SEMICONDUCTORS
Chip stash hints at slowdown
South Korea’s chip stockpiles increased by the most in more than four years, suggesting a slowdown in demand for memory chips used in electronics worldwide. The nationwide inventory jumped 53.4 percent in May from a year earlier, Statistics Korea said yesterday. An earlier 54.1 percent gain in March 2018 coincided with a slowdown in revenue growth in the chip industry. Semiconductor stockpiles have been rising on a year-on-year basis since October last year. South Korea is the world’s largest producer of memory chips, which go into everything from smartphones to laptops to cars. The mounting stockpiles come amid growing concerns over a possible global recession driven by inflationary pressure, rising interest rates, deteriorating consumer confidence and Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine. Overall industrial production showed a recovery from April’s fall as lockdowns in China eased. Factory output rose 7.3 percent in May from a year earlier, beating a 4 percent forecast by economists.
BREWERIES
Kirin sells Myanmar stakes
Japanese drinks company Kirin Holdings plans to sell its Myanmar business to its military-linked local partner, it said yesterday, exiting the Southeast Asian country more than a year after the military toppled an elected government. Kirin is to sell its 51 percent stake in the Myanmar Brewery Ltd joint venture to partner Myanma Economic Holdings Public Co Ltd for ￥22.4 billion (US$164 million), it said in a statement. Kirin executives initially said they wanted to remain in the market to some degree, but after a year of negotiations, the two sides agreed in February to terminate the venture. Rights group Justice for Myanmar criticized the sale as a “windfall for the Myanmar military” that would ensure the junta a steady stream of revenue.
UNITED KINGDOM
Historic deficit for GDP
The current account deficit in the first quarter ballooned to ￡51.7 billion (US$62.6 billion) or 8.3 percent of GDP, the biggest shortfall by that measure in records going back to 1955, Office for National Statistics (ONS) data showed yesterday. The figures were subject to more uncertainty than usual due to the effects of post-Brexit data collection changes on trade in goods imports and foreign direct investment, the ONS said. Economists had expected a deficit of just under ￡40 billion. The ONS also said GDP in the world’s fifth-biggest economy increased by 0.8 percent in the first quarter compared with the final three months of last year, when the public had yet to feel the effects of a rise in inflation.
EUROZONE
Economic headwinds hit
French inflation climbed further from May to a record high of 6.5 percent, official preliminary figures showed yesterday, adding headwinds to the eurozone’s second-largest economy. The French National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies said prices last month rose by 0.8 percent from May, and 12-month preliminary inflation stood at 6.5 percent. Analysts said in a poll that preliminary annualized inflation last month would reach 6.3 percent. Food and energy prices rose sharply due to the war in Ukraine, the institute said. Elsewhere within the eurozone, German inflation for last month unexpectedly eased to 8.2 percent from 8.7 percent in May, while Spanish 12-month inflation rose to 10.2 percent, marking the first time it had surpassed 10 percent since April 1985.
To many, Tatu City on the outskirts of Nairobi looks like a success. The first city entirely built by a private company to be operational in east Africa, with about 25,000 people living and working there, it accounts for about two-thirds of all foreign investment in Kenya. Its low-tax status has attracted more than 100 businesses including Heineken, coffee brand Dormans, and the biggest call-center and cold-chain transport firms in the region. However, to some local politicians, Tatu City has looked more like a target for extortion. A parade of governors have demanded land worth millions of dollars in exchange
An Indonesian animated movie is smashing regional box office records and could be set for wider success as it prepares to open beyond the Southeast Asian archipelago’s silver screens. Jumbo — a film based on the adventures of main character, Don, a large orphaned Indonesian boy facing bullying at school — last month became the highest-grossing Southeast Asian animated film, raking in more than US$8 million. Released at the end of March to coincide with the Eid holidays after the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan, the movie has hit 8 million ticket sales, the third-highest in Indonesian cinema history, Film
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) revenue jumped 48 percent last month, underscoring how electronics firms scrambled to acquire essential components before global tariffs took effect. The main chipmaker for Apple Inc and Nvidia Corp reported monthly sales of NT$349.6 billion (US$11.6 billion). That compares with the average analysts’ estimate for a 38 percent rise in second-quarter revenue. US President Donald Trump’s trade war is prompting economists to retool GDP forecasts worldwide, casting doubt over the outlook for everything from iPhone demand to computing and datacenter construction. However, TSMC — a barometer for global tech spending given its central role in the
Alchip Technologies Ltd (世芯), an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) designer specializing in server chips, expects revenue to decline this year due to sagging demand for 5-nanometer artificial intelligence (AI) chips from a North America-based major customer, a company executive said yesterday. That would be the first contraction in revenue for Alchip as it has been enjoying strong revenue growth over the past few years, benefiting from cloud-service providers’ moves to reduce dependence on Nvidia Corp’s expensive AI chips by building their own AI accelerator by outsourcing chip design. The 5-nanometer chip was supposed to be a new growth engine as the lifecycle
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