INDONESIA
Tourism workers strike
Hundreds of Indonesian tourism workers were on strike yesterday over a hefty hike in ticket prices to see the country’s famous Komodo dragons, a move the government says is to preserve the habitat of one of the world’s largest lizards. The fee to access two of the main islands of the Komodo national park shot up 18 times overnight to 3.75 million rupiah (US$252.33) on Monday, a jump that local workers said would scare off tourists and see their incomes dry up. The nation is home to about 3,300 rare Komodo dragons, which can grow up to 3m in length and can kill large prey with a single venomous bite.
ENERGY
Japanese firms book losses
Japanese trading giants Mitsui & Co and Mitsubishi Corp wrote off a combined ￥218 billion (US$1.67 billion) linked to their investments in a Russian liquefied natural gas project. Mitsui cut the fair value of its investments in the Sakhalin-2 LNG plant by ￥136.6 billion from the level at the end of March, it said in a regulatory filing yesterday, while Mitsubishi recorded a ￥81.1 billion drop. The two companies together own a 22.5 percent stake in the project, which Russian President Vladimir Putin has decreed must be transferred to a new Russian company. Shell PLC is the only other foreign investor in Sakhalin-2 with a 27.5 percent stake, with the remaining half held by Gazprom PJSC.
AIRLINES
BA limits ticket sales
.British Airways (BA) has halted ticket sales on short-haul flights from Heathrow until Monday following the London airport’s decision to cap capacity and tackle widespread disruption and cancellations. The IAG SA-owned airline said the sales suspension on domestic and European destinations was designed to allow existing customers to rebook flights when needed. Heathrow, like Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport, has told airlines to limit the number of tickets they sell over the summer, after it capped the number of passengers flying from the hub at 100,000 a day to limit queues, baggage delays and cancellations.
TECHNOLOGY
Apple bonds to fund buyback
Apple Inc tapped the US high-grade bond market on Monday with a US$5.5 billion sale in four parts. The longest portion of the offering, a 40-year security, yields 118 basis points over US Treasuries, down from initial price discussions in the 150 basis points range, people familiar with the deal said. The order book for the sale peaked at more than US$23 billion, a person with knowledge of the demand said. Proceeds from the bond sale are earmarked for general corporate purposes, including the financing of share buybacks and dividends, the people said.
GAMING
Activision sales fall 15%
Activision Blizzard Inc, the biggest US video game publisher, reported revenue that beat analysts’ estimates, but adjusted sales declined 15 percent from a year ago due to a soft Call of Duty launch last fall and a slow year for the gaming industry overall. Activision, which is in the process of being acquired by Microsoft Corp, brought in adjusted revenue in the second quarter of US$1.64 billion, compared with analysts’ average projection of US$1.6 billion. Adjusted revenue excludes deferred sales from online purchases. Adjusted earnings per share were US$0.47, almost 50 percent lower than a year earlier.
Anna Bhobho, a 31-year-old housewife from rural Zimbabwe, was once a silent observer in her home, excluded from financial and family decisionmaking in the deeply patriarchal society. Today, she is a driver of change in her village, thanks to an electric tricycle she owns. In many parts of rural sub-Saharan Africa, women have long been excluded from mainstream economic activities such as operating public transportation. However, three-wheelers powered by green energy are reversing that trend, offering financial opportunities and a newfound sense of importance. “My husband now looks up to me to take care of a large chunk of expenses,
SECTOR LEADER: TSMC can increase capacity by as much as 20 percent or more in the advanced node part of the foundry market by 2030, an analyst said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is expected to lead its peers in the advanced 2-nanometer process technology, despite competition from Samsung Electronics Co and Intel Corp, TrendForce Corp analyst Joanne Chiao (喬安) said. TSMC’s sophisticated products and its large production scale are expected to allow the company to continue dominating the global 2-nanometer process market this year, Chiao said. The world’s largest contract chipmaker is scheduled to begin mass production of chips made on the 2-nanometer process in its Hsinchu fab in the second half of this year. It would also hold a ceremony on Monday next week to
TECH CLUSTER: The US company’s new office is in the Shalun Smart Green Energy Science City, a new AI industry base and cybersecurity hub in southern Taiwan US chip designer Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) yesterday launched an office in Tainan’s Gueiren District (歸仁), marking a significant milestone in the development of southern Taiwan’s artificial intelligence (AI) industry, the Tainan City Government said in a statement. AMD Taiwan general manager Vincent Chern (陳民皓) presided over the opening ceremony for the company’s new office at the Shalun Smart Green Energy Science City (沙崙智慧綠能科學城), a new AI industry base and cybersecurity hub in southern Taiwan. Facilities in the new office include an information processing center, and a research and development (R&D) center, the Tainan Economic Development Bureau said. The Ministry
ADVERSARIES: The new list includes 11 entities in China and one in Taiwan, which is a local branch of Chinese cloud computing firm Inspur Group The US added dozens of entities to a trade blacklist on Tuesday, the US Department of Commerce said, in part to disrupt Beijing’s artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced computing capabilities. The action affects 80 entities from countries including China, the United Arab Emirates and Iran, with the commerce department citing their “activities contrary to US national security and foreign policy.” Those added to the “entity list” are restricted from obtaining US items and technologies without government authorization. “We will not allow adversaries to exploit American technology to bolster their own militaries and threaten American lives,” US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said. The entities
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