Robinhood’s business prospects and potential ways we could partner with them,” Bankman-Fried said on Monday in an e-mailed statement. “That being said, there are no active M&A [merger and acquisition] conversations with Robinhood.” A spokesman for Menlo Park, California-based Robinhood declined to comment.
ENERGY
SSE, Equinor to buy plants
SSE PLC and Equinor ASA teamed up to buy three UK electricity plants from Triton Power Co, and plan to use the sites to develop low-carbon projects. The ￡341 million (US$418.4 million) deal for the stations in northern England, southwest England and Wales reflects the increasing drive among European energy companies to clean up their operations amid an accelerating shift to green power. Triton’s portfolio includes the 1.2-gigawatt Saltend gas-fired complex in east Yorkshire, which could be a customer for Equinor’s hydrogen project in the area, the companies said in a statement yesterday.
SRI LANKA
Oil market liberalized
The government will allow companies from oil-producing nations to import and sell fuel in the country, Minister of Power and Energy Kanchana Wijesekera said yesterday, as the country tries to overcome a massive shortage of gasoline and diesel. “Cabinet approval was granted to open up the fuel import and retail sales market to companies from oil-producing nations,” Wijesekera wrote on Twitter. “They will be selected on the ability to import fuel and operate without forex requirements from the CBSL [central bank] and banks for the first few months of operations.”
Real estate agent and property developer JSL Construction & Development Co (愛山林) led the average compensation rankings among companies listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) last year, while contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) finished 14th. JSL Construction paid its employees total average compensation of NT$4.78 million (US$159,701), down 13.5 percent from a year earlier, but still ahead of the most profitable listed tech giants, including TSMC, TWSE data showed. Last year, the average compensation (which includes salary, overtime, bonuses and allowances) paid by TSMC rose 21.6 percent to reach about NT$3.33 million, lifting its ranking by 10 notches
SEASONAL WEAKNESS: The combined revenue of the top 10 foundries fell 5.4%, but rush orders and China’s subsidies partially offset slowing demand Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) further solidified its dominance in the global wafer foundry business in the first quarter of this year, remaining far ahead of its closest rival, Samsung Electronics Co, TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said yesterday. TSMC posted US$25.52 billion in sales in the January-to-March period, down 5 percent from the previous quarter, but its market share rose from 67.1 percent the previous quarter to 67.6 percent, TrendForce said in a report. While smartphone-related wafer shipments declined in the first quarter due to seasonal factors, solid demand for artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing (HPC) devices and urgent TV-related orders
Prices of gasoline and diesel products at domestic fuel stations are this week to rise NT$0.2 and NT$0.3 per liter respectively, after international crude oil prices increased last week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) said yesterday. International crude oil prices last week snapped a two-week losing streak as the geopolitical situation between Russia and Ukraine turned increasingly tense, CPC said in a statement. News that some oil production facilities in Alberta, Canada, were shut down due to wildfires and that US-Iran nuclear talks made no progress also helped push oil prices to a significant weekly gain, Formosa said
MINERAL DIPLOMACY: The Chinese commerce ministry said it approved applications for the export of rare earths in a move that could help ease US-China trade tensions Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng (何立峰) is today to meet a US delegation for talks in the UK, Beijing announced on Saturday amid a fragile truce in the trade dispute between the two powers. He is to visit the UK from yesterday to Friday at the invitation of the British government, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. He and US representatives are to cochair the first meeting of the US-China economic and trade consultation mechanism, it said. US President Donald Trump on Friday announced that a new round of trade talks with China would start in London beginning today,
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