SHIPPING
Moller-Maersk cuts forecast
AP Moller-Maersk A/S, a bellwether for global trade, cut its forecast for the global container market, saying demand would shrink 2 to 4 percent this year and could also contract next year as an economic slowdown weighs on bookings. “With the war in Ukraine, an energy crisis in Europe, high inflation, and a looming global recession there are plenty of dark clouds on the horizon,” the company said in its third-quarter earnings report published yesterday. “This weighs on consumer purchasing power which in turn impacts global transportation and logistics demand,” it said. Earnings before interest and tax rose to US$9.48 billion in the third quarter of this year, the Copenhagen-based company said.
PHARMACEUTICALS
GSK raises outlook
GSK PLC raised its outlook for the fiscal year for a second time amid strong demand for its vaccines. The British drugmaker said operating profit excluding some costs could rise as much as 17 percent and sales growth might be as high as 10 percent, up from prior expectations of 15 percent and 8 percent respectively. The upgrade comes as the maker of the blockbuster shingles vaccine Shingrix reported ￡7.8 billion (US$9 billion) in revenue and ￡0.47 earnings per share, excluding some costs, in the third quarter of this year.
HOSPITALITY
Airbnb posts record profit
Airbnb Inc on Tuesday reported its highest quarterly profits ever, as the home rental platform saw its net profit climb 46 percent year-on-year to US$1.2 billion in the third quarter, the California-based company said. The firm said that the number of new “hosts” — people listing properties on its site — is also rising. In the third quarter, Airbnb recorded nearly 100 million overnight stays and experience bookings — such as guided tours — 25 percent more than in the same period last year. Its quarterly revenue jumped 29 percent to US$2.9 billion.
NEW ZEALAND
BNPL requirements planned
The government plans to require providers of buy-now, pay-later (BNPL) products to conduct an affordability check on customers before agreeing to a loan. The government is proposing the checks should apply for loans above NZ$600 (US$353), meaning borrowers would receive the same kind of protections as those who seek credit cards and personal loans, Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs David Clark said yesterday. Smaller loans would not have to go through the same process, but credit reporting would need to occur, he said. The amount of money spent with BNPL grew to NZ$1.7 billion last year from NZ$755 million in 2020, government data showed.
CHEMICALS
DuPont calls off Rogers deal
DuPont de Nemours Inc called off its planned US$5.2 billion acquisition of engineering materials maker Rogers Corp, saying it was unable to get timely clearance from regulators. DuPont said it would pay a breakup fee of US$162.5 million to Chandler, Arizona-based Rogers, whose shares plunged as much as 46 percent after the close of regular trading on Tuesday. DuPont’s brief statement was issued a day short of the one-year anniversary of the deal’s announcement. While the statement did not specify which “required regulators” had not cleared the transaction, DuPont previously identified the Chinese State Administration for Market Regulation as the last remaining hurdle for deal approval.
The Investment Commission yesterday approved a Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) application to invest an additional US$3.5 billion in its Arizona subsidiary to manufactured advanced chips. The world’s largest contract chipmaker’s board of directors last month approved the funding project after TSMC started moving manufacturing equipment into the fab in December last year in preparation for the production of 4-nanometer chips next year. TSMC said it has also commenced the second phase of facility construction in Arizona. The second fab is to produce semiconductors using 3-nanometer technology in 2026. Altogether, TSMC plans to spend US$40 billion on the Arizona fabs, doubling its
KEY SECTOR: Taiwan’s new chip legislation is insufficient, and a more strategic ‘chip act’ that covers the whole semiconductor ecosystem is needed, MediaTek’s chairman said MediaTek Inc (聯發科) chairman Rick Tsai (蔡明介) yesterday urged the government to formulate a state semiconductor strategy and comprehensive “chip act” that includes local chip designers and smaller-scale semiconductor companies, as they are facing intensifying competition from China. The government is playing an increasingly important role in safeguarding the local semiconductor industry’s competitiveness, given that the US, the EU and Japan are offering hefty subsidies and significant tax incentives to build semiconductor capacity domestically, as they have realized the strategic importance of semiconductors, Tsai said. To implement such a program, the government should take steps to finance a “chip act,” Tsai said
Microsoft Corp has threatened to cut off access to its Internet search data, which it licenses to rival search engines, if they do not stop using it as the basis for their own artificial intelligence (AI) chat products, people familiar with the dispute have said. The software maker licenses the data in its Bing search index — a map of the Internet that can be quickly scanned in real time — to other companies that offer Web search, such as Apollo Global Management Inc’s Yahoo and DuckDuckGo. Last month, Microsoft integrated a cousin of ChatGPT, OpenAI’s AI-powered chat technology, into Bing. Rivals
MOUNTING PRESSURE: Although bank failures in the US and Europe would not cause systemic risks, it would dampen consumers’ willingness to spend, GlobalWafers said GlobalWafers Co (環球晶圓), the world’s third-largest silicon wafer supplier, yesterday said that the financial turmoil in the US and Europe has dimmed the outlook for chip demand in the second half of this year, as growing economic uncertainty could dampen consumer spending. The Hsinchu-based wafer manufacturer said it is seeing greater pressure from economic uncertainty on the industry’s recovery, as customers would have not expected Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank and a tier-one bank like Credit Suisse Group SA to collapse suddenly. Although the failures are unlikely to cause systemic risks, consumers would be cautious of spending on non-essential items, such
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