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.
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.
US actor Matthew McConaughey has filed recordings of his image and voice with US patent authorities to protect them from unauthorized usage by artificial intelligence (AI) platforms, a representative said earlier this week. Several video clips and audio recordings were registered by the commercial arm of the Just Keep Livin’ Foundation, a non-profit created by the Oscar-winning actor and his wife, Camila, according to the US Patent and Trademark Office database. Many artists are increasingly concerned about the uncontrolled use of their image via generative AI since the rollout of ChatGPT and other AI-powered tools. Several US states have adopted
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
KEEPING UP: The acquisition of a cleanroom in Taiwan would enable Micron to increase production in a market where demand continues to outpace supply, a Micron official said Micron Technology Inc has signed a letter of intent to buy a fabrication site in Taiwan from Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電) for US$1.8 billion to expand its production of memory chips. Micron would take control of the P5 site in Miaoli County’s Tongluo Township (銅鑼) and plans to ramp up DRAM production in phases after the transaction closes in the second quarter, the company said in a statement on Saturday. The acquisition includes an existing 12 inch fab cleanroom of 27,871m2 and would further position Micron to address growing global demand for memory solutions, the company said. Micron expects the transaction to
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