WASTE MANAGEMENT
Veolia to sell Suez unit
Veolia Environnement SA has agreed to sell Suez SA’s waste activities in the UK to Macquarie Group Ltd for 2.4 billion euros (US$2.4 billion), after the country’s antitrust authority raised competition concerns. The disposal marks the last step in Veolia’s acquisition of a large chunk of French rival Suez, which was completed in other parts of the world earlier this year. “It’s a very attractive valuation,” Veolia chief executive officer Estelle Brachlianoff said on a conference call yesterday. The proceeds would give the firm “room to maneuver on our balance sheet to invest in strategic projects,” she said, citing interest in recycling businesses and water-treatment technologies.
SOUTH KOREA
LNG needed for winter
The country is looking to buy more liquefied natural gas (LNG) to replenish stockpiles before winter. The world’s third-biggest importer of the chilled fuel is seeking additional cargoes to meet forecasts for increased domestic demand and is targeting to lift inventories to about 90 percent full by November, from about 34 percent at present, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said yesterday. That comes after heat waves in the summer and “high” uncertainties internationally from the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the ministry said. The nation last year bought 16.6 million tonnes on spot markets, or 35 percent of total imports, data from International Group of LNG Importers showed.
JAPAN
Record foreign bonds sold
Life insurers and pension funds last month sold record amounts of foreign bonds, as heightened volatility in global debt markets dampened appetite. Lifers disposed of a net ¥1.56 trillion (US$11.5 billion) of the securities, while trust banks’ trust accounts, which are seen as proxies for pension funds, sold ¥865.8 billion of the notes, preliminary data from the Ministry of Finance showed. Both sales amounts were the highest ever for the two groups. Overall, Japanese investors’ net selling of foreign bonds, mostly US debt, extended to a record sixth month.
AUTOMAKERS
Renault EV selling well
Renault SA CEO Luca de Meo said the uptake of the new Megane E-Tech electric vehicle (EV) model shows the French automaker is on the right track with its turnaround at a time of increased challenges for the automotive industry. Renault sold 25,000 Megane E-Tech vehicles in three months, De Meo told Le Journal du Dimanche in an interview published in its Sunday edition. Total new vehicles registrations have fallen this year in France. The Megane E-Tech model was the country’s best-selling EV last month, Avere-France data showed.
INVESTMENT
Berkshire posts Q2 loss
Warren Buffett’s company reported a US$43.76 billion loss in the second quarter as the paper value of its investments plummeted, but Berkshire Hathaway Inc’s many operating companies generally performed well, suggesting the overall economy is weathering the pressure from inflation and rising interest rates. Revenue grew more than 10 percent to US$76.2 billion in the quarter, as many of its businesses increased prices. Berkshire on Saturday said that a largely unrealized US$53 billion decline in the value of its investments forced it to report a loss of nearly US$44 billion, or US$29,754 per Class A share. That is down from US$28.1 billion, or US$18,488 per Class A share, a year earlier.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”